May 6-Red Hook

There have been a huge influx of Manhattan variations named after NY City neighbourhoods recently. We are featuring one with us today with the Red Hook. This cocktail is widely considered a modern classic by many bartenders even in the massive sea of Manhattan variations. This is possibly in the conversation for the best among these contenders. I’m almost sad that this is one of the only NY City named Manhattan variations we will talk about this summer, I’m really sad we can’t talk about the Little Italy or the Greenpoint. What surprises me even more though is that this cocktail is a new entry, meaning it wasn’t included in last year’s list and that’s a shame considering how good this cocktail is.

Now let’s talk about the cocktail, It is a boozier cocktail registering a 1.7 standard drinks on Difford’s Guide’s calculation. In order to give some perspective to a non-professional bartender, that is equal to almost 2 whole 5 oz glasses of wine. It is for this I must please ask everyone reading to drink this coocktail in moderation. I must say that this will be hard for some due to how good this cocktail is. The combination of the warming rye with the drying maraschino and the bittersweet Punt e Mes is an addicting flavour combo.

Now the history, the cocktail was made by Vincenzo Errico at Milk and Honey somewhere between 2003 and 2005. He is also famous for the cocktail called the Enzoni which uses grapes, not a common ingredient for cocktails even now. But back to the Red Hook this cocktail was, as I said, made at Milk and Honey, the legendary bar created by Sasha Petraske in NYC that was famous for its incredible bartending lineup including Mr. Errico himself as well as Tobey Maloney, Sam Ross and Michael McIlroy. This bar was also responsible for some of the greatest modern classics like the Penicillan, the Paper Plane and the Gold Rush.

Full judging here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1okIWZ7SblIZ5tpNisM0M53h6sDqB0NZKloLG361OTHw/edit?tab=t.0 . Good Night and Happy Drinking.