The Double Crown

The back bar at The Double Crown is an upright piano, its keys visible under rows of bourbon, rye, and a bottle of Suntory Toki, all wired over with strings of small lights that run wall to wall. Outside, two gilded crowns are mounted above the door at 375 Haywood Road, flanked by a run of music notes and a red guitar silhouette. The building held a different bar, Mike’s Side Pocket, until June 2012, when two men were stabbed to death inside; months of renovation followed before the space reopened as The Double Crown. Inside now: red vinyl booths, a black-and-white checkered floor, a pair of mounted longhorns, and walls layered with stickers and old photographs. The room doubles as a dive bar and a small music venue — one of the photos catches someone mid-song at a hand mic on the checkered floor. The cocktail list is short and specific — an Appalachian Old Fashioned built on apple butter, a Black Heart Negroni that swaps the gin for Appalachian Fernet, a Two Headed Dog stacking Wild Turkey rye and bourbon with fernet and Jack Rudy’s tonic — all seven to ten dollars. Steer horns over the booths and a piano turned into a bottle shelf are not where you would expect an apple-butter Old Fashioned, and that is the trick of it. Take a seat near the piano, order the Two Headed Dog, and let the string lights do the rest.