Home Food Best Bites: The Blue Heron opens; Lexington’s Brown’s Bakery on Next Great...

Best Bites: The Blue Heron opens; Lexington’s Brown’s Bakery on Next Great Baker

The Blue Heron is located in the former Ace office on Jefferson. Presumably their bar is (slightly) more abundantly stocked.

The Blue Heron, Lexington’s newest craft cocktail bar, opens this weekend at 185 Jefferson, a kissing cousin to the Grey Goose across the street, part of Lexington’s ever-expanding Jefferson Street dining corridor. It joins Stella’s, Wine Market, Grey Goose, and Nick Ryan’s. It will specialize in hand-crafted cocktails, so expect lots of organic and hand-crafted specialty ingredients. The food menu, once the kitchen is up and running, will have a steak and seafood focus.

Brown’s Bakery is back… on television! Cupcake fans might have lamented the absence of proprietor and baker James Brown earlier this Summer… and now we know where he disappeared to. TLC announced the contestants this week for Next Great Baker, and Lexington’s own Cupcake Wars veteran James Brown is one of the lucky 13. Season 3 premieres on Monday, November 26. Check local listings. Next Great Baker is Cake Boss Buddy Valastro’s baking competition show.

If your Pappy stores are running low, don’t panic. Van Winkle bourbons are back on the shelves, at least for now. Julian Van Winkle, President, says, “When bourbon ages over 15 years, much is lost to the angel’s share.  Many barrels often yield less than 20 gallons, out of the original 53 gallons produced.

There will be more Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year Old Bourbon at 107 proof. “We prefer the taste of our 10 year old bourbon at 107 proof. The rich flavor is compounded by the high proof,” added Van Winkle. “We’ll no longer bottle our 10 year old whiskey at 90 proof. Therefore, there will be more 107 proof available. For those who will miss the 90 proof Old Rip, we suggest adding a little more water to their glass. As Pappy used to say, ‘why ship all that water across the country!’”

To submit a Lexington, Kentucky food, wine, or spirits news item for consideration in Ace’s Best Bites, email acelist at aceweekly.com. To submit a Lexington Food, Wine, or Spirits Event for the aceweekly.com calendar, please go to the Ace online calendar, and click “Submit.”