Country Connection

‘It’s a matter of taste’

Wilton whiskey house cultivates flavors beyond light beer

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By Garrett Ammesmaki

Editor, Advocate News

There’s one television in the corner of Axe & Oak Whiskey House in Wilton, but business owner Fred Grunder said it’s only for select games.

“We’re not a sports bar,” he said.

While they serve around 160 beverages, including 77 different flavored whiskeys, scotch and bourbons, Axe & Oak isn’t a place to sling back shots.

Most of the interior of the building on Fourth Street is covered with wood and copper. The rich tones give the space a sense of warmth and refinement you don’t often find in a small-town bar.

“It’s more about enjoying the flavor of a good whiskey,” he said. “A really nice whiskey is an enjoyable thing.”

Grunder hopes the atmosphere of Axe & Oak, the quality of his service and his low prices will help draw people away from the more expensive whiskey houses you could find in Davenport or Iowa City.

“We’ve been getting more and more customers who say they’re from Muscatine or Davenport who come to check us out,” he said. “I think, when we get food and develop the menu we want, we can become a destination point for the area.”

If you’re tagging along with a whiskey lover, Grunder said either he or his four bartenders can help with almost any mixed drink. While they can’t make everything, they’re open to try. Axe & Oak also plans to open the kitchen with a limited menu by May. That extends to the business hours.

Axe & Oak’s official hours are 5 to 9 p.m., Wednesday, and 5 to 11 p.m., Friday through Saturday. Closing time flexes depending on customers. Grunder also accepts requests for special events or a middle-of-the-week drinking session.

“It’s almost like (Axe & Oak) has become a community project,” he said. “A lot of times, it’s just a matter of chatting with friends and customers that have some good ideas.”

But Grunder said the focus will always be community, conversation and good whiskey.

His expertise isn’t only in drinking and tending bar, but in construction and woodworking. He made the oak shelves and the oak bar himself, as well as most of the trim.

While he’s been drinking since he was 18, he only got into whiskeys around 25 years ago after a friend down in Georgia introduced him to a “really, really nice glass of scotch.”

“I never had a taste for it before that,” said Grunder, “but I guess I just never had a good one.”

While he knows a bad one when he smells it, Grunder said a good whiskey can vary. It’s not always a question of higher end or lower end, but depends on “what you feel like for the night.”

“It’s a question of taste,” he said, but there are a few criteria that he judges a whiskey on, including aroma, the different flavor profiles and how much it burns.

A good whiskey, “has gotta have a good nose so you enjoy what it smells like as your drinking it,” said Grunder. “You want to be able to pick up other flavors, maybe a little bit of smokiness, maybe a little fruitiness.”

“I don’t want a whiskey that burns all the way down,” he said.

He always has his eye out for different and hard-to-find bottles.

“I’ve got standing orders for five or six whiskeys that, anytime my distributors get it, I’ll order it,” said Grunder.

What makes a whiskey hard to find is largely tied to how many cases the distillery sends to Iowa Alcoholic Beverage Division, and when the state decides to release it.

“One that’s easy to get in Illinois might not be as easy to get here,” he said. “Blanton’s Bourbon is a good example.”

Right now, a few of the rarer whiskeys they have in stock include Blanton’s Bourbon, Eagle Rare, EH Taylor and Kentucky Spirt. They also just got in an order of Jefferson Reserve Single Barrel.

Their most expensive whiskey is  Whistle Pig 15, which sells for around $40 for a shot. The same amount of the same whiskey could sell for up to $80 at whiskey house in a bigger city, he said.

Axe & Oak plans on starting whiskey tastings and a whiskey club. Along with tending bar and running the operation, he currently works full time as a sales and service representative for the HWH Corporation.

You can find Axe & Oak Whiskey House Wilton on Facebook, or reach Grunder at 563-343-0040.

Axe & Oak Whiskey House, Fred Grunder, Iowa Alcoholic Beverage Division

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