I have a track record of being rude about the Cosmopolitan, which I’ve always considered a rather sickly drink. But the fault, it turns out, didn’t lie with the Cosmo, but me – I’d been making it all wrong, as I discovered when I ran into its creator in New York.
This eighties classic was invented by Toby Cecchini, an elegant, dry-humored bartender of the old school, who these days presides over the much-loved Long Island Bar in Brooklyn Heights. At the time of its invention, Cecchini was working behind the bar at Manhattan’s Odeon restaurant, which was such a notorious downtown scene it even appeared on the cover of Jay McInerney’s epochal novel Bright Lights, Big City (indeed, Cecchini always says it was reading the book that spurred him into applying for the Odeon job).ing the book that spurred him into applying for the Odeon job).
The Cosmo had various pre-cursors in the same ballpark – but Cecchini’s was the first to feature Absolut Citron lemon vodka, which launched in the US in 1988. His use of fresh lime juice and proper Cointreau triple sec also helped elevate the drink (fresh citrus juice still wasn’t a given back then). Cranberry juice (Cecchini’s preference is Ocean Spray), meanwhile, made the drink the perfect eye-candy for movies and TV shows such as, famously, Sex and the City.
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I’d always thought the flamed orange twist was its signature, but apparently this is not so – that was added some years later by bartender Dale DeGroff, during his celebrated tenure at New York’s Rainbow Room. Cecchini just garnishes his Cosmo with a simple lemon twist.
“People still get the Cosmo wrong all the time, though!” he growls (with what I think is a twinkle in his eye). And the thing they get wrong most often, apparently, is the ratio. Cecchini makes his Cosmo 2 parts Absolute Citron to 1 part each of Cointreau, cranberry juice and lime, or 2:1:1:1. “I like it shrill,” he says, “which may be a bit too sour for some.”
Maybe – but making it this way is a breakthrough for me. The result is more boozy and tart; a proper grown-up sour, rather than a head-achey popsicle for Barbies.
I also like the fact that at the Long Island Bar, Cecchini serves it in a sturdy champagne saucer-style coupe – a retro, even rather unfashionable, design in keeping with the red leather booths, polished wood and cash register of this gorgeous 1950s-style neighbourhood bar. (And don’t miss the melting deep-fried curds which are place’s signature snack).
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A postscript: while in NYC, I bumped into author and oenophile Jay McInerney, who was looking a little frailer than he would have been at the peak of his hellraising. I asked him to recommend a favourite New York wine bar, and his unexpected, but rather delightful, choice was Stars, a hip new 13-seater place in the East Village, where coincidentally I’d been drinking the previous night.
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Stars’s founders are the same duo behind Claud and Penny, two wine-forward restaurants nearby that regularly feature on New York’s ‘best of’ lists. Wine director Chase Sinzer describes their focus as “high-toned, fresh, quite affordable wines that people want to drink in a quick and easy way.” There’s an emphasis on French wines but they also favor, as he puts it, “upstart producers.”
Stars is so popular with cool Gen Z-ers it can be hard to get a seat. So, I leant against the wall and drank a glass of Revel & Ibi’Arlo’, a thirst-quenching orange wine from Ontario mavericks Revel Cider. Not quite a double vodka and a line, perhaps – but I hope McInerney would have approved.
