Old Fashioned

The Old Fashioned was invented in the 1800’s at the Pendennis Club, a private club still in operation in Louisville.

As the story goes, a guest at the bar ordered a cocktail but warned the bartender that he didn't like bourbon. The bartender, not wanting to serve a non-bourbon drink in Bourbon Country, concocted a drink that delighted the customer and still delights to this day. The drink was popularized by a club member and bourbon distiller, Colonel James E. Pepper when introducing the cocktail to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC. A favorite cocktail of President Harry S Truman and his wife Bess, it's enjoying a renewed popularity with the cocktail renaissance and as the signature drink of such fictional characters as Mad Men's Don Draper.

Recipe

  • 2 oz bourbon whiskey
  • 2 dashes Angostura® bitters
  • 1 splash water
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 maraschino cherry
  • 1 orange wedge

Mix sugar, water and angostura bitters in an old-fashioned glass. Drop in a cherry and an orange wedge. Muddle into a paste using a muddler or the back end of a spoon. Pour in bourbon, fill with ice cubes, and stir.