Is the Cosmopolitan Making a Comeback?

Carrie Bradshaw made the Cosmopolitan look good episode after episode on Sex and the City, unintentionally inspiring a league of women across America to order up the pink drink in hopes of feeling like a part of the glamorous Big Apple life. During the late ’90s, when elevated cocktail culture was just beginning to take shape, when vodka and martini glasses were all the rage, and when most mixed drinks were built of boxed juices and pre-made syrups—the Cosmo, typically made from a blend of citrus-flavored vodka, cranberry juice, triple sec or Cointreau, and lime juice—fit right in, commanding the attention of patrons from New York to Los Angeles for a solid decade. But consumers’ tastes eventually began to change in favor of higher-quality drinks built from a wide range of spirits, and slowly the most popular girl in school became an embarrassing joke of a friend.

Today we’re living in a world where bartenders, just like chefs, are deemed artists, and a well-executed beverage can cost upward of $20 a pop. Over the last 10 years or so, the drinks world has gotten serious: Bartenders’ bespoke shiny tools and their black tie garb, all tucked within those “hidden” speakeasies around the world whose entrances demand a password. But lately, perhaps in response to all those pre-Prohibition drinks and the rigidity they require, bar men and women around the country have started loosening up, looking at a new era for inspiration, and improving upon one of the most beloved-then-detested cocktails of all time: the Cosmopolitan.

When chefs Michael and Bryan Voltaggio debuted Voltaggio Brothers Steak House in National Harbor, Maryland, last December, the restaurant’s opening bar menu listed a Cosmo. “I wanted to put [a Cosmo] on the menu to pay homage to the shitty, artificial, over-boozed and over-sugared bleu-cheese-olive-tacky cocktails of the ’90s steakhouse that people for some reason still order,” explains beverage director Dane Nakamura. In effort to upgrade the original, Nakamura builds his Cosmo with a locally made rye-based vodka, Aperol in place of Cointreau, and a semi-dry riesling along with cranberry shrub and orange bitters for the tart fruit and sour citrus components. “I wanted everything to be relatable to the old dogs who refuse to learn anything new, let alone tricks, while exposing people to interesting spirits and flavor combinations."

Not only is Palm Springs, California’s new Truss & Twine shaking an upgraded Cosmo, but the bar and eatery’s cocktail list, which is divided by drink eras, offers a complete section devoted to drams from the “Dark Ages” of bartending: roughly the late ’60s to late ’80s. In that section one will find bar manager Dave Castillo’s modern Cosmo, which calls for vodka, cranberry, fresh lime juice, and a house-made lime cordial, which incorporates fresh ginger. It’s “light, complex, and refreshing . . . what I think a Cosmo should have tasted like!” Castillo exclaims.

“The Cosmo should hold a special place in every craft bartender’s heart,” asserts Silas Axtell, bar manager at Boston’s Townsman brasserie. “Madonna and her candid shots drinking a sexy pink cocktail created a buzz around drinks, and brought cocktails into focus for many Americans who would otherwise not care to drink them” around the late ’90s. So, in homage to the drink’s place in cocktail history, Axtell debuted the Kumquat Cosmo last November. He observes, “cranberry is a dry, slightly bitter juice, [and] kumquat supplies those things to this drink.” In place of Cointreau, Axtell swaps in Kina, an aperitif wine, then adds fresh lime juice, in addition to gin “to enhance these flavors.”

While Las Vegas’s The Dorsey also swaps gin for vodka, then adds elderflower liqueur, Chicago’s River Roast builds its contemporary Cosmo with Madeira and a three-year-aged rum. Over in Los Angeles, Esters Wine Shop & Bar has a Cosmo on its menu which replaces the drink’s orange component with bitter Gran Classico, and, like Voltaggio Brothers Steak House, it incorporates a house-made cranberry shrub. But perhaps most progressive of them all is Gristmill bar honcho Kyle Eberle’s sous vide Cosmopolitan, which just hit the seasonal Brooklyn, New York, restaurant’s bar list.

“Call it the Sex and the City effect, but the Cosmopolitan has been dead and buried for quite some time,” comments Eberle. “No self-respecting mixologist will touch it, meaning it’s the perfect time for reinvention!” To improve upon the dated drink, Eberle sous vides vodka with lemon and Meyer lemon peels to create a richly aromatic and complex, naturally-flavored vodka. The liquor is shaken with fresh lime and cranberry juice, a bit of Curaçao, and two dashes of cranberry bitters for a pastel pink drink that will make you forget the cloying magenta Cosmos of days past. And who knows—if the Cosmo is fit for a flattering facelift, perhaps a molecular Long Island Iced Tea could be next.