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Hanky Panky

Gin, sweet vermouth, Fernet — invented by the first famous female bartender, still undefeated.

How to order it: Ada Coleman, Savoy Hotel, ~1903. The Fernet is the point; don't skimp.

The story

The Hanky Panky belongs to Ada Coleman, who ran the American Bar at London's Savoy Hotel in the early twentieth century, one of the most celebrated bartenders of her era and a rare woman at the top of the trade. She built the drink for actor Charles Hawtrey, who had asked for something with a bit of punch; on tasting it he reportedly declared, "By Jove! That is the real hanky-panky!" The name stuck. A Martini-adjacent blend of gin and sweet vermouth jolted by Fernet-Branca, it endures because that bitter Italian exclamation point still surprises, a century on, exactly as Hawtrey said it would.

Adjacent pours