The Squeaky Cork

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland Uncorked 🐴

Every guest who walks through our door at The Squeaky Cork passes through a gauntlet of horse brasses. And there’s a story behind every single one.

It started with a couple who walked in one day and told us our pub reminded them of their favorite pub from when they were stationed in Europe. They came back with three horse brasses and a tradition was born. Turns out, we were in good company.

Originally horse brasses began as charms and amulets worn on working horses to ward off evil and bring good luck. The idea was simple but powerful: if kept brightly polished and shiny, they would blind the “evil eye” of bad spirits and keep them away.

They came in a variety of shapes commemorative plaques of royal coronations, family crests, and heraldic symbols. Most often though, they carried a symbology behind them symbols thought to bring luck to horses and their riders, and to protect them from witchcraft. Crescent moons, suns, hearts, and stars were among the most common.

In Scotland and England before WWI, heavy horse ploughing contests and parades were beloved events at country fairs. Horses were decked out with bells, ribbons, and custom-made medallions. When those horses and their handlers went off to the trenches and never came back, the contests faded and the brasses found a new home on pub walls, where they’ve hung ever since.

In Scotland, brasses often featured monograms with knotwork or tartan-inspired motifs a distinctly Scottish fingerprint on a tradition that crossed borders and generations.

We think of our doorway as a threshold between the ordinary world and something a little older and warmer. Every brass has a history. Every guest who walks through carries a story of their own.

That’s what a real pub is for.

We’ll pour you something worthy of the tradition. 🥃

Join us every Saturday for Scotland Uncorked.

📍 The Squeaky Cork Albany, Oregon

🥃 Whiskey Wednesday

Some bourbons have a good story. This one has history.

Meet Ben Holladay Missouri’s oldest distillery, still operating on its original ground since 1856. And the man himself? He was known as the “Stagecoach King” a Kentucky-born entrepreneur who built a transportation empire that eventually became Wells Fargo, owned the Pony Express, and was once the largest individual employer in the entire United States. His lasting legacy? The whiskey.

The distillery was founded after Ben and his brother David discovered a limestone spring on the property the same spring Lewis and Clark had charted back in 1804. Great bourbon starts with great water, and they knew it.
The Fun Facts
• Holladay is DSP #5 for Missouri the oldest distillery west of the Mississippi still operating on its original site
• The original mash bill: 73% corn, 15% rye, 12% malted barley unchanged since Ben Holladay’s own ledgers
• Each label includes a rickhouse floor chart showing exactly which floors the barrels came from transparency you rarely see
• Bottled-in-Bond means aged at least four years, single distillery, single season, bottled at 100 proof a standard established in 1897

The Flavor
Caramel, toasted oak, and warm vanilla on the nose. Bold honey and baking spices on the palate with a long finish of oak and burnt cinnamon. The Soft Red Wheat expression adds a softer, rounder sweetness. The Rickhouse Proof turns up the intensity from floor to barrel.
Four expressions. One extraordinary legacy. Come try them at The Squeaky Cork.

📍 The Squeaky Cork Albany, Oregon

🦇 Whiskey Wednesday 🥃

Some bottles sit on a shelf. This one guards it.

Meet Von Payne Black a blended whiskey infused with natural black currant, and honestly one of the most visually striking bottles we’ve ever had behind the bar. That gargoyle on top isn’t just for show. It sets the tone for exactly what’s inside.

The Fun Facts
• 70 proof approachable but don’t let it fool you
• Blended whiskey infused with natural black currant
• That stopper is a hand-finished gargoyle. Yes, really.
• The kind of bottle that makes people stop mid- conversation and ask “wait, what IS that?”

The Flavor
Dark fruit leads the way black currant, a little wild berry, with the warmth of blended whiskey underneath. It’s smooth, slightly sweet, and just a little mysterious. Like drinking something you found in a very stylish villain’s library.
Come see it in person. We dare you not to pick it up.

📍 The Squeaky Cork

🥃Whisky Wednesday at The Squeaky Cork!🥃

America’s First Bottled Bourbon, and the ONLY bourbon sold continuously before, during, and after Prohibition.

Back in 1870, founder George Garvin Brown was a pharmaceutical salesman who got tired of doctors complaining about inconsistent medicinal whiskey. So he did something revolutionary — he bottled his own, sealed it, signed it, and personally guaranteed its quality. Nobody had ever done that before.

The result? A bourbon with rich caramel, vanilla, and chocolate notes, with just a hint of spice on the finish.

Over 150 years later, it’s still delivering on that promise.
Come try a pour and taste a little American history.

Happy Friday! We hope you are off to a great weekend!