Drinks 2026 | Edible Notables

Barrel-Aged Brilliance

How Chapel Tavern turned a boulevardier into a drinking experience.

Chapel Tavern in Midtown Reno has been known to push creative boundaries. Now it’s happened once again with the installation of a complex cascading barrel-aging system called a solera (Spanish for “on the ground,” referring to the transfer downward through barrels) designed to produce a custom cocktail experience.

“We’ve been known for having unique cocktails in unique presentations with unique ingredients since we opened in 2006,” says Chapel Tavern owner Sean Stitt.

On the central support beam above the bar, 12 five-liter barrels rest on custom-made wooden “antlers” with thin copper tubing connecting them. Inside the tubes, a rich, overproof boulevardier cocktail — a bourbon-based Negroni — flows through the pipes over the course of a month, aging and developing more depth, before being poured into a stainless-steel cistern mounted about six feet above the ground. From there, bartenders can fill custom crystal glasses with the special concoction.

Once the cistern is filled, the barrels must be immediately refilled to keep them from drying out, beginning the process anew.

Former Chapel Tavern owner T. Duncan Mitchell came up with the idea more than 12 years ago. But the complexity of building the apparatus, the cost, and the challenge of selling 60 liters of one cocktail per month kept holding him back. After Stitt bought the bar in 2022, he kept returning to the idea, learning more about the solera concept, and working with his team, Mark Nesbitt and Alexis “Lex” Nieman, to figure out how to turn the experiment into a viable product.

“I wanted to continue to push something people haven’t ever seen before,” he says.

Harnessing Gravity
In 2023, Stitt hired local woodworker Dan Steinmetz and engineer Cooper Richardson to install, design, and connect the cascading barrels system, which was finally launched on Feb. 29, 2024. Bar patrons will notice the barrels are mounted in a staggered pattern that slowly descends right to left. This allows gravity to do most of the work of pushing the boulevardier toward the bar.

“The goal is for it to be a piece of artwork but functional,” Stitt says. “How do you create something that adds to the décor of Chapel Tavern — its distinct décor — but creates a new experience for the consumer?”

Stitt believes the system has helped meet that goal by creating a cocktail that changes over time — not just because the drinking experience may differ day to day, but because the barrels on the wall react to the tavern’s microclimate, creating unique changes in every batch. When the garage door is open in the summer, it can dry out the barrels, causing them to absorb more cocktail. During a packed concert, the warm, moist atmosphere can inhibit barrel aging and contribute to a different flavor as well.

“Even if someone builds the same thing in L.A., it’ll be different,” he says. “But you’re never going to have this one drink again. It’s the most unique cocktail experience in the world. But it’ll always taste like the Chapel Tavern boulevardier.”

Chapel Tavern
1099 S. Virginia St., Reno
775-324-2244 · Chapeltavern.com