I’d like to avoid using this blog as a way to vent my frustrations but I’ve got to bring up the bane of my drinking existence…The 4J Bar. What is a 4J Bar you ask? Oh you’ve seen them whether you know it or not. It could be a restaurant, a pub, a hotel bar, or any other trendy or not so trendy place to grab a drink. You’ll know the 4J Bar because when you look up behind the bartender you only see around four different whiskies. Usually they consist of Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, John Walker, and Jameson. This may not be the exact make up of the bar (and I personally have nothing against any of these) but my list is alliterative and you get the gist of what I’m saying. Basically, their whiskey selection doesn’t really exist. I’m not saying that every place that serves alcohol should be a whiskey bar (God I wish!) but especially places that obviously put thought into their beer and wine selections could put a little more effort toward their whiskey.
The kicker is that those four or so bottles of whiskey are bunched in around 400 bottles of vodkas and liqueurs. I’m sorry but you just don’t need that much vodka. You’re paying for the name not the taste (or lack there of). Nine times out of ten that vodka’s going into a cocktail where you can’t tell if it’s Grey Goose or Smirnoff. Show me someone who can and I’ll show you a liar. “But I drink my vodka straight and I can tell the difference.” No you can’t. At best you can sort them into three groups: Premium, mid-tier, and crap. If I line you up with a blind tasting of Grey Goose, Belvedere, Ulitmat, and Stolichnaya and tell you to pick Belvedere out of that group you’ll probably be right…25% of the time.
Why am I harping on this? Because whiskey isn’t like vodka, they all taste different. However, we live in a vodka world. It’s cheaper for the bar to buy and they sell those cocktails for the same price as a quality dram. And the endless herds of Trendy Wendys buy them by the gallons. Buy cheap, sell high, vodka wins every time.
So what can we do about this you say? Say something. Ask the bartender why they don’t stock more whiskies. Tell the manager that you love the food but you’d like to see more whiskies on the bar menu. Mention to the owner what a rising tide there is in the interest of quality whiskies and that they could really capitalize on that with just a little more variety. Make your voice heard. Eventually, if enough of us say something we might start seeing a bottle of Macallan or Rittenhouse.
-Richard