Chasing a great cocktail? Five Old Fashioneds you need to try in Lexington

If a drink ever earned its name, it’s the Old Fashioned. Although re-popularized this century by Don Draper, the sexy, heavy-drinking lead in “Mad Men” (he even makes one in Season 3), its history spans almost 150 years and, fittingly, begins in Kentucky with a man whose bourbon cred outshines Draper’s.

The most common version of its history is that the modern-day Old Fashioned was developed around 1880 at the Pendennis Club in Louisville in honor of James E. Pepper, the third-generation bourbon producer and flamboyant promoter of the family product.

Pepper traveled in his ornate private rail car to share drinks with friends with names like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Tiffany and thus introduced the Old Fashioned to the bar at the Waldorf Astoria.

A collection of pre-Prohibition cocktail recipes from the Waldorf includes a classic Old Fashioned: a small lump of sugar, a dash of Angostura bitters, a jigger of whiskey, a little water, a lump of ice and lemon peel.

That’s almost identical to the recent New York Times’ recipe, although that one specifies an orange twist for the citric highlight and says the whiskey can be either bourbon or rye.

But you don’t have to look to New York to find interest in the Old Fashioned. It’s the choice of many denizens of the Bluegrass bar scene, where mixologists honor the deep local roots, sometimes adding a modern twist. We checked out five bars that feature Old Fashioneds and here’s what we found.

▪ Carson’s Food & Drink opened on Dec. 5, 2016, 93 years to the day after Prohibition ended. As it turned out, Woodford Reserve had not long before begun selling its rye whiskey and Carson’s decided to adopt Woodford Rye, not their bourbon, as the base of its signature Old Fashioned. Thanks in large part to the popularity of its Old Fashioned, Carson’s sells more Woodford Reserve rye than any other venue in the world. Each year Carson’s goes to Woodford Reserve and tastes rye in the barrel, chooses a few to be mixed together to get its own private barrel selection to achieve the flavor profile for their signature Old Fashioned. That flavor is “smooth but spicy with enough bite” to sound a distinct note in the finished drink, said Carson’s general manager Kyle Zimmerman. The bar also uses craft bitters from Bitter Truth. Carson’s has offered an Old Fashioned happy hour since the summer when customers can risk $8 to try out the classic with Woodford rye or choose another whiskey from the menu.

▪ West Main Crafting Co. says its White Oak Fashioned is “based on the granddaddy of all cocktails – the Old Fashioned.” Like Carson’s, West Main likes the spiciness of rye but gets it from a rye-heavy Four Roses Single Barrel bourbon. The name comes from a house-made “woodland essence,” made by covering white oak and dried morel mushrooms with vodka in a jar and letting them stew in a cool spot for a few weeks, shaking occasionally. That along with acorn bitters, a simple syrup with gum Arabic and a touch of a saline solution are strained onto ice and garnished with an orange peel.

▪ Bluegrass Tavern. Here bourbon is the whiskey of choice but there’s a more fruity profile, with not only an orange peel as garnish but some of the orange pulp in the drink and three cherries. Bar manager Jason Bartlett adds a sugar cube and angostura bitters to the fruits and then “muddles” the mixture with a tool that looks like the blunt end of a very small baseball bat, to combine the flavors. After adding ice and Buffalo Trace, he shakes it and then garnishes with a twisted orange peel to complete the presentation.

▪ Thirsty Fox at Zim’s Cafe. “We make loads of Old Fashioneds, especially when it gets cold,” says Leslee Macpherson, director of operations for the Ouita Michel group of restaurants and bars, including the Thirsty Fox. It is, she says, the most popular cocktail in the group, and they go for a simple version that, she says, “really lets the bourbon sing.” The recipe? Two ounces Old Forester 100, a quarter ounce demerara syrup, three dashes Woodford Reserve Barrel Aged Bitters. The ingredients are stirred together “until you hear your ice begin to crack” then poured over fresh ice and finished with an orange peel that’s squeezed over the drink and wiped around the rim then put into the drink.

▪ Distilled has its own take on the drink, a Vanilla Old Fashioned recommended by several readers. Searching for the spicy note, it uses Bulleit rye but also includes Amber Cognac, vanilla liquor, bitters and lemon oil. Taste of the South magazine called it “smooth and sweet, and a delight even if you’re not usually a bourbon drinker.” The same Old Fashioned is also served at chef Mark Wombles’ Heirloom restaurant in Midway.

This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 11:04 AM with the headline "Chasing a great cocktail? Five Old Fashioneds you need to try in Lexington."