Check out what’s new at 11 Wells, learn about their history and their future, and discover some fun cocktails at Know Your Spirits, multiple classes available this weekend, all FREE!
When local bars/tap rooms/cocktail rooms team up with good causes, everyone wins. The establishment gets business, an organization makes some needed funds, and you get to tell your boss you were at a fundraiser (which sounds way better than “I was at the bar all night!).
This particular event has the added benefit of adding a bit of flair to your wardrobe! The $10 Tie Sale is an event to raise money for the GLBT Host Home Program. Over one hundred ties have been donated, vintage and new, and all the money goes directly to the Host Home program. While you’re shopping, you can enjoy one of the many DuNord cocktails, including a special drink just for this event.
Tuesday, October 13th | 7pm-9pm | DuNord Craft Spirits, 2610 E 32nd St, Minneapolis
Last night, La Belle Vie reigned supreme in the Iron Bartender finals. And given the secret ingredient was a horrifyingly artificial “Green Apple Flavored Drink,” that is an impressive feat. I mean, there were some challenging things on that table but even fish sauce has an appealing umami quality. You had Hola Arepa and La Belle Vie, known for high quality and house made ingredients, trying to make something palatable from a bottle of artificial everything. I don’t envy either team and hopefully the eliminated teams (Marvel and Tattersall) at least took solace in not having to deal with this monstrosity.
We had a lot of fun attending three of the four events (we missed week two) and cheering on some of our favorite bartenders in town! In the three nights we attended, we got to taste 20 different consumer choice cocktails – some that made us anxious to try someplace new, and some that made us question old favorites. There were good surprises, like the salted 
pistachio concoction from Il Foro in week one. There were bad surprises, like the Froot Loop Cosmopolitan. But mostly, there were a lot of delicious and interesting things that we might not have ordered from a menu but really enjoyed trying (the habenero bitters in Hola Arepa’s Pineapple Old Fashioned would have scared me away, but somehow they brought a lot of flavor with a manageable level of heat).
Ultimately, this felt like a celebration of everything that is going on in the local cocktail scene. One of the things that draws me towards the local food and drink scene (other than the amazing food and drink) is the camaraderie that seems to exist amongst people who are technically competitors. The people make the experience, and our towns have some GREAT people!
The newly launched Thirst Network, conceived of in part by Lee Egbert of 11 Wells and Dashfire Bitters, is out in force at the Iron Bartender finals. This project hopes to be the definitive resource for beverage media, with support from some of the best local bars, coffee shops, distillers, and more.
The first match up tonight is Tattersall vs. Hola Arepa. Battle of the syrups! (Seriously, both teams have an intimidating lineup of syrup bottles at the front of their bars.)
Local distillery 11 Wells hasn’t opened their cocktail room yet but it sounds like it should be coming very soon (and now with a restaurant as well!). In the mean time, they have been opening their doors from time to time for tours and samples.
One such time is coming up next weekend for the St. Paul Art Crawl from October 9th-11th. Browse the work of local artists while enjoying spirit samples in the historic Hamm’s Brewery. To sweeten the already great deal, 11 Wells will be hosting a series of FREE classes called “Know Your Spirits.” This sounds like a GREAT opportunity to both drink and learn. And for free!
I’ll be there at 1pm on Saturday, see you there?
I just high fived Dan Oskey of Tattersall before I knew who he was. And he vaguely knew that my tiny little blog had written about Tattersall. I am COMPLETELY STAR STRUCK.
