Back in June, Route 66 Smokehouse restaurant located at 46 Stone Street in the Financial District of lower Manhattan threw its annual Bourbon, Brew & BBQ event .
Not surprisingly, last years event was cancelled. Normally it was held indoors but this year they decided to hold the event outdoors on the cobblestone streets which are lined with many restaurants and taverns. It made for a festive atmosphere.
Stone Street is in an historic district just down the block from the historic Fraunces Tavern which itself is one of the oldest restaurants in New York City and the site of George Washington’s farewell address to his officers. Stone Street is also one of the oldest streets in New York and in 1658 it became the first cobbled stone street in New Amsterdam.
The event featured several whiskeys, beer, cider, small bites and games. It had a good crowd of people out to socialize and enjoy in pre pandemic conditions.
This past weekend of December 7-8th I was able to attend a couple of Holiday beverage events.
On Saturday afternoon I attended the Brooklyn Whiskey and Spirits Festival which was held at the Brooklyn Expo Center at 72 Noble Street in Greenpoint Brooklyn. The event offered over 100 styles of whiskey and spirits.
I have to admit, that these spirits events are more or less cookie cutter events with many of the same purveyors in attendance, I’m getting to recognize many of the people pouring (and they’re recognize me!). I have to say though that this event had a better selection of spirits than the last whiskey fest I attended a couple of weeks ago.
Most American whiskey producers make several styles of whiskey including Bourbon, Rye and Blends. At this tasting I decided to focus on Rye whiskey for the afternoon and was able to sample a few nice ones. As an outlier I tasted a few aged rums which I enjoy. I particularly enjoyed the X.O. and V.S.O.P. rhum agrigole from Clement Rhum in Martinique. Rhum agricole is made from fresh cane juice instead of from molasses and makes for a more polished drink, the type that you sip on its own.
On Sunday afternoon I attended the Fruit & Grain beer and cider festival. The event was a benefit for Raices, a nonprofit agency and was held at the Second event space at 849 6th Avenue in midtown Manhattan.
The theme of the room was 1960’s “Flower Power” complete with the requisite groovy, psychedelic art poster. They poured mostly local craft beer from 30+ brewers, ciders from 12+ New York State cideries and a handful of spirits. My focus this afternoon was on ciders and they had some familiar labels as well as ciders from small, “mom & pop” cideries. An interesting outlier was a local distillery based in Brooklyn, St. Agrestis that makes amaros and a prepackaged Negroni.
Whiskey Fest Rye
Catoctin Creek Rye 80°, 92°
Pinhook Rye Humor Cask Strength 97°
Taconic Distillery Straight Rye 95°
Uncle Nearest 1856 100°
Deadwood Rye 83°
Minor Case Straight Rye 90°
Coppersea Straight Malt Rye 96°
Koval Single Barrel Rye 80°
Cutwater Whiskey American Rye 90°
Duke Founders Reserve Rye 98°
Sagamore Spirit Double Oaked Straight Rye 112°
Fruit & Grain Cider
Sündtrom Cider: Sauer, Sponti
Wildarc Farms: Blackbird, Kitchen Sink
Eve’s Cidery: Albee hill ’18, Darling Creek ’18, Beckhorn Hollow ’18
Bad Seed: Old Elmer Barrel Aged, Bourbon Barrel Aged
Metal House Cider: Ammir, Arista
Angry Orchard: Magril
Floral Torrantes: Suburban Maraines
Descendant Cider Co.: Succesion
Rootstock Cider Works: Dry, Original, Dry Hopped
Graft Cidery: Farm Flor, Forest & Flor, Amber City
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