We are turning a lot of our focus at Rock City Eats to the underrated places throughout the city. One of my favorite places to slip off and have a drink and a long chat with friends is Maduro, now that is about to get a lot better with the change to 109 & Co.
For those of you not familiar Maduro, it was a cigar bar located at 109 Main street near the Capital Hotel and Statehouse Convention center. Maduro stayed under the radar for most people due to the cigar smoke, but those who were willing to brave the smoke (or just wanted a cigar) they were treated to a fantastic set of hand crafted cocktails.
Owner Michael Peace decided to open the bar up to more customers by removing the cigar portion and turning things into a non-smoking bar now called 109 & Co.
“I really wanted to focus on the bar part of what we did and turn it into a quality cocktail bar focusing on premium whiskey and rum drinks,” Peace tells us. “We had a good cocktail list going at Maduro, with 109 & Co. we want to take the favorites from that list and expand it greatly. We now have room to carry far more liquors than before which will help in expanding the list.”
In addition to the enhanced cocktail menu, 109 & Co. will offer a number of barrel aged cocktails, something they began offering just recently at Maduro. The area previously used for the cigar humidor will now serve as a climate controlled barrel aging area offering many more options than before.
If you have not tried barrel aged cocktails (Big Orange, Local Lime, Capital Bar and Grill all offer) it is a classic cocktail aged in a charred barrel, similar to how spirits are aged. The result is a greater infusion of flavors for the whole cocktail and an extra flavor.
In addition to the house barreled cocktails, with the expanded space 109 & Co. hopes to offer personal barrels for guests to purchase. “We would have barrels available, and we can age the cocktail you want. Then when you come in you can just fill from your barrel, it is something we would like to experiment with,” Peace says.
The cocktail menu is not the only thing expanding. 109 & Co. is also expanding the food menu featuring a number of items using meats from Butcher and Public. Peace says the meats will come in fresh several times a week and he hopes to offer food options for people just wanting a snack as well as people wanting to enjoy a full meal with their cocktails.
The grand opening for 109 & Co. is Friday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.. Peace says he hopes to have a soft open on Wednesday as well.
Hours are:
Sun & Mon: 7pm until midnight
Tues – Thurs: 5pm until midnight.
Fri & Sat: 5pm until 1am.
For Maduro, Peace says he is looking for a new location and expects to reopen in the future.
