How to Make a Cable Car, the Deliciously Retro Spiced-Rum Cocktail

Jason O'Bryan
·6 min read
2

When he invented the cocktail in 1996, Tony Abou-Ganim couldn’t have known how perfect of a name “Cable Car” would end up being for it.

Abou-Ganim is a bartending pioneer, among the earliest bartenders of the cocktail renaissance we all enjoy now. It was less than 30 years ago—an eternity in drink terms—that we lived in a time when juicing fresh lemons was a brave and transgressive act, and there were so few people doing proper drinks that they began assigning themselves superhero sobriquets. Abou-Ganim went by the “Modern Mixologist,” Dale DeGroff was “King Cocktail,” and Audrey Saunders was the “Libation Goddess.” Abou-Ganim has been in Las Vegas for the last 25 or so years but the mid ‘90s saw him in San Francisco, as the lead bartender at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room, a nightclub on the 21st floor of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

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He needed a signature cocktail for Harry Denton’s, a room that, as he writes in his 2010 cocktail book, was “affectionately referred to as the lounge that can be found ‘between the stars and the cable cars.’” His cocktail was essentially a take on a classic Sidecar—orange Curaçao and fresh lemon “sour” (lemon juice and sugar, pre-mixed) with Captain Morgan Spiced Rum instead of the Sidecar’s Cognac, and a cinnamon-sugar-rimmed Martini glass instead of the classic’s plain sugar rim. He called it the Cable Car, a dual homage to not only the iconic San Francisco transport system but also to the classic Sidecar from which it came.

It’s a great name, but the dual homage isn’t what makes the name perfect. No, the name wouldn’t be perfect for a couple more decades. In the unflattering light of modernity, the Cable Car looks old. Spiced rum, a cinnamon rim, Martini glasses, “fresh lemon sour,” its ingredients are like a catalog of things almost no one uses anymore. But almost no one uses cable cars either, and they, like the cocktail, work just as, if not better, than their competitors. Like a cable car, the cocktail is antiquated but still functional. They’re both visually distinctive. They’re both a relic of a specific time, and both are kept around because they’re great, and they’re fun, and people love them.

Beyond the whims of fashion, the core truth about the Cable Car is that the flavors work phenomenally well together, a dated but perfectly wonderful drink to make, particularly around late fall. The friendly and accessible spice in the rum is made juicy by the orange liqueur and sweetly accented by the cinnamon sugar rim, lovely for the early Holiday season when winter is still just a crackle in the air and a kiss of sweet spice is a perfect way to spend an evening. That many cocktail bars don’t even stock spiced rum is a shame. The Cable Car, like its namesake, is a reminder that true quality never stops being great, even if it goes out of style.

Cable Car

Moisten the rim of a Martini or coupe glass and press the glass into a mix of cinnamon and sugar to have some adhere to the rim. Add all liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake hard for eight to 10 seconds. Strain into the rimmed glass and garnish with an orange peel if you’ve got one.

NOTES ON INGREDIENTS

Canerock_Spiced_Rum
Canerock_Spiced_Rum

Spiced Rum: This was explicitly created for Captain Morgan, a sweetened, flavored low-ish (70) proof rum owned by Diageo, which is the biggest liquor company in the world. If you hear a tone of voice to that last sentence, it’s because Captain Morgan isn’t generally the type of spirit with which cocktail bars make drinks, because of all the things I just mentioned. That said, there is nothing whatsoever wrong with Captain Morgan—it makes a lovely Rum & Coke, for one, my first favorite drink—and this cocktail is good of a use for the rum as anything ever possibly could be. Feel free to use Captain Morgan and not look back.

But “spiced” rum is just rum into which spices and sometimes sweetness has been added, and if you want to get “craft” about it, there are a few standout examples. The Chairman’s Reserve Spiced Rum from St. Lucia is probably my favorite, more orange and raisins than vanilla and cinnamon, but fits in here nicely. The people behind Plantation recently came out with a spiced rum called Canerock that’s quite good, more classic in flavor and makes a phenomenal Cable Car. Sailor Jerry is good, similar to Captain Morgan but 92 proof instead of 70. There’s a lot of tasty spiced rum out there. Don’t think too hard about it.

Orange Curaçao: In his book, Abou Ganim specifically calls for Marie Brizard Orange Curaçao, which works great. Grand Marnier works great, too. Most of the cocktail world reaches for the Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao most of the time for its proof and quality, and that is wonderful here as well.

Lemon Juice: Forget the “lemon sour” business—just use fresh lemon juice

Simple Syrup: Our recipe for a Sidecar doesn’t use simple syrup, but it also doesn’t use rum or a sugar rim—this is superficially similar to a Sidecar, but I’d argue they’re aiming for different things. A Sidecar is tart and bracing and puts you on your heels a little bit, while a Cable Car is spiced and charming, so I like a touch of simple for balance. Note that different spiced rums will have different levels of sweetness, so you may have to adjust this up or down, to taste.

To make the syrup, combine a .5 cup of hot water and a .5 cup of sugar, and stir until the sugar dissolves, which will take about 15 seconds. Voila! You have simple syrup. Keep it in the fridge and it’ll last a month.

Cinnamon Sugar Rim: This is totally unnecessary for the enjoyment of the drink, but the original recipe calls for it. As for its construction, it doesn’t really matter how you do this. Abou Ganim suggests 1 tsp. cinnamon to .5 cup sugar, a stunning 1:24 ratio. I do more 1:3 or 1:4 but again, it’s not that important. Mix them together until it tastes good.

The only other thing to note here is that conventional wisdom has you moisten the edge of the glass with a lemon wedge, and then use that moisture to stick the cinnamon sugar on there. This guarantees each taste will be spiced and sweet but also very sour, which is fine, but not ideal. Better would be to use a sliced orange. Better than that would be to wet a paper towel with simple syrup and rub that around the rim, and best would be to use a cinnamon-flavored liqueur, like Fireball or Goldschlager, moisten the rim with that, and then apply the cinnamon sugar. It’s not good enough to buy a bottle of one of these for this purpose, but if you have one lying around, it adds.

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