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OLD WALDORF-ASTORIA BAR BOOK
the jigger with orange juice, so that it made one-third
of orange juice and two-thirds of Gin. Then into the mix–
ture 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 Traver–
son 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."'"
BROWN
Two dashes Orange Bitters
One-half French Vermouth
One-half Whiskey
Ascribed to students of Brown University, an early
Rockefeller Center.