Metropole Cocktail

Metropole Cocktail Story

For every Manhattan or Sazerac, there are hundreds of cocktails that simply didn’t make it into the classic cocktail lexicon. The Metropole is one of those drinks forgotten by time. Resembling an unfocused brandy Manhattan of sorts, the cocktail originated at Manhattan’s Metropole Hotel in 1884, making it even more evocative of a forgotten piece of bygone New York. The Metropole was an all night drinking venue, attracting all kinds of lurid after dark activity, culminating in the 1912 murder of bookmaker and casino owner Herman Rosenthal right outside the hotel’s doors. The hotel went bankrupt and changed hands just one week after the incident. The Metropole remains a fascinating B-side relic of a cocktail, representative of the burgeoning seedy side of Times Square at the turn of the century.