The return of the Jack Rose cocktail

• If it was good enough for Ernest Hemingway, damn it, it’s good enough for you.

At the new Port Fonda restaurant in Westport, there are currently 13 imaginative craft cocktails on the drink menu, including a Technicolor pink Roselle Margarita (made with house-made hibiscus syrup and Solerno blood orange liqueur). The unexpected offering on the list is a classic cocktail that dates back to the early days of the 1900s, if not before. It’s so classic, in fact, that Port Fonda is one of the few places in Kansas City — besides Manifesto, of course — where you can find one.

The cocktail in question? The Jack Rose — a combination of applejack brandy, lemon juice and grenadine — that
was the featured alcoholic beverage (the only one, actually) in one of the most lavish private homes in New York City: 840 Fifth Avenue, the mansion owned by the imperious Mrs. William Astor. The Mrs. Astor, who ruled New York society wearing fabulous diamonds and a purple-black wig from the mid-1800s until 1905. Guests at her dinner parties were permitted one cocktail before dinner: a small glass of Jack Rose.