What Joe Keeper of Silver Lake’s Bar Keeper is drinking now

Joe Keeper, founder and chief spirits curator behind Bar Keeper in Silver Lake, has been enjoying a new small batch Bourbon called Bib & Tucker.

Aged six years, “the juice is exquisite, just delicious stuff,” says Keeper. “You know, Bourbon is 51% corn, so it sometimes has a viscosity like chicken schmaltz on your lips. But this one is not oily or greasy.”

“What’s beautiful, besides the juice inside, is the retro bottle. It makes you think of pre-Prohibition bottles because the name and other information is actually pressed into the glass.”

As for the name, “a bib and tucker was the finest wardrobe a gentleman could put together back in the day, which was the late 1800s,” he explains. “Remember the show ‘Beverly Hillbillies?’ When the character Jed Clampett wasn’t wearing his overalls, he’d put on his little bow tie. That was his bib and tucker.”

“When I first found Bib & Tucker, I thought I was the only one who knew about it,” says Keeper. “But I just saw it at Gelson’s the other day, so it’s now accessible. Still small batch and very affordable, it’s not as mainstream as Knob Creek or Bulleitt. A great discovery.”

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