Words by Alli Patton
Spirit Forward: A Chattanooga, TN Restaurateur is Captivating the Scenic City, One Barrel at a Time
For the last several years, chef Erik Niel has curated a handpicked barrel program, bringing variety to his three restaurants and a sense of adventure to the palates of his patrons.
Erik Niel didn’t have to summit Mount Everest to feel like he’d crested one of life’s storied peaks. For the Chattanooga-based chef and restaurateur, that sensation materialized in a sample of a Willett Family Estate Single-Barrel 9-Year bourbon whiskey.
On the nose, the luxurious amber liquid swam with bright citrus, warm vanilla, and rich rye spice. At first sip, notes of tobacco, oolong tea, and dried apricot all waltzed across the palate in a complex but delicate 132-proof dance.
The aroma, the flavor, the feeling—they all crescendoed into a hallelujah chorus that signaled to Niel he had arrived.
Today, he considers this exclusive Willett find “a watershed moment,” saying, “It was the one that I’d always wanted to be able to do. When we were finally able to do it, it was like, ‘Oh my God, I have climbed the mountain. I’ve seen the top. I have been there.’”
He would give this barrel of bourbon the appropriate name of Brass Ring, symbolic of the massive career achievement it was.
The Willett 9-Year was an early selection of Niel’s handpicked barrel program, a venture that began as a way to diversify the whiskeys offered at his restaurants, Easy Bistro & Bar and Main Street Meats, without being restricted by the limited products allocated to businesses.
Bourbon Boom, Bottle Bust
Established in 2005, Easy Bistro & Bar gained an early reputation among Chattanoogans for its premier bourbon selection. Main Street Meats would earn similar renown when it opened a few years later.
This was at a time before the “bourbon boom” of the 2010s really hit the Scenic City, before the grain spirit skyrocketed in popularity, demand, and price. Niel remembers being able to get virtually any bottle from a distributor or retailer at a reasonable price. At one time, he even offered patrons a flight of five 1-ounce pours from the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection for just $35.
“You couldn’t put that together now if you wanted to,” he says. “And if you did, it certainly wouldn’t be 35 bucks for five 1-ounce pours.”
That golden age came to a halt around 2018 when Chattanooga, Tennessee found itself at the mercy of the aforementioned “boom.” Suddenly, bottles that Niel had once obtained regularly were increasing in price at an astronomical rate or decreasing in availability altogether.
“It started getting really hard to find the things that we needed in enough quantity to be able to offer a vast selection that was still attractive to people,” he says. “One bottle of this and one bottle of that every year from an allocation that everybody’s fighting over doesn’t really make a bourbon program.”
Enter Niel’s barrel program.
Instead of being dismayed by what bottles he could and couldn’t get, he decided to go straight to the source, opting to buy entire barrels from distilleries. At the time, this concept was not new among retailers, but for a restaurant to make such a big investment was rare.
“It’s a much more long-term commitment on our end,” Niel shares, explaining how a retailer only needs to sell the 200 or so bottles that a barrel yields in order to turn a profit, while a bar or restaurant makes its money selling one dram at a time. That reality, however, didn’t deter him. As he says, “I was committed to finding unique things that built a program.”
And for the last six years, he has.
Barrel Picking
The Art of the Selection
Niel’s process of seeking out and selecting these barrels has been extremely hands-on since the beginning. From fostering good relationships with distributors and suppliers to working with distillers on their home turf, the chef is committed to establishing bonds with those at the heart of these spirits.
“My basic rules are we always go to the distillery if we have an opportunity to go,” he says. “I feel like getting to go to the place where it’s made and be with the people who represent it and/or make it, you generally have a better experience, and in my opinion, you get a better shot than doing a sample selection.”
Niel has traveled across the Southeast’s bourbon territories, honing in on legendary distilleries like Willett, Old Forester, and Buffalo Trace while also broadening his scope to give boutique producers like Garrison Brothers in Hye, Texas, and New Riff of Newport, Kentucky, a place on his shelves.
He’s even turned these trips into team-building exercises, often bringing bartenders, managers, and various other staff from his restaurants along for the adventure so they, too, can experience the products they’re presenting to guests.
From there, Niel says the rest is simple: Pick the best.
“It took us a while to define this,” he says. “The goal is just always to pick the best spirit on the table, to not talk yourself in or out of one because you think it’s going to be better for a cocktail, or inexperienced bourbon drinkers will like this one, or high-proof people will like this one.”
The best pour should win out every time. Then, the victor gets bottled at the distillery; those bottles are shipped to Niel’s restaurants; and, like Brass Ring, the spirit is lovingly given a name that speaks to its story.
As the program has evolved, so has Niel’s palate. Today, the chef has these tastings down to a science, dissecting the intricacies of each spirit to pinpoint the Butterfinger finish of a Bardstown Single-Barrel or the saddle-leather and cigar-box nose on a Heaven Hill 9-Year.
“There’s a difference in critically tasting something and just enjoying it,” he explains. “I have definitely gotten better at expressing in words what I’m tasting and what I’m experiencing over time as we’ve done more and more of these.”
While he has his own personal preferences, gravitating toward spirits with a brightness and lift, he doesn’t let that get in the way of which selections are best for his restaurants and guests back home.
Little Coyote
A Global Pursuit
In the fall of 2023, Niel opened his third restaurant concept, Little Coyote, which shares the barrel program with Easy Bistro & Bar and Main Street Meats. The low-and-slow Southwest fare of this latest venture, however, called for a different libation, and soon, the program was opened up to agave spirits.
“We wanted to take these principles of what we’ve done with bourbon and deploy them into tequila and, ultimately, mezcal,” Niel shares.
While the flavors are different, the selection process is similar. Tequileras were added to the distillery route, and places like Guadalajara and Oaxaca in Mexico ushered Niel into a realm of añejos, reposados, and more.
Easy Bistro
Photos by Lindsay Lowe
A Cask Strength Community
With his handpicked barrel program, Chef Niel has opened up the often-restricted world of spirits to everyone.
“No longer do you have to go to Washington, D.C., or New York, or L.A., or Seattle, pilgrimage to those restaurants that are famous and have been doing this for a long time,” he shares. “We have a version of that here—that is pretty well defined at this point—in a small Southern city.”
Because of this endeavor, the chef’s guests have a unique variety of spirits to choose from, an opportunity to experience something new, and the chance to have an adventure with every sip. For that, they seem grateful, as this program has cultivated something greater than just a stiff drink.
As Niel says, “It builds this community and camaraderie that you know far exceeds the normal restaurant world.”
