We received a press release earlier this week from Hall’s Chophouse, one of the Palmetto State’s more upscale family-owned restaurant groups (with locations in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville and Summerville).
According to the release, the restaurant is selling a 25-year-old bottle of Old Rip Van Winkle bourbon one pour at a time – at the bargain basement price of $500 per fluid ounce.
Wait … $500 for an ounce of bourbon?
That’s right. According to the restaurant group, the bottle is one of only 710 made by Pappy Van Winkle.
Hall’s is selling the individual pours this week in an effort to raise money for Happy Wheels, a Lexington, S.C.-based nonprofit with locations in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville that provides toys to hospitalized children across the state.
If the restaurant can sell all 20 pours, it will donate $10,000 to Happy Wheels.
“When we found out we would be receiving one of these precious bottles, our collective mind thought immediately of how we could benefit our community,” said Tommy Hall, proprietor of Halls Chophouse. “Especially during this particularly different holiday season, our focus turned towards the families and children who may not have expected to celebrate this year in the hospital. It’s a way to honor the legacy of my dad (Mr. Bill Hall). I know he would have loved this.”
“We are honored and grateful that the Hall family has chosen to partner with Happy Wheels for such a rare and unique opportunity,” said Tracey Rankin, Happy Wheels’ Columbia-area program director. “Happy Wheels will be able to provide many smiles to hospitalized kids across the state because of (Halls’) generosity.”
So … is the pour worth it?
“It’s phenomenal bourbon,” one aficionado told us. “And it is incredibly rare.”
According to our aficionado, the box containing the bottle “is handmade from the barrel staves that the bourbon aged in” and was custom-designed by a “North Carolina furniture maker.”
On the secondary market, bottles of Old Rip Van Winkle can fetch anywhere from $12,000 to $24,000.
So yeah … it’s worth it.
According to Hall’s, the bottle was donated by Rick Havekost, owner of Micky Finn’s, a beer, wine and liquor retailer located in Florence, S.C.
If you are like us and can’t afford $500 a pour, you can still lend a hand to Happy Wheels by clicking here and making a one-time $10 toy donation.
Also, if you have a business that is finding innovative ways to help out charities this holiday – or a charity that you’d like us to help spread the word about – feel free to contact us.
-FITSNews
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