American Barrel husband-wife team tap downtown Columbia as home base for cocktail cafe

American Barrel owners Nathan and America Close opened the doors of their new cocktail café earlier this year in downtown Columbia, providing an upscale spot for sipping drinks and noshing on small plates with diverse flavors.

The couple says the café's key purpose is to create a sense of community, embodying its name, where all have a seat at the table.

The husband-wife team is serving creative cocktails with homemade signature syrups at the new bar/café on historic 7th Street next to Bluff City Soap downtown, offering dishes inspired across cultures, including Spanish, Italian, Hispanic, Southern, and Asian.

The renovated long-vacant spot is attracting customers through its low-lit, cozy atmosphere with upscale, modern finishes.

America Close said bringing different cultural components together at the café was inspired by her own diverse background — and by her name.

The meaning of American Barrel, a double entendre, America explained, references oak barrels that hold spirits and America as a "melting pot."

"It's a celebration of the melting pot. You will see that in our food menu and our decór. The idea was to have a seat at the table for everybody and to enjoy each other," said America, who has a degree in education and a background in the service industry.

Dishes feature tapas-style plates with fusion influences with recipes devised by America, based on her multicultural background.

America brought her flair for cooking and mixing drinks, while her husband Nathan brought his woodworking and building skills to renovate the spot.

The decór depicts low lighting, dark wood counters reclaimed from the original wood in the building, and wainscoting halfway up the walls providing a cozy European Old World feel with a modern touch.

From Bar Car to brick and mortar

The couple got the idea to expand their existing mobile Bar Car Americana business — one of the first fully-licensed mobile bars in Tennessee — during the pandemic when people felt so separated from one another, ex-Marine Nathan Close explained.

Earlier this year, the couple brought their Bar Car concept to the brick-and-mortar location in Columbia but still run the Bar Car operation, reaching a wider audience.

Bar Car Americana, all-inclusive bartending service in tandem with the café, can be booked anywhere in Tennessee with full access to the American Barrel menu. The couple started Bar Car in 2020, featuring pop-up "experience" events — Valentine's Day, speakeasy-themed events, and more — during the pandemic, which grew in popularity, drawing customers from all over Middle Tennessee.

"We wanted to build experiences people would remember for years to come, " America said. "It was Covid; everyone was separated, and there wasn't a lot of community being built."

So, she wanted to build a sense of community in her own town of Columbia.

"There was a lot of political unrest and racial tensions. It was sad for me to see people who could've been loving one another, just fighting so much. I always loved being named America because it was multicultural, multiracial, multilingual," America said. "It doesn't mean being perfect, it means being with people who also chose to come to that table.

"I wanted to bring people together again."

Now with the opening of American Barrel, "you don't have to leave Columbia to have a top-notch cocktail and experience," she said, along with tasty dishes.

Culinary flair inspired by family

With a Swedish and Native American ethnic background growing up in Arizona, America said the diversity of her heritage has inspired her passion for connecting cultures and people to build community, as well as a talent for cooking.

One of five children with a spirit of determination, America has experimented with all recipes, sometimes cooking dozens of variations inspired by her father's Native American heritage.

The menu features the popular "bourbon bites," or pan-seared Kielbasa sausage with a bourbon glaze; Albondigas, or Mexican meatballs in a smoky chipotle sauce; sirloin strip poached in a garlic and thyme butter sauce, as well as Italian Caprese salad and elote Mexican street corn, to name a few.

Cocktails include house-infused flavors like orange and lavender and feature classics like the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, and signature cocktails like Mezcal Punch with lime and cranberry and La Fluer with Condesa Orange Blossom gin, house lavender bitters and elderflower.

The cocktail café held a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week hosted by Maury Alliance, officially celebrating its opening at 118 W. 7th Street in Columbia.

"We are trying to give our guests the quality experience not just in our drinks but in our food and our service," Nathan said.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The café is closed      Sunday and Monday.

"It's about creating a place where everybody can come. The food and space is designed to develop community," America said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: American Barrel husband-wife duo taps Columbia downtown as home base