Do the Metropolitan

Is it a dance? Is it a museum? (well, yeah, actually) Is it what metrosexuals drink? (What do they drink? Microbrews?) Is it a Brooklyn version of the Cosmopolitan?

Today's cocktail in my calendar is the mysterious metropolitan, which seems to be nothing more or less than a very sweet Manhattan made with brandy. My recipe calls for equal parts brandy and sweet vermouth, a little simple syrup (which I cooked up the other day to have on hand for just such occasions), and a couple firm wrists of bitters.

I like it. I'm not big on sweet cocktails, and with an ounce and a half of sweet vermouth plus simple syrup this registers sweet on the insulin scale, but this tastes pretty good. As you also know, I'm not big on fruit or other formerly living things in my drinks, but a cherry might actually go good in this.

I saw this one coming (well, I have to look ahead to plan my trips to the liquor store), and I figured I needed a less pricey brandy than my old dusty bottle of Courvoisier for recipes calling for brandy. So while buying cat grub at Kroger tonight, I picked up a bottle of E&J. "Rare Blend". At $9.99, how rare can it be?

It's also "Aged in the finest white oak barrels." You can say that about most of the local Lutherans. My church (not Lutheran) invested in a lot of oak when they remodeled, and it's too light and, well, blah for me. Give me the dark Gothic cathedrals with flickering candles and aged dames in shawls saying the rosary any day.

But, all jabs at other religions aside, I think the E&J goes better than the pricey cognac for run-of-the-mill brandy cocktails like the metropolitan. Next weekend I'll have to play Anthony Blanche and line up a row of brandy Alexanders and see if I'm right. Aloysius will drink one with me, if not Charles Flyte.