The 126, Burlington.
I’ve heard The 126 called “the best bar in Vermont.” That’s a tribute to co-owners Karyn Jacobs and Emily Morton. Talk to them, and you sense their easy rapport. Karyn’s focus is the catering business, the roving bar that she sets up throughout the state for people who want just the right cocktails for their wedding or other celebration. Emily is the wizard behind the drinks; she’s won the Vermont Bartender of the Year Award.
The bar itself is a throwback to the speakeasies of the 1920s. On the night I visited, live classical jazz floated in from a back room, blending with the velvet curtains and the stamped tin ceilings to conjure up a bygone era. The cocktails, too, reflect Emily’s fascination with historical drinks. She’s single-handedly reviving the tradition of infusing sherries and ports into cocktails.
The drinks menu is a nod of appreciation to bartenders everywhere. The menu lists the bartender who created the drink as well as its ingredients. When I visited, Emily served me several drinks, well suited to a chilly night.
The Northside is a riff on The Southside (a blend of gin, citrus, sugar, and mint). Northside blends a dry Fino sherry and grapefruit juice to create a balanced, smooth cocktail. New Sin, Who Dis? features Laird’s Applejack brandy, house-made grenadine, and Cynar (pronounced Chi-nar), an amaro made from, of all things, artichokes, giving the drink a vegetal undercurrent with notes of pomegranate.
Emily Morton and Karyn Jacobs ready to welcome guests. PHOTO LUKE AWTRY PHOTOGRAPHY
Of course, the Cynar led to Emily pouring a sample of The 126’s amaro, made from honey, cedar, anise, fig, cranberries, and 14 other ingredients and aged in a charred oak barrel. (Waves of flavors, tinged with sweetness.)
The drinks menu has a Temperance Cocktails section, a sly reference to the Temperance Movement that led to Prohibition. When Emily is around, do not mock her and attempt to rhyme “cocktails”: they are Temperance or nonalcoholic cocktails, thank you.
“She will die by this,” says Karyn with a laugh.
“I’ve lost the battle,” says Emily. “I’m well aware that I’ve lost the battle.”
“Nonalcoholic beverages get exactly the same attention as our alcoholic cocktails. The 126 uses no alcohol in homemade syrups or bitters, so any of them can go into a nonalcoholic cocktail.” –Emily Morton
New Sin, Who Dis? by Jon Seward, 2023: Laird's Applejack, Cynar, house grenadine, and lemon. PHOTO LUKE AWTRY PHOTOGRAPHY
“Our nonalcoholic beverages get exactly the same attention as our alcoholic cocktails,” Emily adds. The 126 uses no alcohol in homemade syrups or bitters, so any of them can go into a nonalcoholic cocktail.
Each drink on The Temperance menu is named for a Temperance Movement leader. In tribute to Carrie Nation, known for taking a hatchet to alcohol-serving establishments, The 126 cheerily serves up a Carrie the Hatchet #2.
Drinking alcohol or not, “Every single guest can feel comfortable here,” says Emily—and true to her word, she and Karyn heartily greet everyone entering. Conversation flows.
Late in the evening, I throw down a challenge to Emily: Could she make a drink from a list of my favorite ingredients, scrawled on a list before her? Smiling like a magician, she said “Sure.” She whirled into action.
Emily and Karyn take a break and enjoy the fruits of their labor. PHOTO LUKE AWTRY PHOTOGRAPHY
Moments later, she presented a drink harkening back a hundred years: a Bijou. This New Bijou 2024 featured Barr Hill Tom Cat gin (sweetened with honey), Grand Marnier, Chartreuse, and ruby port.
People—this was a drink to warm my heart and soothe my soul.
Not content, she returned with some Beefeater gin (her personal favorite). “May I add a bit of this? It should round it out.” Why tamper with perfection? Clearly, I was not Vermont’s Bartender of the Year.
“Ok,” I said skeptically. She poured. I sipped. Miraculously, yes,
I drifted farther heavenward.
