Park Avenue in a National Park

We went up to Yosemite this month for Chef's Holiday and stayed in the Ahwanee Inn. It was a marvelous experience, and perhaps the best part of the experience was sitting in front of the huge fireplace on the leather sofas with a cocktail. Now, the Ahwanee has some signature cocktails, but I went with a classic I had never tried before: the Park Avenue.

Their version is something like this:

Park Avenue
2 oz. Gin
1/2 oz. Cointreau
3/4 oz. pineapple juice
1/2 oz. sweet Vermouth
Served on the rocks with a cherry

I have found a few other recipes with slightly different proportions and some that use dry Vermouth instead of Cointreau - a "perfect" Martini, plus pineapple juice.

I've mixed myself a few of these, and they drink very easy, especially if you like a touch of the tropics in your glass. I haven't decided quite how the vermouths should work though.

In fact, I'm very weak on vermouth and amaro in general. DW recently asked my opinion about amaro and beer in cocktails (not at all random - it's about the bitter). But I'm clueless in these areas - I rarely drink beer (and prefer mild to bitter) and have almost no concept of the flavor profile of vermouths, never mind amari. I'm barely familiar with Campari - after that I'm lost.

So, grounds for future research.