August 27, 2025

Retro Schudown: Why is the Honey Deuce Still the Signature U.S. Open Cocktail?

The Honey Deuce is now in its 20th year, and costs $23.

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The Championships, Wimbledon has English strawberries and Sipsmith Gin to represent the Brits. Roland-Garros (the French Open) has the très chic Ace Royal Champagne cocktail. The Australian Open is sponsored by Peroni beer and Tanqueray gin, but at least most of the food is grilled, served hot off the barbie. Since 2005, the signature cocktail of the US Open Tennis Championships has been the Honey Deuce, which is made with French vodka (Grey Goose), lemonade, and French raspberry liqueur (Chambord). Like most of the food and drink served at the American grand slam tournament, the only part of local culture that it seems to represent is capitalism. It now costs $23. 

Hey, I’m not here to rant about commercialism, or vodka — as I recently wrote for Food & Wine, there is some vodka I genuinely like — or the sport of tennis. I’ve loved the game of tennis since I was little. 

I didn’t grow up in a particularly sporty family. I don’t even remember watching the Super Bowl or much of the Olympics when I was young. However, my dad was into tennis, and so I got into tennis too. When I first attended the US Open in person with him it was still held at Forest Hills. It was super cheap to go back then, just a few bucks for the middle tiers of the stadium, especially earlier on in the tournament when we could watch all the greats play live and often against each other: Chrissie Evert, Tracy Austin, Jimmy Connors, Björn Borg (the legendary MacEnroe contests were always later in the tournament, but I probably watched him play someone like Vitas Gerulaitis), Martina Navratilova, Pam Shriver, and just before they would retire, matches with Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King. I was there for it all! 

I kept following tennis as a teenager. As the length of men’s shorts got longer the commute got shorter, and the tournament moved to what is now The Billie Jean King Tennis Center, then Flushing Meadows. I was still too young to drink at the matches, but I remember that the beer smelled skunky, and most of the food was unremarkable and ridiculously pricey for what it was. The safest bet was ice cream, which I think back then was Häagen-Dazs — that was the fancy stuff in the 1980s. When I was around 12 years old, Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chip and a good view of Stefan Edberg gave me a rush that I did not yet fully understand. 

Which leads me to my history with the Honey Deuce. By the early 2000s the Open had gotten much less accessible for working class New Yorkers, particularly the way the tickets were sold with higher pricing tiers to gain entry to matches in Arthur Ashe, the main stadium. I started going only every couple of years or so, and I began to notice all these people walking around with US Open branded tumblers filled with what looked like a pink Tequila Sunrise that had little tennis ball garnishes. Cute! Old enough to drink by then, I bought one. 

I found it to be the liquid equivalent of watching Serena Williams totally pulverize an opponent unlucky enough to face her in the draw on Day One of the matches — it was fine, but too easy. Aside from the risk of spilling it down my front on the way to the stands, this sweet drink had no tension, it was just clawing sweet boozy lemonade. It made me wonder why the only cocktail at an American tournament held in New York City was made with French vodka. I mean, I got why the melon balls. I can’t think of any other garnish that looks more like a mini tennis ball. 

But the rest of it made no sense to me until I looked around. Grey Goose, like Möet & Chandon Champagne, Jacob’s Creek wine from Australia, Heineken beer, and in more recent years, Maestro Dobel tequila all have the budgets to sponsor a high rent tennis tournament in New York City for two weeks. American craft breweries, New York State wineries (or even Napa Valley ones), and many American spirits brands, especially those based locally in NY state, apparently do not. Or maybe they’re not considered tennis fan-worthy? 

My friend and colleague Robert Simonson wrote a fun Substack looking into the history and tradition of the Honey Deuce in The Mix a couple of years ago. How the official tournament cocktail came together makes total sense: local fine dining bartender-turned Grey Goose vodka brand ambassador Nick Mautone grew up on Long Island (also part of Queens, the borough that Arthur Ashe Stadium occupies) and found inspiration from the honey dew melon ball and prosciutto appetizers his Italian American family used to make. With its all-too-appropriate shape and color, “that [the melon ball] became ‘the non-negotiable garnish’ of the yet-to-be-created new cocktail,” writes Simonson. 

After a few rounds of testing, the version that won over the US Open catering team and landed a lucrative Grey Goose account is what has stuck around all these years. 

According to Simonson, more than 45,000 Honey Deuces are served per year at the tournament. (By comparison, also mentioned in the piece, more than 120,000 Mint Juleps are sold each year at the Kentucky Derby, which lasts only an afternoon. But consider that Julep tradition gallops past that of the Honey Deuce by decades, and it’s not like too many horse race fans are opting for beer instead of bourbon.) People seem to like them or they wouldn’t sell as many, especially at what is now over $22 each. 

Now in its 20th year, if tennis enthusiasts want to keep ordering Honey Deuces, they should be able to. I’m not suggesting that it be retired. However, with an exciting roster of new, younger and more popular players in recent years like Coco Gauf, Naomi Osaka, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Frances Tiafoe, shouldn’t something cooler be sipped while watching them slay the court? Surely there are American spirits brands, maybe even some from New York, that could represent this growing, diverse sport. After all, tennis in the 2020s is kinda like the American whiskey category in the early 2000s in that new fans are breathing new life into it. 

I still love to watch tennis, but I stopped attending the Open years ago. Besides the vicious Aladdin Sane album cover sunburns I used to get from watching matches on the side courts (no matter how meticulous my precautions were), it was because I hated forking over that much cash for food and drink that I didn’t think was worth the calories in support of major corporations that don’t need my help. It’s more fun for me to watch the tennis matches at home or in a local bar. 

You know what would taste great in a revamped Honey Deuce? Rye, because rye lemonade is delicious. Probably great with that hit of fruit liqueur too. Call it the Service Break. Or the Court Square. That would be smashing! Maybe I’d come back for that. But at night, when I (hopefully) won’t get a sunburn. 

What would you like to see served at the U.S. Open? Can be a dish too! Please let me know in the comments.