Time to raise a glass to a classic with the return of the Old Fashioned Week. This year the week celebrating “the worlds most popular cocktail” runs from 2 – 11 November 2017 with events happening in over 600 bars all over the world.
Launched two years ago by the Michael Landart of Maria Loca bar in Paris and Cyrille Hugon of Rhum Fest Paris, “OFW” is a 10-day focus on the Old Fashioned cocktail with drinks specials, tastings, master classes and related events in order to “extend the legend that makes it the most enduring and popular cocktail in quality bars”. Of course, the event is made possible through partnerships and the brands getting on board to help make it happen this year are Angostura, Havana Club (or Altos Tequila in the US as Havana Club is still unavailable in America), Wild Turkey, Monkey Shoulder and Rhum JM.
Regular readers will recognize some favorite Paris bars in the rotation like Jefrey’s, CopperBay, Café Moderne, Les Justes Pigalle and more. Some fun local events lining up in the calendar include Monkey Shoulder’s Avant Premier of The Claw at the Hotel Molitor and the Monkey Master Class at La Resistance.
OFW continues to spread into other French cities with participating bars in Bordeaux, Lyon Grenoble, Toulouse, Rennes and more. Internationally, bars hail from all corners of the globe. There’s even a few bars participating all the way from Cape Town, South Africa.
Cyrille Hugon, co-founder and director of Old Fashioned Week, comments: “For 2017 we are really getting out there, with a confident plan to involve even more high-quality bars, bartenders, and even drinks shops. Old Fashioned Week is a celebration of cocktail heritage and bartenders’ skills and encourages fresh thinking, innovation, and convivial drinking. Our OFW ambassadors are well known to bars in their country zones, and above all, they are as enthusiastic as we are about drinking an Old Fashioned made to perfection. Our mission is also to help the bars attract customers and maximize their cocktail sales.”
You can find participating bars and related information on the trilingual official site. We’ll also be highlighting some of the more special happenings on our Paris Food & Drink Events calendar (you know, that place were we collect all the cool things to do while drinking in the city in one handy reference spot for y’all!)
If you can’t make it out right away for Old Fashioned Week you can make one on your own at home: Muddle together a dash or two of Angostura Aromatic bitters and a sugar cube, add 4 cl of your selected spirit and garnish with an orange zest. Cheers!
