Ironside's Liz Pelletier Makes us a Rob Roy with Glenmorangie

For the latest installment in our Cocktail series, we went to none other than our good friend Liz at Ironside, and she mixed us Ironside's version of the classic Rob Roy cocktail.  The Rob Roy cocktail itself has an interesting history for a marketing guy, since before the days of movies, this beverage was invented as a marketing tie-in to another art form.

The Cocktail with its Roots in a Play 

Most of the time, the story surrounding a cocktail's origin is as much legend and conjecture as fact. Disputing claims over who invented some of the more famous concoctions can be as hotly debated as whether bourbon is named after Bourbon Street, New Orleans or Bourbon County, Kentucky. Fortunately for us, we know exactly when and where the Rob Roy was invented. It was the creation of an un-named bartender at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City in 1894.

The cocktail is indeed named after Robert Roy McGregor, the Scottish folk hero, but the real inspiration was to create a tie-in to a popular operetta based up McGregor's life, which was running in Manhattan at the time.  

Whoever this bartender was, he wasn't the most original fellow.  The Rob Roy is, after all, simply a Manhattan made with Scotch instead of bourbon, rye or Canadian whiskey. The Manhattan predates the Rob Roy by about a decade, and while the exact origins of the drink are in the "more legend than fact" category, there is no dispute about the fact that the cocktail originated in its namesake city.  Our erstwhile bartender certainly knew about the Manhattan and plagiarized its recipe for the Rob Roy.

Ironside's Liz Mixes us a Rob Roy

When we approached Liz about making a cocktail for our video series, she asked what we wanted her to make, and we deferred to her boss. His recommendation was Ironside's take on the Rob Roy, which uses Glenmorangie, a Highland single malt, as opposed to the smokier Islay single malts more commonly used in modern Rob Roys. She makes this one straight up, although its perfectly acceptable to order your Rob Roy on the rocks if you wish.

Here's Liz Mixing Ironside's Glenmorangie Rob Roy:

Rob Roy Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Glenmorangie Single Malt
• 1 to 1.5 ounces sweet vermouth
• 3 drops Angostura Bitters
• 3 Luxardo Cherries 

Stir the first three ingredients in a vessel with ice, then pour over the cherries in a coupe.

Finishing up our Glenmorangie Rob Roys with Liz

Technically, Liz's recipe is a "standard," or "sweet" Rob Roy, which is by far the most common and what you will get from most bars if you do not order something else. You can also order your Rob Roy "dry" (substituting dry vermouth for sweet) or "perfect" mixing half dry and half sweet vermouth into your cocktail.

As usual, Liz mixed an excellent cocktail!  Even better - she made us a second cocktail, but that's a story for another post!

Meanwhile, if you missed our earlier installments check out the Boulvardier made for us by Ama Keates of New York City's Sophie's Bar and my own recipe for a Spiced Maple Old Fashioned.

Cheers!