500 words on the old Fashion

Nothing’s ever set in stone when it comes to cocktail history. Everyone wants to claim that their bar “invented” the Old Fashioned. For the sake of a good story, we’ll point to James Pepper, a member of The Pedennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky. James was an old-school Kentucky Colonel with his own distillery, a fantastic mustache, and a gift for bombastic salesmanship. Col. Pepper claimed the Old Fashioned as his personal invention when it was poured at the Waldorf Hotel bar in New York, running roughshod over any recipes that might have had prior claim to the name. His version of the cocktail was good enough to stand the test of time. 

A truly great Old-Fashioned is restrained. A generous pour of whiskey, a shake of bitters, a little sugar. No more, no less. After Prohibition, the recipe turned into a hot mess of muddled cherries, crushed orange peel, and sugar sludge. None of that is necessary or welcome in an Old-Fashioned. The sugar and bitters are the salt and pepper on your steak, seasoning meant to enhance the greatness of some truly excellent whiskey. Orange juice, lousy cherries, and grainy sugar don’t belong in your glass.

Good Old-Fashioneds use one large block of ice to minimize the surface area of ice in contact with the cocktail. The drink doesn’t need meltwater to be perfect. And the perfect Old-Fashioned deserves a dark, syrupy cherry as a garnish. Drop the cherry into your glass and let it dry out in the whiskey. You won’t regret it.  

The house Old-Fashioned at Hemingway’s is The Ranger, an elegant combination of Buffalo Trace bourbon, black walnut liqueur, and black walnut bitters. It’s the perfect cocktail for Ohio. But ask one of our bartenders for their “favorite” old fashioned, and you’ll experience a creative tour de force. Kiki might pour you one of her brown-butter old-fashioneds. Hooper’s got a dry, smoky bourbon drink recipe in his back pocket for special occasions. Every bartender has their creative twist on this classic. Seasoned mixologists know that the old-fashioned isn’t a recipe; it’s a master plan. Ask one of our bartenders how to make the best cocktail. They’ll give you the scoop. 

Written by Matt Hooper
as part of his 500 word on bartending Series