Metropole
A Metropole is 45ml of cognac and 45ml of dry vermouth with two dashes of Peychaud’s bitters and one of orange bitters, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass, with a maraschino cherry. About 2.7 UK units. Difford’s Guide puts the first appearance in George Kappeler’s Modern American Drinks, published in New York in 1895: half a jigger each of brandy and French vermouth, the same bitters, two dashes of gum syrup and a cherry. Difford’s Guide ties the name to New York’s Hotel Metropole, though Kappeler’s entry tells no story about it. The bitters make the drink. In our experience most bars keep a bottle of Peychaud’s for the Sazerac; here its anise and cherry lift a dry brandy drink, and the orange bitters add peel. We leave out the gum syrup, so the vermouth alone sets the sweetness.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Maraschino cherry in the hotel’s manner
Ingredients
45ml
A VS or VSOP at 40% ABV with some fruit to it. Dry vermouth exposes the brandy instead of padding it, so a thin bottle shows straight away.
45ml
French-style dry vermouth, about 18% ABV, which we keep in the fridge once open. At half the glass it sets the sweetness, since this version has no syrup.
2 dashes
Anise and cherry, at 35% ABV. These two dashes are what make the drink a Metropole.
Instructions
Chill a Nick and Nora glass.
Add the cognac, dry vermouth, Peychaud’s and orange bitters to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Strain into the chilled glass.
Drop in a maraschino cherry.
Our version
Kappeler’s 1895 Metropole without its two dashes of gum syrup, so the dry vermouth sets the sweetness. His half jiggers are measured as 45ml each.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
We store opened vermouth cold and use it up within a few weeks. It is half the drink, and in our experience vermouth left open on a shelf turns flat and faintly sour. Dash the bitters from the bottle’s own dasher rather than counting drops. Two of Peychaud’s against one of orange is the balance; put Angostura in their place and in our view you have a sound brandy drink that is no longer a Metropole. If the drink tastes thin, look at the cognac before the ratio. A VS with some fruit stands up to 45ml of vermouth; a very light one disappears under it.
Behind the Metropole
Flavour Profile
Kappeler, 1895
George Kappeler printed the Metropole in Modern American Drinks, published in New York in 1895. His recipe is two dashes of gum syrup, two of Peychaud’s, one of orange bitters, and half a jigger each of brandy and French vermouth, stirred with fine ice, strained into a cocktail glass and finished with a maraschino cherry.
The same page carries the Metropolitan, which is easily confused with it: brandy and French vermouth again, but with Angostura and more syrup, built over two lumps of ice in a small wine glass.
The Hotel in the Name
Difford’s Guide says the Metropole was the signature cocktail of the Hotel Metropole, at Broadway and 42nd Street, which it says opened on 27 April 1889 and was demolished in 1984, and quotes Albert Stevens Crockett on a cocktail “attributed to a once well-known and somewhat lively hotel, whose bar was a long centre of life after dark in the Times Square district”. Kappeler’s entry gives no reason for the name.
The American Heritage account of the Rosenthal case, in its December 1978 issue, places the gambler Herman Rosenthal at the Metropole Cafe on West Forty-third Street on a July night in 1912, and says the police lieutenant Charles Becker was convicted of engineering his murder and was executed in 1915. That Metropole stood on West 43rd Street and Difford’s Guide places the cocktail’s hotel at Broadway and 42nd Street, so the two sources do not make them clearly one building.
Peychaud’s Away From the Sazerac
Peychaud’s comes from New Orleans, and most bars buy it for the Sazerac and little else. It is lighter than Angostura, with anise and a cherry note where Angostura has clove and gentian.
Against cognac and dry vermouth the anise picks up the herbs in the wine and the cherry picks up the fruit in the brandy. One dash of orange bitters adds peel on top. Angostura in the same place gives a heavier, more familiar drink.
Equal Parts and Dry Vermouth
Half cognac and half vermouth is wetter than any modern Martini, and that is the design. The vermouth is half the drink, so its herbs and its acidity carry as much weight as the brandy.
Kappeler sweetened it with two dashes of gum syrup. We leave the syrup out and let the vermouth set the sweetness, which keeps the drink dry and the cognac clear. If yours tastes sharp, a barspoon of sugar syrup returns it to his version.
Kappeler’s Recipe and Ours
The Metropole in Modern American Drinks (1895) and ours
Brandy
- Kappeler, 1895
- Half a jigger
- Ours
- 45ml cognac
French (dry) vermouth
- Kappeler, 1895
- Half a jigger
- Ours
- 45ml
Peychaud’s bitters
- Kappeler, 1895
- Two dashes
- Ours
- Two dashes
Orange bitters
- Kappeler, 1895
- One dash
- Ours
- One dash
Gum syrup
- Kappeler, 1895
- Two dashes
- Ours
- None
Method
- Kappeler, 1895
- Stirred with fine ice, strained
- Ours
- Stirred 20 to 30 seconds, strained
Glass
- Kappeler, 1895
- Cocktail glass
- Ours
- Chilled Nick and Nora
Garnish
- Kappeler, 1895
- Maraschino cherry
- Ours
- Maraschino cherry
UK units
- Kappeler, 1895
- Not stated
- Ours
- About 2.7
| Element | Kappeler, 1895 | Ours |
|---|---|---|
| Brandy | Half a jigger | 45ml cognac |
| French (dry) vermouth | Half a jigger | 45ml |
| Peychaud’s bitters | Two dashes | Two dashes |
| Orange bitters | One dash | One dash |
| Gum syrup | Two dashes | None |
| Method | Stirred with fine ice, strained | Stirred 20 to 30 seconds, strained |
| Glass | Cocktail glass | Chilled Nick and Nora |
| Garnish | Maraschino cherry | Maraschino cherry |
| UK units | Not stated | About 2.7 |
How to Serve It
Very cold, in a small chilled glass, before dinner. It is short and strong, so one is usually enough.
For the same brandy with sweet vermouth, make a Harvard; for Peychaud’s in its usual home, a Sazerac.
Make it at home
The Spirit
CognacCognac is a grape spirit distilled twice from white wine in copper pot stills in the Cognac area of western France and, under INAO’s specification, aged at least two years in oak and sold at no less than 40% ABV. The letters on the label are minimum ages, by the BNIC’s account: VS at least two years, VSOP four, XO ten. A VS or VSOP is what our cocktails assume.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Metropole?
Where does the Metropole come from?
How does it differ from a Harvard?
Why Peychaud’s rather than Angostura?
Is equal parts really right?
Should a Metropole be shaken?
How strong is a Metropole?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Metropole” (secondary source: first appears in Kappeler’s 1895 Modern American Drinks; the signature cocktail of the Hotel Metropole at Broadway and 42nd Street; the hotel opened 27 April 1889, demolished 1984; quotes Albert Stevens Crockett, The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931)).
- American Heritage (December 1978), “Charles Becker” (magazine of record: Herman Rosenthal at the Metropole Cafe on West Forty-third Street, July 1912; the murder; Lieutenant Charles Becker convicted, and executed in 1915).
- Internet Archive, “Modern American Drinks (George J. Kappeler, 1895)” (scanned reproduction of the 1895 book: Metropole Cocktail, two dashes gum-syrup, two dashes Peychaud bitters, one dash orange bitters, half a jigger brandy, half a jigger French vermouth, fine ice, strain into cocktail-glass, maraschino cherry; the Metropolitan, with Angostura, in a small wine-glass over two lumps of ice).
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Harvard
A Harvard is equal measures of cognac and sweet vermouth, 45ml each, with two dashes of Angostura and an optional 5ml of grenadine, stirred for 20 to 30 seconds, strained into a chilled coupe and finished with a lemon twist. About 2.6 UK units. George Kappeler printed it in Modern American Drinks in 1895: brandy and Italian vermouth in equal measure, a dash of gum syrup and three dashes of Angostura, mixed with ice, strained and filled up with seltzer. Ours leaves out the seltzer for a richer, stiller drink, and the soda is worth trying once. Made this way it is a Manhattan on cognac, with the vermouth raised to equal. That makes it softer and lower in alcohol than its parent, with fruit and oak from the grape spirit where the Manhattan has the spice of rye.
Sazerac
The IBA’s Sazerac is 50ml of cognac stirred with a sugar cube and two dashes of Peychaud’s bitters, then strained, with no ice, into a chilled rocks glass rinsed with absinthe, and finished with lemon zest. About 2.1 UK units. New Orleans more often makes it with rye whiskey. The Sazerac Company’s own history places Aaron Bird at the Sazerac House beside the Merchants Exchange from 1852 and dates the switch to rye to 1885. The Oxford Companion says the Sazerac cocktail was first mentioned in print only in 1899, and that the company’s account, which follows the historian Stanley Clisby Arthur, is undercut by numerous errors. The absinthe never goes into the mixing glass. It coats the glass and is poured away, leaving anise on the nose of every sip.
East India No. 2
An East India No. 2 is 45ml of fino sherry and 45ml of dry vermouth with two dashes of orange bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass, with a lemon twist. About 1.5 UK units. There is no spirit in it. Sherry with French vermouth appears in Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930 as the East Indian Cocktail: equal parts, with a dash of orange bitters, shaken. The same book prints a separate East India Cocktail built on brandy, a descendant of the one Harry Johnson printed in 1882. It is the Bamboo’s close relation. The two wines are the same; our Bamboo adds a dash of Angostura, and the East India No. 2 leaves the orange bitters to work alone, as the Savoy’s East Indian does. The result is paler, drier and more saline, a glass that drinks closer to cold sherry than to a Martini.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026