In early October, whiskey writer Frank Dobbins III visited Willett Distillery in Bardstown, Ky., and posted about it on Instagram. He joined master distiller Drew Kulsveen for a behind-the-scenes tour. He spoke admirably of the distillery’s expansion effort. He wrote glowingly of its proprietary 11-year-old distillate. Yet all the commenters on Dobbins’ post wanted to talk about was an egg salad sandwich.
“Egg Salad Sandwich!!!” wrote one commenter. “That MF egg salad sandwich is so good,” wrote another. “BEST EGG SALAD SANDWICH 🔥,” wrote yet another. “Always the egg salad,” wrote fellow drinks writer Jake Emen.
Willett Distillery has long been a cult sensation among the whiskey cognoscenti. That’s largely due to the thousands of Willett Family Estate single barrel releases over the last two decades, each packaged in handsome, Cognac-style bottles with cryptic labeling virtually impossible to parse for newbies. There’s even an iPhone app to help collectors track all the esoteric bottlings over the years. Yet, its distillery restaurant, known as the Bar at Willett, has an egg salad sandwich that, over the last five years, has become a cult sensation in its own right.
Get Ya an Egg Salad Sandwich
The Bar at Willett opened in September 2019 on the second floor above a gift shop and visitor’s center, with John Sleasman as its executive chef. He had previously worked under James Beard Award winner Sean Brock at McCrady’s in Charleston. Inspired by the Kulsveen family’s French heritage and Nordic roots, Sleasman claims he wanted to produce
