by Raleigh Magazine | Feb 9, 2025 | Eat, February 2025
Recapping Our 2024 Best Bars Awards Party at Goodnights
Another great Raleigh Magazine Best Bars Awards Party in the books! Jan. 27 was one hell of a night as the who’s who of the bar industry gathered at Goodnights Comedy Club in Village District to toast to our 2024 cast of Best Bars—and award Kaylah Thomas of Gussie’s our coveted 2024 Best Bartender trophy. Congrats to all the winners!
And a huge thank you to our sponsors: United Restaurant Equipment, Village District, Goodnights, Elm Partners and Killjoy; and our partners: Durham Distillery, Outer Banks Distilling, Belvedere Vodka, GOATz Spiced Rum and Aunt Ruby’s Peanuts.
Relive the fun-filled evening here!
by Anna Beth Adcock | Oct 2, 2023 | Eat, October 2023
From the minds of Dram & Draught co-owners Drew Schenck and Kevin Barrett—along with partner Philip Duff—comes a duo of bottled liquors to the market.
Don’t walk, but run—er, rum?—for your fix of two world-class gin and rum bottles debuting Nov. 1. The carefully curated liquors include Moonbird Gin and GOATz Rum. Each distilled with an array of different botanicals and minimal sugar, the bevs are smooth enough to shoot straight, yet balanced enough to mix into a cocktail. Rum drinkers, daiquiris with GOATz come highly recommended (!).
“We distilled 10 botanicals separately, then blended the gins together to create the exact flavor profile we wanted,” explains Drew Schenck, co-owner of the new bottled bev enterprises. “That’s different—with most gins, you add flavoring or you have a gin pot… and what you come out with can vary based on the strength of the oils, peels or the botanical.”
Adds co-owner Kevin Barrett: … “We developed Moonbird Gin to be versatile. [Whether it’s] gin and tonic, a martini, or a Negroni… this gin stands up.”
Truly world-class, both spirits have amassed a fair share of passport stamps throughout the creation process. As for GOATz, the rum is distilled in Barbados, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, then barrel-aged in Amsterdam and bottled in Schiedam, Holland.
“We’re very proud of the GOATz Rum,” says Barrett. “It’s delicious; [it has] a ton of flavor without overdoing the sugar or vanilla. Just like with Dram & Draught, we looked at what was out there and did our best to make something we liked even better.”
The Moonbird Gin is also distilled and bottled in Schiedam, which, fun fact, is best known for its gin—and ~100 years ago boasted a whopping 400 distilleries. Now, there are only four—one of which was used to distill Moonbird.
To boot, the GOATz and Moonbird bottles themselves are not to be ignored. Both designs are baked on ceramic, making the bottles durable and collectible. “You can drop it in water, come back in 100 years and clean it, and it’ll look just like it does,” elaborates Schenck.
Available across 34 states for home delivery this month, the bottled pair are set to shake up the spirits scene. Want these bevs in Raleigh? Request it at your local ABC store. We’ll toast to that! spiritofthedao.com
