Bellview Winery was having their Spring Fling this weekend, and so while that is often our weekend haunt for some rosé and cheese, Rhonda and I opted to keep our distance from our otherwise quiet spot. My boss mentioned Blue Rascal as part of a Jitney booze tour around Hammonton recently, and while searching for alternatives to Bellview, her positive remarks about Blue Rascal popped into my head.

I’ve been a martini drinker for a long time, although I enjoy other canonical examples of classic cocktails: the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Margarita, Daquiri, and more. Most drinks are iterations of classic cocktail themes.

In entering the world of Manhattans about 20 years ago, I seized upon rye as my whisky of choice. Rye, as a whisky varietal, hails from this region (the Northeast), at least pre-prohibition, after which it largely vanished. 20 years ago, rye whiskies were few and far between, but happily there are many ryes to choose from these days, at all price points.

Blue Rascal Distillery is in nearby Hammonton, and offers, among its spirits, rye (they also have a wheat whisky). I’ve written a pile of words just to say that we had a couple of drinks each: I had a smoked old fashioned, while Rhonda had a riff on the classic called the Old Fancy. We both had Hammhattans after our Old Fashioneds.

A word: the Hammhattans (do I need to spell out that these are a kind of Manhattan?) do not use vermouth, opting instead for a black cherry liqueur. This is good, but not better, than vermouth, specifically Carpano Antiqua. The liqueur skews sweet, where vermouth is more herbal, and in the case of Carpano’s unassailable take on the aperitif, vanilla (in a good way). But man: these were good drinks.

I do think the “smoked” cocktail thing is a bit showy and unnecessary, but I suspect that bartenders who make an otherwise excellent old fashioned gild the lily with a bit of theater, not to the detraction of the cocktail itself, outside of elongating the time it takes to get to a thirsty traveler’s lips.