I habitually visit used book stores, wandering the stacks looking for random items of interest—books on philosophy, the occult or death, weird fiction, cookbooks and, of course, books on cocktails. One of my favorite stores is generally amazingly well-stocked in the former group if not the latter, but I occasionally luck out and find a hidden gem, such as I did this week with a $5 1999 reprint copy of The Savoy Cocktail Book.

I’ve been wanting this classic for a while but I have a general policy against buying new books (and new things in general, with a few exceptions). There are so many copies of the Savoy book floating around it’s hard to believe I had to wait this long to find one, but I suppose that’s a testimony to how well-loved it is. Written by the now-legendary Harry Craddock, bartender of the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel, London, the Savoy was one of the first post-Prohibition cocktail books and therefore one of the best sources for classic cocktail recipes.

The Bijou was picked for a very simple reason: there are so many recipes in this book I couldn’t decide on a place to start. In desperation, I finally just let the book fall open and picked the first recipe I saw. Fortunately, it was one that I had all the ingredients for—it was going to be a long night if I’d had to concoct some Swedish Punsch before dinner.

1/3 Plymouth Gin
1/3 Italian vermouth
1/3 Green Chartreuse
dash orange bitters

Stir ingredients over ice in a mixing glass; strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a cherry or olive, twist a lemon peel over the drink and server.

This was an odd one for me; I was very curious because I couldn’t wrap my head around sweet vermouth and green Chartreuse in the same drink. It is well-balanced, with a complex array of earthy flavors from the botanicals in the gin and Chartreuse, rounded out at the end by the vermouth’s sweetness. I chose to garnish with a cherry, though next time I think I’d like to try it with an olive for contrast. Though the sweet cherry was a nice finish, I have a feeling the saltiness of the olive would take this to the next level.