Strong, booze filled and made for late night naughtiness. Some call it the OG of cocktails. Inspired by drinkers who like their drinks made the old fashioned way; a brown spirit, sugar, water and bitters. So good that no one’s even dared coming up with “New Fashioned”. Amen.
The cocktail menu at Little Mercies reads familiar, but what is served up is defo not what you're expecting. Intrigued? Yeh, you should be. When we're kicking it in North London we always rock up and order this beauty. It’s one of the heroes of the menu: the White Chocolate Old Fashioned. Bad-ass & smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy.
20 Broadway Parade, Crouch End, London N8 9DE
This is the first London based distillery to release a Single Malt whisky in over a Century, and the liquid they've created makes for a pretty killer Old Fashioned. Head to Acton for one of their epic distillery tours and you'll start your education with their signature cocktail, created from a base of Bimber Re-charred Oak Casks with all its rich, smooth and fruity flavours.
56 Sunbeam Rd, Park Royal, London NW10 6JQ
The one good thing about the long queues at Dishoom? The fact you can pass your time waiting in the bar. Time definitely goes a lot quicker when you're enjoying a few of these Viceroy Old Fashioneds. This smooth little number is built on Woodford Reserve, bay leaf reduction and green tea. And they pre-batch these babies so unlike the wait for the table, there's no wait for the bartender to mix it up for you.
5 Stable St, Kings Cross, London N1C 4AB
If you thought the Lyaness crew were gonna serve up a classic Old Fashioned then you don't know how the Lyaness crew roll. If it doesn't include an ingredient you've never heard of, it probably isn't part of the pride. This Soy Wax Old Fashioned is made with Dewar’s 12yo, Infinite Banana, Organic Candle Wax & Burnt Banana Bitters. It sounds crazy, but just like fries dipped in milkshakes, it works.
20 Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PD
Hawksmoor's Full Fat Old Fashioned is iconic. Or we should say, was, iconic. Then at the end of 2019 they gave their cocktail menu its first overhaul in almost a decade and it was curtains for this classic. But don't start your mourning just yet. Like the menu, the recipe got a bad-ass makeover and so was born the Fuller-Fat Old Fashioned. It still requires a painstaking process of infusing butter into bourbon in a water bath, but now has the added luxury of beurre noisette and a hint of the cigar box courtesy of sandalwood and cedar oil. Turns out you can improve perfection.
157A Commercial St, Spitalfields, London E1 6BJ