Pizzeria Celebrates Bourbon Heritage Month with Drunken Pie

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Sep 16th 2009 @ 11:00AM

Wouldn't this be
better with bourbon?
Photo: flickr, rick

A Louisville area pizzeria won't let a lack of hard-liquor license damper its Bourbon Heritage Month fun.

For the second consecutive year, Tony Boombozz pizzeria is saluting the state's leading spirit with bourbon pizza, a corn-liquor variation on the standard barbecued chicken pie.

According to the snack's rapidly evolving lore, Four Roses master distiller Jim Rutledge first nudged Tony Palmobino, who owns the four-outlet gourmet pizza chain, to create the pie at last year's Kentucky Bourbon Festival. He tinkered with a few concepts before settling on the bourbon-and-bacon concoction.

"We use hickory-grilled chicken, applewood bacon, asiago and mozzarella cheeses and then drizzle it with a bourbon barbecue sauce," explains Cindy Anderson, who manages Tony Boombozz's beer-and-wine-only Springhurst location. "It's delicious."

The pizza's hand-tossed crust is smeared with a virgin barbecue sauce, since Anderson says oven heat obliterates the bourbon's subtle flavors. But every order is served with a bourbon barbecue shot for dipping.

Anderson swears the preparation isn't just gimmicky: The Four Roses bourbon in the housemade sauce acts as a mellowing agent for the aggressively seasoned pie.

"The bourbon tones down the spices and smooths them out," she says.

Anderson reports the pizza has been immensely popular with customers.

"Maybe we'll talk Tony into keeping it on the menu this time," she says.

Filed Under: Drink Recipes, Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants
Tags: barbecue sauce, BarbecuePizza, BarbecueSauce, bourbon, BourbonHeritageMonth, fall, pizza, southern states, spirits