The store had two signs. It was called “Brown’s Store” according to Coca-Cola, “Brown’s Grocery” according to Dr. Pepper. I never heard anybody call it “Brown’s Grocery”—not once.  

“And gimme a Coke.”

“What kind of Coke you want?” 

I guess that settles that. 

Moe Black was Buddy’s daughter, and she made the sandwiches. She cut the bologna on a severe diagonal. Over its width, your slice went from roughly the height of the Lascassas telephone directory down to one of its pages. If you asked for two, you could turn them crosswise so your top bread wouldn’t slide off. 

Sundays after church it was Nascar, not football, on the store’s big-screen TV. This was before LCDs, and that picture probably had 55 gallons of vacuum tube behind it. And of course it was Nascar. Back then, Nashville didn’t even have a team. Dale Earnhardt wasn’t even dead.

If you haven’t fat-washed a spirit before: be not afraid. Melt 4 ounces of pork fat—lard or bacon grease—and while it’s still hot, pour it into a pint jar with 8 ounces of whiskey. For this drink, I used freshly rendered leaf lard and Mellow Corn for the whiskey. Give the jar a good shake, let it cool to room temperature, then stick it in the fridge overnight. The next day, poke a hole through the cap of congealed fat and pour the whiskey through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth into a fresh container. You now have pork fat-washed whiskey. Lucky you. 

Ingredients:

1.5 oz. pork fat-washed corn whiskey or bourbon

0.5 oz. Luxardo

Coca-Cola

distilled white vinegar

maraschino cherry

Instructions: 

Spoon a cherry and an extra spoonful of the maraschino juice into the bottom of a Nick and Nora glass. Shake the whiskey and Luxardo with ice and strain into the glass. Top with a generous splash of Coke, then add one barspoon of the vinegar and give the drink a gentle stir to mix.