Vintage cocktail recipes often come with a good dose of lore and legend. Case in point: the gin-based Last Word, a rather boozy Prohibition-era cocktail that originated at the Detroit Athletic Club with barman Frank Fogarty. In 1951, the drink was immortalized in Bottom’s Up, a classic cocktail book by Ted Saucier. It was mostly forgotten over the years, until Murray Stenson, then bartender at Seattle’s Zig Zag Cafe, revived its popularity in the early aughts.
The drink, which had a cult following in the bar world for a time, is part of a category that cocktail expert John deBary refers to as quartets or “shaken drinks with four equal parts, usually citrus plus three intense ingredients that counterintuitively work in harmony.” In the Last Word, those ingredients are equal parts gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, and lime juice.
Herbaceous, nutty, and bright, this recipe from New Orleans barman Chris Hannah riffs on the formula a bit, doubling up on the gin for a drier, sleeker version of the cocktail. During Prohibition, it was made with bathtub gin, but we recommend opting for London dry gin or another favorite bottle.
