John’s Old Fashioned

Few cocktails are as endlessly riffed upon as the Old Fashioned, but its familiarity is a double-edged sword. A drink everyone knows is also a drink many will already have strong opinions about.

This makes the staying power of John’s Old Fashioned, at John’s Food & Wine in Chicago, even more impressive. One of the founding cocktails when the restaurant opened in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in 2023, it embodies much of what makes John’s, our 2026 Restaurant of the Year, excel. A neighborhood bistro with a “casual fine dining” aesthetic, John’s takes the familiar and finds small, thoughtful ways to create meaningful improvements.

Unlike other variations that take the original in dramatically different directions — the fat-washed-bourbon era comes to mind — John’s Old Fashioned hews rather closely to the original. It retains a base of bourbon and a teaspoon of demerara syrup and includes two dashes of either cherry or fennel-fig bitters. The key difference in John’s version is the addition of half an ounce of bianco vermouth. It’s a simple enough drink for anyone to make at home but provides a subtle depth that has helped make it one of John’s most enduring cocktails.

“I think the drink fits John’s really well because it’s a classic cocktail made with great ingredients,” says Blaine Smith, John’s general manager. “It pays homage to the original while still being something that feels unique to us. That balance, recognizable but distinctly our own, is really what we were going for.”

Why John’s Old Fashioned Works

Aromatics and texture define John’s Old Fashioned. Dovetailing with the restaurant’s fantastic wine program, the vermouth selection here is key. John’s opts for Bordigo Vermouth di Torino Bianco, a small-batch offering from Piedmont, Italy. It’s a very floral, herb-forward choice with a classic profile that offers a hint of sweetness but enough acidity to keep it balanced. The result is an Old Fashioned that offers an expressive aroma and invites you to pause after each sip to try and identify what botanicals you’re tasting.

An Old Fashioned, at its core, is sweetened whiskey. It can sometimes come across as cloying, particularly when made with a corn-heavy bourbon, the wrong ratios, or a lack of proper dilution, which can create a syrupy consistency. Adding bianco vermouth creates a velvety texture in the drink, tying together the classic ingredients and creating a consistency that holds over time, even as the evening goes on and the ice starts to melt.

“The Bordiga adds botanical notes to the cocktail while also lightening the drink and cutting through some of the sweetness you find in a traditional Old Fashioned,” says Smith.

The John’s Old Fashioned is a fantastic example of how small tweaks can go a long way in cocktails. It’s a welcome addition to the pantheon of Old Fashioned variations, and one that’s here to stay.