ye olde fashioned club: fierce whiskers

The first rule of YOF Club is that you don’t talk about YOF Club.

The second rule of YOF Club is that you don’t talk about YOF Club.

The third rule of YOF Club is that you don’t talk about YOF Club.

But they didn’t say anything about writing about YOF club!

We’ve started an Old Fashioned club with a couple pals where we roll around town and partake of the various Old Fashioneds fashioned for the oldies (that be us [although one of us only drinks French and certain Italian wines]).

According to that unreliable fount of information, Wikipedia, The Old Fashioned is one of the first cocktails when a cocktail was first defined in 1806 in The Balance and Columbian Repository as “a potent concoction of spirits, bitters, water, and sugar,” sometimes called a bittered sling. After the gawddam hipsters started getting fussy and fancy with the cocktails in the 1850s, traditionalists yearned for the adult bevs of yore and would request an “old fashioned.”

So what makes a good Old Fashioned? First, there is the whiskey, most commonly rye but bourbon sometimes makes a cameo. Then there is sweetener, commonly sugar. Then there are bitters, typically Angostura. And finally the garnish, an orange (or less commonly lemon) twist with a dark Luxardo cherry, although the latter is considered non-traditional (shakes fist at the gitdang pre-Civil War overlytight overalls and sideburns crowd). A solid Old Fashioned achieves a balance between the harshness of the alcohol and the sweetness of the sugar. And the whole mess needs to be in an Old Fashioned, or rocks, glass (stirred, not shaken).

Based on a rec from one of The Bride’s co-workers, we started our adventure at Fierce Whiskers, south of 290 on the way to the airport. The approach suggested converted 1990s soulless warehouse, but thee Whiskered somehow snagged a piece of gorgeous property along a natural drainage and competently designed and built from the ground up. Said co-worker said “Request the second generation,” so we did. We each ordered a Fierce Old Fashioned (Fierce Whiskers Texas Straight Rye Whiskey, Angostura bitters, raw sugar, orange peel, and Luxardo cherry; $12) served on a clear cube of ice in a chilled, fluted glass.

Wowza. After the first sip, we whispered amongst ourselves, stunned: “What if the first place we tried is the best place?” It very well may be because that Ole Fash was the best damn Ole Fash I’d ever had.

So, after our first visit, our rankings are:

1. Fierce Old Fashioned from Fierce Whiskers (Fierce Whiskers Texas Straight Rye Whiskey [2nd gen], Angostura bitters, raw sugar, orange peel, and Luxardo cherry; $12)