Culture Clash or Mick Meets Bourbon

Is it a sacrilege to start the Bourbon trail by eating at French Bistro? Well, that’s what we did. Gail and I met a friend of hers in Cincinnati for lunch on our way to Lexington. Gail’s friend, Tom, is a resident of Cincy and a friend of the chef/owner at Jean Robert’s Table in the heart of Cincinnati. Jean Robert’s Table is an elegant restaurant featuring many French classics. It seems wrong to start a bourbon soaked road trip with a nicoise salad. Well actually, Tom had the salad. I had a burger. It seemed more fitting for the launch of the bourbon trail. I’m sure the staff was laying odds on whether I would do a burger or the steak frites. I hope it was even odds as it was a toss-up decision for me.

Our second stop was the Barrel House Distillery in Lexington. Barrel House is a small-scale producer. It’s so small, the tour guide told us that there was no bourbon to sample or to buy. There next batch was not due to finish in the barrels for another month or so. Albeit crestfallen, we tried to salve our disappointment with a sample of their vodka, moonshine and oak aged rum. The rum was tasty; all the others were just varying degrees of burn.

Apparently, all you need to be a small batch distillery is a fermentation tank and a still. Barrel House used aplastic feed grade gaylord as its fermentation tank and the still was smaller than a 55-gallon drum. Thirty or so oak barrels were all they could accommodate in their warehouse for aging the elixir.

After wetting our whistle, it was time for some BBQ. I hoped that there was not shortage of smoked meats at the Country Club Smokehouse, our next stop. Our luck return when we were able to order a smoked meat tray that had smoked brisket, ribs, house made pastrami, sriracha wings and smoked tongue. All was good, but it a little disconcerting that my food may taste me back as I swallowed the tongue. Although not a traditional BBQ joint, it was a good stop. Country Club Smokehouse is located is in an industrial part of the city in a rejuvenated commercial building. Just be careful not to disturb the hipsters slumming it.