Discover Statesville
Welcome to "Discover Statesville," the show that takes you on a captivating journey through the heart of one of North Carolina's most charming towns. Co-hosted by community advocates, Richard Griggs and Cindy Sutton, this weekly show brings you the pulse of Statesville, recording live at various spots throughout Statesville in partnership with Sow Media studios.
Join Richard and Cindy as they uncover the hidden gems and local treasures that make Statesville truly special. From the top-notch attractions and exciting events to the remarkable individuals who shape the community, "Discover Statesville" promises to leave no stone unturned.
Hungry for a culinary adventure? Tune in for their delightful restaurant reviews, where they'll guide you to the best places to eat in town. Whether you're a resident or a visitor, this podcast is your ultimate guide to all the things that make Statesville great.
You're invited to come along on this immersive journey, as "Discover Statesville" brings you closer to the heart of our vibrant town. Be prepared to be entertained, inspired, and enlightened each week, as Richard and Cindy share their passion for all things Statesville!
Discover Statesville
Craftsmanship on Tap and the Great Race Chronicles
Step into the world of refined craftsmanship and spirited adventure with our esteemed guest, Pete Barger of Southern Distilling Company. As we unravel Pete's journey, you'll be captivated by the tales of how his award-winning bourbons and ryes have earned high praise from the most discerning of palates, securing top honors in competitions that set the gold standard in the industry. Discover the commitment to quality that propelled this Statesville distillery from its strong local roots to a remarkable presence in 27 markets, all while staying true to a narrative that's as authentic as their spirits.
Shift gears with us as we trade stills for steering wheels in the Great Race, an automotive odyssey that harkens back to a simpler time. Classic cars, cryptic clues, and an unwavering sense of camaraderie define this cross-country challenge, where precision trumps speed and the open road becomes a testament to human ingenuity. Pete Barger returns to the driver's seat, sharing his personal narrative—from a lineage of entrepreneurs to the helm of a distillery that's as much about community as it is about bourbon. Embark on this episode as we weave a tapestry of local heritage, entrepreneurial tenacity, and the sheer joy of a journey well-traveled.
Welcome back Discover Statesville fans. If you're ready to cruise into June, you're going to want to tune in now.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Discover Statesville, the show that takes you on a captivating journey through the heart of one of North Carolina's most charming towns.
Speaker 3:All right, welcome back to Discover Statesville. Today, we are joined by Pete Barger, co-founder and CEO of Southern Distilling Company. Welcome, pete. Thank you, glad to have you here.
Speaker 4:Great to be here.
Speaker 3:So several months ago we had your partner Vienna on and one of the things that we talked about we were really hyper-focused on Southern Distilling, obviously, but one of the things that we talked about was the significant rise of Southern Distilling over the years and all the accolades that you guys have received in the short time of the foundation of your company. But I understand that you have received more accolades recently.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's several competitions that we participate in and in our industry. Competitions can kind of be like William Say soccer.
Speaker 4:There's certain competitions that everybody gets a medal, everybody gets everybody special, everybody's a winner, and we choose not to participate in those because we really, you know, we want to. We want to know how we're doing right. Are we, are we doing it right or are there opportunities for improvement? So you know, there are a handful of really what we would call more prestigious competitions and those are the ones that that we like to participate in, you know. So you guys may remember, a couple of years ago we won the New York World Wine and Spirits Competition best bourbon in the world in 22. I think, the only non-Kentucky bourbon to ever win that accolade. So that's kind of hard to top. But you know, this year, yeah, we've got, I think, 13 medals that we've accumulated so far For the bourbon lovers out there.
Speaker 4:You guys probably know Fred Minnick, and Fred Minnick is a big critic based out of Louisville, kentucky. He's got a deal called the Ascot Awards because he always wears an Ascot right? That guy's classy, yeah, he's a very classy guy, good guy, good guy. But we got two platinums and three golds in his competition this past I guess month actually and then one that's actually kind of, really kind of. I think more important is we won some medals at the SIP Awards and this is a consumer-based award. So instead of having the critics and the industry insiders, it's the consumers, it's the everyman, yeah, and those are the guys that matter, because those are the guys that buy our bottles right.
Speaker 4:And so, super proud, we picked up two double golds in that competition for our rye. So most people think about us for our bourbons, but the ryes we do a really good job on. So the double rye product, and then the Hunting Creek rye, which is right now only available in North Carolina and that's a heritage brand that was really. We've re-released it. It was produced here in Statesville up until 1903. So 120 years later, we've re-released it and that won a double gold.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's amazing Congratulations. Thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Putting Statesville on the map is an understatement. Of course, we see all of your social media followers constantly, like you said, critics, but even the consumers who want to be influencers, constantly posting about all of your great products.
Speaker 4:I mean, that's how little guys like us, kind of David and Goliath. That's how we win is through that consumer interface and that whole social presence, and we've got really good people who are helping us with that right now. But you've got to have a story to tell. And one of the cool things is I think a lot of folks know that our main business is we do a lot of contract production for a lot of other brands around the world, you know, and the branded side of the business is actually a pretty small part of the business today. Now, you know, we'd like it to be the majority of the business, but that's a long haul. But the thing that's so rewarding is is that we get to talk about these awards. I don't get to talk about it, you know, with most of our clients because we're under NDA.
Speaker 4:Everything is super top secret, so it's always nice when you get to brag a little bit about the awards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Well, congratulations. We are certainly proud that you guys call States North Carolina home. Talking about Southern Distilling, are you in almost every state now? No, your footprint's growing pretty fast, right.
Speaker 4:And so there's a couple of things about this industry Everybody believes when they start is that wide distribution is what you want. But wide distribution is really very expensive and it's more important to go deep than it is to go wide, you know. And the other thing is is that it's important to win at home, and you know North Carolina is home and we got to kill it. North Carolina, you know that's the most important market. You know. That's why we've got the sponsorship with the Panthers and Charlotte FC is because you know North Carolina is home and we got to win here, got to be seen here. North Carolina's home and we've got to win here, got to be seen here. We're in 27 markets.
Speaker 4:I would tell you that that was probably a mistake to go into 27 markets. Quite honestly, we've pulled back and scaled back so that we're really pushing on more like 18 markets. I think today, most on the East Coast. You know Vienna's from California. I'm from Statesville, you know. So we have to have a presence in California. But California is a very tough market to win in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I think, just being in that many states, in the short amount of time that you guys have been open, it seems like forever, but it really is a short amount of time 11 years, you know, 11 years since we incorporated the company.
Speaker 4:um, you know, if you go back 11 years ago, our offices were right across the street. You know, over here, um, I guess that was the old spain hours building, really, yeah, that's what vienna at least a storefront office there, and you know why we were doing all the design and engineering. That's kind of where we, where we were for two years, I, I guess, and then, of course, once the construction was done on the Jennings Road site, we of course moved out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and it's an amazing facility Slow, smart growth, yep. So we wanted to talk to you about your awards, because we think that's amazing and we're proud of you guys, but the main reason we're here today is to talk about this very cool thing that you're passionate about and that you're doing, and it's the Great Race, the 2024 Great Race, and for you, this is going to be the second time that you've participated in it, but we want to talk through. You guys are going to do a cruise in to kind of celebrate the race and kick it off, and we're going to give some details on that, but tell us about the Great Race. Why the Great Race for Southern Distillery and for Pete?
Speaker 4:So it's a good thing that we have 20 minutes because it's a bit of a story, right. But I think it's an interesting story, especially for people who love cars, right. So a lot of people are familiar with the Great Race. More people would be familiar with, say, the Cannonball, right, Because there's a movie about the Cannonball.
Speaker 4:But the Great Race and the Cannonball are very similar. It's just private, independent guys getting out and doing a cross-country race. Now the difference is is that historically, the Cannonball was a race for speed. The Great Race is not a race for speed. The great race is what we call a time trial, so it's a timed event, and that's important because we have cars as old as 1912, all the way up through 1974. So these are not speed demons. The 1912 car I had to follow last year really great guys, super good group of guys. They're all attorneys and then for two weeks out of the year they pack up in a 50-year-old bus and go out with this 1912 American LaFrance and then campaign it. But that American LaFrance started out as a fire truck.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 4:And then they converted it way, way back into a quote-unquote indie racer. But when it leaves it looks like the Exxon Valdez has just left the dock there.
Speaker 4:I mean it's like oil everywhere and last year we had to follow it and of course we're all covered with oil. And they wear jumpsuits. They wear these bright yellow jumpsuits to protect them from all of the flying debris. I was like I need one, so we traded out some whiskey, we got our jumpsuits and they were ready to go now, but anyway.
Speaker 4:So the great race, it's what I say 4,000 miles, the hard way, because it's a 10-day event, it's cross-country, we don't know where we are going until 30 minutes before our allocated start time and we have to start in sequence. They'll be roughly 300 miles per leg give or take each day. No GPS, no maps, no phones, all secondary roads, right. But it's a little bit like an Easter egg hunt. You get very, very cryptic instructions and then you've got to hit checkpoints. You don't know where they're going to be. You know there's going to be six of them, but you don't know where they're going to be and you've got to hit them exactly at the right time. So you can't be a minute late, you can't be a minute. I mean, you can be, but you lose points for that. So you know, the ideal is to hit that checkpoint right on time zero seconds early, zero seconds late.
Speaker 4:If you make it perfectly, it's called an ace. An ace, you get an ace. We got two aces last year which was a big deal for a couple of rookies. I navigated Trinity, our oldest, our son. He drove, I was going to drive and he was going to navigate. Until he looked at the navigation, it was like 300 unique instructions and it's like. I won't even go into the complexity of it.
Speaker 3:He's like hell. No, I'm not doing that I'll drive.
Speaker 4:So you said they are pretty cryptic.
Speaker 3:I mean it's like putting together a puzzle. I mean you're having to sort of figure out clues for directions, or it's super cryptic.
Speaker 4:So it's literally. It's like you know go 27 miles an hour until you see the right hand curve sign that has 20 miles an hour slow down, not the one that's 35 miles an hour slow down, and then make a right hand turn. And the way they calculate the perfect time is that they assume that your car will go from zero to whatever instantaneously. It slows down instantaneously. Cars don't do that right, so you have to calculate well, how fast does my car accelerate and brake and come out of a turn?
Speaker 3:Wow, that's pretty intricate. And then there's all.
Speaker 2:I had no idea.
Speaker 4:I am sitting there with a calculator and a bunch of tables and then barking instructions.
Speaker 1:Last year I just assumed you were going on a nice leisurely drive. I would drive as well.
Speaker 4:I'm going to tell you right now, when I signed up for this thing, I thought man, this is going to be so much fun. It's going to be a cross-country tour. I'm going to get to see lots of new places. You don't see anything. You see the calculator and you're looking at the signs, and Trinity bless his heart. You've got to. Well, if you want to win, you've got to have a calibrated speedometer which is like this big. And he's staring at the speedometer and when he gets out of the car, all he can see is his blue remnant of the speedometer. It takes about two hours for that to disappear from his vision.
Speaker 3:And so how many teams are there? Usually About 200. Wow, okay.
Speaker 4:Yeah, man, we're actually sponsoring this year. So we had such a great time last year, we said, hey, why don't we sponsor the event? So it starts out in Owensboro, kentucky, and ends in Maine. I'm not even sure you've got the map here. Gardner, maine, so never been to Maine. Get to see it. Maine, so never been to. Maine Get to see it. Oh, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1:So over eight days, June 22nd through June 30th.
Speaker 4:And it actually starts a couple of days earlier for some pre-trial events. Okay, it's kind of like speed check make sure everything works the way it's supposed to work.
Speaker 1:So Southern Distilling brand all over across the states. Again, guys, you guys put.
Speaker 4:Statesport on the map On every car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. But to send you off right, your team came up with this great idea to do a summer cruise-in and bring in other cars.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we're going to have a big cruise-in at the distillery June 13th, I think. There's slots still available, slots still open. You can go out to our website, I think, and find it there. So June 13th, I think that's a Thursday, from 5 to 9. But bring whatever brings you joy, I don't really care, I mean. So we're campaigning a 1967 Bonneville Cars can't be newer than 1974. But we're agnostic, we just love cars. So bring whatever makes you happy.
Speaker 4:I'll be happy to see you there, but we're going to have food trucks, craft cocktails, of course, live music and a very, very special single barrel release commemorating the great race this year.
Speaker 1:Only available on that date, right I?
Speaker 4:think only available that date at the distillery.
Speaker 1:yeah, Well, we will be there. And last update I heard there's already over 65 cars right there.
Speaker 4:I think there's probably more than that yeah, okay Are you going to bring a car.
Speaker 1:If I had one, I would.
Speaker 4:Do you have a car A?
Speaker 3:pre-74 car.
Speaker 1:Can I bring a toy car? Hey, you don't.
Speaker 4:You do not have to bring a pre-74 car. Oh, okay, Now if you want to race in a great race, you just bring whatever puts a smile on your face right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, we're going to be out there with a fun gift from the Statesville Convention and Visitors Bureau to help send Pete off, that's awesome. We are very excited about that.
Speaker 4:Is it going to be some goofy sunglasses that I have to wear while I'm out there?
Speaker 1:No, it's actually we worked with your team in the tasting room and we were looking at some different options for gifts for when visitors come in. And we were bringing a pint glass in and it turned out they're called silly pints. They're made out of silicone, bpa-free, go in the dishwasher, microwave, but they're in the same colors as your commemorative, your recent release for the Charlotte Football Club, and it's a rocks glass. Oh cool, so it's a rocks glass.
Speaker 4:It'll be perfect for the great race that's right, send everybody off in style.
Speaker 1:So we're looking forward to it. So we know that Pete Barger is a car enthusiast Yep enthusiast but we'd love for our listeners, who may not know anything about Southern Distilling or anything about you and your family, to learn a little bit about you. One of the things Richard and I really, really enjoy about Discover Statesville is the things that we get to learn about the people that make up the patchwork of this amazing community that we live in. So people who live here or people from afar who are listening, tell us about Pete Barger. I mean, you grew up here, your family's from here.
Speaker 4:My family has been here for many generations. So yeah, I grew up in Statesville. So my great grandfather and then predecessors they actually were in Mount Ulla, but if you're from there I think it's Mount Ulla but I say Ulla. But anyway, the history is that they were in the lumber business and they had PM Barger actually it was Barger Brothers at that point in time and then became PM Barger Lumber Company and I think it was my granddad or great-grandfather was 60 or 65 years old. He picked up, moved from Mooresville to Statesville and opened up a new business.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 4:So you know, pretty big move for a 60-plus-year-old guy. Then my granddad went into the family business. My dad went into the family business. I always thought I was going to go into the family business but the family business didn't last long enough so we were in the wholesale lumber business, so Bargamelware Company, so right off of Interstate 77. I've got pictures of the building as they were building 77 in kind of our family archives, but it used to be. I guess they call it the five points down on Front Street where I guess it's Thornburg hosiery is today. They used to be there that was the original Berger Millwork company.
Speaker 1:Okay, but a family of entrepreneurs my granddad was.
Speaker 4:It was a lumber broker, my great-grandfather, and so he brought the first rail carloads of redwood into this part of the country and so he would go out to the West Coast. He would buy fur, redwood things that you couldn't get on the East Coast and then bring it back by rail and that's how we started the company. From there it went into other wholesale millwork things and unfortunately wholesale millwork is not a thing anymore and you know that business kind of disappeared with the Lowe's home improvement model.
Speaker 4:Sure sure, but we always had that really strong entrepreneurial I did, you know, because I grew up in that family business always something I wanted to do. Dad always said go work for somebody else, first learn how to build a business, then go do it. And that was great advice. So, you know, we finally got the opportunity to do that. You know when was that? 2012. Yeah, 2012.
Speaker 1:Seems like yesterday.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I grew up at Glendale Drive, Tip Nicholson everybody knows Tip.
Speaker 2:Nicholson right.
Speaker 4:So dad sold the house to Tip, however, many years ago. If you go to Tip's house and you look in the driveway, there's a beautiful maple tree on the right. I planted that tip.
Speaker 1:Their house is your family house. I didn't know that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely Very cool, that's very cool. Went to DMAT Thompson when that was a thing we called it doormat and then joke wood right. My parents went to D-Mat. Yeah, and that's back in the day when we all rode our bikes to school, right? I went to Oakwood the other day, where our youngest is right now and one poor child on a bike, and I remember back in the day, man, there was like bike racks, hundreds of bikes, right it would be nice if we could get back to that. Oh gosh yeah.
Speaker 3:I miss that Mike doesn't ride his bike, but he walks to school and back every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I see him, I see him.
Speaker 3:I see him walking down the street sometimes he has a bike, he just chooses to walk.
Speaker 1:It's nice to be close for people like that.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I'm statesville born and bred.
Speaker 1:Very cool. Let's talk a minute because Idle County is so rich in agriculture. When Vienna was here, you guys had just won this amazing award from the state of North Carolina for your participation in agriculture, which I thought was a very high accolade. It was unexpected, right.
Speaker 4:Totally shocker to us. We had no idea that we were considered and certainly didn't think that we were deserving to win, but we're very appreciative that we were deserving to win, but we're very appreciative. So, yeah, a lot of people don't understand that the bourbon business, the liquor business in general it's an agriculturally-based business. I mean so you know, every day, just our little company, we go through about 60,000 pounds of grain every day, and we're running 360 days a year, so that's a lot of grain, and we're very proud that the vast majority of that grain is produced, really, in Iredell and surrounding counties. It all comes from within basically a 15, 20 mile radius, so we've got great farming families that we partner with. The really cool thing about that, though, is that we're taking what would be kind of a raw ingredient and we're making a value-added product that's agriculturally based. Even the waste material is reused. We send that out. That gets fed, primarily, to dairy cattle, so it's a full agricultural circle, and we've got a fantastic commissioner of agriculture, commissioner Troxler, very, very forward-thinking guy, big fan of not just our company but the industry for North Carolina in general, and the thing that we appreciate about him so much is he's always thinking okay, how can we keep North Carolina ahead of the curve, right? So value-added ag is a huge part of that.
Speaker 4:The other part of that is exports. And so, as we look at bourbon in particular, it's an American-produced product, has to be produced in America, but historically it's always been enjoyed in America. The real opportunity is looking at export. Let's move that great American product to the other parts of the world. And so, with the support of the Department of Ag, we were able to do kind of a mission trip into Europe last year, pretty successful, both for the branded side of the business as well as our contract side of the business. Through the branded side of the business as well as our contract side of the business, and you know they appreciated what we were doing, and we were again awarded Exporter of the Year from the North Carolina Department of Ag. Very cool Again, not something that we expected, but pretty nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's very exciting. So, on top of your passion for cars and racing and being an entrepreneur in the bourbon business, pete is also on the board of directors for the Statesville Convention and Visitors Bureau, so has a passion for tourism and his business in general. As, being a local growing up here, I have a passion for celebrating Statesville.
Speaker 4:There you go, I mean, yeah, exactly, and you know we could just stay out on Jennings Road and just mind our business. But you know, this is, this is my hometown and I'm proud of it and I want other people to experience it and be proud of that when they when they leave here. And so I'm very honored to work with Cindy Sutton on that cause. Without Cindy Sutton folks, it wouldn't be the same. I'm going to tell you, this woman works.
Speaker 1:She does yeoman's work out there? I was going to say it's people with passion like yours that keeps me ticked.
Speaker 1:Keeps me ticked yeah, but this podcast is made possible by the Statesville Convention and Visitors Bureau. Also, discover Statesville is made possible by the support of the Statesville Convention and Visitors Bureau and we're very grateful for that. We're grateful for your passion and your time that you give Absolutely you give back to tourism. So people Southern Distilling right here, locally in Statesville. If you're local and you haven't been, they have a tasting room open seven days a week in seven days a week.
Speaker 4:We have a tasting room open seven days a week and we have a very exciting palette of new special releases that will only be available in the tasting room there. So very special things that I've picked, that Vienna's picked, that we're doing special finishes on. So come and visit, it's a great time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're in the bar there. Your mixologists do an amazing job. I'm a bourbon drinker so I enjoy when they come up with new drinks and they have their events Food trucks out there on Saturdays.
Speaker 4:Yeah, pretty often yeah.
Speaker 1:On Saturdays, if you're traveling through, am I going to say this right, Stop and sip for a while.
Speaker 4:Stop and sip for a while. That's what the billboard says. But even if you're, not.
Speaker 3:I think that the tour in general and everything I mean it's fascinating. Yeah, even if you're not a bourbon person, just to learn about the business and how you guys operate and everything For the whole family educational process. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4:And that's one thing. A lot of people oh, I can't take my kids to this. It is a family environment. We even have like a big toy box for the toddlers that come in. But you know, kids really enjoy the science. I mean, it's science right. Oh yeah, it's cool and we get to learn and teach people about all sorts of chemistry and physics, but it's really the only opportunity outside Tennessee or Kentucky to see a distillery operate at this scale, so it's really kind of cool and it's right off 77.
Speaker 3:That's remarkable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'd be remiss and your marketing team would be upset with me if I didn't mention that you have robust social media. Follow along on Instagram for some cool behind-the-scenes content. Yep, we reposted a video from one of your visitors. That was the bung he was.
Speaker 4:They untapped the barrel, she doesn't want to say it. That little piece of wood, it's called a bung. I was going to say he tapped the bunghole, you got to pull it. It's an industry, it's a real thing.
Speaker 1:It was our number one performing reel. Everyone was excited about it.
Speaker 4:Everybody likes it.
Speaker 1:Southern Desilium. People, everyone make plans. Get your mind out of the gutter, cindy, come on this month in June, june 13th, from 5 to 9,. You're not going to want to miss this summer cruising.
Speaker 4:Even if you don't have a car, come on by. We won't see you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Southern Distilling everyone. Thanks, pete, thank you guys All right, thanks, folks, see you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining Discover Statesville. You can email us at discover at statesvillenccom. Check us out on Facebook at Discover Statesville, nc hashtag Discover Statesville and our website statesfulnccom. Catch us next week as we continue on our journey to uncover the hidden gems, culinary adventures, entertainment, and to be inspired and enlightened as we Discover Statesville.
