Started with the name and worked backwards from that.

The Marianito, aka Vermut Preparado, is the infinitely malleable stalwart of evening aperitivo time from San Sebastián to Milan. This recipe, from Punchdrink, calls for Pomelo juice, but I subbed Yuzo - and I’ve also had it without any citrus. Feel free to try different vermouths, amari, and spirits.

Negroni Week had me in the mood to tinker despite the end result being nothing like a Negroni. I became inspired by the Cynar-Chartreuse combination of the Drink of Laughter & Forgetting and by the structure of the Tailspin. I was considering gin as the spirit, but that put the mix too close in the direction of my Continuum circa 2018. The Cynar made me think of the Trident and its aquavit, so I made that switch. I dubbed this the Opera Comique (a/k/a Murderer's Corner) after one of the most bawdy concert saloons in old San Francisco run by Happy Jack Harrington in the 1870s as discovered in Herbert Asbury's book The Barbary Coast.

Earned second place in the Reddit Original Cocktail Challenge, October 2024: Lemon and coffee.
Inspired by The Search for Delicious.

While writing up the Clever Visual Metaphor (see my blog), I became inspired to craft a new drink using the spirit-amaro base supplemented by small amounts of Fernet and grenadine structure. Instead of the Bourbon in the Clever Visual Metaphor, I opted for a split of apple brandy and mezcal. And in place of the Ramazzotti, I tried a few amari before landing on Meletti. For what to call it, I went back to an old list of potential drink names (from a bar I worked at 2013-2015) and chose the Street of Crocodiles; that made the list from reading Bruno Schulz's 1934 short story when I was on a surrealist kick a while back that was amplified when I watched the Brothers Quay stop-motion animation short of the same name years later.

Named for the Martinique literary magazine founded by Aimé and Suzanne Césaire.

Recently, I was inspired by a local drink I spotted with rye, Braulio, maple syrup, and walnut bitters to tinker. The Amaro Daiquiri made me think of the Braulio-Sfumato combination, and I split the rye 3:1 with mezcal that has worked in a number of drinks. I named this Black Manhattan with a touch of maple after a sketchy alley in 19th century San Francisco mentioned in Herbert Asbury's The Barbary Coast book.