Cocktail · Medium strength
Clover Club
Gin, raspberry, lemon, egg white — pink, frothy, and older than your grandfather.
How to order it: Pre-Prohibition Philadelphia. Dry vermouth in the proper spec. Don't fear the pink.
Flavor profile
The recipe
- 1½ oz gin
- ½ oz dry vermouth
- ½ oz raspberry syrup; ½ oz lemon
- 1 egg white; dry shake then shake
- Coupe; skewered raspberries
The story
The Clover Club predates Prohibition and takes its name from an actual club: a Philadelphia society of lawyers, writers, and industrialists who gathered at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel from the 1880s onward, trading toasts and roasts. Their namesake drink, gin softened with raspberry, lemon, and egg white, was a respectable gentleman's order before pink drinks acquired a stigma. It faded mid-century, dismissed for its color, then returned with the cocktail revival; Julie Reiner's Brooklyn bar, opened in 2008, took its name and restored its reputation. It endures because it is serious craft disguised as frivolity, a magic trick in rose-colored foam.
Adjacent pours