At My Boy Tony, where every drink has a story, the Orange Blossom Special takes you on a flavorful ride you won’t forget.
“The combination of smoky mezcal, sweet and bitter vermouth, and herbaceous orange amaro creates a harmony of flavors equally satisfying and intriguing.”—Roman DeShong, manager, My Boy Tony
Orange Blossom Special Cocktail
Ingredients
- 2 oz. Yola Mezcal
- ½ oz. Nepèta Amaro Majora
- ½ oz. Cocchi Storico Vermouth di Torino
- 2 dashes Angostura orange bitters
- 2 dashes Bittercube Jamaican No. 2 Bitters
Directions
- Add ingredients into a mixing glass. Add enough ice to cover the liquid. Stir for 25 seconds. Strain into a fresh glass and garnish with an expressed orange peel.
Ask the Bartender: Roman DeShong
On his favorite part of the job: “Sharing the stories behind our spirits with customers. Learning about a spirit or wine with a rich history or great story elevates the drink. We carry a lot of unique, small-family businesses, and those all come together to create something special. In this drink, both the mezcal and amaro have great stories. Yola, the mezcal, is family-owned and has been around since the ’70s in Oaxaca. The amaro uses an indigenous Sicilian orange that has a pleasant sweetness balanced with bitterness from the peel, mixed with natural herbs from the area.”
On the bar’s “My Boy Tony” moniker: “Tony was a good friend of Eli Cox, our owner. He was a very welcoming individual. Meeting him for the first time, you felt like friends already. That’s a lot of what we’re trying to do here at the bar. We want you to walk in and immediately feel at home.”
On the cocktail’s name: “There’s a song called ‘Orange Blossom Special.’ It’s named after a train that went back and forth from New York to Florida. I thought it was perfect for this drink because this is an orange twist on a classic manhattan.”
On pairing: “It’s a smooth drink with more acidity than other cocktails, so it could cut through some fattier foods. A carbonara would be great since it matches the Sicilian orange flavor profile.”
