Have you ever wondered just how many classic cocktails have been named after cities? As it turns out, not that many.
The Manhattan is obviously the first to come to mind, although technically, it’s named for a borough in a city. There’s also Singapore (the Sling), Moscow (the Mule), London (the Fog), Los Angeles (the Sour) and Kingston (the Negroni).
Oh, and as of July, there’s one more……. “The Frankfort.”
During National Bourbon Week, as part of the celebration, a contest was held to name the Capital City’s official cocktail. Eleven local bars and restaurants submitted an entry – the only requirement being that it had to have a bourbon base, and that bourbon had to have ties to Frankfort.
Other than that, the participating mixologists were encouraged to use their imagination and the tricks of their trade.
A four-member judging panel was appointed, who did their civic duty by sampling all the entries. Then, combined with votes from the public, a winner was announced.
Frankfort……meet “The Frankfort”, the city’s official cocktail.
The winning entry is the creation of Dave Sandlin, co-owner of the House of Commons Bourbon Library, which offers a specially curated bourbon experience, as Sandlin says, “of dusty, uncommon and local favorite sips.”
With Orville Deleon’s smooth jazz “Continued Rainbow” making the perfect background classic cocktail music and Sandlin behind the bar, he describes his winning entry.
“I was looking to create something simple and elegant, with a nod to the past,” he says.
He wanted it to be delicious, of course, but also not too difficult to make – both for home mixologists and for bartenders in Frankfort’s restaurants and bars who, hopefully, will be featuring it on their cocktail menus.
“For that reason, we wanted it to be easily replicated,” says Sandlin, noting that most classic cocktails “are made using four or fewer ingredients.”
In coming up with his winning recipe, Sandlin broke the classic cocktail rule, using five ingredients.
Starting with Benchmark from Buffalo Trace as his bourbon, he added Carpano dry vermouth and Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, Regan’s orange bitters, and Pappy & Co. bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup, and garnished the cocktail with an orange peel.
The Benchmark is the star, says Sandlin, who calls it “an unsung hero among bourbons.”
“It has great citrus notes and a lot of body and depth,” he says, “and it’s tasty enough to be a stand-alone drink.”
As The Frankfort is not a trademark cocktail, Sandlin says that anyone can make it – either using his recipe or tweaking it to personalize their version. He’s hoping that restaurants and bars citywide will do just that, but for now, he encourages Frankfort residents and visitors to stop by the House of Commons and meet “The Frankfort.”