Family Meal - Original Cocktail
Cracked Coupe Cocktail Guide Ed. 11
Family Meal
At the bar I tend, EndsWell, we like to drink a lot of Cynar and Sfumato.
A shot of Cynar is practically the house shot. It makes sense — its light (16%), tasty (artichoke) and a bit pretentious (amaro, weird pronunciation). Perfect bartender shot. It came in handy last week when a woman who my coworkers tell me was hitting on me (I’m happily spoken for and oblivious to such suitors) insisted repeatedly that I take a shot with her. Not only was she was already a few drinks deep, setting off my Bartender Sense, but I was not interested in getting wasted. In comes Cynar with its low ABV to save the day!
Sfumato is a bit of a sleeper bottle for our crew, but is particularly popular with my coworker Elinor and myself. I once brought a bottle of Sfumato to an “Italian Mafia” party, and split the entire bottle with one other person rather than drink the wine everyone else so sensibly brought. It’s not like I was hogging it though; everyone else though my rhubarb amaro was gross.
I strove to make a cocktail combining these two favorite ingredients with rum, because I like rum and I am selfish to the core (brought a bottle to a party and drank half of it). Family meal in the service industry refers to when the whole staff gets together before a shift to eat. Its bonding time! We don’t have one at my bar because of how our shifts are scheduled, so this cocktail will have to do.
This is basically a riff on a Manhattan. Fun trick for making a cocktail is to start with a very basic riff and then pull apart your components. In this case, I pulled apart the rum to be a blend of Jamaican and overproof and pulled apart the amaro (replacing the vermouth in a Manhattan) to be a blend of Cynar and Sfumato. I have yet to pull apart the Angostura bitters part of this spec, but it would probably work nicely with walnut bitters.
Served in a: Coupe.
Garnish: Luxardo Maraschino Cherry1.
How to make: STIR all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Express an orange peel and discard
Ingredients:
1 fl oz Appleton 8 Jamaican Rum
1 fl oz Cynar
1/2 fl oz Sfumato Rabarbaro
1/4 fl oz Planteray OFTD or other overproof Jamaican rum (Lemon Hart)
Review: This is a yummy drink. Easy to sip, deeply flavorful, and just a good time. It has rich caramel from the rum mixed with the earthy notes of Cynar and Sfumato. An unexpected combination to be sure, but a delicious one. Get on over to EndsWell so I can make you one.
History: Created by me at EndsWell in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, May 2025
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Luxardo Cherries are expensive. Buy Amarena Cherries if you don’t want your wallet to turn into a black hole. For the love of all that is good in this world (amaro), do not buy those bright red cherries. They’re for Shirley Temples and bad tiki drinks.