Whiskys (non-Irish or Scot) & Bourbons

[thatguy]

Come for The Dali museum…stay for the Whiskey club

https://www.ediblemontereybay.com/blog/t...-monterey/

The Whisky Club Prepares to Open in Downtown Monterey
by [color=var(--body-font-color)]Mark C. Anderson[/color]
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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65)]Mitchel and LisAnne Sawhney, owners of the soon-to-open Whisky Club on Alvarado Street[/color]

December 15, 2021 – Mitchel Sawhney of Seaside is the type of whisky enthusiast and collector who spontaneously rattles off brands so fast most mortals can’t keep up. 
He’s so deep in the game he can claim one of the world’s largest collections of 40-year-old Laphroaig Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky. 

He enjoys the type of industry connections that recently earned him dibs on two bottles of only 20 in existence, with each worth upwards of $35,000. After his partner in life and business LisAnne Sawhney dropped that nugget as a way to show how into #whiskylife her husband is, he gently requested the brand not be mentioned because other collectors would be incensed at the producer that they didn’t get the memo.

(If you noted whisky without the “e,” good on you. That’s how the word is spelled in Scotland and Canada. Sawhney is all about his Scotch, so he leans “whisky,” and we’ll use that spelling here.)

But somehow he’s not a snob. He has no problem if you want to mix a world-class whisky with soda. Yes, he’ll take his neat, but you do you.

“Some people want to put Coke in Pappy Van Winkle 23 Year,” Mitchel says, referring to a spirit that can run around $100 a shot. “People get upset at that, but if it’s how he or she or they want to enjoy it, it’s his or her or their money. You have no right to get upset about what someone’s doing with their product. I am merely providing access and education unique to this area.”

It all bodes well for The Whisky Club, which occupies the former Guitar Center at 425 Alvarado Street in downtown Monterey. 
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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65)]The interior is lined with gleaming wooden shelves (Photo: Mark C. Anderson)[/color]

The whole point is to democratize Sawhney’s passion for the spirit in a welcoming way, so his combination of abject enthusiasm, obsessive knowledge and laidback lack of judgement sets a promising tone.

“We want it to be a relaxed and educational place,” LisAnne says. “Mitch wants to share his passion for the spirits. We’re glad to share and be appreciated for what we’re bringing to the community.” 

After months of breathless anticipation and unsolicited visits from locals asking when they’ll open, TWC aims to start hosting soft openings by January. (Keep an eye on Edible Monterey Baynewsletters and TWC’s Facebook and Instagram feeds for updates.) 

Once two final approvals from the alcohol-control authorities In Sacramento go through they’ll start stocking the shelves of the two-headed business, likely around the start of 2022: Up front will be the bar, while the second chamber will be a bottle shop. Employee training is underway.

Even empty, the shelves are a vision to behold. When TWC opens they’ll present more than 200 expressions of whisky, whiskey and bourbon from the likes of Garrison Brothers, Laphroig, Macallan, High West, Woodford Reserve and beyond, expanding from there according to audience response.
 
The bottle shop will offer hundreds more. Sawhney enjoys relationships with many of their favorite brand’s owners and/or distillers, describing Angel’s Envy co-founder and Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame inductee Wes Henderson as an uncle figure.

“I’m a relationship sort of guy,” he says. “We are going to carry as many different expressions as we can of each brand we like so a customer can taste the difference. I want to share my passion with people to see if they like it.”

Obscure liquors from the world of whiskey—and beyond—also represent a focus. 
“Many of our [spirits] will be from craft distilleries and more uncommon names,” LisAnne says. “That’s one of our niches.” 
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There will be a lot more going on besides whiskeys served solo or via flights. 
Eight upper end beers will flow from taps. A Scheid wine will be featured, also on tap. An ambitious cocktail line navigates classics, some on tap, and house recipes that are being finalized in concert with employee training. Those include three different takes on Manhattans and whisky sours, plus TWC specialties like Toast to Big Sur, Islay Sunrise and Get Off My Lawn, the latter being a nod to Clint Eastwood. Basic food will start with spirit-friendly chocolates and charcuterie boards.

They also want to specialize in capped-capacity tasting seminars with as many titans of the whisky world as they can rope in. Plans for whisky subscriptions, distillery field trips and a formidable club-within-the-club are in the pipeline for coming years.

Sawhney calls the physical renovation “a labor of love—and a lot more patience.” 

“The floor was uneven,” he says. “The walls were waves.”

He stained most of the ample wood surfaces himself. He brought in 130 sheets of plywood for various updates. He plodded through the elaborate machinations involved with changing a historic building.

The key words for the whole operation: “In time.” It comes up when discussing procuring screws. It surfaces when talking staff challenges. (BTW, they are looking for whisky enthusiasts to hire.) It pops up when discussing permit processes. 

That feels on brand in a pair of ways. 

One, Mitchel Sawhney used to work 16-hour days building data memory for massive partners in the high-tech analytic space, assembling systems that could process eight transactions a second. He estimates he made 150 decisions a day while, he adds, one bad call “can get you fired.” (LisAnne is pausing her career in business consulting to help get TWC off the ground, and aspires to make this the first of a growing family of shops.)

So even as bringing TWC to life has been a Herculean heave, it also feels like an appropriate next act that’s more focused on relax and enjoy than react and transact. 

Two, without time there is no aged whisky. There’s a reason he prefers spirits that have decades of maturation to their name. And a little extra time to fine tune things can’t hurt after this long of a wait, as LisAnna knows well.

She messaged as much after learning that the opening will be delayed until the new year: “At least we all get to learn more and enjoy the holidays.”

Cheers to that. 

More at thewhiskyclub.com.

—tg