Dillon Raaz has had the Algonquin on the back burner for a decade now. He first discovered it when he was at Mercantile (which he describes as “a formative, cut-my-teeth bar”), when he and a fellow bartender came across the original recipe (two parts rye, one part French vermouth, and one part pineapple juice). Maybe it was the strange combination of ingredients or straddling of genres—but the results weren’t pleasing. “We played around with it and couldn’t find a version that we liked,” he says.
The original Algonquin cocktail was named for the Algonquin Hotel and its Round Table, a circle of writers and intellectuals that met there regularly. The recipe started popping up in the 1930s, first in a book called Along the Wine Trail (where it’s called the New Algonquin) and then in a 1937 issue of the magazine Esquire.
Despite its name recognition, cool backstory and inclusion in cocktail revivalist sources like Jim Meehan’s PDT Cocktail Book and Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, the Algonquin hasn’t ever gained the 21st-century traction that many of its contemporaries have enjoyed. And that might be because—as Raaz discovered all those years ago—it’s a bit of a challenge. Fast forward 10 years and Raaz has honored the Algonquin with the Weird Al ‘Gonq’ovich, a stirred drink with rye, pineapple gum syrup, tepache, Tokay wine and chocolate nocino, finished off with a spritz of cacao nib-infused peaty Scotch.
Whenever possible, Raaz prefers to use local and regional products at Atoma, where he is now bar director. It was one such product that sparked the idea for him to dig up the Algonquin again: a 90-proof bottling from Woodinville Distillery made with Washington state-grown rye. Its spiced nose and vanilla and chocolate notes on the palate subtly guided the secondary flavors in Raaz’s Weird Al ‘Gonq’ovich.
Perhaps the biggest innovation Raaz made for his Algonquin riff is the use of the traditional Mexican fermented pineapple beverage, tepache, to replace most of the vermouth and some of the pineapple component. Raaz and his assistant bar manager, John Lundahl, thought something fermented might actually be historically accurate. “[We] had joked about that, like dry white French vermouth in the ’20s probably was fermented anyway ’cause of lack of good refrigeration,” he says. He likes the way the tepache’s fermented quality dries the palate in spite of its fruitiness. As a result, Raaz says, “it drinks like a Martini.”
To round out the pineapple component of the Weird Al ‘Gonq’ovich, Raaz added pineapple gum syrup, which had been a superstar behind bars in the 19th century; it uses gum arabic to thicken a base mixture of pineapple juice and sugar. Raaz favors the version from artisanal producer Small Hand Foods.
The Weird Al ‘Gonq’ovich contains another bygone icon of American drinks: Tokay (or Tokaji) wine. Once the base for cobblers and an accent in more than a few cocktails and punches, the Hungarian dessert wine was already on Atoma’s after-dinner drinks list. Raaz borrowed some from the wine fridge and was pleased. Thus, a quarter-ounce of the sweet wine—and its notes of ginger and honeysuckle—made its way into the Algonquin tribute.
The chocolatey quality of the rye is bolstered by another product from Atoma’s after-dinner list, a chocolate-laced nocelino from Croatian producer Maraska. Raaz appreciates that this isn’t a chocolate liqueur, but a slightly bitter, nutty product that’s made richer with deep chocolate flavor. “It’s nocino first, chocolate second,” he says.
Adding yet more complexity is the cacao nib-infused Islay Scotch, which takes 24 hours to infuse, spritzed onto the surface of the drink. “I think the way the peated Scotch and the chocolate on the nose maybe tricks your mind,” he says. “It leads the palate towards a drier kind of dark chocolate.”
Raaz doesn’t pretend that his Weird Al ‘Gonq’ovich is the most popular drink on the menu, but those who try it are pleasantly surprised by its unexpected charms. “I think people have been delighted to try something new,” he says, “and then be surprised that they liked it more than they thought they would.”