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The Old-Fashioned

The Story of the World's First Classic Cocktail, with Recipes and Lore

Author Robert Simonson

Photographs by Daniel Krieger

Hardcover

$18.99 US

Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed | Ten Speed Press

5.78"W x 8.28"H x 0.79"D | 15 oz | 12 per carton

On sale May 13, 2014 | 176 Pages | 9781607745358

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Food & Drink > Beverages > Cocktails & Spirits
Food & Drink > Food Writing & Memoirs
Gifts for… > Men

A complete history of one of the world's most iconic cocktails--now the poster child of the modern cocktail revival--with fifty recipes for classic variations as well as contemporary updates.

No single cocktail is as iconic, as beloved, or as discussed and fought-over as the Old-Fashioned. Its formula is simple: just whiskey, bitters, sugar, and ice. But how you combine those ingredients—in what proportion, using which brands, and with what kind of garnish—is the subject of much impassioned debate.

The Old-Fashioned is the spirited, delightfully unexpected story of this renowned and essential drink: its birth as the ur-cocktail in the nineteenth century, darker days in the throes of Prohibition, re-ascension in the 1950s and 1960s (as portrayed and re-popularized by Don Draper on Mad Men), and renaissance as the star of the contemporary craft cocktail movement.

Also featured are more than forty cocktail recipes, including classic variations, regional twists, and contemporary updates from top bartenders around the country. All are accessible, delicious, and elegant in their simplicity, demonstrating the versatility and timelessness of the Old-Fashioned formula.

With its rich history, stunning photography, and impeccable recipes, The Old-Fashioned is a celebration of one of America’s greatest bibulous achievements. It is a necessary addition to any true whiskey—or cocktail—lover’s bookshelf, and destined to become a classic on par with its namesake beverage.

"an excellent history of the Old-Fashioned"
—Rien Fertel, The Wall Street Journal

"Robert Simonson is such an engaging author that he makes this the perfect book to accompany an easy chair and a well-made Old-Fashioned cocktail . . . An incisive, impeccably researched story of this too often forgotten classic cocktail, resulting in some good rollicking stories that American history is rich in."
—John Mariani, Huffington Post

"[...] you won’t be engrossed in his book just because of all the mythology surrounding this storied drink. It’s filled with gorgeous photos of the Old-Fashioned in its eponymous glass and with recipes (which comprise a good half of the book) both traditional and modern, swapping out the whiskey for pretty much every other spirit available."
—Ariana Auber, Austin American Statesman

"Simonson takes us on a witty and engaging tour through the drink’s long history and ends with recipes for traditional mixes and experimental twists. Like a good old-fashioned, his writing is dry but sweet; it’s got a kick, but is also low-key and best savored slowly."
—David Cote, Time Out New York

"If you like a little lore with your whiskey, then this book is for you. It covers the story of how this one drink has survived from the early 19th century, through Prohibition, and now back again to being one of our favorites. [...] Alone or with a bottle of rye, this makes for the perfect holiday gift for the drink lover on your list."
—Maureen Petrosky, The Kitchn

ROBERT SIMONSON writes about cocktails, spirits, bars, and bartenders for the New York Times. He is also contributing editor and columnist at PUNCH. His books include The Old-Fashioned (2014), A Proper Drink (2016) and 3-Ingredient Cocktails (2017), which was nominated for a 2018 James Beard Award. He was also a primary contributor to The Essential New York Times Book of Cocktails (2015). Simonson won the 2019 Spirited Award for Best Cocktail and Spirits Writer, and his work, which has also appeared in Saveur, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, New York magazine, and Lucky Peach, has been nominated for a total of eleven Spirited Awards and two IACP Awards. A native of Wisconsin, he lives in Brooklyn. View titles by Robert Simonson

Preface

“I never treated it as just a cocktail.”
—Doris Simonson

My mother never drank liquor until she was twenty-one. She followed the rules. But when she embarked on what would become a long drinking life, she did so with purpose and not a little forethought.

The first order of business was to find her drink. In those post–World War II days, when the cocktail hour was as inviolable a part of any day as sunrise and sunset, one had one’s drink. There was none of this flitting about from cocktail to cocktail. You found a mix that delighted the palate and soothed the mind in the right proportions and stuck by it.

She began with Manhattans. She liked the way they looked, shining like liquid embers inside a long-stemmed glass. But, after a while, they gave her headaches, which she blamed on the sweet vermouth. (Vermouth is ever the scapegoat.) She then tried Martinis, but found them daunting and dangerous. Finally, she found her level in the Old-Fashioned. Some of her reasoning was spurious. She’d ask for as much accompanying fruit as the bar could furnish as well as a healthy spurt of soda water, because, “even in those days, watching your weight was important.” But the remainder of her logic is hard to fault.

“A lot depends on why you’re having an Old-Fashioned,” she said, some sixty years after she sampled her first. “If you’re having one as a drink in the evening, you’d probably rather have a strong one, because you’re not going to have two Old-Fashioneds. If you’re at somebody’s home or visiting with people, it’s never just a cocktail. I never treated it as just a cocktail. To me, a cocktail was an avenue to socializing. Everyone did it. It was something we did while we were visiting and laughing and singing and talking. It was a tool to meet people and relax.

“I treated it as an all-purpose drink. I never went through this thing where you say, ‘Oh, it’s before dinner, so we need a before-dinner drink; or, it’s dinner, so we want something light; or it’s after dinner, etc.’ It was something I enjoyed drinking, and I could control what I wanted by telling the bartender not to put too much liquor in it, or to put a lot of fruit in it. You could almost make up the recipe for your Old-Fashioned.

“You find people’s personalities coming out in Old-Fashioneds. A lot of men will drink Old-Fashioneds, but they will tell the bartender, in no uncertain terms, ‘Very little, if anything, mixed in.’ Mostly, it turned out what they wanted was a bourbon on the rocks. They basically wanted a nice strong drink with plenty of ice cubes, so as it sat there it became a little more mellow. Whereas women basically wanted all the things that went with it.”
“And,” she concluded, “it’s so beautiful to look at.”

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Col. Jim Gray’s
OLD-FASHIONED WHISKEY COCKTAIL
New York Sun, 1908

“Colonel” Jim Gray enjoyed a thirty-year tenure behind the bar at New York’s Fifth Avenue Hotel. He contended that he had served the Old-Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail since 1881 and had, in fact, invented it. This is the recipe given to a New York Sun reporter in 1908 by Colonel Gray himself. This formula is patently not an Old-Fashioned, what with the lack of bitters and lemon peel and the presence of nutmeg. Most likely, the reporter mistakenly applied the name to the recipe for a Whiskey Toddy, another drink for which Gray was famous. Indeed, several bartenders wrote to the Sun protesting that Gray must have been misquoted. Nonetheless, this is the recipe we have. And, taken as such, it’s actually an excellent drink. The recipe below is adapted from Gray’s instructions to the Sun.

2 ounces bourbon or rye
1 sugar cube
Dash of nutmeg

Muddle the sugar cube, a barspoon of water, and a sprinkle of nutmeg in a mixing glass. Add the whiskey and ice. Attach tin to top of glass and shake the drink. Strain the drink into an Old-Fashioned glass. Dust with nutmeg. “And, for heavens sake,” as the Colonel said, “no bitters.”