Bronx

The Bronx is a Cocktail consisting of Gin, Dry Vermouth, Sweet Vermouth, and Orange Juice.

Historical Newspaper Article

New York Times. Sep 24, 1911

"One annoying feature of President TAFT'S journey through the West has been the controversy caused by the presence of Bronx cocktails at a breakfast party he attended. One does not have to be a clergyman or a total abstainer to reprehend the practice of drinking cocktails before breakfast."

Historical Citations

NYHS 1895-14D, "Grand Union Hotel New York Wine List."

Bronx Cocktail

Common Recipes

Recipe#1: Tom Bullock, The Ideal Bartender (1917)

Fill large Bar glass 3/4 full Shaved Ice.

• 1/3 jigger Dry Gin.
• 1/3 jigger French Vermouth.
• 1/3 jigger Italian Vermouth.
• 1 Slice Orange.

Shake well; strain into Cocktail glass and serve.

Recipe#2: Cocktaldb.com

• Shake with ice and strain
• 1/2 Gin
• 1/6 French vermouth
• 1/6 Martini sweet vermouth
• 1/6 Orange Juice

Shake and strain into cocktail glass. Serve in a cocktail glass.

"The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book" By Albert Stevens Crockett (1935)

"Pg. 41 BRONX...Many claimants to the honor of inventing the Bronx have arisen. It was an Old Waldorf tradition that the inventor was Johnnie Solon (or Solan), popular as one of the best mixers behind its bar counter for most of the latter's history. This is Solon's own story of the Creation--of the Bronx: "We had a cocktail in those days called the Duplex, which had a pretty fair demand. One day, I was making one for a customer when in came Traverson, head waiter of the Empire Room--the main dining room in the original Waldorf. A Duplex was composed of equal parts of French and Italian Vermouth, shaken up with squeezed orange peel, or two dashes of Orange Bitters. Traverson said, 'Why don't you get up a new cocktail? I have a customer who says you can't do it.' "'Can't I?' I replied. "Well, I finished the Duplex I was making, and a thought came to me. I poured into a mizing glass the equivalent of two jiggers of Gordon Gin. Then I filled the jigger with orange juice, so that it made one-third or orange juice and two-thirds of Gin. Then into the mixture I put a dash each of Italian and French Vermouth, shaking the thing up. I didn't taste it myself, but I poured it into a cocktail glass and handed it to Traverson and said: 'You are a pretty good judge. (He was.) See what you think of that.' Traverson tasted it. Then he swallowed it whole. "'By God!' he said, 'you've really got something new! That will make a big hit. Make me another and I will take it back to that customer in the dining room. Bet you'll sell a lot of them. Have you got plenty of oranges? If you haven't, you better stock up, because I'm going to sell a lot of those cocktails during lunch.' "The demand for Bronx cocktails started that day. Pretty soon we were using a whole case of oranges a day. And then several cases. "The name? No, it wasn't really named directly after the borough or the river so-called. I had been at the Bronx Zoo a day or two before, and I saw, of course, a lot of beasts I had never known. Customers used to tell me of the strange animals they saw after a lot of mixed drinks. So when Traverson said to me, as he started to take the drink in to the customer, 'What'll I tell him is the name of this drink?' I thought of those animals, and said: 'Oh, you can tell him it is a "Bronx."'"