What The Old-Fashioned Tells Us About Ourselves

“The old-fashioned is at once ‘the manliest cocktail order’ and ‘something your grandmother drank,’ and between those poles we discover countless simple delights, evolutionary wonders, and captivating abominations. Because of its core simplicity and its elasticity — because it is primordial booze — ideas about the old-fashioned exist in a realm where gastronomical notions shade into ideological tenets. It is a platform for a bar to make a statement, a surface on which every bartender leaves a thumbprint, and a solution that many a picky drinker dips his litmus paper in. You are a free man. Drink your drink as you please. But know that your interpretation of the recipe says something serious about your philosophy of fun.”
 — Awl pal Troy Patterson explores the mystery and meaning of the old-fashioned. Man, now I want a drink.