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’s 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—an 1880s Whiskey Sour topped with soda and garnished with fruit—but it lacks the grenadine.
Though never really celebrated by the cocktail revivalists of the aughts, the Ward Eight did land spots in both the PDT and Death & Co. books. The latter is where Logan Rodriguez, of New York’s Smithereens, first encountered it some years ago, while he was doing a “masochistic deep dive” into classics that call for orange juice (widely recognized as a difficult cocktail ingredient).
At the East Village restaurant, Rodriguez decided to tackle the Ward Eight because of the restaurant’s 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’s own anti-traditionalist ethos. The resulting Ward Eight is one that would be unrecognizable to Bostonians of 100 years ago.
One thing that Rodriguez didn’t change is the rye base. At Smithereens, he carries a very limited number of spirits and there is but one rye in house: Rye & Sons, which he prizes for its notes of orange and spice that go especially well in the Ward Eight.
Rodriguez decided to nix the lemon and acidify the orange juice to lime-level acidity, which gives the cocktail “the roundness of the orange” while still offering a pleasant “lingering tartness.” 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.
Rodriguez has always been puzzled by grenadine’s seeming ubiquity in certain periods of cocktail history. “It’s not a bad ingredient, but it’s like yesteryear’s ketchup,” 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’s beet salad. The acidic shrub—with hints of shallot, bay leaf and garlic—marries with the unctuous pomegranate molasses–laced grenadine to give the Ward Eight a slightly savory flavor.
To go with the beets and savory flavors in the drink, Rodriguez couldn’t resist adding Acid Spirits’ Horseradish distillate. He thought it only appropriate given the restaurant’s location on First Avenue, near the Ukrainian restaurant Veselka and the Eastern European cuisine that lives on in the neighborhood. “I always like to throw one curveball into the mix,” he says, “and the horseradish was calling.”
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.
Rodriguez says that his variation on the Ward Eight has been well-received by guests at Smithereens. Perhaps that’s 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’t so challenging. Still, it might not be for everyone. “If you’re the kind of person that loves a cold glass of Sunny Delight with your borscht,” says Rodriguez, “this is the cocktail for you.”
