Courtesy Market Pavilion Hotel
Arkansas
What’s an Alltel corporate executive to do when he’s laid off in a buyout and tired of the corporate rat race?
Arkansan Phil Brandon, an aficionado of whiskey and single malt scotch, decided to join the craft distilling movement.
In 2010, in Little Rock, he started the first legal distillery in Arkansas since the repeal of prohibition.
With a staff of three, Rock Town Distillery began by producing gin and vodka, which require no aging, and then moved into “young bourbon” (aged under four years), whiskey, rum, and straight and apple-pie-flavored moonshine.
All spirits are small batch and hand crafted using Arkansas ingredients, including grains, which Brandon grinds himself.
A basic distillery tour explains what each spirit is and how it is made. Samples are included.
“Because we’re the only distiller in Arkansas and we make a number of spirits, you get to try everything from gin and vodka to good ol’ Arkansas Lightning,” Brandon said.
In downtown Little Rock, Rock Town’s tours for groups of up to 50 can be enhanced with a cocktail reception or a catered meal.
“We’re off the grid for a corporate event,” said Brandon. “At a bottling party, each participant helps bottle the spirits and signs the bottles they fill. We host corporate team-building events, where 10-person groups get to know each other outside the workplace.
501-907-5244
www.rocktowndistillery.com
Salute to German brews
Another Arkansas native developed a taste for German beer while serving his country in the military in Germany in the 1980s.
Later, Russell Melton talked about it so much that his wife told him to stop talking and start brewing. He did and, in 2000, parlayed his home brewing experience into Diamond Bear Brewery.
Located a few blocks from the state Capitol in Little Rock, the business took its name from Arkansas’ official gem and its once-impressive bear population.
Following time-honored European brewing methods, Melton’s award-winning craft beer is made using pure local ingredients: hops, barley, yeast and Arkansas water. No preservatives are added, appropriate for the Natural State.
“We’re constantly converting locals into craft beer drinkers,” said Melton’s son John, operations manager.
On a private tasting and tour, meetings of 30 to 45 attendees learn about Diamond Bear’s roots and beer making, and savor its brews. A facility buyout entitles a group to bring in its own meeting equipment and caterer.
Given the prominence of razorbacks in Arkansas, barbecue is a good choice.
501-708-2739
www.diamondbear.com
South Carolina
On Wadmalaw Island, 30 minutes from Charleston, 127-acre Charleston Tea Plantation, where Southern ladies aren’t the only ones sipping iced tea, doubles as a venue for outdoor events.
“Our plantation is the only place in America where you can see the camellia sinensis plants, which tea is made from, growing, being harvested and processed into finished tea,” said Jane Knight, business manager.
All is presented on a 40-minute narrated trolley tour, and a factory tour features a video about the process. Tea tastings come with both.
Smaller events can be held on a 50-capacity porch or in a covered pavilion. For large events, a lawn near the tea fields can be tented.
Five miles from the tea plantation, Firefly, South Carolina’s largest microdistillery, handcrafts sweet-tea-flavored vodka made with tea from the plantation.
Visitors can taste it, sweet tea bourbon (made with Kentucky’s Buffalo Trace), flavored liqueurs and rum, in addition to wines produced at the property’s Irvin-House Vineyards.
Attendees can also sip sweet tea vodka in downtown Charleston at the Market Pavilion Hotel, a member of Leading Hotels of the World. The hotel has become known for its sweet tea martinis, a mixture of Firefly and fresh-squeezed lemonade.
“Because we’re a smaller boutique property with only 70 guest rooms, the hotel lends itself to intimate functions, like an executive board meeting,” said Holly Perry, luxury sales manager. “Most corporate groups start with a welcome reception at our Pavilion Bar atop the hotel. It overlooks the city and the historic Customs House.”
Up to 75 can mingle at a cocktail event by the pool near the Pavilion Bar. A 125-person-capacity ballroom peeks over Charleston’s famous Market.
“We’ve just started offering Nitrotinis, liquid-nitrogen-infused martinis,” said Peter Wright, general manager. “They actually steam in the glass. It breaks the ice and gets people talking.”
The Nitrotinis are available only in the hotel’s Grill 225 because they must be served in a special glass. The drinks would melt the plastic glasses used for safety reasons at the Pavilion Bar.
Unlike newcomer Firefly, Charleston’s Palmetto Brewery began brewing in the 1850s. After being shut down by Prohibition, the facility reopened in 1993. It handcrafts small-batch beer and offers tours.
“Our big steel tanks give that jaw-drop factor,” said Chris Winn, sales, marketing and event coordinator. “We’re a great place to get together after your meeting.”
At a catered private beer dinner for 45 to 50, four or five courses can be paired with various beers.
843-853-8000
www.charlestoncvb.com
