By the time Sex and the City turned the drink into a nationwide sensation, having first appeared in the second season, it had already earned itself a muddy history.Ĭecchini admits that he’s partly to blame not wanting to go down as “that dick who invented the Cosmopolitan” (his words), it wasn’t something he liked to talk about. In addition, his recipe- which graces the cover of his The Craft of the Cocktail, published in 2002-dials back on both the Cointreau and the lime juice and ups the ratio of cranberry to vodka. Dale DeGroff, whom New York magazine credited as the inventor of the drink after he put it on the menu at the Rainbow Room in 1996 (he was quick to reject that claim), garnished it with a flamed orange peel. And still, to this day, people never get it right.”Īdding to the confusion, in the mid-1990s, one of the city’s most famous bartenders gave the Cosmopolitan a personal spin.

“Nobody was doing the proper amount of lime juice…There was too much cranberry. “It was always made wrong, and you could tell, because it looked like a Negroni,” says Cecchini. “The pink is so delicate-it should be just a blush, really-that when it’s drunk you almost can’t tell it from a Margarita.”īut as the drink made its way across New York’s downtown bar scene, the recipe became subject to the proverbial game of telephone-no one knew the proper specs. “The Cosmopolitan almost looks like a White Lady,” says Cecchini of the drink, made in a 2:1:1:1 ratio. Served up and garnished with a lemon twist, it’s a notably paler rendition of the cocktail that most drinkers now associate with the Cosmopolitan. He incorporated two parts Absolut Citron (a new-to-the-market offering that ignited the flavored vodka craze) with one part each Cointreau, lime and Ocean Spray cranberry juice. Swapping out Rose’s in favor of fresh lime juice, which The Odeon was using in their Margaritas, Cecchini built his drink as a simple sour. Cecchini, then in his mid-20s and working at Tribeca’s The Odeon, had set out to create a spin on a pink cocktail that a waitress had reported was making its way around San Francisco’s gay bars: The Cosmopolitan, as it was known, was a mix of rail vodka, Rose’s lime and grenadine. The inspiration for the drink wasn’t so much flavor as it was color. “Pretty soon, I noticed that people were asking for it in other bars around town and it just absolutely blew my mind.” “When our regulars first started asking for it, I was weirded out,” says Cecchini, now the owner of Brooklyn’s Long Island Bar. Explore our schedule of upcoming shows and secure your tickets today for a magical adventure that will create memories to treasure.When Toby Cecchini invented the Cosmopolitan back in 1988, he didn’t intend for it to make its way to a cocktail list at all, let alone become a decade-long bastion of urban drinking. Whether you're celebrating a special occasion, planning a romantic date night, or seeking a unique night out with friends, the Chicago Magic Lounge promises an unforgettable experience. This is your invitation to step into a world where genuine moments of astonishment await. It's an experience like no other-a remarkable opportunity to witness the art of magic up close and personal.

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