Bethany Blues dinner to celebrate Sagamore Spirits Jan. 29

Bethany Blues in Lewes will host a Sagamore Spirits dinner at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 29, featuring four courses paired with cocktails featuring Sagamore products.

Bethany Blues has worked hard to foster a culture of cooperation and partnership on both the micro and macro levels. From the tight-knit staff to partnerships with distilleries and other service providers, relationships are one of the keys to success for the two beach-area restaurants. So when they started partnering with Baltimore-based Sagamore Spirits Distillery a couple years ago, team members knew the two cultures would mesh easily and lead to great things.

Sagamore Spirits is nestled along the water in Port Covington, Md., and it’s as much a hip, revolutionary company as a throwback to a simpler time. In this way, Bethany Blues is perfectly aligned with the distillery.

“We specialize in delicious barbecue. It’s a straightforward venture, and yet we like to modernize whenever and wherever we can. It’s the same in our partnerships. We like people who also specialize in this way,“ said Jessica Nathan, Bethany Blues Lewes director of operations.

The Baltimore-made rye whiskey is different from its bourbon counterpart in the flavor derived from the mash that constitutes it. Bourbon is made with a sweet corn mash, and rye whiskey comes from rye mash, which is bold in its spicy profile and has a distinct dryness. Nathan and her staff have found the application of the whiskey is also pretty flexible.

“We’ve been able to come up with a host of creative cocktails with their various rye whiskeys, and they are just out of this world,” said Nathan. From the Rye-garita, a margarita made with clear rye whiskey that is akin to tequila, to the Sagamore Barrel Select, which is only available at Bethany Blues, rye whiskey has the potential to turn on new sets of people to the world of whiskey. 

Nicole Gianella, catering manager and pastry chef, says the Sagamore Spirits dinner will show off rye whiskey’s versatility in the various cocktails, and its stellar pairings with Blues’ barbecue. “With the private stash dinners, customers get a peek in our stash, and you have to really be a person who enjoys bourbon and whiskey to get the most from those. But with this dinner, which is a true pairing dinner, there are lots of points of interest, from the food to the cocktails, that cast a wider net,” she said.

 Only 30 dinner tickets are available; they cost $48 per person and do not include gratuity. To purchase tickets, go to www.bethanyblues.com or call 302-644-2500.