Food & Drink

Bar Review: The Garden & Gun Club at Stitzel-Weller Distillery

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Making whiskey is an industrial course of, soiled and noisy and smelly. However you’d be exhausting pressed to search out any of that on the fashionable Bourbon Path. Your complete Blue Grass State has turn out to be a veritable Disneyland of gleaming guests’ facilities and glowing rickhouses, more and more too clear to be mistaken for what they really are: whiskey barns. The customer expertise has modified, as properly. What was as soon as, kind of, a bourbon scavenger hunt from tasting to tasting, has turn out to be extra of a bar crawl, and a excessive finish one at that. In recent times, distilleries huge and small have added bars and eating places to their campuses, vying to assert extra of the bourbon vacationers’ time. And their {dollars}.


In 2021, the historic Stitzel-Weller distillery turned house to 1 such watering gap, the Backyard & Gun Membership. It was solely the second Backyard & Gun Membership within the nation (the primary is in Atlanta, the place the well-known way of life journal is headquartered). It’s an acceptable pairing because the journal’s focus is the “better of the South,” and the distillery, constructed by the notorious Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle Sr., lays historic declare to what many take into account a number of the greatest bourbons on the earth. By no means thoughts that the place can be steeped within the form of bourbon historical past that any model would covet. After closing, like so many, through the darkish days of the bourbon bust, Stitzel-Weller finally ended up within the palms of spirits large Diageo who painstakingly revived the campus to its former glory in 2014. It turned house first to Bulleit and now homes the Blade & Bow, I. W. Harper, and Orphan Barrel manufacturers, which, after partnering with Backyard & Gun, turned the main focus of the membership’s spectacular bar program. However I’m getting a bit forward of myself.

First, the place itself. By way of the Guests’ Heart and up the steps, previous a little bit of tasteful taxidermy, you’ll discover a area that’s a cushty combine of contemporary industrial and classic with heat, inexperienced partitions, brass fixtures, and loads of leather-based. It’s an aesthetic clearly designed for the fashionable bourbon drinker, however I think about “Pappy” would have been pleased to seize a drink right here, too. The area isn’t expansive, however it’s sufficiently big to simply accommodate a mixture of native bar hoppers and bourbon vacationers, contemporary from their legally restricted tastings and on the lookout for only a bit extra.

From behind the bar, lead bartender Greg Hojnacki walks me by the cocktail program, which hues towards recognizable classics that spotlight the distillery’s flagship Blade & Bow bourbon. “Blade and Bow is form of a spicy bourbon to start with, properly balanced with a pleasant physique, so it stands out in a cocktail properly with some cinnamon spice on the again,” he tells me as I dive into the menu. Among the many classics on supply are a fan favourite Previous Common with a home made Demerara syrup and a refreshingly fruity Paper Airplane. “A giant vendor lately,” Greg says, “maybe due to the nice and cozy climate.” The bar makes its tinctures and syrups in-house and sources beautiful, customized ice cubes, in quite a lot of sizes and styles, from Kentucky Straight Ice. Every thing is served in traditional, customized glassware etched with varied Backyard & Gun motifs.

Even with quite a few tried-and-true classics on the menu, there’s loads of cocktailing creativity afoot right here. Greg stresses that the workforce is at all times testing and creating new, distinctive recipes, albeit with a recognizable basis. A Chocolate Boulevardier and French 75 variation are mentioned to be within the works (if not already on supply since my go to final 12 months). My favourite tipple is one in every of Greg’s favorites, his tackle the New Common with a little bit of Johnnie Walker Black and St. Germain within the combine. It’s well-executed and refreshing with nuanced layers of smoke, baking spice, and natural sweetness.


Whereas the backbar isn’t overflowing with spirits choices, you’re additionally not restricted to whiskey cocktails completely. It is a Diageo outpost, in spite of everything, so spectacular manufacturers of all stripes and flavors are readily available. “If you’d like a Martini, you may get a Martini,” Greg tells me. “The enjoyment of working inside the Diageo umbrella is accessing so many nice merchandise.” However the whiskey-obsessed can relaxation assured, the bar affords every little thing you’d style on a tour of the distillery after which some.

The tastings included within the Stitzel-Weller tour typically characteristic an Orphan Barrel product, however the Backyard & Gun Membership virtually at all times has the newest bottles readily available. Throughout my go to, the current Copper Tongue and Muckety-Muck releases have been accessible by the pour or in a flight. If uncommon Orphan Barrels aren’t luxe sufficient for you, the bar additionally affords The Blade & Bow Expertise, a bespoke tasting of Stitzel-Weller’s oldest and rarest providing, Blade & Bow 22 Years Old. The distillery periodically places a single bottle on the market within the reward store after it’s launched within the fall, however should you aren’t fortunate sufficient (or flush sufficient) to snag it, you may take pleasure in a fantastically offered single ounce pour in a singular, dimpled tasting glass handmade in North Carolina by Terrane, a Backyard & Gun Made within the South winner. At $150 for the pleasure, it’s no simple splurge, however Greg swiftly closes the sale with me by stressing that I get to maintain the attractive tasting glass.


If an extended day of bourbon tasting requires a bit extra sustenance than bar nuts, the Backyard & Gun Membership has you coated with a small however artistic menu that features white cheddar jalapeno popcorn, Newsome’s nation ham, and pimento cheese, which, as one thing of a pimento cheese connoisseur, I can guarantee you greater than passes muster. Simply ask for just a few extra of the ocean salt crackers that accompany it. Bourbon and cocktail consuming are exhausting enterprise, in spite of everything, and also you’ll have to fortify your self for the following distillery go to. And its new bar.

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