Greenpoint

It’s difficult to overstate the influence that Milk and Honey, the iconic New York City cocktail bar, had on the cocktail revival of the aughts. It seemed to crystalize the speakeasy concept of the day in a way that still hasn’t left the collective bar unconscious, including its service style, personality, and most of all the drinks. 

Bartender Michael McIlroy’s Greenpoint cocktail never achieved the ubiquity of the Penicillin, Sam Ross’s scotch sour with honey and ginger from the same famous New York bar (what does?), but the rich and resonant manhattan riff has been passed between bartenders since. Perhaps taking inspiration from the classic Tipperary, which adds green Chartreuse to an Irish whiskey manhattan, the Greenpoint sticks to the classic manhattan’s rye but adds in yellow Chartreuse instead. The French liqueur shares much with its green older brother but in different proportions and sweetness; its flavor is a familiar herbal bouquet but lays more into honey and saffron.

McIlroy recommends Michter’s rye with Carpano Antica Formula vermouth for his modern classic, and while this drink can showcase a number of great ryes, it bears noting that that particular Italian sweet vermouth is very specific. The 1786 formula is rich and dark and relies heavily on vanilla; the sum of those components made it a darling of the early days of the cocktail revival.

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