Barr Hill Gin distillery is a happy place. The space is vast and buzzing with activity – almost literally, as the company built its reputation around protecting honey bees. Their flagship gin — and pretty much everything else they produce—is distilled from local honey and the results have elevated it to a place of honor as the most awarded gin in the United States.
Now the distillery has one more thing to be happy about —the bar at its Gin Lane Distillery was named a finalist for the prestigious James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar. It’s the first Vermont bar to ever be named a finalist for Outstanding Bar, an award given in recognition of consistent excellence in a drinks program, outstanding atmosphere, hospitality, and operations, as well as contributing positively to its broader community.
It’s a tall order, but one that Barr Hill is perhaps uniquely qualified to to fill. The distillery began as an agricultural initiative between a beekeeper and a distiller, hoping to find ways to improve the bottom line for area farmers. These days, their state-of-the-art facility has pollinator gardens outside, and inside was built from the former brownfields ground up for sustainability. Visitors can learn about the care that goes into the production via a self-guided tour that tells the story with gorgeous large-scale images.
Touring the display is perhaps best done with a drink in one’s hand. The distillery’s Beard-recognized bar program features everything scratch-made, right down to the tonic syrup for the best G&T you’ve ever had, which is made from two different types of South American cinchona bark with juniper raw honey, locally grown lemongrass, and citrus oils.
That syrup is a microcosm of the entire bar program. “We work hard to make our cocktails as unique and special as possible, while emphasizing local whenever we can,” says Patrick Amice, general manager of hospitality operations. “We use our Barr Hill raw honey — gathered from local apiaries — to make many of our cocktails, including our most popular cocktail, the Bee’s Knees.”
The Bee’s Knees cocktail is also the centerpiece of their annual Bee’s Knees Week, raising money and awareness around creating and protecting wild foraging space for bees and other pollinators. I wrote about it in 2019, and now the September event has created over 700,000 square feet (23 acres) of new pollinator habitat to support a diversity of species.
The devotion to sourcing local remains year-round, despite Vermont’s short growing season. “In the winter, it can become harder to find local fruits and vegetables,” Amice says, but local dairy and other ingredients are alway around. For example, Vermont Creamery provides the butter for brown-butter-wash Tomcat cocktails, and local eggs from Wicked Bines Farm serve as the base of some of their foams and egg white cocktails. And of course, Vermont’s best-known export (aside from Noah Kahan) is featured on the menu. “We whip maple syrup from a local maple sugar maker with Versawhip to serve as the fluffy top on our Twist of Vermont, a cocktail version of the classic Vermont Creemee (soft serve ice cream with maple),” Amice says.
Don’t miss the clarified cocktails — most recently a riff on a chai latte called Chai Harder was clarified with Sweet Rowan Farmstead organic milk, from grass-fed cows in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, and served with a biscuit.
Chai Harder features Barr Hill’s limited production vodka. Smooth and floral, it’s also distilled from honey, and it’s fabulous in their “Montpelier Mule,” made with their own spicy house-made ginger syrup, which is available to purchase online, along with their tonic syrup and honey syrup.
If you want a deep dive, Barr Hill’s distillery tours are among the best I’ve ever taken. Each starts with a taste of raw honey, bringing visitors through the entire process in an interactive way, with clear explanations (and plenty of tastes) along the way. You can even try your hand at dipping a bottle into wax — the iconic seal to every Barr Hill Gin.
Planning a visit? Barr Hill’s Summer Music Series starts May 8 and the distillery celebrates its fifth anniversary June 29, including the launch of a special release TomCat Gin and special release Phyllis Whiskey. If you can’t make it in person, order some of Barr Hill’s spirits and make this drink at home.
Barr Hill Bees Knees
2 oz. Barr Hill Gin (or sub Tomcat Gin for a Cat’s Pajamas),
3/4 oz. lemon
3/4 oz. honey
Shake and strain into a coupe, then garnish with an expression of lemon oil.
Winners of the James Beard Awards will be announced at the Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony on June 10, 2024.