Alpine Distilling’s Pie Bar on Main Street mixes cocktails and spirits with Auntie Em’s pastries

Alpine Distilling has a new way for people to experience its list of spirits while visiting Main Street — the Alpine Pie Bar.

The 21-and-older establishment, located in the basement of the 350 Main restaurant and currently open from 3-10 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, serves classic and modern cocktails with locally made seasonal pies, said Xania V. Woodman, Alpine Distilling’s corporate mixologist.

(See attached menu).

“First and foremost, we want to showcase the Alpine spirits in the best possible light,” Woodman said. “We offer cocktails that are extremely simple, and we have our own craft cocktails.”

The second goal of the menu is to inspire people to make their own cocktails.

“We would like people to take home some of our spirits and experiment in their kitchens,” she said.

Woodman says the drinks she mixes are ones she wants when she’s “glamping,” as opposed to camping.

“I have a glamper that I work on in my spare time, and being out there for long hours, I find myself wanting a refreshing drink,” she said. “I don’t just want to crack open a can of beer. I want something more. And these drinks are so easy to make at home and put into a thermos to enjoy when I’m sitting outside.”

Woodman created most of the cocktails for the pie bar, but there are some that have been passed down from the early days of Alpine Distilling.

“We wanted to incorporate these legacy cocktails into the menu, so I built the new ones around them,” Woodman said.

The challenge of creating the drinks was to find a balanced offering, she said.

“We wanted people to have the opportunity to experience the full line of the Alpine portfolio,” she said. “Of course we took the pies into consideration. And since we are only serving cocktails and pies, they really better go well together.”

The pies served in the bar are made by Emily Burney, owner of Auntie Em’s Pies, a local bakery located in the Kimball Art Center, said Sara Sergent, who cofounded Alpine Distilling with her husband Robert.

“We have been fans of Emily’s for years, and wanted to find a way to work with her,” Sergent said. “We started off by partnering with her a while back on private events. Then we told her what we were thinking, and here we are.”

All the pies are served warm and include a slice of Gold Creek cheddar cheese, Woodman said.

The Alpine Pie Bar opened in July, and Woodman knew the drinks she created needed to refresh those who had been out in the summer sun. The establishment is exploring tweaking the menu as winter approaches.

“Now that we’re moving into the colder months, we are looking at cocktails that will serve as winter warmers, including hot toddies and apple ciders,” she said.

Sergent said once the winter season starts, the Pie Bar will open seven days a week.

The Alpine Pie Bar space opened two years ago when the Sergents began offering Alpine Distilling’s Gin Experience, which has been spotlighted in Forbes, Travel + Leisure and Hotels magazine, Sergent said.

“The Gin Experience is an educational program where people can come in and make their own gin on site,” she said. “They learn about the history of gin and how its made, while they select their own botanicals, and taste the gins as they come off the stills in the different processing stages.”

At the end of each session, clients get to take home a bottle of their custom-made gin.

“We do the experience as a private event, and are planning to open it up to public scheduling soon,” Sergent said.

The space is decorated with antique Sergent family photos.

“We’re working on a legend that will explain who is in the photographs, because people are always asking me about the photos,” Woodman said. “People want to learn about the individuals and stories that led to Sara and Rob and Alpine Distilling.”

Sergent said her husband is a fifth-generation distiller, and the first in his family tree to do it legitimately.

“Those who came before him were moonshiners and bootleggers,” she said. “One of his grandfathers was a moonshiner for Al Capone, and they had distillation on the family’s farm in Kentucky.”

In addition to the photographs, one wall is adorned with the doors of Rob’s great-grandmother’s pie safe.

“The safe has been falling apart because it’s so old, so we put the doors here,” Sergent said. “And that just plays into the idea of serving pies and cocktails.”

The Sergents founded Alpine Distilling in 2016.

The distillery has won a number of awards, including the 2019 LuxeLife Magazine award for Best Craft Distillery, the 2018 Utah Distillery of the Year award from the New York International Spirits Competition and the 2017 Most Innovative New Whiskey award at the International Drammie Awards.

Sergent said opening a pie bar was a way to complement Park City’s culinary offerings.

“We have some amazing restaurants, and we wanted to offer something different before you went to dinner or something after you are done with dinner to finish the night,” she said.