The first Indy 500 was held in 1911 and the winner came in at seventy-four miles per hour. The 1913 winner, Jules Goux, actually chugged Champagne at every pitstop before claiming the prize (drinking was understandably outlawed the following year). Since 1956, the winner chugs a bottle of milk in Victory Lane. That’s quite all right, but just make sure you save some for the Tom & Jerrys (rum, brandy, eggs, spices, and milk!) we’ll be drinking later on.
Indiana
Indiana adopted the nickname of “the Hoosier State” more than 150 years ago, inspired by a poem titled “The Hoosier’s Nest,” written in 1833 by Richmond’s John Finley. The etymology of hoosier remains a mystery, sparking countless theories, some of which are: Is it a roughneck from Upland South? Or derived from Old English to mean “high” and “hill?” Or is it slang for saying “Who’s here?” when some pioneers came a-knocking on the frontier’s front door? As Albert Einstein has famously said, “The most beautiful experience we can have in the mysterious.”
I keep coming back to this bar in Indianapolis called The Brass Ring. It’s where the industry people go when they’re done working their shifts at other bars and restaurants in town. Brass Ring plays old black-and white movies on the TVs, the back bar looks like something straight out of the 1950s or ’60s, the house shot is always Sambuca, and there is every cheap beer one could want. You can walk in and always feel like you’re home.
—Michael Toscano, brand ambassador, Woodford Reserve Distillery (formerly of Libertine Liquor Bar) (Indianapolis)
There’s plenty to see in the “Crossroads of America,” which is an apt motto for a state that has more major highways intersecting it than in any other, but be mindful when driving or walking anywhere in the state: Indiana people do not cross the street if there’s a “Don’t Walk” sign, even if there’s no traffic.
Cocktail bars are sprouting up throughout the state. College town Bloomington has worthwhile destinations like C3 (Crafted Cocktails + Cuisine), the Atlas Ballroom for good old-fashioned bar fun and games (yes, that is Skee-Ball over in the corner), and FARMbloomington, which always offers a cocktail menu reflecting classics on one side and a theme on the other, such as cocktails inspired by the movie The Sandlot, with the obligatory “You’re Killing Me, Smalls!,” made with Plymouth gin, green apple pucker, Midori (a melon liqueur rarely seen on menus), fresh lemon juice, and carbonated coconut water (also rarely seen).
Indianapolis has plenty of cocktail bars waiting to distract you. Libertine Liquor Bar is a sublevel oasis worth its weight in elevated cocktails and playful inventions, unafraid to infuse vodka with pink Starburst, for example; Thunderbird balances whimsical, well-balanced disco-dancing cocktails and southern-inspired food with the best of ‘em; the Dorman Street Saloon, running since 1908, holds the longstanding trophy for best laid-back neighborhood cocktail bar that doesn’t try too hard to be a cocktail bar, and accomplishes the task marvelously, with a knockout jukebox to boot; and the Brass Ring is an industry hangout for everyone to visit after they’ve worked a shift at their own spots. The house shot is Sambuca.
Though he was not born there, it just so happens there is a Santa Claus, Indiana, which receives its fair share of letters and requests during Christmastime.
Every American bar needs bitters. Ideally sugar to accompany said bitters, but definitely bitters. That’s a bartender’s salt and pepper, and you can’t cook without salt.
—Ryan Gullett, bar manager, Bluebeard (Indianapolis)
BAR SNACK
Indiana passed an artisan distiller’s permit law in 2013, allowing craft distillers the option to sell directly to consumers. Many other states have adopted this practice, which is why the number of craft distilleries across America has grown rapidly since 2010. If you like them apples, please do yourself a favor and try Starlight apple brandy, winner of the 2017 American Craft Spirit Awards Best of Brandy, from Huber’s, a family-operated orchard that has been in southern Indiana since the 1800s.
INDIANA SPIRIT
Cardinal has been around only since 2015, but it hurtled out of the gates like steam through a biodegradable paper straw, operating a distillery, tasting room, and restaurant with wonderful cocktails from day one. The company produces award-winning gins, spiced rums, coffee liqueur made with beans from local roaster Hopscotch, and various other fruit and floral liqueurs. Take a look at the website: It’s sincere yet playful and rooted in philanthropy. And the canned cocktails made by Cardinal are adorable.
Very often (taverns) stood on a corner so as to have two street entrances and wave a gilded beer sign at pedestrians drifting along from any point of the compass. The entrance was through swinging doors, which were shuttered so that anyone standing on the outside could not see what was happening on the inside.
—George Ade, Indiana satirist
INDIANA’S OLDEST BAR
Proudly claiming the first liquor license in Indiana, this saloon went by a few different names before turning into the Knickerbocker in 1874, when they renovated the space to offer live music (especially jazz and blues). It has accommodated such notables as Mark Twain, Ulysses S. Grant, and Al Capone over the years. A card detailing the history of the saloon reads, “Many gents spent their days in the luxury of the bar reading a good book, playing cards, or waiting on the next train that stopped directly out front.” A sign above the bar offers the warming sentiment: “Enter as strangers, leave as friends.”
No matter where I’ve traveled around the world, the minute people find out I’m from Indiana, they bring up the Indy 500, and immediately ask about racing or make the racecar sound.
—Michael Toscano, brand ambassador, Woodford Reserve Distillery, formerly of Libertine Liquor Bar (Indianapolis)
INDIANA BEVERAGE
Lots of other states claim milk as their state beverage, but in the 1930s, Louis Meyer, the first three-time winner of the Indy 500, started a new trend by chugging milk after winning the famous race, and though it took a little while to catch on, it has now become synonymous with winning the 500.
INDIANA BUCKET LIST BAR
Arriving at Sam’s Silver Circle was akin to entering the scene in Dazed and Confused at the pool hall, where everyone is hanging inside and out, drinking and laughing and checking out who’s got the hot new ride with vanity plates. When your friends are singing a show-stopping version of Bowie’s “Young Americans” as you’re walking around the room uncertain whether to have another drink, while taking photos of 1980s Sports Illustrated issues on the wall and hamming it up with the locals, and your friend is yelling at you to sign him up for Tom Petty’s “The Waiting,” and the karaoke host is wearing an American flag button-down, a ten-gallon cowboy hat, and a scowl, obviously not enjoying anyone or his job, you consider what is most important in life. And you are right when you decide: It’s asking nicely to queue up Tom Petty.
INDIANA COCKTAIL BAR
Affectionately known as “the Biscuit” or the “B&B” bar, this is Indianapolis’s original cocktail bar. Esquire bestowed it a spot on the “Best New Bars in America” list in 2012, and it has endured the wave of cocktail resurgence with a laid-back, casual speakeasy vibe. The cocktail menu has a few classics but mostly features original creations by the staff, such as A Dame to Kill For, a Scotch and Soda variation with green apple syrup. It’s one of those menus with the right kind of variety and creativity to make you want to try everything on the list, along with some beer cheese popcorn, hummus, and charcuterie. Call the babysitter and say you might be running a little late.
SAGE GIMLET
Cardinal developed its Terra Botanical gin with spice guru Lior Lev Sercarz, of the spice company La Boîte, who calls his method of conjuring memories of scents from our past “spice therapy.” The gin takes on the influences of botanicals and spices, inspired by the memories of cofounder Adam Quirk’s hikes in the southern Indiana woods and Sercarz’s childhood memories of zuta, a wild, prolific mint from upper Galilee in Israel. Therapy pays off, as it won American Distilling’s Best in Class in 2017.
2 ounces Cardinal Spirits Terra Botanical gin (or another American gin, such as Aviation, Waterloo, or Greenhook—you will find radical differences)
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce simple syrup (1:1 sugar to water)
3 to 4 fresh sage leaves
Garnish: fresh sage sprig
Shake the ingredients with ice until chilled; fine strain into a chilled coupe or Martini glass and serve up, garnished with the sage.
I’ll stick with gin. Champagne is just ginger ale that knows somebody.
—Hawkeye, in the TV show M*A*S*H, in the 1973 episode “Ceasefire”
BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
Breakfast of Champions is one of Indiana native Kurt Vonnegut’s most celebrated and well-known novels. It is also the catchphrase of Wheaties cereal. In the novel, every time a female server delivers a Martini, she says, “Breakfast of Champions.” It is not always on Bluebeard’s menu, but I found the recipe and state influence too important to overlook, and Amaro di Angostura is a wonderful product we need more of in our lives, just as we need more voices like Vonnegut’s. (Also, better eat your Wheaties.)
1 ounce Laird’s Straight apple brandy bottled in bond
½ ounce Montenegro amaro
½ ounce Amaro di Angostura
¾ ounce honey
¾ ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce Apple Jacks cereal–infused half-and-half (recipe follows)
Coupe glass rim: sugar and crushed Wheaties cereal
Garnish: Angostura bitters
Shake the ingredients with ice until chilled; strain into a chilled coupe glass rimmed with a mixture of sugar and crushed Wheaties (run the rim of the glass with the inside of a lemon wedge, or dip the rim into lemon juice). Serve up, garnished with the bitters. If you’d like to be extra creative, draw a Kurt Vonnegut asterisk on top of the drink by dropping the bitters in the center of the cocktail and hand-carving an asterisk with a thin straw toothpick.
I love gin. I always get people who say, ‘I just absolutely hate gin,’ and I love to try to convince them otherwise. Some of my favorites from the States are Uncle Val’s, Bluecoat, J. Rieger, Aria, Junipero, and 8th Day from here in Indy. Also, Bluebeard is right across the street from Hotel Tango. They are making big waves in the Midwest scene and growing.
—Ryan Gullett, bar manager, Bluebeard (Indianapolis)
Apple Jacks Cereal–Infused Half-and-Half
Makes about 1 cup
1 cup Apple Jacks cereal
1 cup half-and-half
Steep the cereal in the half-and-half for 30 minutes. Strain. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until the half-and-half’s expiration date.