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Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/453014
LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.15 31 WHAT'S IN A NAME? Don't Worry About It Mayan Cafe 813 E. Market St. ($8) Ingredients: Woodford Reserve, Tuaca vanilla liqueur, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, soda "I put together what I called an ofcial cocktail committee of like 10 or so of my friends. I pulled out a bunch of diferent recipes, got all these bottles, and I made them do this very ofcial thing where we tried over a dozen diferent cocktails and tweaked them. Most of them, frankly, were disgusting," Mayan Cafe general manager Anne Shadle says. "So at the end of the night I was making another bourbon drink, just kind of mixing a couple things together, and I passed it around and everyone was like, 'This is delicious. What's in it?' I was like, 'Don't worry about it.' They said, 'No, no — seriously, what's in it?' I said, 'Don't worry about it; it's got Woodford.'" 7 Across the Board Down One Bourbon Bar 321 W. Main St. ($12) Ingredients: Angel's Envy, black- berries, raspberry-sage syrup, Timothy Hay (Timothy Hay is actual hay, from the same suppli- er Churchill Downs uses. For this cocktail, Down One smokes the glass by blow-torching a bourbon barrel stave, setting hay on the stave, then placing a glass over the hay. "Makes it smell like a campfre, like roasted marshmal- lows," assistant GM Beth Burrows says.) "It was for a cocktail competition at Churchill Downs," Burrows says. "They needed a name and they needed one really fast, and when I become a nervous wreck at the track, '7 across the board' is the bet I make every single time. It was a last-minute, kind of throw it in there Hail Mary type of pass." Down One has also served a Morning Wood- ford, made of orange juice, bacon simple syrup, bacon crumbles, cinnamon, black walnut bitters and egg whites. "One, I was just seeing if I could test boundaries, and two, it is basically like a full breakfast in a glass," Burrows says of the name. The High Pant Meta 425 W. Chestnut St. ($10) Ingredients: Old Fitzgerald, ginger syrup, bitters, orange slice "It's kind of like this inside joke that went way too far," owner Jeremy Johnson says. "A bartender at Big Bar and I kind of got into this back and forth. There's a Facebook video where this guy's kind of like, 'Like my status if you like this.' We were talking about how all these people wearing high-waisted pants were like, 'Like my status if you like a high pant.'" Proof Positive Proof on Main 702 W. Main St. ($10) Ingredients: Old Forester, Cocchi Americano Rosa aperitif wine, Kentucky sorghum, aromatic and orange bitters "I actually didn't come up with this name," says bartender Chris Wilkins, who created the cocktail. "I was working one Sunday afternoon at brunch, and I was kind of mess- ing around. Congressman John Yarmuth (see page 33) and his wife happened to be sitting there, so I made it for them. He was the one who was actually like, 'You should call this Proof Positive.'" The Old Smoking Hat Joy Luck 1285 Bardstown Road ($10) Ingredients: Woodford Reserve, smoked vanilla Demerara syrup, vermouth, bitters "The name comes from the fact that it's a Manhattan crossed with an Old Fashioned. That's where the 'old' part comes from and where the 'hat' comes from. And it's got smoked sugar in it," bartender Joe Riggs says. "And also, in the Victorian era, they would wear smoking hats." Long Train Blues The Silver Dollar 1761 Frankfort Ave. ($9) Ingredients: J.T.S. Brown Bottled in Bond, ginger syrup, blueberries, lime, Ale-8-One "I was talking to the bartender who had come up with the drink, and we were looking through album covers to try to get some ideas," beverage director Susie Hoyt says. "We found a Memphis blues album (with the song 'Long Train Blues') by Robert Wilkins. We wanted a song name with blues in it because the cocktail has muddled blueberries." Wes Henderson Chief innovation offcer at An- gel's Envy (scheduled to open a full production facility later this year on East Main, across from Slugger Field) Henderson's father, Lincoln, who died in 2013, was master distiller at Brown-Forman for 40 years. "Dad used to bring home samples, and I always snuck little nips. Dad didn't know that," Henderson says. "The most im- portant thing he taught me was the ongoing education of my palate. I'm working on it every time I eat or drink something." Henderson, who has six boys (ages 11 to 25), says, "It would be a dream to be able to work with all of them." Corky Taylor Chairman of Kentucky Peerless (scheduled to open later this spring on North 10th Street) Taylor's great-grandfather Henry Kraver opened the original Kentucky Peerless Distillery in Henderson, Kentucky, in 1889. At one point it was the state's sec- ond-largest distillery. "Bourbon has a worldwide market. Being a small distillery, it's hard to break in. We just hope people give us a shot," Taylor says. Any tasting tips? "Let the bourbon linger on your tongue instead of sloshing it down." Willie Pratt and Pam Heilmann Distillers at Michter's (which operates a 65,000-square- foot facility in Shively and is in the process of renovating the historic Fort Nelson Building on West Main) Pratt worked for Brown-Forman for 45 years before starting at Michter's seven years ago. He was 18 the frst time he had bourbon, after he got engaged and his future father-in-law poured some into a Coke for him. "You just ruined the Coke," Pratt said. Any tasting tips? "Smelling cofee grounds cleans your nose the same way a crack- er would clean your palate. The nose is going to give you a large percentage of what you're gonna taste," Pratt says. Down One's "7 Across the Board"