Cocktail & Other Recipes By Spirit Cognac & Other Brandy Cocktails

Train’s A Comin’

By
Céline Bossart
Celine Bossart
Céline Bossart
Céline Bossart is a freelance journalist and photographer based in New York, specializing in wine, spirits and travel.
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Updated 06/27/21
A bright purple shaken cocktail on ice in a clear rocks glass, garnished with a lemon coin with the number 7 carved into it and served atop a gold coaster set on a brown and black leather background
Image:

Porchlight

Achieving balance in a cross between a Sazerac and an Aviation is no easy feat, but New York City bar Porchlight delivers with its bright purple Train’s a Comin’ cocktail. Using absinthe, cognac, blanc vermouth, a violet liqueur, fresh lemon juice and a house-made Concord grape syrup, Porchlight’s head bartender Nicholas Bennett has created a hybrid as classic—and vibrantly-hued—as its inspiration.

In case its name hasn’t given it away, the Train’s a Comin’ cocktail was created in honor of the 2015 debut of New York’s historic 7 subway line extension—a fitting tribute by a bar located on one of the westernmost avenues in Manhattan, where no train had ever gone before. Though, yes, Porchlight always drew a healthy crowd before the new and improved 7 line came along. This comes as no surprise given the bar’s all-star team at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, which has built a bona fide hospitality empire across the city with world-renowned and locally-beloved icons like Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Café. Try your hand at making this mashup at home (no MetroCard needed).

Ingredients

  • Absinthe, to rinse
  • 1 ounce cognac
  • 3/4 ounce Dolin blanc vermouth
  • 13/100 ounce Creme Yvette
  • 3/4 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
  • 3/4 ounce Concord grape syrup*
  • Garnish: lemon twist

Steps

  1. Rinse the inside of a chilled rocks glass with absinthe and set aside.

  2. Add the cognac, blanc vermouth, Creme Yvette, lemon juice and Concord grape syrup into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.

  3. Double strain into the absinthe-rinsed glass filled with ice.

  4. Garnish with a lemon twist.