The Secret History of the Honey Deuce

If you go to the U.S. Open without posting a photo of your Honey Deuce , did you even go to the U.S. Open? The Grey Goose cocktail, celebrating its 19th year at the Grand Slam tournament, has become ubiquitous. The story begins in 2006, when Grey Goose signed on as the official vodka of the U.S. Open. That year, mixologist and restaurateur Nick Mautone , who was Grey Goose vodka's first brand ambassador, was asked to create a signature cocktail to debut the following year. As the luxury vodka celebrates their 20th anniversary at the Open (and 19 years of their famous cocktail), Mautone tells T&C the full, complete story of the Honey Deuce.

When you were tasked with creating a U.S. Open cocktail, where did you start?

It had to be a refreshing, sessionable cocktail. I'd been to the U.S. Open numerous times before then. It's New York in late August, early September. It's 85, 90 degrees. It's a lot of humidity. You don't want a very spirit-forward cocktail.

After we had our initial meeting, I was driving out to my house in Hampton Bays, Long Island, and having guests for the weekend. I stopped at a farm stand and picked up some stuff that I routinely use in a summer dessert: honeydew melons, blackberries, fresh rosemary. I make honeydew melons with blackberries, rosemary-citrus syrup to sweeten it up, a splash of vodka, and I serve it with orange sherbet. It becomes a light, refreshing summer dessert.

As I'm sitting there making honeydew melon balls, I just said to my wife, "Oh my God, this is the garnish for the Honey Deuce, plain and simple." As soon as you do one, you realize it looks like [a tennis ball]. So now I had three non-negotiables: Grey Goose original vodka, a tall refreshing drink, and it had to be the honeydew melon balls. There was just no way around it.

I came up with a number of different iterations; after numerous meetings, one of the initial changes I made was to switch from a blackberry brandy or blackberry cordial to a raspberry cordial because there weren't many good blackberry cordials on the market at that point in time that weren't extraordinarily expensive and hard to get in volume. We switched to raspberry.

Over a series of more meetings, we made the drink a bit simpler to make—not any less refreshing, not any less delicious, and not any less whimsical with the honeydew melon balls. We cut it down to Grey Goose original vodka, some fresh lemonade, and raspberry cordial on top, of course with the garnish of the honeydew melon balls, which the caterer pushed back on quite extensively. But we won that one because it was going to sell the drink. And when they realized the volume we did that first year, and it just kept going up and up and up and up. So we nailed it from the outset.

Did you know immediately you had something special, or did the success surprise you?

To be quite honest, I never expected the success that it is today. To look at 738,000 [sold last year]—that's an amazing number. There's a million people who [attend the U.S. Open]. So it's two-thirds or three-quarters of people having at least one, and many are having three. It's an unbridled success. But deep down, after doing recipe testing over the course of a weekend with friends and family, I knew I had a winner in no uncertain terms. But I never in my wildest dreams thought it was going to be as hyper-successful as it is now.

At what point did you realize that the Honey Deuce had become bigger than just a great drink?

It was a couple of points in time. One thing I always like to note is that when I created the drink in 2006, and when subsequently it was first served at the U.S. Open in 2007, Facebook was pretty much only on college campuses. Maybe a handful of people had it around the country. There was no Instagram, there was no WhatsApp, there was no Snapchat. So social media was in its absolute infancy, and yet the drink was successful.

I knew maybe it was 2008 or '09, something along those lines, when a friend from Charlotte, North Carolina was up at the U.S. Open and snapped a picture on whatever flip phone or BlackBerry they had and sent me a text and said, "Here, we're at the U.S. Open. We're having your drink. It's amazing." I knew right then and there that it was really going to be an unbridled success. It stuck and it just stuck. Then a few years later Instagram takes over, and you go from at one point 200,000-plus, plus, plus, and now we're in a 750,000 range. So, pretty amazing.

Why do you think the Honey Deuce has had such staying power when so many event cocktails come and go over the years?

It's the combination of providing a drink that is part of the experience and providing a drink that is refreshing. I knew it had to be refreshing because I've spent time at the U.S. Open, and then adding that sense of whimsy that I don't think any other sports cocktail to date has ever done.

You can get a mint julep at the Kentucky Derby , and I've been there and I ordered three or four myself. It's a great drink and it's wonderful, and you're at the Derby—that's part of the scene. But it still doesn't have the same sense of whimsy that the Honey Deuce has. And the same thing at Wimbledon ; you have the Pimm's Cup , and it's a fantastic drink. I love it. It has beautiful garnishes and all that, but it just doesn't feel like that same sense of whimsy that you see when you see the honeydew melon balls that look like tennis balls. I really think that makes it special. It's the unique feature.

What do you make of everyone trying to be the next Honey Deuce or trying to capture that same magic at other sporting events?

No one's got there yet. I'm sure someone will. I'm pitching a few stadiums myself... There's a lot of creativity in the mixology world. There's a lot of creativity in companies like Grey Goose. What people butt up against is the stubbornness, if you will, of the companies that run the food service at these sporting events. You're dealing with a massive amount of people, and they just can't wrap their arms around: Yes, we can do something spectacular. And yes, we can do something whimsical and do it in the volume that they do.

People throw in the towel before they really allow the creativity to flow and experiment. I've dealt with that. Candidly, I was talking to the New York Yankees—can't get them to buy into it. I'm a New Yorker. They get stubborn about the operational side of it, knowing that it could increase sales, but they still get stubborn on the operation side.

Do you have any tips and tricks for making Honey Deuces at home if you can't make it out to Queens for the tournament this year?

There's a couple things, and it's less about a tip or a trick, if I may. Obviously, practice making some melon balls before you do that. If you're having 10 people, 15 people over, practice the melon balls. You get about 30 out of each half of a melon if you do it right.

But use some really great ingredients. Either make your own lemonade or buy the best high-quality lemonade you can get, or buy fresh lemon juice from your green grocer and add some great simple syrup or agave nectar to make it fresh. What I recommend to people are variations that make it more unique, and enjoy it. There are a lot of people out there—even other bars—that will do some interesting takes on the Honey Deuce. They'll use the melon balls, they'll use Grey Goose, and then the sky's the limit on what they do.

One of my favorites is to make your classic Honey Deuce and then top it with sparkling wine, like a really good slightly sweet instead of a bone-dry sparkling wine, depending on your taste preference. Serve it in a big glass and you have a Honey Deuce spritz. It's one of my favorites. [One friend] makes honeydew melon balls and whatever's left, he purees it in a blender and makes a frozen Honey Deuce and puts the melon ball in it. It's a pretty damn good version, I have to admit.

And, experiment with the cordial. Raspberry works because it's available at much greater volume. But nowadays, 20 years since the creation of the Honey Deuce, there are other cordials out there that can make a home variation more unique or local. I was in Montana last week and they have huckleberry cordials, and other places have blackberry, or blueberry in Maine and things like that. So just have some fun with it. But as long as you've got Grey Goose and a great high-quality lemon juice or lemonade to make it with, you're in good shape.

Do you ever still have those pinch-me moments as the Honey Deuce gets bigger and bigger every year?

Absolutely. I love seeing Taylor Swift, Serena Williams drink one. But for me, New Yorker born and raised, I saw Bruce Springsteen holding up a drink in a commemorative cup, take a sip on air. That to me was the pinnacle. That was a pinch-me moment because it didn't matter what else was going on. He's my man. I grew up listening to Bruce. I've probably seen him 20 times at this point in my life. So that was the pinch-me moment for me.

What's your favorite part of the U.S. Open, outside of sipping a Honey Deuce?

I'm glad you asked that because I often tell people—and I'm sure you've experienced this as well—the USTA does a great job of making a wonderful fan experience around the whole tournament. My favorite, outside of the actual great matches you can see in the center courts, are the little courts that are surrounding the stadium.

There's that fan experience, and you can go grab a Honey Deuce or get a hot dog or some really great food now , which is wonderful. But I love bopping in and out of those small courts and seeing who's the unranked player who's coming up next year, or who's the 300th-ranked player, or a doubles match. I often mention to people that in the early '90s, when I was running Gramercy Tavern, I went to a tournament and saw Venus and Serena Williams playing a doubles match on one of those courts. It was just unbelievable.

Fill a chilled highball glass with cubed ice and add Grey Goose vodka.

Top with fresh lemonade and raspberry liqueur. ( Extra Tip: Fresh-squeezed lemonade truly is best; premium ingredients will make for a premium cocktail.)

Garnish with a skewer of 3 frozen honeydew melon balls.