Promoters for beers, spirits and wine come to Rosey Baby on Wednesday nights to show off either the latest drink they have in stock or to highlight one of their drinks that the restaurant already has on tap.
Hunter Beasley, a liquor and wine representative for the Glazer’s distributing company, came to Rosey Baby on Sept. 28 to promote Tito’s vodka. For the event, Beasley made a variety of drinks using the liquor, allowing each person two free drinks, with the Texas-made vodka.
“We want folks to at least taste it and compare it to what they’ve had before,” he said.
Trying new things seems to be the motto of the tastings, said Curt Crissey, the owner of Rosey Baby. With 63 beer taps and 14 more planned to be installed in the future, the bar portion offers, according to Crissey, the largest number of beer taps in Mississippi.
The tastings began in January after numerous customers asked to try every beer on tap. The idea behind it was simply to get winemakers and beer-makers to come in and tell people about drinks as they taste it.
Since the event started, distributors ranging from localized breweries such as Lazy Magnolia, to well-known liquor, such as Crown Royal, have come to the promotions to show off their drinks. The bar has received a good deal of press through beer distributors, such as Tommyknocker, Diamondback and Red Brick.
So far, Crissey said the beer tastings have been the most popular, but he believes the spirit tastings will grow with popularity as the season continues.
Crissey shows great pride in Rosey Baby. He will be happy to tell you how he put every tile in the bar and built every tap by hand. He will talk about how he often checks to make sure he has the most taps in the state, and offhandedly remark at how Tommyknocker Brewery has told him there isn’t a bar in Colorado, the brewery’s home state, that has as many of their brews on tap as he does.
He also shows a great respect for the brewers’ work, describing their work as an art form.
“These guys are artisans,” he said. “You can see the passion in their work.”
Will Meadows, the bartender for the events, described Rosy Baby as an alternative bar scene.
“It’s not in the Cotton District, so it doesn’t really get the same crowd,” he said. “You get all sorts of people coming through.”
And Rosey Baby is a different sort of place. On any night, there is an odd influx of people coming in, some regulars, some who saw the multi-colored New Orleans-style ironwork outside and decided to try it out. It could be quiet and empty one minute, but the next it feels like a party in someone’s backyard.
“I just want people to come in here, just sit down and talk to people,” Crissey said. “At the Rosey Baby in Ft. Lauderdale, at 5:05 p.m. you can name every person in every chair. I hope to have that here, too, one day.”