Chattanooga Times Free Press

Cocktails made with awardwinning craft spirits at Gate 11

At Gate 11 Distillery, craft cocktails are made with award-winning craft spirits

BARRY COURTER | STAFF WRITER

Order a Jack & Coke on a night on the town, and the bartender knows to reach for Jack Daniel’s whiskey and Coca-Cola. Not so at Chattanooga’s Gate 11 Distillery — at least not exactly. When Tennessee changed laws governing alcohol sales in 2018 to allow distilleries to begin selling cocktails, Gate 11 owners Wanda and William “Bill” Lee saw an opportunity to blend their passions for making craft spirits with making craft cocktails. The law comes with limitations, however, as it mandates that a bar that sells its own house-crafted spirits can only sell its own house-crafted spirits.

For the Lees, who were among the first in the state to open a distillery/bar, the move comes with some challenges, of course, but it also comes with a good many opportunities — not only from a business standpoint, but from a creative one as well.

Not only are they challenged with making a really great gin, or vodka or whiskey, but with adapting those products to make popular cocktails. Simply put: How do you make a White Russian when you can’t buy Bailey’s Kahlua?

“We make our own,” Bill Lee said while seated inside the bar overlooking the Chattanooga Choo Choo’s Glenn Miller Gardens.

A chemical engineer before opening Gate 11, Lee has been distilling his own gin and vodka for years, but he’s lately been perfecting things like house-made Kahlua and absinthe.

They also make their own syrups, according to bar manager Arlene Novak. The law does allow for the use of nonhouse-made bitters, Lee said, because so little is used in a cocktail. They get most of those locally, Novak said, and they use local produce such as cucumbers and ghost peppers, as well as seasonal fruits and botanicals to make the syrups.

Gate 11 has both indoor and outdoor space, with a large roll-up window that merges the two. Patrons also are allowed to open-carry drinks in the gardens area.

The bar is lined with colorful house-made mixers such as orgeat (which is almond based), triple sec (orange flavored), aperol (which has rhubarb among its ingredients), grenadine (made with pomegranate) and Kahlua (coffee based). It’s a space that suits the Lees and their mission.

“Gate 11 was designed from its initial inception as both distillery and bar,” said Bill Lee.

“It’s why we positioned our cocktail bar to service both an intimate and period-charming indoor space as well as an expansive outdoor space under covered canopy and looking out directly over the Choo Choo engine and gardens.”

The on-site locomotive engine served as inspiration for the name of the distillery. It sits on Track 11, and a Gate 11 entryway was once part of the architecture.

The Lees and their staff celebrate the fact that patrons won’t find namebrand bottles of spirits on the menu, nor will they find wine or beer. You can order a gin and tonic, a White Russian or a Manhattan, but it will be made with spirits distilled just a few feet away by the husband and wife. He is the master distiller, and she is the botanical distiller and formulator.

Gate 11 distills and bottles vodka, gin, rum, whiskey and absinthe in its five hand-built distillation systems. Patrons will find that the quality and flavors of the Gate 11 cocktails will rival or surpass almost anything else they’ve tried.

The Gate 11 dry gin took home a Double Gold Medal in the 2022 San Francisco World Spirits Competition for the second consecutive year. It was one of only two United States-produced gins to be so awarded in consecutive years.

The year before, Gate 11’s rum and infame absinthe blanche each received bronze medals in their first year in the competition.

Gate 11 was named one of the nation’s top new distilleries a year after it opened in 2019.

Novak said Gate 11 is one of the easier places to begin working as a bartender because of the limitations put on it by the law, but it offers a lot of freedom to be creative as well.

“We are limited in what we can and can’t do, but we celebrate that. It is one of the easiest places to learn on the job, because we have only our spirits. You don’t have to know about the differences between every brand of bourbon or whiskey, for example, but you can be creative in finding not only ways to create a classic cocktail, but also to create something new.

“We turn it into our own version.”

Patron favorites are similar to what traditional bars are serving, she said, with old-fashioneds, mules, G&T, margaritas and rum cocktails among the best sellers. They also focus on having weekly specials crafted by the bartenders.

Lee also gives regular tours and tastings, and he has created a stage inside the bar where live music from local and regional touring acts perform. Country singer Brandon Stansell will perform at the bar on Aug. 25.

“We are limited in what we can and can’t do, but we celebrate that.” — ARLENE NOVAK

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2022-08-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

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