This Alaska Riff Is One Cool Cat

The Mayor of Talkeetna, created by Ally Marrone at Grand Army, is my favorite martini.

I love a certain cocktail so much that, when it recently left a bar’s menu after having been on for years, I took an action I had worried might be incredibly rude: I asked the bartender who’d created it for the spec so I could make it at home. (I’d had the ingredients named on the menu already and had tried to recreate it, but had failed every time.) Even though I could no longer get it at the bar, I didn’t want the drink to disappear from my life entirely.

That cocktail is the Mayor of Talkeetna, created by Ally Marrone for Grand Army’s cats-themed menu, which launched in autumn 2021. (It remained on the “Greatest Hits” section of each successive menu until recently.) It’s an Alaska riff with a few tweaks, most notably the addition of carrot eau de vie.

I had mentioned the cocktail in my newsletter a couple of weeks ago, and I got a few messages saying that I’m not the only one who missed it. So, with Ally’s permission, I’m sharing the spec here so that you, too, can have this cocktail once again.

I usually take little notice of cocktail names, even pleasantly punny ones, but in this instance, the name of the cocktail explains nearly everything about it. So we’ll start there.

The actual mayor of Talkeetna, you see, was (is) a cat. “Talkeetna is a town in Alaska that didn’t have an elected mayor, and instead had Mayor Stubbs, a little orange tabby, as an honorary mayor,” Ally says. “Pretty incredible if you ask me; life could be better if cats were elected more often!” Stubbs was named honorary mayor in 1997, a position he held until his death in 2017. His successor, apparently in place to this day, is a cat named Denali.

So it’s kind of a perfect name for an Alaska variation on a cats-themed menu. About that touch of carrot eau de vie, perhaps the riff’s most significant departure from the classic? Well, Stubbs the cat was an orange tabby.

“Now, regarding the cocktail itself,” Ally continues, “the Mayor of Talkeetna is simply an Alaska variation with the most beautiful form of carrot, the Reisetbauer Carrot eau de vie. This eau de vie uses nearly 50 pounds of carrots to produce one bottle! INSANE! A few dashes of this spirit makes for the perfect sip, pairing beautifully with the Salers gentian and yellow Chartreuse that are also used in the cocktail. Yellow Chartreuse will be found in a classic Alaska, but using a touch of the Salers helps keep this cocktail on the dry side, giving notes of snap pea that I adore!”

Mayor of Talkeetna

created by Ally Marrone, Grand Army Cats menu 2021

2 ounces Ford’s gin
½ ounce Dolin dry vermouth
½ ounce Dolin blanc vermouth
½ tsp. Salers gentian liqueur
½ tsp. yellow Chartreuse
4 dashes Reisetbauer Carrot eau de vie

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir until well-chilled. Strain into a Nick & Nora glass. (No garnish.)