Drink: Escape Velocity

Are you "good," or are you "bad?"

The possibility we may be both is a tension that always hangs in the air - and even in the cocktails - at Charlie was a sinner. You can be virtuous with a creamy green shot of fresh-squeezed wheatgrass, but it'll come with a jolt of Chatreuse, the potent herbal liqueur I now realize is exactly what I've been missing each time I struggled to swallow a patch of juiced turf.

I'm not a smoker, either (that's bad for you, you know).

But when general manager Pete Venuto steeps Holt's Balkan Sobranie pipe tobacco in Johnny Walker Black for the Escape Velocity, he taps the whiskey's natural affinity for smoke and I find it irresistible, the Scotch riding a puff of earthy sweetness above the brooding Caprano Antica vermouth, the fruity cherry heering liqueur and orange bitters, the candlelit glow of its giant ice-cube rock.

Now that's all good - right? - Craig LaBan

Escape Velocity, $12, Charlie was a sinner., 131 S. 13th St., 267-758-5372; charliewasasinner.com