Walk into any bar or supper club in the Northwoods and order an old fashioned. Don't specify. Just say "old fashioned." What shows up will tell you everything you need to know about where you are.
In the rest of the country, an old fashioned is bourbon, bitters, sugar, maybe an orange peel. In Wisconsin, it's brandy. Korbel brandy, specifically — Wisconsin drinks more Korbel than any other state by a wide margin. The brandy goes over a muddled orange slice and cherry, a sugar cube, a few dashes of Angostura bitters, and then your choice of mix: sweet (7Up or Sprite), sour (Squirt or Fresca), or press (half soda water, half lemon-lime). Topped with another orange and cherry. Served in an old fashioned glass, obviously.
If you order it "sweet" you'll get the most popular version. If you order it "sour" you're in the minority but people will respect the choice. If you say "press" the bartender will nod approvingly. And if you order it with bourbon, someone at the bar will probably look at you sideways.
How Wisconsin Got Here
The brandy old fashioned has been Wisconsin's default cocktail since at least the 1930s. The most popular origin story ties it to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where Korbel brandy was introduced to Midwesterners who took a shine to it and never let go. By Prohibition's end, brandy had become the spirit of choice in Wisconsin taverns and supper clubs, and the old fashioned was the standard way to drink it.
The supper club tradition cemented it. When you sit down at Norwood Pines in Minocqua or Chanticleer Inn in Eagle River, the first question is "what are you drinking?" and the expected answer, at least for the first round, is some version of a brandy old fashioned. It's not a cocktail trend. It's a cultural institution.
Wisconsin still consumes more brandy per capita than any other state. It's not even close.
How to Order Like a Local
There's a small vocabulary involved.
Sweet — mixed with 7Up or Sprite. The default. If you don't specify, many bars will make it sweet.
Sour — mixed with Squirt, Fresca, or another grapefruit soda. More tart, less sugary. Popular with people who've been drinking them for a long time.
Press — half soda water, half 7Up. A little lighter, a little drier. The connoisseur's choice, if brandy old fashioneds have connoisseurs.
Muddled — the orange and cherry are mashed at the bottom of the glass. This is standard in most places, but some newer cocktail bars skip it. If you want it muddled, say so.
Some bars will ask "sweet, sour, or press?" when you order. If they don't ask, they're making it sweet. At a supper club, the bartender already knows what they're doing. Trust the process.
The Grasshopper
If the brandy old fashioned is Wisconsin's unofficial state cocktail, the Grasshopper is its dessert course. It's a blended drink made with creme de menthe, creme de cacao, and vanilla ice cream. It comes out looking like a mint chocolate chip milkshake, and it tastes like one too.
Grasshoppers show up on supper club dessert menus and at family restaurants across the Northwoods. They're not ironic. Nobody orders one to be funny. They are genuinely popular with adults who have been drinking them after Friday fish fry since the Carter administration. You can get them at most supper clubs in the area — Norwood Pines, The Whitetail Inn in St. Germain, Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty in Minocqua.
If you've never had one, try it. It's sweet, it's cold, and it makes a lot more sense after a plate of walleye and a relish tray than you'd think.
The Pink Squirrel
The Pink Squirrel is the Grasshopper's less famous cousin. Same concept — blended with ice cream — but made with creme de noyaux (an almond-flavored liqueur that's bright pink) and creme de cacao. It tastes like an almond-vanilla milkshake with a slightly nutty finish. The color is unapologetically pink.
Pink Squirrels were invented in Milwaukee in the 1950s at Bryant's Cocktail Lounge, and they spread through Wisconsin's supper club circuit from there. They're harder to find than Grasshoppers — not every bar stocks creme de noyaux — but supper clubs in the Northwoods still make them, and they're worth asking for.
The Tom & Jerry
This one is seasonal. Tom & Jerrys are a warm, spiced egg-batter drink mixed with rum and brandy, served in a ceramic mug, and topped with hot water or milk and a dusting of nutmeg. They show up in Wisconsin bars from roughly Thanksgiving through New Year's, and then they disappear until next November.
The batter is the thing. Every bar and supper club has its own recipe, typically involving separated eggs, powdered sugar, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and vanilla. Some places make it in-house. Some buy it from local suppliers who sell it by the pint during the holidays. The best Tom & Jerry you'll ever have will be at a Northwoods bar on a December night when it's 10 below outside and you just came in off the snowmobile trail.
The Brandy Slush
Summer's version of the brandy old fashioned. A Brandy Slush is a frozen mixture of brandy, lemon juice, orange juice, sugar, tea, and water, frozen into a slushy consistency and served in a glass. Every family in Wisconsin has a recipe. Most of them involve a five-gallon bucket in the chest freezer.
You'll find Brandy Slushes at backyard cookouts, fish boils, cabin weekends, and occasionally at bars that cater to locals. They taste like summer in the Northwoods — sweet, cold, boozy, and completely unpretentious.
Where to Drink in the Northwoods
The best place to experience Northwoods drink culture is at a supper club bar. Arrive 30 minutes before your dinner reservation, sit at the bar, and order a brandy old fashioned. Watch the bartender make it. Watch the people around you drink theirs. Notice that nobody orders a vodka soda or an Aperol spritz.
A few bars worth visiting for the drink experience alone:
Norwood Pines in Minocqua — the bar area is the real show. Arrive early, stay late.
Chanticleer Inn in Eagle River — a supper club bar that takes the old fashioned seriously.
The Whitetail Inn in St. Germain — order a Grasshopper after dinner. It's practically required.
Tula's Cafe in Three Lakes — not a supper club, but they make a solid old fashioned and the atmosphere is warm.
The Northwoods drink menu hasn't changed much in 50 years. That's not a complaint. Some things don't need to be updated, reinvented, or given a modern twist. The brandy old fashioned is one of them. Order one, drink it slowly, and let the evening take its time. That's how they do things up here.
