Bourbon, Southern food, bourbon, blues, and bourbon

The Twisted Tail's a hulking two-story joint from a classically trained actor who, while touring Tennessee with his theater company, fell in love with the Deep South's food, drink, and music, and has now launched his tribute to bourbon and blues, the most notable Southern combination since cousin and cousin Brooks & Dunn. A tour:

The Decor: The first floor of the former Kildare's is dominated by a white-washed square bar and a mix-and-match dining room hosting a corner of banquette'd two-tops decked in Southwestern stitching underneath portraits of blues legends. Upstairs, there's a sofa & table game-packed club room and a bar/ music room with a stage surrounded by sweet guitars (which can actually be borrowed for axe-forgetting open mic-ers) and a long wooden bar made from old bourbon barrels, meaning you'll never be the only bunghole in the bar, even if you are the only one in shorts and loafers.

The Food: Things get rolling with Southern-spec eats like a sweet Vidalia onion tart with smoked goat cheese; crawfish-packed mac with Asiago, Monterey jack, and Gouda; a dueling platter of Pacu fish ribs prepped St. Louis- and Wuxi Asian-style; a goes-best-with-bourbon dry-aged cowboy steak; and pickled watermelon chow chow-sided Primal Oysters, also a movie in which a stuttering altar boy is accused of murdering a bishop, then Richard Gere eats horny food.

The Booze: Beers include 30+ bottles and 16 craft taps including Georgia's Terrapin Rye and two Louisiana-sourced Abitas (with some available in gallon/half-gallon jugs), while the booze scene is anchored by pot-distilled bourbons like Hirsch's and Willett plus a laundry list of whisk(e)ys, some of which're used in cocktails ranging from the ginger/ gin/ lemon juice Thyme after Thyme to Smokestack Lighting, full of JW Black, muddled cherry, and OJ, the most notable combination involving him since "white" and "Bronco".