Top 5 Old-Fashioned Cocktails in DFW-West I’ll have an Old Fashioned, please! History The Old Fashioned is a timeless, classic cocktail with roots dating back to the 1800s. The Pendennis Club of Louisville is often credited with its origination in 1881 using bourbon made by James E. Pepper. However, its roots can be traced back to the earlier part of the century through letters and articles describing cocktails with similar recipes; this is now more of urban legend rather than history. The first published sighting of a recipe titled an Old Fashioned was in Theodore Proulx’s book The Bartender’s Manual (1888). The original recipes were quite different from what we now know as Old Fashioned, consisting of sugar, ice, and the spirit. Eventually, bitters were introduced to cocktails, and other drinks, such as the Sazerac, were beginning to be introduced. The recipe’s base now consists of muddled sugar or simple syrup, an ice cube, bitters, and the spirit. The spirit throughout history consists of either bourbon, rye, brandy, gin, or on occasion, an Irish or Scotch whiskey. However, unless you specify the spirit either in the name or in your request, it will generally be made with a Rye or Bourbon. Other variations of the old-fashioned will come in the form of a smoked, barrel-aged, or possibly a bartender’s choice, such as using a type of bitters other than the classic Angostura aromatic. Top 5 It was in July of 2022 that I started the journey of finding my top 5 old-fashioned cocktails. While I originally intended it to be for all of DFW, after having tried over 500 variations on just the west side, I quickly realized that I needed to focus on just the west side of the metroplex and have multiple categories. With the DFW airport as…