The Paper Plane
The Paper Plane has an interesting origin story, including a popular song and a late night voicemail. The Violet Hour bartender Sam Ross had been tasked with creating an original cocktail for the Chicago bar he was working at. Based on the M.I.A song Paper Planes, Ross came up with a cocktail named Paper Plane. At 3 AM, and slightly buzzed, he dropped a voicemail to Toby Maloney, who had helped open the bar. Maloney misheard the name, and the first batch of menus were printed with the drink The Paper Airplane—a collector’s item if you happen to have that on you now!
The drink Ross created consisted of Campari, lemon juice, bourbon, and Amaro Nonino. But after two years of serving that drink, he started having doubts. “I tried it again and the drink wasn’t quite balanced. It was slightly too bitter and the sweetness wasn’t there. I subbed in Aperol and was immediately satisfied with the result,” he recalls.
The Paper Plane quickly became a favourite at The Violet Hour, while also being served at other bars like Milk & Honey and Little Branch in New York. Between 2009 to 2012, the drink made its way to Canada, and most bartenders were aware of the drink. From there, it quickly reached restaurants. Many people ordered the drink based on its reputation alone, never having tried it themselves. Ross soon found out about Canada’s love affair with the drink. “Whenever the bartender's choices were being ordered, Paper Planes were coming out,” he says.
The Paper Plane has also inspired other sours, including the Amen Corner by Nick Brown, which brings together bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino and mint, and Naked and Famous by Joaquín Simó, which calls for mezcal, yellow Chartreuse, Aperol and lime juice. Simó, who was already in the process of conceptualising a drink, remembers being inspired by the Paper Plane. “Trying the Paper Plane for the first time made me rethink the possible candidates for a maraschino substitute, as I had been stuck in an initial rut of single flavour liqueurs… I turned my attention to more complex liqueurs like Aperol, Campari, Pimm’s, Cynar and Montenegro. The Aperol-yellow Chartreuse marriage was a big hit, and from there, it was just finding the right mezcal.”
Another milestone for the cocktail was in 2014 when partners George Lahlouh, Dan Phan and Johnny Wang opened a bar in San Jose, and decided to call it Paper Plane. “We all loved the cocktail, and the name fit the bill on being obscure, phonetically fun to say and had some hipness to it,” says Lahlouh.
Another bar, Attaboy, manufactured Paper Plane shirts in 2019. A short sleeved, pink number with a design that included little cocktails and paper planes, it sold out in a week.
Ingredients
Method
Pour all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
Shake well with ice.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
