One of the best bars in Chicago is coming to Charlotte. Billy Sunday, which was named one of Food & Wine magazine’s best new bars when it opened and continues to be ranked as one of the best bars in Chicago by local media, will have a standalone space in the courtyard at Optimist Hall. The bar will also have a sister concept inside the food hall called Spindle Bar. Optimist Hall is expected to open early next year.

Chef and proprietor Matthias Merges says Billy Sunday came about because he believes bartenders aren’t all that different from chefs.

“At one point, I really thought that the best bartenders are also really fantastic cooks, because of the same kind of building and cooking and balancing flavors and the creative side that chefs do is as equally as important as bartending,” he explained.

Merges and his staff spend free time looking through old recipe books and learning how different regions drink. The bar started out with a focus on amaros, an Italian spirit made of native herbs and spices that has a bitter flavor. The bar has since built up its whiskey and scotch collections, and opened another concept earlier this year called Mordecai, which focuses on vintage spirits dating back to the early 1900s.

Merges, like many others who end up here, has friends in Charlotte. When he learned of the space in Optimist Hall, he was drawn in by the old mill building’s history. Billy Sunday will be housed in a modern building in the hall’s courtyard, and will serve spirit-focused cocktails like the Chicago location.

“We really focus on the base spirit as a chef would focus on an ingredient,” Merges says. “So, looking for the ingredient that has a lot of terroir, looking for something that’s really pure in its presentation, and building cocktails around that using the same attitudes that we have as a chef.”

The bar will seat around 50 folks inside and 50 or 60 outside on the patio. Merges anticipates hiring about five bartenders and a lead bartender/general manager. The Chicago location serves a full menu, however, the vendors at the food hall will serve as the menu here. Billy Sunday will serve a few bar snacks. Billy Sunday and Spindle Bar are the sole liquor providers for diners in the hall, and will also serve craft beer and wine. Other vendors will be able to sell a limited selection of wine and beer.

Spindle Bar, located at the end of the food hall against a brick wall of windows, will have bar seating and a walk-up counter, so guests can get a drink to enjoy elsewhere in the food hall. To limit the wait, Merges says his team has come up with cocktails that can be kegged, minimizing the wait time and melding the flavors together while still providing a craft drink. The gin and tonic, for example, uses Billy Sunday’s house-made tonic. The tonic recipe dates back the late 1870s and is made with Brazilian catuaba bark, giving it a tan color.

“It’s one of those things we think is so interesting,” Merges says.

Because it is a standalone structure, Billy Sunday’s opening will be slightly behind that of Optimist Hall. However, Spindle Bar will open with the food hall. Merges will travel down to Charlotte with staff during the opening to train staff and oversee development, then continue to visit once a month. A lead bartender has not yet been named.

“One thing that I’m really psyched about is in Chicago you have approximately 37 good patio days. In Charlotte, people tell me you have 150,” he says. “I’ll be spending a lot of time during the warmer months in Charlotte for sure.”

See the rest of the restaurants coming to Optimist Hall in our running list here. —Kristen Wile

 

 

 

 

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