I was recently gifted a copy of Classic Cocktails Done Well by Faith Hingey, aka BarFaith. I’ve followed Faith on Instagram for a while now, and I’ve always been impressed by her extensive knowledge of spirits and cocktails. Her first book covers all the classics, with recipes that have been tried and tested for a modern palate. This book would be a perfect gift for someone just getting interested in home bartending. Flipping through, there were a few that I’d never made before, including this one: the Bronx.
For some reason, I always imagined I wouldn’t like the Bronx. Probably because the formula is practically identical to the Perfect Martini, which I tried ages ago and did not like. I suspect I should give it another chance, because I found the Bronx delightful. The 1/4 oz. of orange juice makes all the difference in softening and blending the flavors. The result is a just-dry-enough orange-scented aperitif, perfect if you’re in the mood for a Martini but want something with a bit more flavor, or if you’re in the mood for a Manhattan but want something lighter.
Speaking of the Manhattan, the Bronx is another classic cocktail named for one of New York’s five boroughs, along with the Manhattan, the Brooklyn, and the less-known Queens. During the recent cocktail renaissance, many more drinks popped up with names from New York’s many neighborhoods, such as the Greenpoint, Little Italy, and Red Hook. But the Bronx is one of the originals.
History: The Bronx turned out to be one of those drinks where researching its full history took way longer than I expected. The short version is that we don’t really know who invented it, or where, or precisely when. I’m pretty sure most of you aren’t going to be that interested in a deep dive into this, but by the time I realized how long it was going to be, I had already gotten halfway through it. So here it is anyway, with the original sources linked. Feel free to scroll past it and make yourself a Bronx.
~1895: I can’t verify this one, but the Wikipedia article on the Bronx links to an interesting post on the American Dialect Society’s listserv via the Wayback Machine. The author had just visited the New York Historical Society’s menu collection and reports that a menu from the Grand Union Hotel has the Bronx listed as one of its available cocktails. There was no exact date on the menu, but the youngest wine on the list was from 1893, and someone had written “about 1895” on the document. If accurate, this would be the earliest known mention of the Bronx cocktail in print.
1901: The Virginia Enterprise newspaper (which is in fact the paper of Virginia, Minnesota) reports on three cocktails created “out of compliment to” notorious prohibitionist Carrie Nation, who was planning to visit the city. One of the bartenders participating is “J.E. O’Connor of the Waldorf-Astoria, inventor of the ‘Bronx cocktail.'” No recipe for the Bronx is given (though O’Connor’s cocktail for Carrie Nation, the Highstepper, sounds like a pretty tasty Martini variation).
1908: Three different cocktail books publish Bronx recipes: The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them by William Boothby, which contains a recipe pretty similar to today’s Bronx, including Faith’s recipe below; Jack’s Manual by Jacob Abraham Grohusko, which omits the orange juice and bitters but retains an orange peel garnish; and Hoffman House Bartender’s Guide by Charley Mahoney, which does not provide precise amounts but sounds similar to Grohusko’s recipe. Boothby writes “a la Billy Malloy, Pittsburgh, PA” below his Bronx, but this may simply mean that Malloy created the specific specs in the book, or that he passed the recipe along to Boothby.
1921: An article in the New York Times reports the closing of a saloon on Brook Avenue that “was said to be the place where the Bronx cocktail had its inception.” However, the article also states that “Billy Gibson’s Criterion Restaurant in East 149th Street also claims that distinction.”
1931: In his book Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Days, A.S. Crockett unequivocally states, “Johnnie Solon is the inventor of the Bronx cocktail!” He writes, “Publicists and propagandists may have endeavored to shove forward the name of some other favorite barman” before stating that Solon’s claim is “a Waldorf tradition.” He gives an account of the drink’s creation in Solon’s own words. In short, Solon is challenged by a guest to create a new cocktail, and so he adds gin and orange juice to an existing drink called the Duplex. He names it the Bronx because he had recently visited the Bronx Zoo, and because “customers used to tell [him] of the strange animals they saw after a lot of mixed drinks.” Because of this account, many sources online credit Solon for the drink outright.
1934: What Shall We Drink by Magnus Bredenbeck is published, containing not one but four different recipes for the Bronx. Bredenbek says that the “real” recipe is the one with 4 parts gin and 1 part each of sweet vermouth and orange juice, but the fourth one on his list is the most similar to the Bronx recipe below. More importantly, Bredenbeck claims that the Bronx was invented in Philadelphia. “There it might have remained in obscurity,” he writes, “had it not been for one Joseph Sormani, a Bronx restauranteur, who discovered it in the Quaker City in 1905.” To me this clearly implies that Sormani did not create the drink, but popularized it by bringing it back with him to New York (and possibly re-naming it). However…
1947: Joseph Sormani dies, and his New York Times obituary states that he “was said to have originated the Bronx cocktail.”
So what’s the truth? The Grand Union Hotel menu adds an interesting piece to the puzzle – Johnnie Solon started working at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1899, so if he really did create the Bronx there, then the one mentioned on the 1895 menu can’t be his. It could be the work of John “Curly” O’Connor, who worked at the Waldorf from 1893 to 1939. Or it could be an entirely different drink. The Manhattan dates back to the mid-1800’s, so the idea of naming a cocktail after an area of New York City was not novel.
One thing is certain: the Bronx was popular. In his book Imbibe!, David Wondrich compares it to – of all things – the Cosmopolitan. Like its popular pink descendant, the Bronx was viewed as a safe cocktail for the masses. Somewhat surprising considering its relative obscurity today!
If you made it all the way through that… you deserve a drink!
Bronx
2 oz. dry gin (Sipsmith)
1 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin)
1 oz. sweet vermouth (Martini & Rossi)
1/4 oz. orange juice (fresh squeezed!)
2 dashes orange bitters (Fee’s/Regans 1:1 mix)
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. (Most recipes, including Faith’s, recommend shaking, but since there is very little juice I like the smoother texture of a stirred drink.) Strain into a coupe and garnish with an orange peel.
I was guided to the historical sources largely by Difford’s Guide, Wikipedia, and Imbibe!