Fountainhead Market
Buying a six-pack of beer or a bottle of wine you’ve never tasted is fairly low risk—even if you hate it, you’re only out $10 or so (unless you drink better wine than I do). Buying craft whiskey, which generally starts at around $40 a bottle, is a different story. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of shelling out for bourbon I ended up not really liking, so I was excited by one particular feature of the brand-new Fountainhead Market: you can taste the whiskeys they’re selling. The market also has the advantage of being part of Fountainhead, the bar and restaurant next door, which already boasts one of the best selections of whiskey in the city: customers will be able to buy vouchers at the market for half-ounce pours of whiskey—they’ll range from about $3 to $10, depending on the price of the bottle—and take them next door to the bar for tasting. Among the 70-odd whiskeys for sale will be ten sold under Fountainhead’s own label and made by distilleries including Few, Angel’s Envy, Journeyman, Glenflarcas, and Corsair. According to managing partner Aaron Zacharias, these whiskeys—most of which come from a single cask—are selected by Fountainhead’s team based on samples from various casks provided by the distilleries. So why offer tastings? “It’s not fair that we get to taste all these things before we buy, but no one else can,” Zacharias says.