Celebrate End of Prohibition Anniversary at Frist Center's Repeal Day Party

On the evening of Monday, December 5, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts will host a party celebrating the 83rd anniversary of the 1933 repeal of Prohibition. Proceeds from the event will support the ongoing maintenance and preservation of the historic post office building in which the Frist Center is housed.

The evening will feature signature cocktails and demonstrations from three of Nashville's most talented bartenders, each using Old Forester, America's first bottled bourbon and the only bourbon continually distilled and marketed by the founding company before, during, and after Prohibition.

Tickets for the 21-and-over Repeal Party are $50 for Frist Center members and $75 for non-members and are available for purchase online at fristcenter.org/repeal. Suggested festive attire for the evening is 1920s and 1930s speakeasy casual.

"We are honored to work in one of Nashville's most visible historic buildings and are constantly looking for ways to connect with the period of its creation," said Frist Center Deputy Director Ashley Howell. "Prohibition was repealed on December 5, 1933, and about a month earlier, the cornerstone for Nashville's main U.S. Post Office building was laid."

"With Nashville's cocktail culture becoming nationally and internationally known, we thought it would be fun to celebrate the here and now with a nod to the significant past, all to support this magnificent art deco building," said Howell. The evening is being sponsored by Brown-Forman's Old Forester bourbon, along with Athens Distributing and Nashville Lifestyles magazine. Old Forester will offer safe rides home following the party. Clean Plate Club is providing the food for the evening.

The Bartenders

Three of Nashville's most celebrated bartenders will be creating signature cocktails, each prominently featuring Old Forester.

• Jonathan Howard, the reigning "Master of the Manhattan" from the 2016 Woodford Reserve Manhattan Experience, has garnered a lengthy list of awards in his 12-year career in New York City and Nashville and is working on his first bar concept, set to open in The Nations in 2017.

• John Peet, a two-category winner at Nashville Lifestyles' "Bartender Bash," is currently behind the bar at Old Glory and has been featured in The Tennessean's "Hey Bartender" column, LA Weekly and the Los Angeles Times.

• Riley Perrin, formerly of The Patterson House and Steadfast Commons, is now mixing cocktails at Husk.

At check-in, guests will be given specially designed wooden nickels for their drinks during the party. Guests will be able to sample the drink features without spending their wooden nickels. Wooden nickels will be the currency for full-size cocktails at the featured bars and at the party's full-service bars.

Prohibition and Old Forester

Prohibition was a nationwide ban on the production, importation and sale of alcoholic beverages that remained the law of the land from 1920 until its repeal in 1933. With the passage of the 21st Amendment by the state of Utah on December 5 at 5:32 p.m., Prohibition was repealed. In 1920, the founding company (now namEd Brown-Forman) applied for and received a federal license to continue producing Old Forester for medicinal purposes.

For more information, visit fristcenter.org.