Episode 212

Tarnished Truth, Delicious Bourbon

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What’s shakin, cocktail fans?

Welcome to Episode 212 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!

This time around, we chat with Andrew Yancey. He’s the co-owner and operator of Tarnished Truth Distilling based out of the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach, VA. We’re recording this interview in the wake of an awesome in-person spirits event run by Andrew and his team called the Virginia Bourbon Invitational.

In this fascinating conversation with Andrew Yancey of Tarnished Truth Distilling, some of the topics we discuss include:

How Andrew and his team opened up the first and (to-date) only hotel distillery in the US
Why the history and lore of the Cavalier Hotel is so important to the brand and its mystique, including Prohibition-era suicides, fresh prepared wild game, and a mysterious FBI file involving Richard Nixon.
We also discuss what it takes to design a distillery from the ground-up and the logic behind sourcing vs. in-housing certain spirits at various points in a brand’s growth and evolution.
Of course, we chat about the Virginia Bourbon Invitational, which is a fantastic annual event that will be returning to the Cavalier Hotel for its 4th year in November of 2022.
Along the way, we touch on the importance of salt water in your bathtub, why the first person you hire should always be a chemist, grandfathers with multiple side-hustles, and much, much more.

Featured Cocktail: The Black Manhattan

This episode’s featured cocktail is the Black Manhattan. To make it, you’ll need:

2 oz American Whiskey (Bourbon or Rye)
1 oz Amaro (Averna is traditional)
1 Dash Aromatic Bitters
1 Dash Orange Bitters

Combine these ingredients in a mixing glass with ice, stir for about 15-20 seconds until everything is properly chilled and diluted, then strain into a stemmed cocktail glass and garnish with a nice expressed orange twist.

Invented in 2005 by bartender Todd Smith at the legendary San Francisco bar, Bourbon & Branch, the Black Manhattan is precisely what it sounds like: a Manhattan, but darker. If you’re really into bitter liqueurs, you can also play around with various Fernets in this cocktail, whether we’re talking about Fernet Branca or some other representative of that particularly intense herbal category. In fact, when testing an amaro, the Black Manhattan is almost always our go-to cocktail, and it’s also a delicious, simple crowd-pleaser to break out during those holiday gatherings.

This episode was made possible with editing and sound design by Samantha Reed and distilling and bourbon insights courtesy of Andrew Yancey and Tarnished Truth Distilling. This has been a Modern Bar Cart production, copyright 2021.

This episode is also brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life.
Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

Tarnished Truth, Delicious Bourbon

Featured Cocktail: The Black Manhattan

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