{"id":81736,"date":"2025-02-11T10:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T10:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alcohol\/bostons-ward-eight-whiskey-cocktail-turned-on-its-head\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T10:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T10:34:07","slug":"bostons-ward-eight-whiskey-cocktail-turned-on-its-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=81736","title":{"rendered":"Boston\u2019s Ward Eight Whiskey Cocktail, Turned on Its Head"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/punchdrink.com\/articles\/boston-classic-cocktail-ward-eight-cocktail-recipe-and-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ward Eight<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is, famously, the only classic cocktail to come out of Boston and somehow make it into the 21st century. Many say that the drink (typically made with whiskey, lemon and orange juices, grenadine and, originally, soda water) was born at the city\u2019s old Locke-Ober restaurant, but its origins are disputed; after all, fine dining was not, at the time, a culture from which new cocktails often sprung. Others link the Ward Eight to the Hari-Kari\u2014an 1880s Whiskey Sour topped with soda and garnished with fruit\u2014but it lacks the grenadine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though never really celebrated by the cocktail revivalists of the aughts, the Ward Eight did land spots in both the PDT and Death &amp; Co. books. The latter is where Logan Rodriguez, of New York\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ny.eater.com\/2024\/10\/30\/24283039\/smithereens-opening-restaurant-east-village\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smithereens<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, first encountered it some years ago, while he was doing a \u201cmasochistic deep dive\u201d into classics that call for orange juice (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/punchdrink.com\/articles\/wtf-is-wrong-with-the-blood-and-sand-scotch-cocktail-recipe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">widely recognized as a difficult cocktail ingredient<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the East Village restaurant, Rodriguez decided to tackle the Ward Eight because of the restaurant\u2019s New England theme. (The cocktail menu also includes a variation on the Cape Codder and a PSL Espresso Martini named after Ben Affleck.) But the Olde New England vibe is countered by a very modern cocktail program and Rodriguez\u2019s own anti-traditionalist ethos. The resulting Ward Eight is one that would be unrecognizable to Bostonians of 100 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One thing that Rodriguez didn\u2019t change is the rye base. At Smithereens, he carries a very limited number of spirits and there is but one rye in house: Rye &amp; Sons, which he prizes for its notes of orange and spice that go especially well in the Ward Eight.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rodriguez decided to nix the lemon and acidify the orange juice to lime-level acidity, which gives the cocktail \u201cthe roundness of the orange\u201d while still offering a pleasant \u201clingering tartness.\u201d Amping up the orange flavors in the drink is the Smoked Orange distillate from Acid Spirits, a microdistillery in Queens that produces a small line of unusual spirits using upcycled waste from high-end food businesses. The discarded oranges, which come from Beepublic Coffee, are smoked over oak chips before being fermented and distilled. Rodriguez says the resulting spirit is packed full of citrus oils, lending body and texture to his Ward Eight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rodriguez has always been puzzled by grenadine\u2019s seeming ubiquity in certain periods of cocktail history. \u201cIt\u2019s not a bad ingredient, but it\u2019s like yesteryear\u2019s ketchup,\u201d he says. He knew he had to add dimension to the ingredient, and he looked to the Smithereens kitchen for inspiration. After much experimentation, he landed on a version that combines a traditional grenadine with a shrub that utilizes the brine from the restaurant\u2019s beet salad. The acidic shrub\u2014with hints of shallot, bay leaf and garlic\u2014marries with the unctuous pomegranate molasses\u2013laced grenadine to give the Ward Eight a slightly savory flavor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To go with the beets and savory flavors in the drink, Rodriguez couldn\u2019t resist adding Acid Spirits\u2019 Horseradish distillate. He thought it only appropriate given the restaurant\u2019s location on First Avenue, near the Ukrainian restaurant Veselka and the Eastern European cuisine that lives on in the neighborhood. \u201cI always like to throw one curveball into the mix,\u201d he says, \u201cand the horseradish was calling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For his final flourish, Rodriguez decided the drink needed something bitter to ground it. He reached for Cappelletti, a wine-based aperitivo from the Italian Alps that contributes bright orange peel notes and a hint of vanilla.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rodriguez says that his variation on the Ward Eight has been well-received by guests at Smithereens. Perhaps that\u2019s because not many people out there know what a traditional Ward Eight is even supposed to taste like, so the many departures in his version aren\u2019t so challenging. Still, it might not be for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">everyone. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf you\u2019re the kind of person that loves a cold glass of Sunny Delight with your borscht,\u201d says Rodriguez, \u201cthis is the cocktail for you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ward Eight is, famously, the only classic cocktail to come out of Boston and somehow make it into the 21st century. Many say that the drink (typically made with whiskey, lemon and orange juices, grenadine and, originally, soda water) was born at the city\u2019s old Locke-Ober restaurant, but its origins are disputed; after all, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12029],"tags":[40923,8990,40922,14019,7705,5099],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-81736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alcohol","tag-bostons","tag-cocktail","tag-d-list","tag-turned","tag-ward","tag-whiskey"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Boston\u2019s Ward Eight Whiskey Cocktail, Turned on Its Head - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=81736\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boston\u2019s Ward Eight Whiskey Cocktail, Turned on Its Head - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Ward Eight is, famously, the only classic cocktail to come out of Boston and somehow make it into the 21st century. 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