PIRATE'S PUNCH

Except for the occasional summer wedding, punch has not been much in style, despite its raffish origins way back in the 17th century on British ships on the high seas of the empire. The word is Hindi, panch, meaning “five,” referring to the five original ingredients — lime, sugar, spices, water, and a spirit called arrack, later traded in for rum in the West Indies, where punch became a fixture in nightly reveries among the corsairs of the colonial era. These days, punch is making a comeback, albeit in smaller batches, at restaurants like New York’s red-hot Washington Park (24 Fifth Ave.; 212-529-4400), where manager Alex Miranda came up with a modern version he named after chef-owner Jonathan Waxman and the pirates who made the drink famous.

JW’s Pirate Punch
3 oz. Gosling’s rum
1 oz. each freshly squeezed orange
and grapefruit juice
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 oz. simple syrup
1 oz. Cointreau
2 dashes bitters
Fill a large cocktail shaker to 1/3 volume with ice. Add ingredients and shake well. strain into a chilled 8-oz. martini glass and add a fresh orange slice.