Little Italy

2 oz Rye
3⁄4 oz Sweet vermouth
1⁄2 oz Cynar
2 Maraschino cherry, Luxardo (On skewer as garnish)
Instructions

Stir, strain, straight up, garnish

Notes

Some might add a flamed lemon peel, but it's not original.

Cocktail summary
Posted by Dan on
Created by
Audrey Saunders Pegu Club, NYC
Year
2005
Is an
authentic recipe
Reference

http://drinkboy.com/Cocktails/Recipe.aspx?itemid=228
https://imbibemagazine.com/recipe/little-italy-cocktail-recipe/

Curator
Not yet rated
Average
4 stars
(48 ratings)
YieldsDrink
Cocktail Book
Log in or sign up to start building your Cocktail Book.
From other users
  • A little sweet
  • Tastes like what is is... a Manhattan with a touch of Cynar. đź‘Ť
  • Add orange bitters
  • Made w/o the syrup (I don't think it needs it). This is a good cocktail but feels a little unremarkable given the preponderance of similar stirred brown drinks.
  • Probably better with sweet vermouth
  • after dinner
  • Subbed Maraschino liqueur and some juice from bottled cherries. 1/2way through added 2 drops fig-citrus bitters which was nice. Capable Manhattan variant. — ★★★★
  • Like a manhattan on steriods. — ★★★★★
Similar cocktails
Comments
Dan commented on 2/12/2013:

Added missing Maraschino syrup, and tweaked up attribution.

AmyJ commented on 10/07/2014:

Made using homemade figs in syrup. Definitely not cherry, but worked nicely

yarm commented on 3/29/2024:

The addition of Maraschino syrup is not the one that she gave Robert O. Simonson for his book on Modern Classics, nor have I seen it anywhere else. I think it's just a wet cherry coming from the jar. And via personal communication with Audrey, she confirmed that it was 2 cherries -- not for a mob connection of what an even number of garnishes signify but that that these new cherries in the market tasted so good that one was not enough.

Thanks for the info. Yes, looking at Punch, Difford's, and Imbibe the only reference to the syrup is in Imbibe's April 12, 2011 recipe: "Don’t be shy about using cherries with a little extra syrup—it dribbles into the glass and creates a port-like undertone." This observation matches the typical experience with Luxardo cherries, and the volume might be about right (or a little on the high side), but the drip effect is usually milder in the overall drink than stirring it in, at least until reaching near the bottom of the glass.