On May 18th, our first book, Maryland's Forgotten Cocktails: A History of Drinking in the Free State will be published by History Press. The main aim of the book was to reclaim some of the great, but often forgotten drink recipes from throughout the history of our great city and great state.

In light of the recent unpleasantness that has befallen Baltimore, we've chosen to highlight one of the forgotten gin cocktails unique to the bar (now known as the Owl Bar) at Belvedere Hotel in the early 1900s. Recently featured at one Brendan Dorr's Forgotten Cocktail Club events, it provides a window back to the past where the city was heralded as the number two culinary Mecca of the nation. With Baltimore's craft cocktail movement gaining ground and the Maryland distillery industry roaring back on to the scene, we may yet see those days again...

We've "remodelled" our Belvedere a little bit and have used Bluecoat's limited edition barrel-finished gin in place of the original (but now unrecognizably reformulated) Gordon's Gin.

Belvedere Cocktail

"A Good Morning Bracer"

• One-third Camparo Antica Italian Vermouth
• One-third Bluecoat Barrel Finished Gin
• One-third Teeling Irish Whiskey
• Few dashes of Absinthe

Shake with ice and serve in an iced cocktail glass.

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