Bourbon's Bistro

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Unread postby bourbonv » Fri Apr 29, 2005 6:46 pm

Gary and I went to Bourbon's Bistro this afternoon. Gary came by the Filson and I gave him the tour. I will let him describe that tour since as I told him, I tend to be a little jaded working in the 100 year old mansion every day. We had lunch next door at the 316 Ormsby restraunt and then I had to go by Julian's and pick up a bottle for a tasting I am doing for the English Speaking Union at U of L. Julian and Preston then decided to join us for the "bourbon lesson" John and Jason wanted me to give the wait staff at the restraunt at 3:00. We drove to the place and parked in the lot next door. This is the first time I saw the place since it opened and I was impressed as we walked by the front windows and saw that the kitchen has windows allowing patrons to see the chefs cooking before they walk in the door.

We got there a little early and we drank some old bourbon while waiting for the staff to arrive. We had the Old Fitzgerald from the bottle they gave me last week. Jason had been into it a little, but it was still about 60% full and tasted very nice. We tasted it next to the Pappy 15yo and were suprised at how close the noses were in the two products. The taste was different with a lot more wood in the 15yo, but we all agreed the 6yo held its own and in many ways was the superior product. Julian was wishing he could get some more bottles of it now. They also had a 6 yo bottled in bond (1948-1954) Old Forester that was given to them and it was a very fruity product with lots of dates or very ripe apricot flavors with vanilla and a hint of spice. I had brought along some tasting glasses and they were impressed with the difference that glassware made in the experience of tasting bourbon. Julian is going to hook them up with the company that makes the Glencairn glass and that might become the tasting glass for people who order the bourbon neat at the restraunt. As I told them, the majority of people who drink their bourbon on the rock will just as hjappy with the old fashioned glasses that they are using now, but when they get a customer who does drink their bourbon neat orders a drink, it would be nice to give them the product in the tasting glasses for that extra umph they get from the glass.

When the staff arrived, I had about 45 minutes to educate them about bourbon. Not an easy task. I started by pouring some Wild Turkey 80 proof and taking about traditional bourbon made with rye. Defined bourbon (51% corn etc...) and let them nose it in the old fashioned glass and the glencairn glass to demonstrate to them how something as simple as glassware can make a difference. I then poured some Maker's Mark and talked about wheated bourbon, listed the wheated bourbon brands and explained that Julian's products fall into this category, but also in a more narrow category of being extra aged products as well. I followed this with some Jack Daniel Old No. 7 and explained why Tennessee whiskey was different from bourbon. Then poured some Jim Beam rye explaining that rye was at least 51% rye, etc... We finished with some Platte Valley Corn whiskey a defined corn whiskey and the fact that they use used cooperage to age corn.

After that I talked about the three categories of bourbon as Brown-Forman defines them and how that could help them advise customers who were unsure what bourbon to try. I told them how the customer wanted to drink their bourbon would help decide which category to try. One of the ladies then asked about what to do when a customer asked for a Pappy and coke. I suggested that they might want to advise them that they could try a cheaper wheated bourbon such as OLd Fitzgerald 1849 and have a similar taste. Julian suggested that he has seen many bartenders who refused to do this and Preston chimed in by saying the bartender then usually serves the coke and Pappy seperate so if they insisted on mixing them, the customer would have to do it themselves.

I ended the lesson with a brief description of tasting bourbon neat. What can be learned from color, followed by the nose, then the taste with finally the finish. By that time they were ready to get ready to open so I told them that the best thing they can do is practice and learn. That tasting can not be learned in one quick lesson.

All this time Gary, Julian and Preston were standing there taking it in and adding questions and comments as needed. We finished off the time with some Very Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond (1963-1971) and checked out the photographs on the wall and talked while the crew did final prep before opening. Julian and Preston had to go and Gary wanted to get back down to Bardstown tonight by 7:00 so we left as well. It would have been nice to stay for dinner, but Gary was going to have some tough traffic with construction on I65 in Shepherdsville and rain was moving in so it was best not to wait any longer. I drove back to the Filson so Gary could get his car and I headed home.

I have not ate there yet, but one of my co-workers went there on opening night and enjoyed it. She said the Bourbon chocolate Bread Pudding was to die for so I know what I am having for dessert when I do get to eat there.

They have just opened and have not worked everything out yet, but after Derby they want to get tasting glasses. They want to sell 3 bourbon fights for tasting and they are interested in the computer at the bar with a link to this site so customers can see what we think about a bourbon before they buy. If this happens, I think we need to do more tastings so they can have a wide choice to choose from and that includes different reviews of the same products.

Gary may have gotten a little more than he bargined for by stopping to see me today. I think he was a little overwhelmed, but I hope he had fun. It is a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Mike Veach
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Unread postby gillmang » Mon May 02, 2005 8:22 am

Excellent report Mike! It was a great day for me. Actually I am sorry I didn't stay for dinner at Bourbonsbistro since by the time I got to Bardstown the gang there (in town for sampler) had left for dinner and I was on my lonesome, consoled though by a whiskey at Talbott's and then a steak at Dagwood's (their great bourbon-flambeed steak). But the group had left early so even had traffic on the 65 been better (it was awful) I'd have missed them anyway. Bourbonsbistro has the makings of a great whiskey-oriented bar and restaurant, I wish them well and they deserve the support of all bourbonites. The staff are committed and professional and the ownership focused and determined, I know these guys will do great! More comments later, I don't have time now to add any more except to say the historic whiskeys tasted were awesome especially the Very Old Fitzgerald Mike mentioned, what a privilege to try that. But also as Mike said, they (that one and the bonded Old Fitz) bore many resemblances to the Stitzel-Weller whiskey still available today, they had the same "burned caramel" nose but the ones available now of course are older with an interesting "old chestnut-like" overlay. More later including on my Filson tour.

Gary
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Unread postby Brewer » Mon May 02, 2005 8:24 am

gillmang wrote:by time I got to Bardstown the gang there (in town for sampler)

Gary


Gary,

So, how was the Sampler?
Bob
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Unread postby gillmang » Mon May 02, 2005 11:13 am

Sampler was great. This year the food was better and more abundant than last year. The number of people was about the same, maybe more this year. The whiskey selection was similar to last year, nothing really new except the Russell's Reserve in the new bottle and proof (90), which I thought (the taste) was very good. Trace tasted particularly good to me this year, smoother than before with a spearmint edge something like what Bulleit has. Jimmy Russell was there for Wild Turkey by the way which was a treat. I didn't sample HH products because I had done so at the tour earlier that day at the visitor centre and wanted to try other products. Oh, Maker's had the green wax julep version out in force and I thought it was great, as good a julep as anyone would hope for. I don't think it is really new but seems to appear intermittently over the years. All in all a fine showing for the industry this year, very nice. If there was one thing I would change, it would be to have music, but they would need a bigger venue (which they do anyway because the museum was maxed out as it is).

Gary
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Unread postby Chris » Mon May 02, 2005 1:50 pm

Mike,
That sounds like quite a place.... I was impressed this weekend to go into a chocolate/ice cream place in Atlantic City that had Hirsch 16 for around $20 a pour, a lot when you consider what you could get the bottle for a couple years ago, but i guess it makes sense if you consider that they sell bud beer in places for $5 a glass... :lol:
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Unread postby bourbonv » Mon May 02, 2005 6:26 pm

I really think this is going to be my new bourbon bar for after work gatherings with friends. They are going to have a great bourbon selection and after they get settled in, they are going to have three 1/2 shot sample flights at a reasonable price. This is what I like to do when I go to a bourbon bar - have three different bourbons to do some comparison tasting. That way I can try a lot of different products without investing in a bottle.

The menu also looks pretty good. It can make for a very good evening. If anybody is interested in more information, the Courier-Journal did an article in last Saturday's paper with reviews of the bourbon bars in Louisville. Bourbon's Bistro was reviewed, but alas, no photographs. They tell me they are going to email me some photos so I can post them on the site, but that might not have happened yet. I don't know if they sent them to me at work because we are moving Special Collections around and I am off line for now. It may be a couple of days before they get a line drop for me to re-connect.

If Brenda or someone else local with a camera wants to go out there with me one evening let me know. I am looking tp get out there soon and hopefully have dinner there as well.

Mike Veach
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Unread postby Chris » Mon May 02, 2005 7:07 pm

This is what I like to do when I go to a bourbon bar - have three different bourbons to do some comparison tasting. That way I can try a lot of different products without investing in a bottle.


That's sort of like what I like to do at home, except since there are no bourbon bars around here, I always end up buying the bottle... and as you can see from the picture of mostly full bottles, and as Mark will surely attest, my regular size pour is around half a shot, so I never seem to finish any bottles until he stops by :lol:
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Unread postby gillmang » Tue May 03, 2005 6:19 am

Just another word on my Louisville day last Friday. Mike Veach works in a handsome old mansion in old Louisville, headquarters of the Filson Historical Society. He gave me a tour of the building, showing me its various collections and exhibits (it functions partly as a museum) and where its materials are kept or catalogued. One of the exhibits is a room outfitted in a circa-1900 neo-Colonial style, very impressive it was. In this room and others was an impressive collection of American portraiture. Mike's office is spacious and shared with another employee of the Filson. The wood in the building is hand-carved and all original, the building was owned originally by the Ferguson family who made their fortune in edible oils. Later it was a funeral home and finally sold 20 years ago to the Filson to house this historical society of Louisville and Kentucky. The Filson receives requests for reaserch assistance from all over America and the world. It is a quiet, refined place to work and Mike is to be envied! Then we had an excellent lunch nearby and from there it was to Julian Van Winkle's office in Mike's jeep and thence to Bourbonsbistro for the tasting and presentation earlier described. Louisville has the amenities of larger cities but also a quiet graciousness that few American cities retain. You have to go to smaller cities to see what most cities or parts of even the largest ones were once like. Louisville still has that, eg., around the park at the end of Eastern Parkway, along it going to the other end, around the University, and into old Louisville. Also, parts of Bardstown Road show this quality. I could live there easily I think even if I didn't have the added attraction of bourbon whiskey but it is a extra bonus to be sure!
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Unread postby brendaj » Wed May 04, 2005 6:07 pm

If Brenda or someone else local with a camera wants to go out there with me one evening let me know. I am looking to get out there soon and hopefully have dinner there as well.



Alrighty then, it's a date!
I'll be back from my Daughter's graduation (from Purdue/IUPUI with honors!... :occasion9: ) next week, and I'll drive in. In the meantime, here's the article from the Courier you mentioned.

I can't wait to meet the owners, I want to shake their hands! I've ranted for years about Kentucky's undereducated bartenders. It's a disgrace. I don't believe you should be able to step behind a bar in the state of Kentucky, without understanding that all Bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is Bourbon...and why.
Outta be illegal... :banghead:
Looking forward to it, I'll be in touch,
Bj
As a Kentuckian, I consider it my civic duty to drink Bourbon, smoke and bet the ponies. Its a tuff job, but someone has to do it...
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Unread postby bourbonv » Thu May 05, 2005 4:36 pm

As Gary said, the Filson is an interesting place to visit and even more so to work. I spent all day Saturday moving furniture at the office and I am not where I was when Gary visited last Friday - I now share an office with two other people, including "bourbon drinker, Elizabeth Kissack". I still have a portrait painted by Nichole Marschall of "Dr. Dunn" above my desk, but next to it is a ca. 1895 oil painting advertisement for Dreyfuss and Weil distillery, Paducah, Ky. Marschall's portrait of John Cabel Breckinridge has also followed me and on another wall close to my desk.

Brenda, just give me a call. I am thinking about going by there for dinner one day next week. I would be happy to have you join me if you can. If not, I am always looking for an excuse to go to a bourbon bar after work.

Mike Veach
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Unread postby bourbonv » Sat May 21, 2005 7:24 pm

I am sitting at the bar here at the bourbon's bistro drinking a 12 yo Van Winkle Family Reserve bourbon and using their laptop to make this post. The crowd is picking up and they are hoping for an even larger crowd because of the 3 1/2 star review in the morning paper. The bourbon is perfect with the apple raviloi and vanilla ice cream desert complimented by the strong chocolate nose and flavor of the bourbon. I wish the rest of you were here to join me.

Mike Veach
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Unread postby bourbonv » Thu Sep 22, 2005 9:35 am

The Bourbon's Bistro did quite well at the Bourbon Festival this year. Their chef led the cooking school and many people said it was the best school ever. Chris, the chef also won the cocktail contest with a mango/ginger smoothy type drink made with Weller 12yo. They also won the best restraunt competition beating out Maker's Mark Bar by a score of 250 to 160. Congratulations to John and Jason, the owners and Chris, their award winning chef!

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