Between Thanksgiving, the many impending holiday parties, and New Year's Eve, this is as much a season of raising a glass of wine or spirits as it is one of raised spirits. There's just one thing you may have been neglecting to celebrate: your right to celebrate. This past Wednesday, whether you knew it or not, you marked a major American political milestone: the 74th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which stamped out 13 years of Prohibition and restored Americans' freedom to stir, shake, sip, gulp, and grin.
One can only imagine that the days following were a Bacchanalian blitz, but in fact, according to newspaper reports from the time, conditioned by years of caution, order ruled as people relished in the familiar comfort of a cocktail. In Boston, subdued revelers were welcoming back the Ward 8. The rye-based concoction, often described as a whiskey sour with grenadine, was allegedly created off-the-cuff at Locke-Ober at a pre-election-day victory dinner (go figure!) for Martin Lomasney, a pol representing Ward 8. As drinks historian David Wondrich writes in "Imbibe!" (Penguin Group USA), his hot-off-the-press chronicle of cocktail history refracted through a biography of pioneering bartender "Professor" Jerry Thomas, it was Boston's contribution "to the great pageant of American intoxication." But with American rye long out of fashion, only now entering its renaissance, it's been hard to find the drink with made with the spirit that lends it a hearty richness - even at its birthplace.
"Things get so diluted over time," says Courtney Hennessey, wine and spirits director at Toro (1504 Washington St., Boston. 617-536-4300), who recently added a proper Ward 8 ($9), to her cocktail list, not least because she just learned from the restaurant's license that the building sits in Ward 8. Also in homage to New England's drink history and the rum trade that boomed during Colonial times, she offers a Hot Buttered Rhum (below, $9). The steamy winter warmer's effect on your taste buds is comparable to cashmere's effect on bare skin. A few sips make it easy to understand why people went to great measures to try to get the stuff when it was contraband.
"Barcode" runs every Friday. Contact Liza Weisstuch at liza.weisstuch@gmail.com.
