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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
User rating
4 stars
(48 ratings)
Yields Drink

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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. — ★★★★★
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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.

Shawn C commented on 3/29/2024:

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.