COSMOPOLITAN

Only a few years back, this drink was called the "stealth Martini," first by Barnaby Conrad III, author of "The Martini", and then by its imbibers. Whether the name came about because of the Cosmo's covert kick or because of its tendency to be ordered by those unimpressed with the classic Martini is of little consequence now.

We're just glad the cocktail crowd hasn't deemed it passé.

	Full Cosmopolitan Cocktail recipe » The hit HBO show "Sex and the City" can be credited with increasing the awareness of this cocktail.

The cosmopolitan has been around as long as Absolut Citron. The original recipe called for citrus vodka and Absolut was the first. The cocktail was served at the Fog City Diner in San Francisco in the early 80s and in New York around the same time at Odeon.

The inventer has been reporeted to be a Woman who worked behind the bar at a place in Miami Beach named Cheryl Cook...but no one has been able to find Cheryl or confirm that story...but it would make sense because Miami is one of the markets where brands are tested before being released nationally.

No one seems to have bothered recording who mixed the first Cosmo, though many drink historians and bartenders agree that the gay community in Provincetown, Massachusetts, should be credited with the accomplishment.

Occasionally, the name Cheryl Cook will surface, but it leads only to San Francisco, never to an actual person. Many bartenders - such as John Caine, owner of San Francisco's Cafe Mars and undisputed West Coast champion of this drink - partly credit the Cosmopolitan with the resurgence of the cocktail during the '70s, when fern bars, with their overly sweet, so-called "girl drinks," nearly destroyed the respectability of the bar. After all, "bounceberries," as they're called on the East Coast, are tart treats more commonly associated with Thanksgiving than with cocktails, so adding their juice to a cocktail constituted a serious break with tradition back then.

Some bartenders snub the Cosmopolitan, comparing it to those drinks on the short list of classic cocktails. We admit it lacks complexity, but few can deny this drink's popularity and reliability, especially in establishments with slipshod mixers. In fact, whenever we're unsure of a bar's integrity, we start the evening with a request for the Cosmopolitan, a descendant

of the Cold War's Cape Codder and the respectable sibling of the Kamikaze shooter.

The only way a mixer can foil this cocktail is to substitute Rose's lime juice for fresh fruit.

The popularity of the Cosmopolitan quickly traveled from New England to New York and then across the country.