If you live in or around downtown Iowa City, you might have driven past Hudson’s a hundred times and not given it a second thought, but if you live in the neighborhood, it’s your favorite spot. This is by design. Hudson’s Southside Tap was opened in 2015 by the owning group that also owns Stella and Short’s in downtown to take advantage of what they saw as an opportunity. The southwest corner of Iowa City is a bit disconnected from the life of downtown. Not only is it a mile away from the center of the city, with much of campus in between, but the river also creates a physical separation that gives this part of town a different vibe. There’s a couple chain fast food places and fast casual restaurants in the area, but it isn’t really a destination part of the city if you aren’t looking for Walmart or a new car. The owners of Hudson’s saw this a decade ago and decided to jump on the location to take advantage of what they viewed as a hole in the neighborhood. And they’ve succeeded greatly. The standard of great food that exists across all of their restaurants has been maintained, and from the beginning they set out to have a great selection of both local beers on tap and whiskey from around the world. The owner even called it a whiskey bar when talking about it to the local news when it first opened, and it certainly lives up to that billing.

WHISKEY SELECTION

Variety: Bourbon, Rye, Scotch, Irish, Flavored

Range: Excellent. They have 64 bottles of whiskey on their menu. Although, there are a couple of bottles on the menu they no longer have and a couple of bottles on the shelf that haven’t been added to the menu yet, so 64 might not be the exact number, but it definitely is still around that five dozen mark at minimum. Their Scotch selection stands out above the rest, which is saying something since they have a great selection in all of their types of whiskey offerings. All three major regions of Scotch are represented and they have four Islay whiskys, including all of the Big Three (Laphroaig, Ardbeg, and Lagavulin). They have a unique selection of flavored whiskies for the city, including a Revelton honey whiskey and their local whiskey selection goes above and beyond anywhere else in the city as they have other local distilleries represented besides the typical Templeton and Cedar Ridge.

Price Point: Pours range in price from $5 on the low end to $22 for their most expensive pour, Jameson 18. Less than a third of their selection goes above $10, which is great because it means most of their selection is affordable. Most of the more expensive bottles are Scotch, which makes sense to me, not necessarily from a market price perspective, but from the air of prestige that Scotch carries in many places in the U.S.

Wells: Their well whiskey is Mr. Boston and goes for $4 a pour.

Best Bottle: Their best bottle is also the most expensive in Jameson 18. It’s the only traditional “top shelf” selection, but they have plenty of other quality bottles as well. That list includes Blantons (currently out), Buffalo Trace, Hudson’s Rye, Makers 46, Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel, Whistle Pig 12 Old World, Oban 14, Talisker 10, Lagavulin 8, Dalwhinnie 12, Buchanan’s 18 Year Special Reserve, Bowmore 12, Ardbeg 12, Glenmorangie Nector D’or, Redbreast 12, and Green Spot.

Key Notes: Had a pour of the Buchanan’s 18 as I hadn’t tried any Buchanan’s before. It was served in a typical cylindrical rocks glass. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like they had any decent snifter options for glassware, which is nitpicky, but something to note in an establishment that has this good of a selection.

On the nose you are first greeted by a strong caramel and malt. A slight vanilla sweetness sneaks in underneath. It’s hard to pick up much else in the rocks glass, but there might be a slight fruity sweetness there as well. A faint floral note comes out over time. On the palate you immediately get a bright vanilla, almost confectionary in nature, quickly followed by a rich caramel that reminds me of Werther’s originals. A strong malt comes in the mid palate along with a pleasant and sweet cherrywood that carries into the finish. There’s a slight nuttiness as well, maybe almond. It’s quite smooth in the finish and the wood tannins linger beautifully.

Overall Thoughts: Excellent spot for whiskey. It doesn’t quite surpass Micky’s due to the lack of top shelf bottles, but the sheer range and variety that they provide is enough for me to definitively say that I agree with the owner, this is a whiskey bar. The fact that it’s maybe the only decent bar in the southwest corner of Iowa City makes it a great destination for local residents that can’t easily make it downtown all the time. If it wasn’t all the way on the other side of town from where I live, I’d be visiting there much more often.

Grade: A+

Postscript: The Master Key has been edited to reflect a change in format beginning with this blog. This blog is the introduction of the key notes section of the review, where I have a pour of one of the whiskeys and give my notes on it, from glassware to smell to taste. The addition of this section also prompted a slight change in order of other sections. To try and help the flow of each blog post, I have moved the grade to the very end of the post instead of having it appear right before my overall thoughts.