Jeremy Oertel has saved the Fancy Free in his again pocket for years. He first encountered the maraschino-laced Outdated-Usual when he was working at Brooklyn’s now-closed Dram, the place visitors usually requested for the bartender’s alternative, again in 2010. “The Outdated-Usual was tremendous standard,” he says. “However they’d have an Outdated-Usual and say, What’s subsequent?”
Maraschino liqueur could be a very polarizing ingredient, however Oertel’s all the time been a fan and has thus all the time championed the classics that decision for it. The Fancy Free turned one among his go-tos for these requesting spirit-forward cocktails. In the present day, he continues to be a crusader for the drink. In actual fact, in his capability as artistic beverage director for Methodology Co., he’s positioned the basic—and variations of it—on three menus within the final 12 months. At Simmer Down in Wilmington, Delaware, it’s prominently featured on the bar’s classics menu, and it’s additionally on the Outdated-Usual menu on the personal membership within the Forth Resort in Atlanta. He’s even obtained an Italianate model on the menu at Il Premio (additionally within the Forth Resort), referred to as Fantasia Free of charge, which contains nocino and fig-infused bourbon.
The Fancy Free obtained to Dram by a Milk & Honey spec sheet that Oertel dutifully copied into his pocket book, however its origins lie within the Forties. Its first look in print was in Crosby Gaige’s Cocktail Information and Girls’ Companion, which was printed in 1941. Within the guide, the recipe calls for 2 ounces of Wonderful Arts (a now-defunct whiskey model with a rye-heavy mash invoice) plus two dashes maraschino and a splash every of orange and Angostura bitters. The combination is to be shaken with ice and strained right into a cocktail glass with a sugar rim. To nobody’s shock, cocktail revivalists ditched the sugar rim with out fanfare and selected to stir the drink and garnish it with an orange twist.
Like most Twenty first-century variations of the Fancy Free, Oertel’s recipe requires bourbon, which, he says, “is a bit mellower and performs a bit nicer with the maraschino with out overpowering it.” Recently he’s been reaching for Elijah Craig Small Batch or Outdated Forester—whiskeys with basic character, high quality and good worth—for this drink. For the maraschino, he likes the lesser-known model of the liqueur from Caffo, which he describes as a bit brighter, fruitier and fewer aromatic than different merchandise available on the market. Lastly, Oertel sticks with the bitters as referred to as for within the unique Crosby Gaige recipe: one sprint every of Angostura and orange. And like his cocktail renaissance brethren, he opts for an orange twist over a sugar rim.
Oertel describes the Fancy Free as an Outdated-Usual with “just a bit little bit of an angle to it,” making it an accessible and interesting drink for many who favor that basic. And since it’s made completely of shelf-stable elements (apart from the garnish), the Fancy Free doesn’t demand even a easy syrup of its compounders, making it very approachable for house bartenders. It’s simply totally different sufficient, however nonetheless acquainted, he says. “It’s not your dad’s Outdated-Usual.”
