If you’re ever in Hopkinton looking for a hot toddy on some cold winter night, you now have another option.
For the past three weeks, the Everyday Cafe in Contoocook has been making use of its newly minted liquor license by selling cocktails at its Maple Street location. The cafe is now one of three places in town, including Contoocook Covered Bridge Restaurant and the Number 5 Tavern, as the only establishments in town that serve hard liquor.
Owner Christian Nardi said that although they’ve had a license since midyear and have sold beer and wine for quite some time, they decided to use the holiday season as a kickoff point to start selling harder drinks at the bar.
And keeping true to the restaurant’s “local as possible” philosophy, Nardi said all of the liquor is from New Hampshire distilleries, such as Rocky Peak Hard Cinnamon Whiskey out of North Hampton, Granite Coast Rum of Seabrook, or Flaghill Winery’s bourbon and Karner Blue Gin from Lee.
You could go with a traditional drink, such as a rum and Coke, or a gin and tonic. Or you could try some of the restaurant’s four infused cocktails, which boast flavor combinations such as ginger and vanilla bean spiced rum, or smoked apple and pear bourbon.
According to Nardi, the addition to the bar has been a hit. “It’s just a beautiful thing, because you see people coming in getting a Bloody Mary apiece, having a meal, and finishing it off with a hot toddy,” he said. “It’s kind of a cool thing, for a town of around 5,000 people, to get a second bar.”
Nardi did note that patrons might notice a taste difference when they try local liquors.
“I recently went to a wedding where we had 75-year Maker’s Mark. Here we sell a bourbon that’s two years old – it’s really young,” he said. “So there’s a difference, but it’s still a good drink.”
Nardi said there are no plans to bring alcohol to the restaurant’s second location at Banks Chevrolet in Concord, which serves up food in the showroom. But he’s not concerned: the Contoocook location already has plenty of business, whether it’s the Sunday Night Football crowd or trivia-lovers on Wednesday.
“The economy is pretty good around here, and I want to keep that going,” Nardi said. “And if you keep the money here, if you keep it in New Hampshire, people from other parts of the state will come to visit.”
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com, or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)