Cardinal Spirits, a distillery and bar, is all dressed up for the season with pumpkins, gourds and dried corn scattered around an already cozy interior with hanging lights and wooden tables. Joining the decorations is a seasonal drink menu with offerings such as a pumpkin spice espresso martini and a sweet potato rum-based cocktail.
Cardinal Spirits is tucked away on 922 S. Morton St. in Bloomington, secluded from some of Bloomington’s busier streets. Erica Sagon, director of communications for the distillery, said many people like the bar’s more private nature and have compared it to uncovering treasure.
Each original cocktail is developed and deliberated upon by the bartenders; the menu lists their names under each cocktail they created. The bartenders come up with eye-catching names like the banana-bourbon based “Friend Of The Devil” and the gin and walnut liqueur drink, “Deep Pockets,” which are often based on media the bartenders enjoy.
Parker Burton has worked at the distillery for three years and said this fall menu was the 15th seasonal menu she’s helped create. Previously, she worked at other bars near French Lick, Indiana, but said Cardinal Spirits has been a challenging undertaking.
“This is the most intense bartending experience I've ever had; I had never really created cocktails before this.” Burton said. “I think our staff is really creative.”
All cocktails are made with house-distilled liquor. Just behind a door on the left side of the bar is the distilling room housing two massive 1,060-gallon vats and a tall copper still — a machine used to distill the spirits by boiling and condensing liquid. Fastened to the side of each vat is a sign reading “RedRum” in twisted letters — a reference to “The Shining.”
In addition to rum, the distillery produces vodka, whisky, gin, brandy and various liqueurs like coffee and orange. Co-founder and president Jeff Wuslich said he wanted the bar’s cocktails to reflect the quality of their spirits.
“We always want to show off what we're doing,” Wuslich said. “You want to have cocktails that highlight the spirits that you make and show the creativity of the bartenders.”
Down a hallway past the right side of the bar is the kitchen where the chefs prepare dishes for the food menu. On Oct. 8, chef Salamon Mathews prepared a crème fraîche — a tangy semi-curdled cream — for tomato soup.
“It’s what makes restaurant soup taste better than homemade,” Mathews said as he poured the cream into a container.
Cardinal Spirit’s food menu offers several appetizers and sandwiches. The bar also just started a partnership with Darn Good Soup, a seasonal soup restaurant that works out of The Chocolate Moose, to add more variety to their soup offerings. The distillery started serving Darn Good Soup’s chicken tortilla and lentil and spinach soups on Oct. 8.
Mathews said a bestseller at the bar is the OMG fries — onion, mustard and garlic.
“They hit the table and everyone's like, ‘Oh my gosh!’” Burton said. “Because it's just, like, a mound of fries. They're delicious.”
Sagon said that the bar has become a niche destination spot for Indiana University students as of late due to its happy hours and events like Wednesday night trivia and Sunday bingo brunch.
“Students really like to bring their parents here too,” Sagon said. “It's a place that, like, both parents and students really love.”
