Train’s A Comin’

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 slightly sweeter and rounder cousin of dry vermouth), a violet liqueur, fresh lemon juice and a homemade Concord grape syrup, Porchlight’s head bartender Nicholas Bennett has created a hybrid as classic (and as vibrantly-hued) as its source of 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 somehow Porchlight always seemed to draw 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).

Everything you ever needed to know about absinthe (and then some).

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