“You mean to tell me that an Old Fashioned where you come from has whiskey in it??” - Uttered by an incredulous looking coworker conversing with an out-of-town visitor.
Is it true? Are Old Fashioneds made with whiskey sometimes? That sounds… bleah…
Bourbon, bitters, simple syrup, on the rocks garnished with a cherry. Anything else is a perversion.
Wisconsin seems to be the only place where they swap brandy for bourbon.
Philistines.
The joy of a nice sized rocks glass filled to the brim with a brandy old fashioned is sadly lost on residents south of the Illinois/Wisconsin border. Every time my wife tries to order one outside of Wisconsin I just shake my head and keep on reminding her that she is south of the BOF Mason-Dixon Line. Thankfully, we can make our own at home.
BTW - I enjoy mine with sour instead of sweet and olives instead of the traditional orange slice & cherry garnish.
So yeah, you guys should assume that the rest of us drink way less brandy than you.
Drives me freakin’ bananas. This is currently the winter/spring of the Old Fashioned for me (I go through drink phases - last summer was the Summer of the Margarita, before that the Spring of the Tom Collins, it goes on.) and I’m sick and tired of every bartender asking me “Brandy?” when I order it. I don’t so much mind the “Whiskey or Bourbon?” question when I order it (Bourbon is the correct answer), but “Brandy?”
Drives me nuts, it does. If I wanted a Brandy Old Fashioned, I’d order it that way. Turns out that I don’t.
Stupid Sconnies. (And I say that as one of them - grew up in Western WI.)
Nope, they do that in Upper Wisconsin, too. That is, the UP 
Yeah, it’s pretty bizarre what they do with brandy there. I remember the first time I ordered a Manhattan in Milwaukee; the bartender casually asked me, “brandy or bourbon,” which threw me for a complete loop; I had never, in my previous experience as a barback, bartender, or bar patron ever heard of anyone putting brandy in a Manhattan, and certainly not as a matter of course. It turned out that the bartender was a bourbon connoisseur and poured my date and I a snifter out of his private reserve.
I’m not sure why Wisconsinites insist on trying to insert brandy into every mixed drink (it wouldn’t suprise me if they snuck it into a Long Island Iced Tea, a Bloody Mary, or even a Rob Roy) but far from being “bleah”, as the o.p. describes, I find bourbon or scotch whiskey far preferable to the sickly taste of the cheap brandy they drink like PBR on Dollar Wednesdays at G’Daddy’s BBC.
Stranger
Ignorance fought, must be a Wisconsin thing…
Next thing you know someone will tell me that no one else eats brats besides us. Or drinks from a bubbler.