Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/133302
The locavore movement extends to spirits: At Plat99, Mixology Manager Michael Gray uses Backbone Bourbon, distilled in Lawrenceburg, IN, in his Wayworn Road cocktail. In the middle of this view is Indianapolis, a fast-growing, midsize market with an outsized passion for some of life's most sophisticated pleasures: classic, lavish cocktails. But despite the energy and skill of many Indianapolis bartenders, just one year ago, there was no common cause. Talented individuals were creating a buzz, yet each was an island in the sea of hospitality. Unconnected. Enter Joshua Mason, Director of Training for Southern Wine & Spirits (SWS) of Indiana. He recognized the local bartenders' passion, and their clamoring for education. "We established the Academy of Spirits and Fine Service in September 2012, but it started with a call-out meeting to bartenders to determine what they needed to move forward with the cocktail scene in Indiana," Mason says. "Originally, it was the Indiana Beverage Professionals Roundtable. The desire was to start a United States Bartenders Guild [USBG] chapter in Indiana." The Academy is an educational forum that's united the mixology community. The class offered lasts 13 weeks, with a midterm and a final. Nearing the graduation of its second class, it has fostered a near-50-member USBG chapter in the state. "I called Bridget Albert, the SWS Director of Mixology and Director of the Academy for Spirits and Fine Service, Illinois Mixologist in Chicago. She explained what would be available [to the Indiana group] through the Academy's work," Mason adds. "I built the first two Academies with Bridget's vision." Now, the pettiness of arguing over whose Old Fashioned is most fashionable has been eliminated. Academy graduates not only have an enhanced knowledge of craft—there are intangibles in hospitality and collegiality. The community personifies sophistication in the Heartland. "There's a farm-to-table food craze and we're right in the center of the Midwest," says Matthew Phillips, SWS Director of On-Premise/Prestige. "More independent restaurants here realize the importance of what is locally sourced, because those sources are not far away at all." "The culinary talent keeps coming in waves," adds Ryan Sipe, SWS Director of On-Premise/Coastal Division. "It just keeps growing as our initiatives have progressed, and the trends in beverage alcohol will enable it." Recently, Indianapolis mixology has gotten two nudges toward the cutting edge: tourism from the 2012 Super Bowl, and increased convention traffic. "There's been huge growth over the past few years because larger cities were hit so hard by the recession," says Phillips. "Accommodations here are attractively priced." Ultimately, the emergence of Indianapolis as a cultural/culinary/cocktail destination has dovetailed with the advocacy of the USBG, and the support of Southern Wine & Spirits, which arrived in Indiana in July of 2010. "The passion was here; it just needed a catalyst," says Mason. "Southern was willing to stick its neck out for the Academy and invest in it—we would never have an Academy at all without that." THE TASTING PANEL takes a look at some of the faces in the Heartland, the talented men and women who are working with Southern Wine & Spirits to put Indianapolis on the mixology map. june 2013 / the tasting panel / 81 TP0613_080-119.indd 81 5/24/13 1:54 PM