Italian Greyhound

The Washington Post, December 26, 2007

• • Course: Beverage

Summary:

This elegantly balanced cocktail is a variation on both the Greyhound (vodka and grapefruit juice) and the Salty Dog (gin or vodka and grapefruit juice with a salted rim). It calls for Italy's unique Punt e Mes vermouth, made by Carpano, whose taste falls somewhere between a traditional red vermouth and a bitter.

According to the Carpano museum in Turin, the name -- which translates from the local dialect as "point and a half" -- derives from one fateful day in a bar when an absent-minded stock trader shouted out a trading-floor term when ordering a vermouth with an extra half-dose of bitters. The name stuck.

We found Punt e Mes at Calvert Woodley liquors and at Schneider's of Capitol Hill.

1 serving

Ingredients:

• • Kosher salt, for rimming the glass
• • 3 or 4 ice cubes
• • 2 ounces Punt e Mes
• • 2 ounces freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (from 1/2 a large grapefruit)

Directions:

Rim an old-fashioned glass with salt, then fill with the ice cubes. Add the Punt e Mes and grapefruit juice; stir and serve.

Recipe Source:

Adapted from No. 9 Park in Boston.

86 calories, n/a fat, n/a saturated fat, n/a cholesterol, 234mg sodium, 6g carbohydrates, n/a dietary fiber, n/a sugar, n/a protein.