Pigs might fly, but they’re much finer when they whistle. The name for everyone's favourite rye whiskey is said to come from the Kunekune pig that had a penchant for sleeping in the barn that eventually became the distillery, with each of its snores culminating in a whistle. Guests at a recent dinner at Louie in Covent Garden could hardly avoid the thing. In the handsome private room at the New Orleans-inflected restaurant, a huge, glistening WhistlePig lay as the centrepiece, crafted entirely from ice and adorned with a pair of rather hopeful wings. Late into the night, guests ducked to sip the flowing rye from its snout, a fitting act of revelry that captured the unique Thanksgiving energy of the evening.
The menu was similarly heady, with excellent shrimp cocktail, crab-cakes and steak tartare followed by some very good beef fillet and a cubic tonne of profiteroles. The pairings were certainly whistle-worthy, too – including special WhistlePig cocktails like the Sugar Shack Sour, Green Mountain Highball and Hog Old Fashioned. Guests – including Che Lingo, Cyrill Ibrahim, Henry Hales, Joe Kennedy, Sagar Radia, Mecia Simson, Elizabeth Tan, Nick Blood and Jason Patel – all left with a bottle of WhistlePig 10-Year-Old Rye, but not before sampling the porcine ice luge for old time’s sake.
Harrison Osterfield
Elizabeth Tan
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