lasky last knight

2 oz Frapin Cognac VS
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Luxardo Triple Sec
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
1 dash Simple Syrup
1 dash Berg & Hauck's Lemon Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
After the Hawthorne, Camper English was ready for our third stop on our bar crawl. We considered doing the Commonwealth Hotel hat trick with Island Creek Oyster Bar, but by the time we passed by, the bar was filled with the dinner crowd. Instead, we traveled down Commonwealth Ave to Clio where bartender Todd Maul awaited. For my drink, I asked for Lasky Last Night as the combination of Cognac, Green Chartreuse, and orange liqueur worked so well in the Prospector. The drink is a riff on David Embury's Knight from The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. True to Embury's preferred magic formula for the Sour, the Knight was as follows:

Knight
• 8 parts Brandy
• 2 parts Lemon
• 1 part Green Chartreuse and Cointreau (half part each)
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The Lasky Last Knight began with a lemon and Cognac aroma that preceded a citrus-flavored sip containing lemon juice and orange liqueur notes. Next, the swallow began with Cognac followed by Green Chartreuse's herbal notes and finally a tart lemon finish. While I enjoyed it, I could not help but think what Embury would say about Todd's variation. Riffing on what Embury said about the original equal parts Sidecar, he might declare, "Unfortunately, however, the proportions are stated as two parts brandy and one part each of lemon juice and liqueur. This may not be a bad formula for a midafternoon drink, but for an aperitif it is simply horrible because of its sickish sweetness." While the variation would have been a sugar bomb to Embury (with too much distracting him from the base spirit), it was by no means a sweet drink to the average modern palate.