The Old Fashioned,
a history and how we build ours.

The word "cocktail" appears in print for the first time in 1806, in a Hudson, New York paper called The Balance and Columbian Repository. The definition is short: spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. That is the Old Fashioned, more or less.

Jerry Thomas published the first American bartender's manual in 1862 and called the formula a Whiskey Cocktail. By the 1880s, bartenders had started improving cocktails with liqueurs, syrups, and garnishes that obscured the spirit. Drinkers who wanted the original began asking for theirs the old-fashioned way. The Pendennis Club in Louisville is the address most often cited for the named drink, around 1881, in honor of Colonel James E. Pepper. The story is contested. The phrasing stuck.

Cocktail №001 in our own ledger is the Old Fashioned, the long way. It opened the menu in 2015 and has not left it.

A sugar cube, muddled with bitters and a small splash of water, gives you a drink with texture. You can feel the undissolved grain at the bottom of the glass. Some people like that. Some don't.

Simple syrup makes a smoother drink, but the sweetness reads as flat, more sugar-water than caramel.

The house uses demerara syrup, made in a one-to-one ratio with raw demerara sugar and water. Demerara has a mineral, almost burnt-sugar character that pulls bourbon in the direction it already wants to go. You taste molasses and char, not sweet.

The menu calls our build the long way for a reason. There is no shortcut between the bourbon and the finished glass.

Angostura is the working bitter of the Old Fashioned. It has been in print on cocktail menus longer than the cocktail has had its name. Spice, clove, gentian, bittering bark. A few dashes pull every other ingredient into focus.

We use two bitters in our build. The first is Angostura. The second is a house pick, and the answer varies by season and by the bourbon in the glass. Ask Dustin.

What we do not do is hide the bitters under the sugar. The drink should taste like the bitters are doing work.

The first written Old Fashioneds were made with American rye, because rye was the dominant American whiskey through the 19th century. Bourbon overtook rye in the 20th century and became the default base for the drink.

Bourbon, by federal definition, is at least 51% corn, aged in new charred oak barrels. It runs softer, sweeter, rounder. The corn pulls toward caramel and vanilla. Most Old Fashioneds at most bars are bourbon Old Fashioneds.

Rye, at least 51% rye grain, runs drier, spicier, more peppery. A rye Old Fashioned is sharper at the edges. If you grew up on bourbon Old Fashioneds and have never tried a rye one, the contrast is worth the $14 to find out.

Our house build is bourbon. We will pour you a rye one if you ask. Behind the bar at any given hour, the well-known bourbons sit next to allocated bottles and single-barrel picks. The longer you stay, the more interesting the substitution gets.

A double Old Fashioned glass, heavy-bottomed. One large cube of ice, slow-melting, cut or molded so it sits just below the rim. A slow stir, around thirty seconds, to chill and dilute in the same motion. An orange peel, expressed over the surface so the oils sheen the top of the drink, then dropped in.

No cherry by default. We will add one if you want, but the brandied cherry that takes over the bottom of the glass at most bars is a 20th-century addition that crowds the drink.

The garnish is the orange peel. The flavor is in the oil, not in the fruit.

The house variant of the Old Fashioned at West End Elixir Co. is built on bacon-fat-washed bourbon. Fat-washing is a technique that suspends rendered fat in the spirit, lets it infuse for a stretch of hours, then freezes the bottle so the fat solidifies and lifts out clean. What stays behind is the aromatic compounds that make bacon smell like bacon: smoke, salt, savor, the long-grain caramel of the rendered fat. The bourbon comes out heavier on the nose, savory on the palate, still bourbon.

Build is the same as the long way: bacon-fat-washed bourbon, demerara, two bitters, orange peel. The drink ends up tasting like an Old Fashioned that walked through a kitchen on the way to the table.

A field guide to the fat-washing technique itself is on its way to this section. In the meantime, the short version is: ask for it at the bar.

What is an Old Fashioned, exactly? The original cocktail formula: a base spirit, sugar, water, and bitters, served over ice with a citrus peel. The earliest written use of the word "cocktail" in 1806 describes the same four ingredients. Everything else on a modern cocktail menu is downstream of this drink.

How much is an Old Fashioned at West End Elixir? The house build, Old Fashioned the long way, is $14. The bacon fat-washed Old Fashioned is on the same menu. Pricing on rare and allocated bourbon substitutions varies. Ask at the bar.

Sugar cube or simple syrup? Either works. We use demerara syrup, made one-to-one with raw demerara sugar. It dissolves cleanly, carries a mineral, burnt-sugar note, and finishes drier than white-sugar simple syrup. The drink ends up tasting more like the bourbon and less like dessert.

What is the difference between an Old Fashioned and a Manhattan? An Old Fashioned is spirit, sugar, bitters, water, and ice. A Manhattan is spirit, sweet vermouth, and bitters, served up in a chilled glass without ice. Same family of ideas, different sweetener, different chilling method. The Old Fashioned is older.

Bourbon or rye in an Old Fashioned? Both are correct. Bourbon is softer and more caramel-leaning. Rye is drier and more peppery. The first written Old Fashioneds were rye-based. Our default is bourbon, and we will pour rye on request.

What is a bacon fat-washed Old Fashioned? An Old Fashioned built on bourbon that has been infused with rendered bacon fat, then frozen and strained to remove the fat itself. What stays is the bacon aromatics: smoke, salt, savor. The bourbon comes out heavier, more savory, still recognizably bourbon. It is the house variant of the Old Fashioned at West End Elixir Co.

Where is West End Elixir Co. located? 107 S Main Street in Historic Downtown Bryan, Texas. About ten minutes by car from Texas A&M campus and Kyle Field. Open every night, evenings to close.

If you skipped down: the bar is at 107 S Main, Historic Downtown Bryan, TX, about ten minutes from Texas A&M campus and Kyle Field. Open every night, evenings to close.