Sweet of the Week: Old Fashioned Pie at The Winchester

I love a good Old Fashioned cocktail. Over the years, it's become my de facto drink of choice, as I steadily smartened up and ventured beyond my "whiskey ginger" nonsense to something more legitimate. More often than not, it's how I unwind at home at the end of the day. There's something so refreshingly bracing in the simplicity of whiskey, bitters, sugar, and an orange peel. Something I also love is pie. So imagine my stupefied glee when I learned The Winchester had a dessert that married my two great loves: functioning alcoholism and pie with their cocktail-inspired Old Fashioned pie. 

 

The Winchester turned to Bang Bang Pie Shop for aid with their new confectionary innovation, an extraordinary feat in combining cocktails with dessert. The whimsical, crafty pie shop whipped up a pie that serves as an edible (and admittedly much more sweet) version of that bitter whiskey staple. When the waiter mentioned it was Old Fashioned pie, I first thought I misheard him, and then thought he just meant old fashioned as in "classic Americana." But lo, dreams do come true! The pie was radiant with cocktail aromas, particularly the orange-scented, bitters-splashed whipped cream. The pie itself has a silky, almost lemon chess-like quality to it, albeit it's infused with whiskey because miracles are real. The whiskey isn't super pronounced, but the pie is palpably potent and a unique approach to the term "nightcap." 

- Matt Kirouac