yvonne's ward eight

1 1/2 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1/2 oz Lustau Palo Cortado Sherry
1/2 oz Grenadine
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Orange Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a goblet. Add a pineapple disk garnish inside the glass, fill with crushed ice, top with 3/4 oz soda water, and add straws.

After a round at the Highball Lounge, I made my way over to Yvonne's and found a seat at the main dining room's bar. For a drink, I asked bartender Sean Sullivan for their version of the Ward Eight. I had previously written about the way Drink in Fort Point modified David Wondrich's recipe in Imbibe! to make their version. One problem with the Ward Eight for me is that the orange juice in the recipe clashes with the whiskey. Some whiskey drinks like the Blood and Sand have other ingredients that work well with orange juice to bridge the gap. Here, the magic ingredient is sherry which helped to tie the orange juice in place. Sean described how this version was created in collaboration with Wondrich where he pulled the sherry aspect from a 1934 New York Sun article.
Yvonne's Ward Eight began with pineapple and other fruit aromas. Grape, pomegranate, and lemon on the sip transitioned into a rye and nutty sherry swallow. Indeed, the sherry not only smoothed over the orange juice flaw in the popular recipes for the Ward Eight, but it also donated a bit of complexity to the Daisy.