Next up for YOF Club was Gabriel’s Cafe at the AT&T Conference Center on UT campus. Two of us had partaken of Old Fashioneds at gabriel’s, but now for the competition.
Gabriel’s Pecan Old Fashioned consists of Makers Mark Bourbon, orange oil, brown sugar simple syrup, and black walnut bitters served in a pecan-wood-smoked glass with a clear-as-a-still-day-in-Lubbock ice sphere and a Luxardo cherry. There’s a lot of non-traditional stuff going on here, including bourbon instead of whiskey, unique bitters, brown sugar, and smoking the glass (what is this? Cheech and Chong?). I’m not convinced they smoked the glass (the last time I had a smoked drink here, you watched it get smoked), but, despite all the shenanigans, these were decent Old Fashioneds. The balance tilted a little too much toward the bourbon for our tastes, but definitely a solid #2 in the ratings.
The food here was good (those are sweet potato tater tots), and we took a stroll around campus, which included a well-behaved group of pro-Palestinian protesters.
So, after Club Convening III, our rankings are:
- Fierce Old Fashioned from Fierce Whiskers (Fierce Whiskers Texas Straight Rye Whiskey [2nd gen], Angostura bitters, raw sugar, orange peel, and Luxardo cherry; $12)
- Pecan Old Fashioned from Gabriel’s (Makers Mark Bourbon, orange oil, brown sugar simple syrup, black walnut bitters, and Luxardo cherry; $14)
- Bartlett’s Rye Old Fashioned from Bartlett’s (Knob Creek rye whiskey or Angel’s Envy Rye, Angostura butters, orange, and Luxardo cherry; $14 and $19, respectively)
austin wanderlist 
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