Eureka! Whiskey Club features special selections from distilleries both famous and interestingly obscure.

Circa 200 B.C., the Greek physicist Archimedes of Syracuse is said to have jumped out of his bathtub and run through the city streets naked, shouting, “Eureka! Eureka!” —”I have found it!” The ancient scientist had discovered a way to use water displacement to calculate the volume of an object and thus determine its relative density. He used the insight to test whether a crown made for King Hiero II was, in fact, made of pure gold. (It wasn’t.)

Fast-forward 2200 years, and San Diego whiskey connoisseurs have found their own cause for excitement: a monthly whiskey club at the county’s three Eureka! restaurant locations. Each month, members of Eureka!’s Whiskey Club can go to the Carlsbad, UTC, or SDSU location to pick up a box containing a unique bottle, tasting notes, and other bar accessories and goodies.

Although Eureka!’s management had long envisioned using their distillery connections to launch the Whiskey Club, it wasn’t until alcohol laws changed due to covid that the restaurant group was able to do so. They launched in July 2020; the inaugural box contained a bottle of Balcones, with 100% of proceeds going to The Conscious Kid non-profit. The club now boasts 138 members in San Diego County who pay a monthly fee of $75 in exchange for 30 days of eager anticipation regarding the contents of each new box. And eventually, the contents themselves.

Eureka! VP of Beverage Operations Trevor Tyler explains his process of selecting barrels to be bottled for the Whiskey Club, “I source barrel samples from distilleries and choose barrels based on the flavor profiles that I enjoy, and that I think our members would enjoy. I really like to find unique flavor profiles that stand out, which I believe make our barrel picks stand out from others. I am also always cognizant of the flavor profiles and how they would lend themselves to the barrel aging process for beer, given that all the empty barrels we source go to local craft breweries in the US to do Eureka! exclusive barrel-aged beer collaborations, which we call collaBREWations.” 

Aside from rewarding members with one-of-a-kind barrel picks of such greatly sought-after whiskeys as Blanton’s and Weller Antique 107, Tyler enjoys exposing members to other distilleries they might not otherwise try, such as Corsair and Laws Whiskey House. He explains, “While these releases may get overlooked by those who are only seeking the highly allocated and hard-to-find whiskeys, I believe that these releases have truly been special.”

As for what members can expect in the months to come, Tyler hints, “While we like to keep our releases secret and have our members surprised when they pick up their boxes, I can say that we do have some cool barrel picks this year from distilleries such as Wild Turkey, potentially a barrel pick from Heaven Hill and, yes, there will be more one more Sazerac barrel pick before the end of the year.”

Due to the limited supply of the Whiskey Club’s barrel-pick bottles, membership is capped. Those hoping to become a member are advised to join a waitlist and check Eureka!’s website and social media the first week of each month when membership spots become available. If you are lucky enough to secure a spot, please think twice before opening your box in the bathtub — or at least put on some clothes before you run down the street screaming with joy over your discovery.