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ties the Urban Stillhouse experience together , whether coming in for lunch — available Wednesday through Friday , 11:30 a . m . to 2:30 p . m . — or dinner services Wednesday through Saturday . Reservations are recommended , as the restaurant is small and tables can fill up quickly , but Stephens notes that none of the elements should have any potential customer feeling daunted .
" You don ' t have to wear a tuxedo , you don ' t have to have a tie ," he said . " Yes , some of the items are a bit more expensive than you ' re used to seeing , but you can still get a hamburger . You can come in for lunch .
We ' re actually pretty accessible as far as highend restaurants go ."
Commanders of Bourbon
" We ' re of the opinion that everything goes with bourbon ."
That ' s Stephens ' take on how The Urban Stillhouse skillfully pairs its dishes with the beverage that gave the restaurant its raison d ' être .
" We definitely try to showcase it and focus on it ," he said . " The whole point of the restaurant at its heart is to showcase bourbon . ... Any other Urban Stillhouse that ' s going to be is going to revolve around ( bourbon )."
Unsurprisingly , it ' s the Horse Soldier brand that The Urban Stillhouse specializes in . With direct access to the distiller , The Urban Stillhouse is able to offer limited-availability batches and exclusives that no other restaurant , in this area or any other ,
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is able to , and Stephens said the bourbon will be a highlight of the restaurant moving forward into the future .
" We ' re going to be trying to work with special barrel picks through the process that you can only get here ; a lot of single-barrel stuff ," said Stephens . " When we say a ' small batch ,' we mean four barrels , truly a small batch , whereas with some of the larger distillers , a small batch could still be 100 barrels . It ' s all relative . For us , having a small batch would literally ( involve ) our blender coming up from St . Pete and working on a special bottling that you can only get at The Urban Stillhouse ."
Much of the bourbon magic at The Urban Stillhouse takes place at the Commander ' s Club . An exclusive private club situated on the second floor of The Urban Stillhouse , Stephens describes it as being " a group of people that get along together " and have shared interests — a fitting description , in a way , of the club ' s military origins .
" When ( the Horse Soldier founders ) built that restaurant ( in St . Petersburg ), they decided that they wanted a nice team room ," said Stephens . " When they were serving in the Special Forces , right before they ' d go on a mission , they ' d basically get sequestered in a team room for about three days . It was sort of like a buffer to make sure everything ' s ready , to go over plans religiously , go over equipment , and make sure everything ' s right . It was kind of like
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Chef Jake Stearns
this buffer zone so that nobody knew exactly where they were or where they were going .
" They spent all that time in this room ( and when designing the restaurant ) they though , ' Wouldn ' t it be nice to actually have a nice one ?' So they built themselves what ' s called the Team Room in St . Petersburg ," he added . " It ' s got memorabilia from other Special Forces units all over the world . It ' s really nice . It got really popular .
Everybody always wanted a tour ."
From that was born the concept of the Commander ' s Club . Stephens noted that it ' s likely to be of particular interest to bourbon and military history aficionados alike , and if you ' re a member of the Commander ' s Club here in Somerset , that will get you into a Commander ' s Club at any other Urban Stillhouse location .
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Photo by Christopher Harris
Stephens said that members get rare access to the bourbon and some of the different special bottlings , as well as the distillers and minds behind the product ." We ' d like to have special events ," he said . " We ' ll do happy hours , chef ' s dinners , lectures from the bourbon makers to talk about different aspects of it ."
The club offers fellowship and privacy in elevated surroundings , but as with all things at The Urban Stillhouse , an open hand toward the community is important , and Stephens said that anyone interested in being a member should just come check it out , do a tour , or come with a friend who might be a member ." It really is just as easy as coming down and signing up ," said Stephens . " We don ' t have a screening process .
You don ' t have to have a certain amount of money .
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