The Universe is about as late-1970s as they come. It was invented by Bobby Batugo, a Filipino bartender who worked in and around Los Angeles for over 50 years. The drink originally consisted of Midori, vodka, pistachio liqueur, and lime and pineapple juices. Batugo entered it in the 1978 U.S. Bartenders’ Guild competition and won. That was the year that Midori, originally released in 1964 by Suntory in its home country of Japan, was first made available in the U.S. The liqueur debuted at a party at Studio 54 in honor of the release of Saturday Night Fever. Doesn’t get more disco than that.
Fast-forward to 2024 in New York City, where bartender Shannan Lynch has revived the long-lost sour. Her Multiverse cocktail wasn’t meant to be an ode to the Universe, but thanks to a series of twists and turns, and Garret Richard’s modern, science-y techniques at Sunken Harbor Club, where she works, the drink ended up bearing a striking resemblance to the disco-era cocktail.
In 2023, Lynch and Richard were excited to play around with two new ingredients. The first was a pistachio orgeat from Orgeat Works, and the second was an improved Midori-esque melon liqueur, adapted from Kevin Kos’ recipe featured on his YouTube channel. Kos’ version is actually made with cantaloupes, a departure from the original Midori, which uses musk and Yubari melon varieties. The resulting liqueur is far less sweet than the original, and, made with banana chips, it offers a subtle tropical note.
So there was Lynch with the pistachio orgeat, housemade melon liqueur and a blank canvas. Her first thought was to make a rhum agricole–based swizzle. Deciding that style of rum was too funky, she switched to a more mellow white rum (Hamilton White ’Stache), but realized that the swizzle method led to too much dilution. She then tried shaking the mix and serving it up, which worked much better. (At Sunken Harbor, they shake with a large cube and two Kold-Draft cubes for optimal frothiness and agitation.) It was at this point Richard realized that Lynch’s new cocktail was starting to look like one he’d read about—the Universe—with the exception, of course, of the absence of vodka.
Lynch liked the white rum, but felt there was an opportunity to add yet another layer of flavor and decided to try adding a little aquavit. She landed on Linie’s aged expression and was surprised at how well it worked with the other ingredients in the cocktail. “You think aquavit, you think you’re gonna get big caraway, especially with aged [expressions],” says Lynch. “It doesn’t really come through that way. It really works well with the other flavors.”
Acid-adjusted juices are a huge part of Sunken Harbor Club’s program, and Lynch reached for two to use in the Multiverse: pineapple—which is a nod to the original recipe—and orange. Both are adjusted to a lime acidity, which also pays homage to Batugo’s original Universe recipe.
Serendipitously, Lynch was developing this drink at the end of last year, right when Sunken Harbor Club was gearing up for a disco-themed New Year’s Eve party. The cocktail already fit in perfectly given its origin story and the Midori connection. And aesthetically, it was perfect for the special NYE menu. Lynch says that its eye-catching color gets people excited about the drink. “It’s the sort of cocktail that people see on a tray walking by and they go, ‘What’s that?’” To complete the look, a disco ball keychain was added as a fun garnish for the NYE event, but people thought it was so charming that it remained part of the drink when the Multiverse landed on the regular menu.
Overall, the Multiverse stands out in Sunken Harbor Club’s largely tropical, tiki-inspired program. And it may look like it just walked out of Studio 54, but the high-end orgeat, acid-adjusted juices, housemade melon liqueur and innovative spirit choices deliver an altogether unexpected, refreshing flavor. “I think [guests are] usually surprised because they think, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be Midori,’” says Lynch. “Then they taste it and get this blast of fresh cantaloupe and it’s like, ‘Oh, whoa.’”
