NEWBURGH, Ind. – Right now, at the Jennings Street Public House, General Manager Nate Cavender has a big jar of pumpkin chunks macerating in Bourbon with ginger, orange peels, maple syrup, allspice, cloves, cinnamon sticks and nutmeg. This mixture, and many other homemade syrups and flavorings, will be used to craft specialty house cocktails.
“I’ll come in and there might be a crockpot of pumpkin or whatever under the bar,” said owner Nick Burch. “I’m like, ‘What are we doing here?’ and Nate says, ‘Don’t worry about it; it’s not done yet.’ The whole idea is playing with combinations of flavors and being creative.”
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Burch is a beer brewer who has worked at Carson’s Brewery and Damsel Brew Pub. He teamed up with Matt Easterling, a beer and beverage salesman, to open the Jennings Street Public House.
The two had talked about owning a bar together and started working on it a year ago, settling into the Jennings Station space formerly occupied by The Tin Fish.
They finished the basement bar, and then COVID hit. When the art gallery in the upstairs area moved out, they took advantage of the downtime and remodeled that space into a bar as well and finally opened in September.
The Jennings Street Public House is a cocktail bar, with a focus on spirits and craft cocktails using fresh and house-made ingredients. Wine and eight taps of rotating craft and domestic beer are certainly available, but creative mixology is the name of the game here.
“I want to do the drinks right,” Cavender said. “We use fresh juice, make the syrups and put the extra effort into it. Some places make cocktails that cover up the flavor of the liquor, and we don’t. We want you to taste it; it’s part of the cocktail.”
Cavender and bartender Terra Meyer shop for fresh fruit for juices and flavorings.
“We shop at the Oriental groceries a lot,” he said. “Today I got Thai basil; I always get my citrus there, and if I see something I can’t live without, which happens a lot, I’ll get it. Terra’s doing something with fresh cranberries this week, or sometimes she’ll bring something from her garden.”
Some other interesting housemade cocktail ingredients are:
Habanero Honey and Pepper vodka – “One week I made a spicy honey for a spicy margarita, and I had extra habaneros so I made some pepper vodka for people who like their bloody mary spicy,” said Cavender. “It comes with a warning because it is really hot.”
Grapefruit liqueur – “We used vodka to make a grapefruit liqueur,” Burch said. “We soaked the peels for about two weeks, then sweetened it, added grapefruit juice, cloves and hibiscus.”
Nutmeg and chile syrup – This sweet and spicy concoction is made with arbol chiles for a sweet syrup with a fiery hit of dried red chili flavor.
Cavender makes the house Bloody Mary mix and even the grenadine, using pomegranate molasses, pomegranate juice and demerara sugar.
All these goodies and other upscale ingredients, such as real Luxardo cherries, go into signature cocktails or weekend specials, for example:
The Night Watchman – Goslings Black Seal Rum with nutmeg and chile syrup, fresh lime and orange juices and orange bitters.
The Gin Basil Smash – Aviation Gin, fresh lemon, simple syrup, basil.
The Maple Old Fashioned – Ezra Brooks Bourbon, maple syrup, allspice dram.
Whiskey Cobbler – Autumn spiced bourbon, cranberry syrup, allspice dram, orange bitters.
The cocktail menu will change every three or four months, and Cavender and Meyer start every weekend by each coming up with a special drink to serve for two days only. Of course, classic cocktails are available, and any you wish for can be made.
“A lot of customers are excited to come in and try new things and experiment,” Burch said. “That’s our market; we also have hundreds of bottles of liquor to use in cocktails and can always switch it up if someone asks.”
Over 100 of those bottles are Bourbon, from perennial favorites to rare and hard-to-acquire bottles.
Next up, look for barrel-aged cocktails, which will be mixed and then aged in glass with a charred barrel stave until infused with an oaky flavor, then finished to order with more fresh ingredients.
The business is still growing and evolving, and big changes will be the norm for the next year.
Table service is now available so you can order your drinks without coming up to the bar. The basement bar will soon be ready for events and groups.
Food trucks pull up to the bar on weekends, but in 2021 Burch and Cavender hope to start preparing their own food. A side room will be finished as a prep kitchen, to first offer a sandwich menu and later, possibly food to order.
For the time being, customers may bring food in with them. Some grab restaurant carryout or delivery, and some bring a crockpot from home and enjoy their favorite soup with a cocktail side. A microwave and a drawer full of condiment packs, napkins and single-use silverware are provided.
If you go
The Jennings Street Public House is at 300 W. Jennings St., Newburgh
Phone: 812-518-4007
Hours:
Thursday 4-10 p.m.
Friday 3-11 p.m,
Saturday Noon-11 p.m,
Sunday Noon-9 p.m,
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October 31, 2020 at 06:02PM
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Jennings Street Public House: creativity is key at this new Newburgh cocktail bar - Courier & Press
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