Black Sheep Restaurant

It was a fun week for me; I was able to interview bartenders from two of Jacksonville’s top restaurants. Here is what I learned from Black Sheep 5 Points mixologist Austin Reinhard

What is unique about Black Sheep bar area?

We focus on not what we enjoy, but what the guest would experience when we are designing our cocktails; we are always working towards what the masses would like while staying unique as possible. The cocktail menu is rotated seasonally, to keep with freshest ingredients; we keep switching so every time it is a new experience, much like our food menu.

When is Happy Hour?

Monday through Saturday from 3 to 6 pm, Sunday from 3 to close which is 10 pm.

What kind of weekly drink specials do you offer?

So as far as weekly, the happy hour specials, that will rotate with each of our seasonal menus, but we don’t do anything necessarily printed.  Each bartender can do something “off the cuff,” if you don’t find anything on the bar menu we can craft a drink for you.

Tell us about your best-selling drink.  

Currently, it is the Faux Croix, which is my cocktail, but the all-time favorite is the Dusty Boot, you can’t match it you can’t touch it. It has been on the menu since we opened and that is five years. There would probably be a small riot if we removed it from the list.

Do you serve any local liquors or brews?  

Oh sure, to name a few Bold City Brewery, Intuition Ale Works, Aardwolf Brewer. As for spirits, we carry Manifest Distilling, Marlin and Barrel, plus Gunnar’s Vodka from Palm Coast.

What compliments do you hear most often from your customers?  

How we adhere to strict quality, we are never going to put out a bad product, either in our food or our drinks. That’s what people enjoy and look for when they come here.

When customers are having a perfect time at your business what are they doing?

They usually order, small plates and hang out with the friends unwinding from the day. We have a very active happy hour crowd that stops in after work, especially during the week. We also have the rooftop bar, that people gravitate to when the weather is right. It is very popular; we serve drinks as well as a full menu, it is a well thought out space.

What is your busiest night of the week?  

Probably Friday night, it goes on Friday and Saturday, but I would say Friday.  We get the happy hour crown rolling into the dinner crowd, so we stay full.

What does your staff enjoy the most about working here?

We are primarily one big family, we all know each other, hang out after work. The owners Allan and Jon treat us all very well we have a meal each night, get a shift drink, these are cool people.

What do you want more people to know about your business?  

I feel we have a good reputation already; we have been around for so long.  That we just love and appreciate our customers, we are a very friendly because we genuinely do enjoy coming in to work.

Austin Reinhard

 

Drink Recipe: Dusty Boot

1.5 oz Old Forester Bourbon

House  Sour mix  = ¾ fresh pressed lemon, ½ oz fresh pressed lime, ¾ oz simple syrup

2 dashes of Jerry Thomas bitters

Shake well, rim the glass with equal parts cracked black pepper and smoked sea salt.

 This cocktail is everything Austin told me it was. Never a Bourbon fan, I do believe I have been converted.