The Honey Deuce cocktail is popping up all over NYC – no US Open tennis ticket required

Honey Deuce has left the stadium.

For years, the cocktail — made with Gray Goose vodka, lemonade and raspberry liqueur, and garnished with honeydew melon balls — has been a wildly popular match at the US Open. Last year, 450,000 of the $22 drinks were sold at the tournament, which begins Monday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.

But increasingly, the drink has taken on a life of its own. Now there’s Honey Deuce merchandise and house cocktails, and this year a record number of bars across the city — more than 140 — are serving up both official and unofficial iterations.

“The love for Honey Deuce is growing every year,” said Aleco Azqueta, Vice President of Marketing for Gray Goose. The French vodka brand sponsors the US Open and invented the cocktail nearly two decades ago.

Many bars are offering drinks well before the start of the tournament. Fulton Hall in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn, put theirs on the menu last Monday and had fans drinking it that day.

At Haven’s rooftop in Midtown, the soft drink was added to the menu on Thursday, after last year they didn’t start serving it until the tournament was underway.

With New Yorkers upset that the Olympics are over, “We thought there was no better year than this to celebrate the US Open early,” said General Manager Elda DeVilla.

Even those who know nothing about top seeds and double faults are drinking.

Earlier this week, Chloe Kinnison, a 28-year-old Manhattanite who works for an executive search firm, drank a Honey Deuce at Dante in the West Village.

“I’m obsessed, it’s literally so cool,” said Kinnison, who is not a tennis fan and has never been to the US Open. “I like any drink that comes with a little snack in it,” she said, munching on a melon ball.

Honey Deuce crossed the baseline in 2020 when spectators were banned from the tour grounds due to the pandemic. Several bars and restaurants in NYC and the Hamptons put the drink on their menus. In 2022, Gray Goose began offering a canned version for home use. But this year, everything has reached a tipping point.

For the first time ever, the USTA is selling Honey Deuce t-shirts and hats, and both have been winners.

“To date the t-shirt is our number one selling item and the hat is our number two selling item,” a USTA spokesperson told The Post.

David Aaron, owner of SodaDesignCo, a t-shirt company in Manhattan, unveiled his first-ever Honey Deuce t-shirt and stickers this week.

He teased the design – a cheerful illustration that doesn’t actually say Honey Deuce, so as not to ruffle Gray Goose’s feathers – on Instagram earlier this month. The enthusiasm for it has surprised him.

“My followers are not really tennis fans,” he said. “I knew this was a beautiful drink that people liked to post on Instagram, but it’s exciting to see how many people like it.”

Bartesian, which makes a cocktail machine that’s similar to a Nespresso fizzy maker, has also received enthusiastic support for its new Honey Deuce pods, which allow fans to make the drink at home with just the touch of a button.

Those who want to enjoy the cocktail out and about can use the “Honey Deuce locator” on the Gray Goose website to find establishments serving the food, though it only includes bars and restaurants that do so in official collaboration with the spirits giant .

Others are offering seedless pickups, sometimes with a little spin. Dante swaps the pineapple and honey for raspberry liqueur to set his version apart. Jac’s on Bond uses yuzu liqueur.

At a rooftop party celebrating women in tennis last Tuesday at the William Vale Hotel in Williamsburg, Honey Deuces were served in crystal glasses.

Allie Folino, 29, who works at Glamor Magazine, a host of the event, told The Post that drinking the cocktail made her more excited for the big tournament, which she usually skips.

“Maybe a little vodka might get me into tennis a little more,” she said.

Deuce Honey Recipe

Fill a chilled highball glass with crushed ice and 1.25 ounces Gray Goose Vodka. Above me 3 ounces fresh lemonade AND .5 ounces raspberry liqueursuch as Chambord. Decorate with a skewer 3 melon balls with honey.

Recipe courtesy of Gray Goose.