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www.cheersonline.com 23 October 2016 • 23 October 2016 • 1-oz. pours and top out at $94 for 2-oz. of Delamains XO Tres Venerable Cognac de Grande Champagne. Grays on Main opened in 2013 in Franklin, TN, with the specifi c purpose of celebrating not just the town's history and region, but also the spirit that was most prominent in the 19th century—brandy. Owner Joni Cole says when she and her husband took over the building, they wanted to include as many brandies as made sense, and feature them in many of the rotating cocktails. "The Burnt Brandy and Peach is one of our most versatile cocktails," she says. "Its smooth, spirit-forward notes are balanced out by its rich and mildly sweet characteristics." Priced at $15, it's made with brandy, Carpano Antica, créme de pêche and chocolate bitter. The drink is mixed tableside and poured into a glass holding fl aming Laird's Apple Brandy and expressed orange oil. "We've chosen brandy as the star of our bar program for good reason," says Kala Ellis, who leads the staff-education program at Grays. "When the bricks of our building here in Franklin were laid, America's spirit of choice was brandy." These days, she continues, "when I tell a guest about brandy, rustic images of cigars, old books, and old men sitting in the their study fl ash across their mind's eye. I love that here at Grays, we can change that." The brandies Grays offers are "complex, nuanced and hugely versatile." Ellis says. "They can be enjoyed on their own, but we love to make use of these delicious spirits in our cocktails. Brandy is much more accessible than people realize." COCKTAIL COMPOSITION Armagnac, produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France, makes interesting as a cocktail ingredient, according to Volger. Its more-rustic, single-distillation style provides hard edges to work against. Volger uses Armagnac as the base spirit in Bar Agricole's house Old-Fashioned ($16). "Everyone's drinking Old Fashioneds these days, and that's been a great way to get people on board with Armagnac. It's basically just spirit straight, augmented with bitters and sweetness, so they get an idea of what Armagnac is like." Smooth and subtle Cognac can get lost in some contemporary multi-ingredient drinks, Schiller notes. "A lot of young bartenders just fold a spirit into an existing cocktail recipe, and the ones they are more comfortable with are the strong and stirred," he says. "But you're in for a surprise if you expect Cognac to stand up the same way a higher-proof rye whiskey does in a drink that includes, say, an aperitif, an amaro, vermouth and bitters." Cognac works best when the drink is built around the fl avor characteristics it already possesses, Volger says. At The Berkshire Room and The Sixth, Schiller this summer included a lighter-style Cognac cocktail called the Poderosa. Priced at $12, the Poderosa mixes Cognac, dry Curaçao, masala and lime. "I was trying to show the lighter side of what Cognac can do," Schiller says. "A lot of people think of Cognac and heavy fl avors, cocktails similar to an Old-Fashioned or Vieux Carré, and this one shows how versatile it can be, working in a sour format as a more refreshing, Tiki-like drink." The two biggest calls he gets, though, are for Sidecars and Wisconsin Old Fashioneds, not surprising given its proximity to Chicago. But like most consumers, he associates brandy and Cognac with certain fl avors. "I love mixing brandies with things that you would more associate with the fall," Schiller says. "Last year I made one with clove, vanilla, cinnamon and apple with brandy as the base spirit—those are the ones that immediately make a lot of sense to customers." Jack Robertiello is a spirits writer based in Brooklyn, NY. The Anthym Spirit cocktail at Grays on Main in Franklin, TN, combines 12 Rye whiskey, apri- cot brandy, Cynar, Benedictine and house chai tea bitters. A French 75 cocktail at Le Boudoir in Brooklyn, made with VS Cognac, sparkling wine and fresh lemon juice. At The Sixth bar in Chicago, Sidecars and Wisconsin Old Fashioneds are popular orders.