A FORMER SPEAKEASY GRANTED
LIQUOR LICENSE
A CENTURY AFTER PROHIBITION
We get asked a good bit about the gin-slinging madame who ran this place from 1927 to 1942 (before she was sent away to prison for selling illegal booze and running a “bawdy house of ill fame,” among other things).
The short version of our story has been told for years.
Which led to the longer version documented by the US Secretary of the Interior when they asked us to join their National Registry of Historic places.
And the story kept unfolding over the decades, until it became a book…
…that was turned into a podcast.
To commemorate 100 years of Saints & Sinners – and to celebrate that we were finally granted a liquor license by the same state that once called us a “Disgrace to the State of Wisconsin” – we decided to make our own bourbon. It's bottled in the same "concealed-carry" glass pints that were discovered hidden away in Madame Anna Peck's hollowed-out piano during one of many Federal raids.
The Wandawega “100 Years of Summers” Whiskey Pint. Coming this Summer. Knock twice, ask for Annie.
Link to photo album.
More about the Wandawega
pocket bourbon
The Bottle:
The half-pint bottle got its name the “pocket whiskey” for its ability to be stashed in your pocket. By the 1920s, half pints had become the common companion for hunting & fishing trips – and more formal gatherings – as a “social lubricant.” Travelers would carry them on long journeys and outdoor excursions to slip in discreet swigs. — whether it’s a half pint or full, we celebrate the potency of a swig of old school Whiskey.
“Illegal Liquor brings Arrest for Roadhouse owner when 20 pints of liquor without the required state revenue stamp - located the liquor in the piano”. --The Milwaukee Sentinel 1942
The Blend:
A blend of 4-6 year old distillate from Indiana and Kentucky. The juice from Indiana is from a distillery called MGP. It is located just on the other side of the Ohio River from KY in Lawrenceburg IN. The juice from KY comes from an historic distillery called Green River Distilling Co. in Owensboro. It is DSP-KY-10, so the 10th licensed distillery in the state of Kentucky and dates back to 1885. It has been home to many iconic bourbon brands, but restored to its original name (Green River) in 2014. The combined mash bill is 75% corn, 21% rye and 4% barley malt.
The thing about the whiskey half-pint… its practicality is why it’s long been part of American culture.
“I had a half-pint in my pocket, and I took a drink as we walked along the street.”
- Ernest Hemingway, “The Sun Also Rises” (1926)
“Lennie! Hide till I come for you. I’ll be back in a minute, I just got to take a half-pint of whiskey to the boss man, and I’ll be back right away.”
- John Steinbeck, “Of Mice and Men” (1937)
“You know, I was just going to take a little drink—a half-pint, to be exact—and that was it... Just a half-pint.”
- Don Birnam, ”The Lost Weekend” (1945)
“I had a half-pint of whiskey in my coat pocket. I didn’t really want to drink it, but I kind of had to. It was the only way I could stop thinking about everything.”
- J.D. Salinger, ”The Catcher in the Rye” (1951)