Jason Brauner: Bringing Bourbon Back
Thoughtfully and humbly in his distinctive, rich Southern accent he replied, “Well…naw”. The question I had put to Jason Brauner while we sat at the bar of his Bourbons Bistro restaurant was “Have you ever reached a moment in your career where you thought ‘I think I’ve made it?’”.
“Well…naw. There’s still too much more to do”.
The Beginning of Brauner’s Bourbon Journey
Jason got his introduction to Bourbon when he was just a child. Not as a drinker, of course, but as a “bartender”. When Jason’s great aunts and uncles played cards, he would make highballs for them. “Three (little) fingers of Old Crow and a bit of ginger ale was how they taught me to make their drinks”, Jason said.
Jason and his family grew up in the shadow of National Distillers where many of his card-playing, highball-drinking great aunts and uncles worked. Jason calls it “the UPS of the day”, because it employed so many in Louisville at the time. One of those uncles received a gold watch from National for 25 years of service; a watch that Jason proudly owns today.
By the time Jason got to college at the University of Louisville, he was at an early place along his Bourbon journey that many of us would find familiar: His drink of choice was Maker’s & Coke. It was also in college that he may have brought about his first Bourbon innovation. He coached the bartender at his favorite hangout on how to make a Bourbon slushy. This very well could have been the first creation of the frozen concoction that is now common at bars everywhere.
After college at the age of 21, Jason co-founded Clifton’s Pizza in Louisville. Many nights after closing up the pizza shop, he would sit with friends in a nearby cigar store and smoke cigars while sipping Maker’s. They would tell stories and share dreams. It was there that the idea for Bourbons Bistro was born.
“Everybody Thought You Were Crazy”
Soon after Boubons Bistro opened in 2005, Bill Samuels, then-president of Maker’s Mark, told Jason that “everybody thought you were crazy” for opening a Bourbon-focused restaurant. Samuels and others had good reason to think this about Jason. In 2005 Bourbon was at, or very near to, a low. According to a February 2014 Fortune magazine article, Bourbon was growing at a lackluster 2.3% in the early 2000s. The Kentucky Distillers Association reports that Bourbon inventories and production were also near all-time low levels then. So, if he wasn’t crazy, what would drive Jason to open a Bourbon restaurant in that kind of economy?
Shortly before opening Bourbons Bistro, Jason took a class taught by Mike Veach, the foremost authority on Bourbon history. This class inspired and motivated Jason to learn as much as he could about everything Bourbon. If his restaurant carried a Bourbon, he was going to make sure he knew everything about it that he could.
Another pivotal event that motivated Jason was a trip he took to California wine country. As he interacted with many in the wine community, he felt that they disrespected Bourbon and Kentucky. “They acted as if they were surprised that since I was from Kentucky that I even had shoes on”, Jason said. It was the experience from this trip that lit the fire. “People needed to be educated about Bourbon and about Kentucky”.
Bringing Bourbon Back
Educating a world about Bourbon isn’t easy; especially when it’s a world that didn’t really care enough about Bourbon to want to learn. When I asked Jason about struggles he faced, especially early in his career, he said, “Of course we had tough times. I was just too stubborn to quit. I never considered failure as an option”.
Jim Rutledge (J.W. Rutledge Distillery) with Jason and John Morrison, co-owner of Bourbons Bistro
When you ask people in the Bourbon industry about Jason, one word that is certain to come up is “passion”. His passion for learning. His passion for Kentucky. His passion for all things Bourbon. All of this passion distilled into his goal for himself and Bourbons Bistro: “Bringing Bourbon back one sip at a time”.
The legendary Jim Rutledge, former master distiller of Four Roses and founder of J.W. Rutledge Distillery, told me when I asked him about Jason: “Nobody has more passion about Bourbon than Jason Brauner. If I could pick an understudy for J.W. Rutledge Distillery when it gets going it would be Jason. That is how much I respect his passion and his palate.”
Jason took a class taught by Rutledge and Jason said of that experience: “I don’t think Jim liked me very much at first. I was pretty talkative and liked to crack jokes. Jim didn’t seem to like that and didn’t think I took it as seriously as I should have”.
“One time, Jim gave the class a blind tasting of ten whiskeys. When I got to the fifth one in the tasting I blurted out ‘Jim, I can tell you this: number 5 is yours. That’s Bourbon you made’. I was right. Number 5 was his. I think that started to break the ice for me with Jim.”
Brent Elliott, master distiller at Four Roses, shared this about Jason: “His passion and knowledge of the Bourbon industry and the Bourbons themselves has established his reputation as one of the great Bourbon stewards”.
A Bourbon Pioneer
In addition to his passion, when people discuss Jason they are also likely to refer to him as being a pioneer in the Bourbon industry.
“Jason Brauner is a pioneer. His plan to distinguish his new restaurant by focusing on Bourbon really gave permission to the community and the industry to embrace Bourbon.”
Jason with Brent Elliott, Master Distiller at Four Roses
We’ve already learned that Jason may have been the first to create the Bourbon slushy. As tasty and refreshing as those may be, that pales in comparison to his other contributions to the Bourbon world.
Brent Elliott also had this to say about Jason: “Jason Brauner had the vision early on for what eventually became a nationwide staple…the Bourbon bar/restaurant. When he created Bourbons Bistro, he went all in and created a Bourbon Landmark that is still at the center of the Bourbon map today”.
Again, nobody other than Jason was rushing to start a Bourbon-focused restaurant in 2005. It’s hard to imagine this in today’s Bourbon world as Bourbon restaurants and bars dot the landscape of most significant U.S. cities. However, Bourbon production is double now what it was when Jason started Bourbons Bistro. The growth rate of Bourbon sales is nearly four-times higher today than it was in the mid-2000s. When others may have feared the risk or lacked the vision, Jason’s passion and “failure-is-not-an-option” attitude propelled him to be the pioneer of Bourbon restaurants.
In a 2018 article, Mike Veach proclaimed Jason to be an “unsung hero” of Bourbon. Veach went on to say about Jason and Bourbons Bistro that “this was the inspiration for many of the Bourbon-themed restaurants that have opened since. Bourbon was just beginning to gain momentum and Bourbons Bistro helped to build that momentum with their Bourbon-themed dinners featuring Master Distillers and Bourbon and food pairings”.
Jason was the first to utilize Bourbon dinners as a way to connect consumers with the men behind the Bourbon: the Master Distillers. These dinners also helped to educate people more about Bourbon and pass along Jason’s passion for America’s Native Spirit.
While flights may have been routine at wine bars, nobody had thought about a Bourbon flight before Jason instituted them. Now, they are offered at any worthwhile Bourbon bar or restaurant. And, yes, Jason still creates a new flight each month at Bourbons Bistro.
Jason’s was also the first restaurant or bar to incorporate private barrel picks into their Bourbon offerings. In fact, Jason picked the second private barrel ever selected at Four Roses. Jason’s first barrel pick for his restaurant was from Woodford Reserve and he even convinced them to produce it non-chill filtered.
Jim Rutledge and Chris Zaborowski both credit Jason for also being a pioneer of the Urban Bourbon Trail. Zaborowski praises: “Jason’s restaurant prompted Stacey Yates of the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau to start the Urban Bourbon Trail and now Bourbon and Louisville are inexplicably tied together”.
In 2019, Jason’s passion motivated him in another new direction. This venture was to launch his own whiskey brand, Buzzard’s Roost Sippin’ Whiskeys. Buzzard’s Roost was released in both single barrel and very small batch offerings. These carefully-selected and secondarily-aged rye whiskeys were greeted with praise by both Bourbon critics and Bourbon consumers. The next release of Buzzard’s Roost is expected to be out in Spring of 2020.
Mission Accomplished / Much More To Do
As we reflect on Jason’s goal of “bringing Bourbon back one sip at a time”, I think we can safely say “mission accomplished”. (Maybe he even did his job too well.) Production, inventory levels and sales growth of Bourbon are all now at remarkable, historic levels. Bourbon has reached heights the most optimistic in the industry would not have dreamed about fifteen years ago.
Do we credit Jason for all of Bourbon’s growth and success? Of course not. What Jason should be credited for, however, is believing in Bourbon when few others did. The things that are practically taken for granted at the best Bourbon restaurants today…Bourbon dinners, Bourbon flights, private barrel selections…would not be around without Jason and his pioneer spirit. In fact, those other Bourbon restaurants might not even exist without Jason being the first to follow his passion and open Bourbons Bistro.
So, let’s go back to my question to Jason. “Have you ever reached a moment in your career where you thought ‘I think I’ve made it?’” Jason’s answer was “no” (or more authentically: “naw”). As our conversation continued, however, and he began to share a few stories with me, a little more excitement in his voice and a slightly broader smile to his face hinted at some momentary satisfaction, and who could blame him.
He told me of the time he sat by the fire on his restaurant’s patio drinking late into the evening from a Jim Beam decanter with Fred Noe, Jim Beam’s Master Distiller.
Jason and the “Master Distiller’s Master Distiller”, Jimmy Russell of Wild Turkey
And as Jason and I sat at the bar, he pointed towards a stool nearby and recalled “Jimmy Russell sat right there. He and I shared pours from a 1976 Wild Turkey decanter as I listened to Jimmy tell story after story”.
As Jason shared these remarkable memories with me I sensed some emotion rising up in him. It wasn’t pride. Even though I was impressed (and, honestly, envious) as I heard these grandest of drinking tales, Jason was not coming across as boastful at all. He seemed to be more humbled and in awe that the kid who mixed highballs for his great aunts and uncles could be sharing pours with some of Bourbon’s greatest living master distillers.
Nevertheless, Jason continues to point to the future because “there is still too much more to do”. More to do with Bourbons Bistro. More to do with Buzzard’s Roost. More to do for Bourbon and for Kentucky.
Without question, Bourbon has been very good to Jason. However, as I see it, Jason was very good to Bourbon first. When few in the public and nobody in the restaurant industry were betting on Bourbon, Jason did. Perhaps it was only “one sip at a time”, but Bourbon did come back and the bet Jason made on Bourbon paid-off. The pay-off, however, wasn’t just for Jason. The rest of us were also winners. Bourbon fans, Bourbon restaurateurs, Bourbon tourism and the Bourbon industry as a whole are enjoying the jackpot of Jason’s bet on Bourbon.
For following his passion, for being the pioneer that Bourbon needed and for all he did to help bring Bourbon back, join me in raising a glass of Kentucky Bourbon and saying “Cheers and thank you” to Jason Brauner.
Steve Akley and the rest of us at the ABV Network are working to get Jason Brauner in the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame in 2020. Because the ABV Network is always fiercely independent, this initiative was started on our own without any prompting from Jason (and actually without his knowledge). If you would like to help us in this endeavor, please click on the link and sign the petition. You can also share this article with your friends and contacts. Not enough people understand the contributions Jason has made to the Bourbon community. Please help spread the word. Thank you. #Brauner4BourbonHall
