Side Car
The aperitif for winter. Cognac, lemon and a hint of orange.
This drink was created during The Great War in Paris. A military gentleman who was habitually driven about in a side car requested a warming aperitif to help with his head-cold before dinner. The bartender, whose identity has not been recorded, was troubled by the contradiction in an aperitif that was also warming. To his credit he made a fresh, sharp drink that is an excellent aperitif and contains a large measure of brandy; and so should also warm the drinker. The name later came to mean that the mixture would take the drinker “for a ride”, just like being driven in a side car. The drink first came to London in 1918 when MacGarry made them at the Buck’s Club. The first mention in print is the 1922 book Cocktails: How to Mix Them by Robert Vermiere, where it is listed as having equal measures of Brandy, Cointreau and lemon juice, and no sugar rim.
