Abby Chodkowski and Kelley Spillson at Oxmoor Farms.
The farm-to-glass craft cocktail experience is elevated to an art form at gorgeous new Epiphany bar, where inventive mixology, farm-fresh bites and a-ha moments are what’s on the menu.
Written by Christine Fellingham | Photographed by Kylene White
It reads like the plot of a summer movie. Two couples meet through a random real estate encounter, discover a shared love of food through a cooler of pesto and crackers, form a great friendship and decide to open a bar. “We met on Realtor.com,” laughs Abby Chodkowski of two of her closest couple friends Kelley Spillson and Nicholas Clark. “They were moving down from Indianapolis and wanted to tour a home and it was my turn to take the appointment. We wound up touring houses every weekend and, one day, when I offered them some pesto and good crackers from a cooler in my car, we started talking about our love of food. It turned out that both husbands were chefs…. Food made us friends!”
Epiphany’s “Born Slippy” cocktail includes tequila infused with asparagus.
Visits to Harvest, where Abby’s husband, Ivor was chef, and outings to local craft beer festivals soon led to an entrepreneurial move: “One night out, after a couple of drinks, our husbands said, ‘We’re going to buy a home brew system! And we’d brew and have people over,” Kelley explains. “We’d have these house parties … Please come to our house, we’re brewing beer. One day, Nicholas posted it on Facebook, which seemed a little crazy but it was actually wonderful. We met so many fantastic people.” Over time, the parties and following grew. “At some point, we just all looked at each other and said, ‘Why don’t we do it for real?’” says Kelley. “The original idea for Epiphany was born in our garage as a microbrewery concept.”
It made sense. Ivor brought his farm-to-table background from Harvest and as a tenant on Oxmoor Farms where he and Abby live and grow acres of produce. Nicholas had a culinary and operations background as the Chef for a large senior living facility. Abby brought farming know-how and interior design and Kelley has a marketing degree and the experience of growing up in family restaurants in Fort Wayne. “We took all of our interests and started moving forward and over multiple iterations and unforeseen twists, it morphed into Epiphany,” says Kelley.
The Pop Shop Drop Top features gin and mulberry-mint syrup.
While their starting point (and still the ultimate goal) was a concept for a craft microbrewery and cocktail bar, what Epiphany is for now is an inviting and stunning craft cocktail bar with light bites, snacks, appetizers and desserts, its own little farm stand… and brewing equipment in the back. To use the phrase “craft cocktail” doesn’t quite capture their level of perfectionism.
“We thought a lot about three things: executing exciting drinks, creating a space for friends and fueling great ideas that move the community forward.”
For instance, General Manager and Chief Mixologist Dane Durand details the obsessive care with which the asparagus-infused tequila in their “Born Slippy”cocktail is produced: “The asparagus is cut thinly on a bias to break those fibers up and give us maximum surface area. We want the bright, fresh, green flavors which are delicate, so we do a cold maceration in tequila for 3 days.” As for the birch bark essence in their Pop Shop Top Drop (shown on our cover): “We foraged the birch at Field Day, scraped the bark off with a buck knife, dehydrated it, powdered it and macerated it in grain neutral spirits for a week.” So… yes.
This shared passion for fresh ingredients and community-based thinking is infused not only into the drinks and food, but their mission. “We want to have tasty, great delicious drinks that you share with the people that you love and that will spur these great conversations that will ultimately lead to great ideas and movement in the community,” says Kelley, “We thought a lot about three things: executing exciting drinks, creating a space for friends and fueling great ideas that move the community forward.”
Each flavor profile is conceived with the thought of inspiring an aha moment for the palate. “We want to teach people what it feels like to eat and drink seasonally,” says Abby. “That’s why we have a market stand that we refresh twice a week. Right now, it has onions, chard, garlic and beets. We have eggs and cheese and Blue Dog bread. My husband’s passion is moving the food system and why not do it through a neighborhood place where you can listen to some cool music and have great cocktails?” And, perhaps, shake up your expectations enough that, like this foursome, you might make some bigger, higher level changes in your life.
Epiphany serves farm-to-glass cocktails, beer and wine, along with local snacks and fresh produce.
While they clearly take farm-to-glass thinking to an entirely new realm, this group won’t take credit for coining the term. However, Abby admits, “I definitely want to coin the phrase ‘Kentucky olives.’ One of our best drinks is the Farmer’s Tan Martini with pickled green cherry tomatoes. The first time we tried them, we said, ‘This tastes like olives!’ They were the idea of Dane, our brilliant general manager. He thought of this laying in bed in the middle of the night. This pickled cherry tomato martini is our signature drink. So if we do get credit for coining a phrase, I would love it if we can get credit for making that one happen!”
If you go: Epiphany Bar is located at 1525 Highland Ave. Go to Epiphany-KY.com for more information.
