Does softball lead to crime? Maybe in this instance. Authorities in Kentucky have broken up a whiskey-theft crime ring. Nine people, who got to know each other from playing softball, were charged with conspiracy. They stole eleven stainless-steel barrels of whiskey worth $100,000 from Buffalo Trace and Wild Turkey distilleries. The stolen whiskeys included seventeen-year-old Eagle Rare bourbon and twenty-year-old Pappy Van Winkle.
Also indicted was a security guard for Buffalo Trace, who was paid $800 by the conspirators, to look the other way while thefts occurred. You can read about it here.
I was introduced to Pappy Van Winkle a few years ago on a trip to Kentucky. I toured the Hillerich & Bradsby Company, makers of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat (web site, what else? slugger.com) and the quite scenic Makers Mark facility.
On the recommendation of Jane & Michael Stern’s “Roadfood,” I went to Louisville’s historic Brown Hotel in search of their famous Hot Brown Sandwich.
The route to the restaurant necessitated a stop in the hotel’s dark-wood-paneled bar. As a whiskey aficionado, I was open to splurging on the server’s suggestion of twenty-year-old Pappy Van Winkle. Eighteen dollars! (More than that now, I’m sure.) Hot Brown Sandwich – not a pick it up and eat it sandwich by any stretch, but as good as advertised. Bread, cream, turkey breast, Pecorino Romano cheese, bacon, tomatoes delivered to the table hot in a skillet. The sandwich is not brown; it was invented at the Brown Hotel. It will cure what ails you.
