Old Fashioned Recipe

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.

Old Fashioned

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.