Time For Cocktails: The Astoria

2 oz Gin
1 oz dry Vermouth*
2 dashes Orange Bitters
Shake over ice and strain into chilled martini glass
Garnish with lemon twist or olives.

This cocktail was allegedly invented at the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, located on 5th Ave, where the Empire State Building is now. The original Astoria hotel was built by John Jacob Astor IV, who went down with the Titanic. Astor was the wealthiest man aboard Titanic, but he was supposed to have been one-upped by J. Pierpont Morgan, who cancelled at the last minute. White Star Line Managing director J. Bruce Ismay took J. P. Morgan's luxury suite of cabins for the maiden voyage.

Astor was accompanied on Titanic by his very pregnant bride, Madeleine, who survived the sinking and gave birth to a son, John Jacob VI, four months later. Both wife and son's lives had sad endings.
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*Some mixers transpose the amounts of gin and vermouth.