Beards, Bourbon & Tasty Eats

             After a fun filled Saturday enjoying the Gig Harbor waterfront and little shops you are going to want some food. Trust me, my fiancé and I were ready for some grub! There are a bunch of fast food joints and stuff around the area, but don’t settle for that. A short drive away is NetShed No. 9 ! A fantastic breakfast and brunch spot on the waterfront in Downtown Gig Harbor, WA. They are open Thursday – Monday 8am - 4pm . Reading some of the charts on the wall I discovered that Gig Harbor got its name during an American expedition in 1841, when a member of Lt. Charles Wilkes’s crew rowed into the bay in a gig , or small narrow boat. The waterfront is full of shops to explore while enjoying the amazing sights, smells and sounds of the waterfront. The restaurant is from husband-wife restaurateurs Thad Lyman and Katie Doherty. They came to Gig Harbor around 2009 after operating restaurants in Napa Valley and working in other California...

            Now that we have established what bourbon is I believe its time to drink some! This weekend I had the opportunity to visit the Heritage Distillery in Gig Harbor, Washington . Heritage has been producing great spirits since 2012 and was the first distillery in Washington. The first spirit produced and sold was their Elk Rider Blended Whiskey in 2013. Don’t get it twisted, its pretty dam good whiskey, but that’s not what we went to drink. The tasting room is a beautiful little spot overlooking the distillery itself. The bar is made out of two huge pieces of tree that blended perfect with the cask that surround it. As we were standing around the tasting room waiting for our tour, Claire our bartender, was giving us the low down on some of the history of the owner’s families and the awesome stories behind some of the pictures hanging on the wall that were the inspiration for the label on the Elk Rider Whiskey. Hint it’s a woman riding an elk ...

     What is bourbon? Well for one its tasty, but I am sure you know that. It’s actually a great question that I hope to answer without getting super technical and uppity that I lose the intention of this blog! Let’s begin...             Bourbon whiskey is a type of American whiskey, a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. For a whiskey to be considered bourbon, the grain mash must be at least 51% corn. By law the mixture must be stored in charred oak containers and cannot contain any additives. The name “bourbon” and where it derives from isn’t exactly black and white. Many believe it comes from the French Bourbon dynasty, although other beliefs for the whiskey's name are Bourbon County in Kentucky and Bourbon Street in New Orleans.   The use of the term "bourbon" for whiskey has been traced to the 1820’s, and the term began to be used consistently in Kentucky in the 1870’s. Som...