Make this with Hayman's Royal Dock Navy-strength Gin, Cocchi Americano, and Salers Aperitif Gentiane Liqueur in lieu of Suze. Quite nice, although a bit sweet, and much less bitter than a regular Negroni. I would reverse the Lillet / Suze ratio next time for a somewhat drier and more bitter balance, or consider splitting the Cocchi Americano with dry vermouth.

Is the salers worth getting? I saw Frederick said it was better than Suze, but I haven't had that yet so I'm unclear...

I haven't had Suze, but I'm enjoying it. Mixed it with gin and lemon tonight for a nice bitter-tinged cocktail.

Actually this drink was created by Wayne Collins as verified with him & Audrey Saunders, and as attributed in the PDT cocktail book.

Thanks for the update. Changed the gin amount from 1.5 to 2 oz to reflect the PDT book. Added date and corrected originator information from Pegu Club to Wayne Collins.

I made this tonight as follows: 1 oz St. George Rye Gin, 1 oz Dolin Dry, 1/2 oz Cocchi Americano, 1/2 oz Suze, 5 drops Bittermens Hopped Grapefruit bitters. Stir/strain/up. There's an oily pineapple note to the gin that made me think of enhancing it with the Cocchi, and the Dolin and Suze play well together.

The variations(s) we like best are:

2 parts gin (London dry-ish)
1 part Suze OR Aveze OR Salers
1 part Kina l'Avignon d'Or OR Bianco vermouth OR Cocchi Americano OR Lillet Blanc

Stir with ice, strain into a chilled coupe, garnish with a lemon peel.
The different aperitifs make for nice variations.

<p>
Goodness! For a drink with only three ingredients, this cocktail has generated a lot of comments. Well, let me add one more. I used 2 oz of a topshelf gin, 1 oz of Cocchi Americano, and 1 oz of Salers. Based on earlier comments, I had a hunch the resulting drink would be on the sweet side, which it was. So I did one simple thing that I did not see mentioned in any of the comments, but which I thought would take away some of the excess sweetness: I used a good-sized lemon twist. Sure enough, the expressed lemon oil from the twist did the trick. So, my suggestion is, regardless of how much you put in of whatever it is, finish up with a good-sized lemon twist. You'll be surprised at the positive difference it'll make in the drink.</p>

Having played around with different recipes, I'm prepared to assert that this drink -- as a Negroni variation -- works best with Dolin Blanc, not Lillet or Cocchi Americano. (Not Dolin Dry, to be clear!)

If you're a Negroni purist and stick to the 1:1:1 recipe, then I think doing the same here  (1 gin, 1 Suze, 1 Dolin Blanc) is a reasonable (and enjoyable) sibling. Personally, I'm skeptical of Negroni recipes which increase the gin proportion, but I'll say that dialing back the Suze here isn't a crazy idea. That will be a later experiment.

I mean, the Suze can be pretty assertive, but let's face it: Campari in the basic Negroni recipe is pretty assertive too (and that's what I like about it).

It bothers me slightly that white negronis are vibrantly yellow (like Suze).  Good drink, though.

Sadly, Hair of the Dog never materialized for Ran as the owners renegged on their offer to use the basement space for a bar. On the upside, he sunk all of his efforts into the Baldwin Bar in his family's restaurant and the rest is history.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/09/fancy-free-old-fashioned-var…

Suggests you stir in-glass with a large cube, and serve with orange twist garnish.

Death & Co. specs Rittenhouse rye for this.

"Colonel Kentucky" is hereby "Private Kentucky." For me, this drink is a drink in progress. Based on the comments, I used Maker's Mark and only 1/2 oz of Benedictine, and 3 dashes of Angostura bitters. I rated the drink at 2.5. The drink was flat in taste; everything could be tasted, but there was no pizzazz. Just blah!

Had I used 3/4 oz of Benedictine, the whiskey would have been overwhelmed, unless I used an overproofed whiskey. And I would definitely use 3, not 2, dashes of orange bitters. I will try my recommendations next time around, but my thinking on this recipe is that it deserves a 3.0 at best. But, the proof (as it were} is in the...!

The Fanciulli Manhattan is an interesting yet flawed drink, in my estimation. Why do I say this? I'm fond of all three ingredients, but when put together with the given recipe, the small amount of Fernet Branca overwhelms the other two ingredients. I used Maker's Mark bourbon and Dolin sweet vermouth for the other ingredients. The resulting cocktail I rated as 3.5.

My suggestion is to use either an overproof bourbon (such as Baker's or Basil's) or a bourbon with more overtones than Maker's Mark (such as Dickel's 8 year Tennessee sour mash, or Jim Beam black). The other alternative is to use a quality rye instead of the bourbon. For now, I'm calling the Fanciulli Manhattan a work in progress, and hope that with the changes I suggested, it will become a cocktail that will be rated consistently at a 4.0 or higher.