Bright and herbaceous, it drinks like a Gimlet carried out to the garden — muddled cucumber and mint perfume a clean, tart backbone of gin and lime, with simple syrup rounding off the edges. A hard shake and double strain leave it crisp, cold and silky, the cool snap of cucumber and the lift of mint lingering over a dry, citrus-bright finish.
Garnish: Cucumber Slice, Mint Sprig
Shaken · Coupe · Up
muddle
Muddle the cucumber slices with the lime juice in a shaker.
add
Add the mint leaves and muddle gently to release oils without making it bitter.
add
Add the gin and simple syrup, then fill the shaker with ice.
shake
Shake hard until well chilled.
strain
Double-strain into a chilled coupe served up (no ice).
garnish
Garnish with a cucumber slice or ribbon and a mint sprig.
The East Side belongs to New York's craft-cocktail revival of the early 2000s, and who made it first has never been settled. One account credits George Delgado, said to have devised it at Libation in 2004, where it started out as a long drink; another, set down by Christy Pope in Sasha Petraske's posthumous 2016 book Regarding Cocktails, points instead to Chad Solomon's Eastside Fizz at Milk & Honey. Bartenders from that scene, Richie Boccato among them, acknowledge both claims rather than picking one. Whatever its start, the drink has since settled into its familiar modern form, shaken and served up in a chilled coupe.