Handsome Johnny
“I turned everybody on to my favorite cocktail it’s called a Handsome Johnny. I named it kind of after myself but I thought Handsome Johnny sounded like a Rob Roy or a Manhattan. Now every bar you go to has a cocktail list but 20 years ago when I started drinking Handsome Johnny’s people wouldn’t make you a Rob Roy or a Manhattan they said that was old school. Now they’ve come back around again.” - John Prine
Ingredients
2 oz. vodka
diet ginger ale
lemon or lime wedge
1. Fill a tall glass with ice.
2. Pour in the vodka. Prine preferred red label Smirnoff. DEFINITELY NOT BLUE LABEL. Don’t even think about subbing in “good” vodka.
3. Top with diet ginger ale and stir. Regular ginger ale is too sweet and Prine would opine…
“You don’t want to get diabetes from drinking it.”
4. The citrus garnish depends on the season. If it’s summer, use a lemon. If it’s winter, use a lime. Do not squeeze. Drop it from a height and allow it to splash on top.