"I love this city," says whiskey king Tom Bulleit, gazing out the window of a Market Street café. His bright brown eyes track pedestrians and take in traffic before resting on a steaming cup of black coffee — the sixth that he has had. Ever.
"I'm learning to drink coffee," Bulleit says, thumbing the white-and-yellow cup. "It's the most popular antioxidant in the American diet."
Bulleit is in good spirits on this sunny Tuesday afternoon. He travels for business roughly half the year, and this city by the bay is one of his favorite destinations.
"It's the prettiest city in America," Bulleit says. "My wife Betsy and I, we've come here for 28 years and I know it really well, as well as any city." Bulleit confides that if he didn't live in Kentucky, he'd likely move to San Francisco, but it isn't just pleasure that brings the founder of Bulleit Distilling Company to town roughly once a year. "San Francisco is by far our best market," he says, "and has been for a long time."
So the affection is mutual: Bulleit loves the Bay and the Bay loves Bulleit, a whiskey brand established in 1987 when Thomas E. Bulleit Jr. fulfilled the dream he'd had as a young man, of reviving his great-great-grandfather's legendary bourbon recipe.
"I grew up working in the distilleries and wanted to bring the recipe back," Bulleit says of his ties to the industry. "I told my father and my father said I'd go into the military and become a lawyer." Bulleit took the LSAT in Vietnam in 1968 and went on to practice law for more than a decade before coming back to his distillation dreams.
"I don't think I can spell 'entrepreneur,' but people accuse me of that now," Bulleit jokes. "In '87 I said, 'Dad, I want to do this,' and he said, 'It's your money,' so I started the business journey with Bulleit and transitioned into distilling using seed capital from my law practice."
A combination of luck and skill led to Bulleit Distilling's success. The company "fell uphill twice," as Bulleit describes it, first with the Seagram family and then with Diageo.
His best piece of business advice? "Marry someone with a good job." Bulleit's wife, Besty, happened to be a stockbroker. "Betsy's always been my financial partner," he explains, recalling an anecdote from early in the company's history: "'Explain to me how we're going to pay back all of this money,'" Betsy had said. "I've calculated that if you keep practicing law till you're 116.5, we can pay the interest."
Somehow, the business survived. "You're hopeful," Bulleit says of his early days in distilling. "Late at night you become doubtful, when the bills are due and you're paying the money." It's then that Bulleit relied most on his vision for the future.
"Whiskey is a lot of things to a lot of people," Bulleit says. "It's more approachable than it's thought to be, and invited in by the cocktail culture."
In recent years, the biggest trend Bulleit has observed in whiskey is in the number of women who are interested. At 90 proof, Bulleit whiskey is no wine cooler, but it's not a slap in the face either.
And people are continually impressed by the quality and approachability of Bulleit's products. "It happens with some regularity," he says of surprising people during tastings. "It's a combination of high-rye recipes and great aging."
Bulleit suggests adding a small splash of water to a straight up glass of his whiskey. "Water really opens whiskey up," he says, comparing it to the oxidation of wine. For a simple cocktail, he recommends Bulleit Bourbon with tonic water and a slice of lemon, or Bulleit Rye mixed with ginger beer and lime bitters. He also can't help but make note of the Revolver, a cocktail of Bulleit bourbon, coffee liqueur, and orange bitters conceived by mixologist Joe Santer at Bourbon and Branch. Following its debut at the speakeasy, Bulleit tracked the recipe as it spread through 400 bars in less than six months.
"San Francisco has an extremely influential bartending community," Bulleit says. "It's the connoisseurship capital of the nation."
He views S.F.'s bartenders as "partners in chemistry." "We made a rye because our bartenders here asked us to. When we brought Bulleit 10 out here, the community said, 'Yes! You should make this,' and so we do. We respect the people on both sides of the bar."
During Bulleit's stay, he says he'll "Walk, walk, walk, and walk," from Nob Hill to Russian Hill, Powell and Van Ness, and over to Union Square. He loves SFMOMA, the art scene, Lori's Diner, and going up to Napa. He's also sure to grab a glass or two of Bulleit bourbon, a drink that's as much a part of the man as his favorite cocktail-swilling city. And possibly the seventh cup of coffee in his life.
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