Cable Car

The Cable Car is the Sidecar rebuilt on spiced rum, created by Tony Abou-Ganim in 1996. It keeps the parent's spirit-liqueur-citrus frame and changes every part, then finishes the glass with a cinnamon-sugar rim that has become the drink's signature.

A Modern House Cocktail

The Cable Car was created in 1996 by Tony Abou-Ganim for the Starlight Room, the bar atop San Francisco's Sir Francis Drake Hotel. It is one of the more successful house cocktails of the modern revival — a drink so well built it escaped its bar and entered the general repertoire. Its bones are pure Sidecar; its character is entirely its own.

The Spec

Abou-Ganim kept the Sidecar's spirit-liqueur-citrus structure and recast the parts: spiced rum for cognac, orange curaçao for Cointreau, lemon for the citrus, with a touch of simple syrup to round it off. The cinnamon-sugar rim is not optional decoration — it sets the drink's tone from the first sip.

The Cinnamon-Sugar Rim

Rim the glass before you build: a wipe of citrus around the edge, then a roll in cinnamon and sugar. As you drink, the spiced rim threads through every sip and echoes the spiced rum — the detail that turns a good rum sour into the Cable Car specifically.

Spiced Rum Earns Its Place

Spiced rum is an easy spirit to use badly; here it is the entire point. Its vanilla and baking-spice notes are what distinguish the Cable Car from a plain rum Sidecar. Choose a spiced rum you would happily sip, not the sweetest bottle on the shelf.

The Sidecar Family