PHOTO BY ANNA NIXON
Historic Kentucky bourbon brand Chicken Cock dates back more than 160 years and was resurrected in 2012. Now it’s set to put down roots in the heart of Bourbon Country with this week’s opening of its new home in Bardstown. Chicken Cock has unveiled an immersive experience called Circa 1856 at the historic Harrison-Smith House in downtown Bardstown that will serve as its public face. Circa 1856 is named for the year Chicken Cock’s original distillery was built in Paris, Kentucky, and it's officially open starting June 27, housing a bar, retail shop, barrel pick experience, and a microdistillery.
Circa 1856 exudes the home-like feel of its space. The house features a lounge area in front with merchandise and whiskey for sale and a bar toward the back. The bar serves the Chicken Cock whiskey lineup, of course, but also a variety of specialty and classic cocktails and whiskey flights. Circa 1856’s bar menu spans from an Old Fashioned and a Manhattan to creative signatures like the French Ally cocktail, made with Chicken Cock Chanticleer bourbon, orange liqueur, and fresh citrus, and the Test Of Time, a blend of Chicken Cock Red Stave bourbon, petite sirah wine, citrus, and egg white (cocktails are $14-$18). The bar also offers non-whiskey cocktails like Margaritas, Gimlets, and Martinis.
The Chicken Cock portfolio includes a variety of whiskeys made in partnership with Bardstown Bourbon Company’s collaborative distillation program, including its core straight bourbon and straight rye (each $60), a small batch release ($70), and Double Oak whiskey ($100). In addition, it offers specialty labels like Island Rooster ($200), which is finished in Caribbean rum casks; a variety of single barrel expressions; and its annual Tin Release ($200-$300), which harkens back to Prohibition, when Chicken Cock moved production to Canada and smuggled its whiskeys back into the U. S. in tin cans. Many of these specialty products are available for sampling at the Circa 1856 bar in tasting flights ($26-$45 for three ½-ounce pours) or neat pours ($11-$24/1-ounce pour).
To commemorate the opening of Circa 1856, Chicken Cock is releasing two new whiskeys that will only be available at the brand house in Bardstown: a 5 year old private cask of its Kentucky straight bourbon that’s bottled at barrel proof and a 15 year old version of its Kentucky straight bourbon. The brand expects to routinely offer more distillery-exclusive whiskeys going forward, as the Circa 1856 facility also includes a shed with an operational 30-gallon still, which the company plans to use to make experimental whiskeys. Chicken Cock will maintain its partnership with Bardstown Bourbon Company for its core lineup.
James A. Miller established Chicken Cock in 1856 after finding success with his eponymous J.A. Miller’s Old Bourbon brand. The name is inspired by the rooster’s reputation for toughness and defiance, and the term chicken cock was more commonly used in those days. In the early 1900s, the large firm Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Co. purchased Chicken Cock and all of its assets, and they produced the brand until Prohibition. While Chicken Cock relocated briefly to Canada during Prohibition, it returned to the U.S. following Repeal and remained popular through the 1940s, though it faded in the 1950s. In 2012, Chicken Cock was revived by Grain & Barrel Spirits CEO Matti Anttila, who resurrected the brand and formed a partnership with Bardstown Bourbon Company as the distiller.
The new Circa 1856 site is Chicken Cock’s first official branded home in more than 100 years. Along with the bar, retail space, and microdistillery, it plans to host special events at the site, as well as add a pop-up kitchen in the future.
