Blitzed, Smashed and Drunk: The Last Word

I thought it would be a cold day in hell before I wrote signing praise about something from Detroit. While the city may be a mess and rife with crime, the public pension totally shot, and home to sports baseball and football teams who haven’t hoisted a championship in over 50 years, it is home to a rather mysterious cocktail that appeared and quickly disappeared again, coming and going through history at the most inopportune moments. Finally, having been revived by a bartender in Seattle, The Last Word, has made its way back into the cocktail drinker’s lexicon. With its sharp, contrasting yet balanced flavors, the drink is both a simple cocktail and complex at the same time.

The Last Word, much like the lore surrounding it, has fallen in and out of flavor before its most recent revival. The original Last Word was first made at the famous Detroit Athletic Club during prohibition. The Detroit Athletic Club, which still stands today and is visible from Comercia Park (actually, if you look out past center field, you can see the Detroit Athletic Club), was a private club where athletes, entertainers, business leaders and local members would come and, at least during prohibition, drink. Made with bathtub gin by a vaudevillian comedian and legend Frank Fogarty, an entertainer by trade, The Last Word was a tough sell and didn’t take off. Fogarty took the drink with him to New York City where it muddled through prohibition but disappeared. It wasn’t until 1951 when Ted Saucier, the publicist for the Waldorf-Astoria, brought this drink back from obscurity in his book Bottom’s Up. Saucier credited the drink to both Fogarty, who brought it to New York, and the Detroit Athletic Club, where it was first made, yet it remained a blip in history. Of course, that revival was very short lived and The Last Word fell back into obscurity.

Saucier’s book, however, went on to be a prized collector’s item in the world of bartending and cocktail crafting. Now, depending on which side of the country and who tells it, it was either brought back in New York or Seattle. I’m a believer that it came back in style in Seattle. As the story goes, the bartender at ZigZag, Murray Stenson, came across Saucier’s recipe and decided to try it. The drink took off, becoming both an underground success and a favorite across the Pacific Northwest before slowly migrating to the east coast and then all around the world. The Last Word, now revived from the history books, has definitely earned a place in the cocktail drinker’s lexicon.

The first time I tried The Last Word was at the Pegu Club. I was having drinks with friends and, after looking at the cocktail list, The Last Word stood out, not because of the name but because of its choice ingredients. In the heat of the summer, I was sticking with Gin which is why it appealed to me, but the presence of both Chartreuse and Maraschino just struck me as odd. How could a drink really balance such different liqueurs without falling apart at the seams.

The drink itself is really a tough sell, particularly when two of the four ingredients clash with each other. The Last Word takes Chartreuse and Maraschino Liqueur and combines them to help develop quite a complex flavor. Both liqueurs have extremely strong flavor profiles and aggressive notes that want to individually take dominance and control of the drink. Although green is the bottle of choice, Chartreuse does comes in two varieties, green and yellow. While the yellow clocks in at 80 proof, the green is a heavy hitting 110 proof. Both colors still have the same herbal, floral, and spicy flavor indicative of the 100+ different herbs, spices and flowers used to make it. On its own, the taste is extremely assertive. It is a drink that you either like or you don’t. The same can be said about Maraschino Liqueur. Unlike the bright red cherries that have been marinated in High Fructose Corn Syrup and Red Dye #4 and the saccharine pink liquid they are kept in, Maraschino Liqueur has very little cloying sweetness that we would expect from Maraschino cherries that normally accompany a good drink. Instead, Maraschino Liqueur is distilled from Marasca cherries. The entire cherry, flesh and pit, is used to create a clear liqueur that is dry, a bit nutty and almost almond like (a taste imparted by the pits), cherry grappa. Much like Chartreuse, it has the reputation of either you love it or hate it. With The Last Word, this is a marriage of boldness that brings the two in perfect harmony creating a drink that melds the sweetness and fruitiness of Maraschino with the herbal, floral earthiness of the Chartreuse and is brought into balance with Gin and Lime Juice.

The Last Word

• 3/4 Oz Gin
• 3/4 Oz Green Chartreuse
• 3/4 Maraschino Liqueur
• 3/4 Fresh Lime Juice

Measure out equal parts of all the ingredients and pour into a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and then strain into a martini glass or coup.

I’ve also included a variant of The Last Word made by Death & Co.’s Phil Ward. The drink, aptly called, The Final Ward, substitutes Rye whiskey for gin and lemon juice for lime juice, but is made the same way. It’s a mighty fine variant of a great drink and the use of Rye and lemon serve as a great pairing of flavors, much like gin and lime do.

The Final Word by Phil Ward of Death & Co.

• 3/4 Oz Rye whiskey
• 3/4 Oz Green Chartreuse
• 3/4 Maraschino Liqueur
• 3/4 Fresh Lemon Juice

Measure out equal parts of all the ingredients and pour into a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and then strain into a martini glass or coup.

If there is one thing I would love to know about this drink is how the hell they came up with the name. The Last Word… it had to be finality on something. Man, to be there when the name was first coined – it would have definitely been interesting to be a Barfly at the Detroit Athletic Club. As for me, The Last Word is one of my favorite fall drinks. If you can find a bar that can make ‘em, let me know what you think. It’s worth the risk of trying one just to be able to say you clearly have The Last Word when out drinking.