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[BOOZE NEWS]

Tasting History

Blue Wing Rye Whiskey resurrects a piece of St. Louis’ distilling past

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Bill Wittenberg always knew that his family had some connection to St. Louis preProhibition distilling history, but he never grasped the magnitude of that involvement until his curiosity led him down a rabbit hole and to the doorstep of a local historian who delivered a bombshell: Not only was his great-great-grandfather a prominent distiller; he operated one of the largest and most successful distilleries in the Midwest, called Blue Wing.

Now, Wittenberg has made it his mission to resurrect the oncethriving brand with Blue Wing Rye Whiskey, a small-batch product that was officially released in 2019 and is starting to gain steam in the St. Louis market. Made under his label, C.H. Wittenberg Distilling Co., Blue Wing is not simply a nod to his family’s past, but to St. Louis’ once-thriving distilling industry and, hopefully, its future.

“At the time my great-greatgrandfather founded Blue Wing, St. Louis was one of the largest cities in the U.S. and was considered the last jumping-off point,” Wittenberg says. “People think of St. Louis’ brewing history, but there were a lot of distilleries as well. Believe it or not, even at one point, Jack Daniels was based in St. Louis. Once Prohibition started sweeping America, Tennessee went dry about ten years before the rest of the country, so they moved their operations here. There were several others here, too. We want to revive a part of that success that was only shut down because people were holier than thou.”

For Wittenberg, the path to resurrecting the long-shuttered Blue Wing has been roughly a decade in the making. After some basic internet research sparked his interest, he began working with local liquor historian Randy Huetsch, who filled in a lot of the pieces he’d been unable to find on his own. According to Huetsch, Blue Wing was a robust operation founded by Wittenberg’s greatgreat-grandfather, Charles Henry Wittenberg, in the late 1880s or early 1890s on the north side of the city, not far from Scott Joplin’s House. Though now just a vacant lot, the old Blue Wing was an integral piece of the neighborhood’s vibrant scene, filled with hotels, restaurants, bars and honkytonks.

Blue Wing enjoyed great success under Wittenberg’s greatgreat-grandfather for its rye and bourbon, and that success continued on after he passed it down to his son, Wittenberg’s great-grandfather. However, once Prohibition hit in 1920, the distillery was shuttered and eventually lost to the past until Wittenberg started digging.

After finding several pieces of Blue Wing memorabilia online and through Huetsch, Wittenberg developed a clear picture of the company’s branding, including its label. Using that as inspiration, he set out to resurrect its signature product, at first experimenting in his garage, then researching partnerships with distilling companies around the country before connecting with Steve Neukomm of Square One Brewery & Distillery in Lafayette Square roughly nine years ago.

“I showed up on his doorstep and said, ‘I am Bill Wittenberg, and I want to start making rye whiskey,’” Wittenberg says. “I started telling him about my family, my interest in the small-batch craft movement and my interest in rye, as well as a fortuitous connection with him through a mutual distant cousin, and he agreed to help.”

With Neukomm’s help Wittenberg began working on recipes and crafted a few sample batches that they let sit for years because they both got busy. Then, in 2017, Neukomm reached out to Wittenberg to ask if he was still interesting in working in Blue Wing. He enthusiastically agreed, and the two set out to recreate the brand’s long-lost rye to the best of their abilities, without having the original grain bill to go off of for a recipe. Instead, the two crafted their own unique grain bill, resulting in a smoky rye made from cottonwood-smoked barley malt sourced from Alamosa, Colorado.

After two years of aging, Wittenberg released a very limited amount of Blue Wing’s rye whiskey in 2019, though he counts 2020 as the official year of the launch — 100 years after his family’s distillery was shuttered. He notes that the brand is still very small scale, having produced 500 bottles in the past two years which are sold at nine local retailers, including the Wine & Cheese Place, Parker’s Table, Friar Tuck’s and the Beer and Sauce Shop. With 1,000 more currently aging, he is excited to see where not only his project goes, but how much his, and other local distilleries, can help bring back a piece of St. Louis history, one glass at a time.

“We feel like we have brought back a wooly mammoth by recreating this from scratch with our own hands,” Wittenberg says.

Blue Wing Rye Whiskey is a taste of St. Louis’ once-thriving distilling history. | BILL WITTENBERG

Here’s the Scoop

Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream in Webster Groves to close, will reopen next spring in the Grove

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

For the past eighteen years,

Serendipity Homemade

Ice Cream (8130 Big Bend Boulevard, Webster Groves; 314-962-2700) has been a staple of the Webster Groves food scene, bringing joy and sweet treats to patrons from its storefront in the heart of the city’s Old Orchard shopping district. Now, that era is drawing to a close; the shop’s owner, Beckie Jacobs, announced that she will be closing the Webster Groves location on December 23, citing the inability of her and her landlord to reach a new lease agreement as the reason for the closure. Jacobs will reopen her ice cream business in the Grove sometime in the spring of 2022.

“This is so bittersweet for me,” says Jacobs in a release announcing the closure and new location. “After eighteen beloved years in Webster Groves, my customers have truly become family. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to come to an agreement with my landlord, who terminated my lease, and I’ve been unsuccessful in finding a suitable, alternative location in Webster at this time. Fortunately, my plans for a new location in The Grove have been in the works for quite some time and we’ve got some super cool changes in store for our guests with our new City location.”

Jacobs opened Serendipity in 2003, modeling her business off the ice cream parlors she used to visit when she was a kid growing up in St. Louis. Though she admitted to the RFT in a 2010 interview that she wasn’t necessarily passionate about the frozen dessert, she liked it enough to see it as a way to develop her career path. That interest propelled her to dive headfirst into the business, enrolling in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s ice cream workshop to learn how to make the dessert before launching her storefront.

In her nearly two decades in business, Jacobs has distinguished herself as one of the city’s premier ice cream brands, offering her homemade frozen concoctions to patrons of her shop as well as her wholesale restaurant customers for whom she is known to create custom flavors. She’s also made a name for Serendipity as the city’s definitive place to celebrate National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, an annual spectacle held the first Saturday in February. Though the shop will be closed for this year’s festivities, Jacobs is ensuring that her loyal customers can still celebrate with her through events at both the Parkmoor Drive-In in Webster Groves and the Sliced Pint downtown.

As for her new location in the Grove, which will be at 4400 Manchester Road, Jacobs says she has big plans, including a larger space, expanded menu and increased hours. In addition to ice cream, offerings at the forthcoming shop will include coffee and pastries for morning visitors and a larger selection of boozy Spirited Shakes for the evening crowd. She is also excited to offer new items like coffee floats, which feature coffee over a bonbon, affogato, an Italian concoction which pairs ice cream with a shot of espresso, and small Dutch pancakes, called poffertjes, served with a variety of toppings.

Jacobs had hoped to have the Grove location open sooner than spring of 2022, but she explains that supply-chain problems and construction issues have delayed the buildout. However, in addition to the partnerships with the Parkmoor and the Sliced Pint for Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, she will be doing pop-ups around town until the shop opens so guests can continue to enjoy her sweet treats.

“The good news [is that] many of the restaurants that already serve my ice cream are stepping up to the plate to be pop-up partners,” Jacobs says, assuring St. Louis dessert lovers that they will not be without her wares for too long.

Serendipity is leaving its Webster Groves home of eighteen years for the Grove. | COURTESY OF SERENDIPITY HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

[FOOD NEWS]

Smiles for Aisles

St. Louis bakery serves up Smiley Face Cookies at Schnucks

Written by JENNA JONES

Beginning last week, St. Louisbased McArthur’s Bakery is bringing smiles in the form of delicious cookies to 73 Schnucks stores. In a partnership with Lafayette Industries’ StepUp Program, Perfectly Imperfect butter cookies will now be sold at the store, decorated by adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The StepUp program was created as a training program, designed “to showcase the abilities of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to gain and maintain competitive employment,” according to a press release. McArthur’s joined the program and now provides cookie-decorating jobs at its Smiley Face Cookie Company branch.

“Our StepUp team members decorate each oversized butter cookie with great care and truly love their jobs,” McArthur’s Bakery owner Scott Rinaberger says in a press release. “We are happy to bring these special cookies and their job-training mission to a much bigger audience through Schnucks.”

Janell Schleeper, Schnucks’ bakery category manager, says in the press release that Schnucks is excited to help local companies like McArthur’s bring their products to the store, as well as to support their mission to help those with disabilities “maximize their abilities.”

Cookies are labeled as Smiley Face Cookie Company and are decorated in a variety of colors. There are six cookies in each box.

“Each delicious cookie is individually decorated with a smile by a McArthur’s employee,” Schleeper says, “and it warms my heart to think about all the smiles that, together, we will bring to our customers.”

Snowmen and smiley faces are the signature designs of Smiley Face Cookie Company. | COURTESY OF MCARTHUR’S BAKERY