Vodka stretched long with tart grapefruit juice over ice, the Salty Dog drinks like a Greyhound in a coarse-salt-rimmed glass, each sip dragging a lick of salt across the citrus's bitter edge. It is bracing and bittersweet, the salt rounding off the grapefruit's sharpness and pulling its juicy side forward, a cold, easy drink made for an afternoon.
Garnish: Salt Rim, Grapefruit Wedge
Built · Highball · On the Rocks
rinse
Moisten the rim of a highball glass with grapefruit and dip in coarse salt to create a salted rim.
add
Fill the salt-rimmed highball glass with ice cubes.
build
Pour the vodka over the ice, then add the grapefruit juice.
stir
Stir gently to combine and chill.
garnish
Garnish with a grapefruit wedge if desired.
The drink is thought to go back to the early 20th century, when gin was the usual spirit, though vodka has since become the common pour. Its name and its salted rim only arrived around mid-century. A popular tale gives the salt to entertainer George Jessel, but that story remains lore, and no individual inventor appears in the record.