Proof Cocktail Syrups
I had the opportunity to interview Kirk Gibson of The Pinewood recently and asked a few questions about their new line of Old Fashioned Cocktail Syrups. The line of products is a collaboration between four folks at The Pinewood. If you're around Decatur, make sure to stop in and try them or pick them up at the Decatur Package Store & H&F Bottle Shop.
What is Proof and how did the idea come about? Proof is a line of cocktail syrups that make Old Fashioneds. Our team is myself, Brooks Cloud (owner of the Pinewood), Julian Goglia (bar manager at the Pinewood), and Mike Blydenstein (chef at the Pinewood). We make Old Fashioneds at the bar all the time and thought that we could make a really high quality Old Fashioned syrup that we’d want to drink at home.
One week later, we had a tasting of 14 different Old Fashioned recipes and amazingly we all had the same favorite. After that I just worked on a bunch of different drafts of the Maple Bacon and Pecan ones. Chef Bly and Julian gave me some great feedback and we finally got a version we were really happy with.
What are the current and future plans for Proof? The feedback we’ve received has been far more enthusiastic than we ever imagined. Some stores have sold out 3 times just in the first 3 weeks. So right now, we’re trying to scale up our production in The Pinewood to meet demand. After that, we think it’d be really cool to expand beyond the Decatur area. We have ideas for other syrups that we hope to start producing in the summer, but I can’t talk about those just yet until we finalize some recipes!