The official cocktail of Washington, D.C.! Colonel Joe Rickey was a lobbyist and Civil War veteran whose personal history is remarkably confused. Was he born in Iowa, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin? Which side did he fight for in the war? There's conflicting evidence on those questions, but we do know that he enjoyed a stiff drink or two in the morning, and this was his preferred way of having it.

This concoction's actual inventor was the bartender George Williamson at Shoomaker's, on E Street, and the drink came to be called by Col. Rickey's name simply because he was well-known for ordering them. His were originally made with bourbon and he harshly denounced the substitution of gin when it became popular in the 1890s. Needless to say, we respectfully disagree with the Colonel and consider gin the superior spirit here. It works much better with the lime's tartness and the soda's effervescence.