Pendennis Club (cocktail)
The Pendennis Club cocktail is a cocktail created at the private club of the same name, the Pendennis Club of Louisville, Kentucky, in or shortly before 1911. It experienced a minor revival in the 2010s, but it remains uncommon.
The original cocktail is made of gin and apricot brandy in a 2:1 ratio, plus lime juice. Later versions add Peychaud's bitters, which is generally retained in later recipes, and a kumquat, which is sometimes optionally used. Modern versions vary the apricot ingredient, splitting apricot eau-de-vie with apricot liqueur or added sugar, both due to lack of availability of "apricot brandy" and to balance the tartness and sweetness. This makes it a kind of fancy gin sour. The combination of apricot and lime tastes similar to grapefruit, though grapefruit is not used in the cocktail.
There is also a version with dry vermouth instead of lime juice, but this appears to be a confusion with another cocktail; see.
History
The cocktail presumably dates to circa 1910, more narrowly 1910 or 1911, and may be credited to Louis Herring, the manager of the Pendennis Club at the time, or to an unknown bartender at the club. This precise dating is possible because the cocktail is first recorded shortly after the manager of the club changed, and the cocktail does not appear in a comprehensive book published shortly after by the former manager,, which did feature other cocktails from the club.The recipe first appears in print in as:
This book was published in Louisville and included representative recipes from bars, and the club's page bears the signature of Louis Herring, providing as great authority as may be asked for contemporary sources.
A recipe by this name appears in, where it is given as:
This appears to be a confusion, and is more similar in ingredients with the "Van Zandt Cocktail" in.
The version given in is:
The cocktail continued to be included in cocktail books over the following decades, and was included in as part of the cocktail renaissance, with the recipe given as:
It was subsequently included in the Death & Co. book, and also popularized by Toby Cecchini.
The cocktail was not continuously served at the Pendennis Club from its creation to the present, but was revived in 2014, following the recipe in.
Similar cocktails
Other cocktails that feature gin and apricot brandy in a 2:1 ratio include the Barnum, the Paradise, and the Spencer. More broadly, it is similar to the sidecar or sour families, combining spirit, a liqueur sweetener, and citrus juice.A Juniper Club cocktail also exists, from the Juniper Club at Silver Glen Springs, founded by members of the Pendennis Club, and consisting of gin, Cointreau, lemon or lime juice, and Peychaud's bitters. This can be interpreted as a white lady with Peychaud's bitters, or as a Pendennis Club cocktail with Cointreau instead of apricot brandy.