Wed 6/14 – 4-9 PM $5 sangrias & NC Writers Network and Thurs 6/15 – 4-9 PM Prohibition Cocktails

Also Wed 6/14 – 7-9:00 PM – NC Writers Network and The Brandy Bar + Cocktails present guest author Bruce Holliday as next in their program In the Company of Writers. The program offers a series of personal and conversational dialogues featuring guest writers/poets followed by an open mic forum. These inspirational gatherings will elucidate and entertain those attending. The guest author speaks from 7-8 PM with an open mic from 8 -9 PM. The Chicago blues music of Mr. Jimmy welcomes you, continues during intermission, and closes the evening.

Bruce Holliday’s been publishing his weekly digital newsletter Flat Rock Together about the people, places, and events in and around Flat Rock, NC since the summer of 2019. Without any formal affiliation with the Village, Bruce offers it every Sunday as a service to the community. Flat Rock Together also serves as a personal online-journaling project cataloging Bruce’s thoughts each week.

This event occurs the 2nd Wednesday of each month and is co-sponsored by The Brandy Bar + Cocktails and the North Carolina Writers Network. Sign-ups for the open mic visit: https://thebrandybar.com/writers-open-mic/

Thurs 6/14 – 4-9:00 PM – Prohibition Cocktails – Once upon a time it was legal to operate a still, although many, like my grandpa, continued to operate illegally. Samuel King operated a legal distillery on the old Chimney Rock Road (US Highway 64), just west of Pace Road and Dr. George Fletcher operated one at his Inn on Highway 25 in Fletcher. It was in 1903 that the State of North Carolina first passed any law regulating the sale or manufacture of alcohol. The law was referred to as Chapter 233 of the public laws of that session, and was also known as “local option law.” It provided that local governments had the right to determine for their own area whether whiskey would be made and sold.  In a matter of just a few months, a petition signed by one-third of Hendersonville’s voters asked for a vote on whether to outlaw the manufacture of whiskey, ban barrooms, and saloons, and whether dispensaries should be established, such as drug stores, which would be permitted to sell liquor “on prescription.” Thirty days later, out went the manufacture and sale of whiskey in barrooms and salons, but it did permit drug stores to sell liquor on prescription. After the election, it was the fashionable thing for men to stop in at their favorite drug store and partake of a restorative before going on to or from work. The law did not provide for any oversight regulations, so the druggist could be as generous in the sale of booze as their quest for profits would dictate. A local, Frank “Bully” Waldrop,” was rumored to say, “The busiest part of the drug store was back in the prescription department, where, throughout the day, the druggists could quench the thirsts of those willing to pay. By 1912, it had reached such a point that the City Council passed an ordinance directing the chief of police to give to the newspapers the names of those who had purchased liquor on prescription during the preceding month. Prior to August 5, 1955, there was no law regulating the sale of beer and wine. Tuesday, May 8, 2012, Henderson County approved the sale of alcohol. We quote here the common law definition of a drunk, “Drunk is he who from the floor does sink and rise no more, but sober is he who from the floor does rise and still drink more.” (Don’t know how this would stand up in a DWI case these days though.) 

Prohibition cocktails: Mint Julep (our Brandy Smash) – Applejack, fresh mint mulled with simple syrup, topped with club soda; The Last Word – Douglas fir, Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, lime juice; Bees’ Knees – Douglas fir, CB Frost, sour mix, honey, St. Germaine; Rickey – Douglas fir, lime juice, topped with club soda; Sidecar – Camus, Cointreau, sour mix, 1/2 price on Cognac flight