Freelance Writing And The Fine Art Of Living Vicariously

Tommy Tardie and Brian Nation at the Keeper’s Heart distillery in Minneapolis

One of my favorite freelance gigs is getting to live my life vicariously through my friend Tommy Tardie. If you know Tommy, you know that… well, to say he has a pretty amazing life is understating it tremendously. He owns Fine & Rare and The Flatiron Room, two of the coolest whisk(e)y bars/restaurants in New York — and by extension the world. He’s an incredible carpenter who, during the pandemic, built one of the sturdiest and best looking dining sheds in town for Fine & Rare. He decided he wanted to start a coffee brand and came up with The Morning Dram, a coffee so good that even I like it — and I hate coffee. His idea of a fun time is going on long motorcycle trips through Scotland with his brothers. And he’s got these Clark Kent-type good looks that once made my daughter, who was about 7 at the time, tell me, “He’s preeeeetty.”

I’d love to tell you that Tommy is a big jerk, just to give the man some kind of defect, but no, he’s actually a really nice person who’s become a good friend over the years. Even if Fine & Rare wasn’t such a great place for dinner and drinks (and walking distance from my apartment to boot), I’d go there just to hang out with him. He’s also a very good writer, but either he doesn’t believe it, or he’s too busy leading his awesome life to sit down and peck stuff out on a laptop. Which is where I come in.

When Tommy needs something written, whether it’s a guide for his whisky-tasting kits or articles for various publications, he’ll often call on me to help him out. We’ll sit down at Fine & Rare before opening (he often brings out a charcuterie for us to munch on, which is a nice perk of the job) and he’ll give me some notes and photos and we’ll sketch out a rough outline together. I don’t think he really needs my help, as his notes are pretty well written. But I’m happy to provide assistance, if only so I can write about him in the first person, as if I’m the one who did all this cool stuff.

Here’s -> the link <- to Tommy’s/our/my latest piece, as seen in Cool Material. It’s about his trip to Minneapolis and the Keeper’s Heart distillery, where he met ex-Jameson master distiller Brian Nation. Why did Brian jump ship from one of the cushiest jobs in the whiskey industry to move to a startup on a different continent? Why did Tommy travel halfway across the country to get used whiskey barrels from them? How many fish did they catch? Find out the answers, and so much more, by reading the damn article!