The Honey Hole

Every bourbon lover wants to find that overlooked, out-of-the-way liquor store that has an incredible selection of sought-after brands at really good prices.  Maybe it’s at some crossroads out in the country, perhaps in a sleepy neighborhood selling more soft drinks and chips than booze.  I’m here to tell you: they exist.

I live in a control state with the usual control state mixed blessing: stable prices but not much interesting to choose from.  I don’t live too far from Kentucky so every time I go down there I feel like I’m in Candyland.  To my selection-starved mind the liquor stores in the Commonwealth have shelves and shelves of exquisite and rare bourbon.  True or not, I love to shop in Kentucky.  But I’m always on the lookout for that elusive local honey hole liquor store.

This past summer I decided to take a little detour coming home on a Monday morning after a relaxing weekend at the lake house.  The website of my control state liquor control department said that a store on the outskirts of a nearby medium-sized city had a bottle of that Rebel Yell 10 Year Single Barrel I’d been looking for forever.  So I punched that address into the car’s sat-nav and off I went.

Forty five minutes later I was in the parking lot of perhaps the most disreputable-looking retail establishment I’d ever seen.  Faded advertising signs were plastered all over the outside of the building.  Bars covered cracked glass windows patched with tape.  There were bars on the door.  The neighborhood looked like a war zone: empty weed-choked lots everywhere, ancient potholes in the street, seedy used car lots…you get the picture.  It was so bad I almost didn’t go in.  But I did.  And I’m glad I did.

Once inside, the immediate impression was one of too much inventory in too little space.  But I was greeted pleasantly and directed to well-stocked liquor shelves at the back of the store.  The Rebel Yell I wanted was there as promised.  But what’s this on the floor?  A full case of Weller Antique 107?  Yowza!  And there were several other nuggets on the floor to be had as well.  Checking out, I learned that the truck delivers bright and early every Monday morning and the selection is so profoundly deep and varied because the store supplies several bourbon-themed bars/restaurants and they order the good stuff for them.

Since then, I go back about once a month on a Monday morning and there’s always something nice to be had.  George Remus, Hotel Tango, Widow Jane, Tom’s Foolery and High West are some of the brands I’ve found, none of them available in my home town.  And they have a good wine selection, too.

So don’t despair.  Seek and you will find.  The good stuff is out there somewhere and honey holes really do exist.