The Bitter Southerner is more than just bitters

The Bitter Southerner is not even a year old yet, but it is already creating quite the buzz. It started with an ode to cocktails and under acknowledged Southern mixologists, and then transitioned into all the realms of culture that are unseen to stereotyping non-Southerners. Busking at the Seams talked with Chuck Reece, The Bitter Southerner‘s editor in chief, about the origins of the site, how the South has changed and keeps changing, and why we only get to bask in bitterness once a week.

Q. The Bitter Southerner started out as a nod to the South’s unrecognized bars and mixologists. The North East and West Coast were getting all the pub and the South was being forgotten and put into its usual peg. How did the idea to bring light to the new age Southern cocktail transition into the new age South as a whole?

A. We started working on the cocktail blog idea in early 2012. We actually did our first interview with a bartender, Jerry Slater, in February. But it took us another year and a half to launch The Bitter Southerner. As we worked on the cocktail blog, Dave and I just kept finding ourselves nagged by the notion that what we were building could accommodate more than just cocktail stories. Bigger story ideas just kept popping up, from both of us. We were asking each other a lot of questions that began with “What if we ….” So we fought that wrestling match with ourselves for a few months. Then one day, we were sitting at Octane in Grant Park talking about the BS and Dave asked me if I remembered a song by the Drive-By Truckers called “The Southern Thing.” I pretty much knew it by heart, and I knew the line he was thinking about: “You think I’m dumb, maybe not too bright. You wonder how I sleep at night. Proud of the glory, stare down the shame: duality of the Southern thing.”

That was our a-ha moment. We knew that we could build something that didn’t just specifically cover the South, but would cover the duality of the Southern thing. So we spent the next year trying to build that. It was a really great adventure.

Q. As a transplant Southerner myself, I had misconceptions and thoughts about Southerners, the South, and its history. Whether it is romanticized or thought to still linger, what is the most absurd notion that you have ever heard about outsiders ideas of the South and its people?

A. That’s like looking at a whole haystack made of needles. There are tons of barbs directed at Southerners, tons of stereotypes, and the truth is, a lot of them are deserved. But we’re more interested in finding the people who actively challenge those notions.

Q. How aggravating is it when you encounter someone who either abides by the olden days of the South or refuses to believe that this region is burgeoning in all areas of culture and thought?

A. If I allowed myself to get aggravated every time that happens, I’d stay aggravated all the time. I prefer to look at the positive side of that equation and tell the stories of the people who are changing the South in terms of culture and thought.

Q. The Bitter Southerner is doing its part to change these notions by sharing current stories about our current state. Things are different, and yet the South still has its charm. What is the thread that keeps the south, well Southern, and yet portrays the contemporary world here?

A. We see many such threads. They tend to be specific to different disciplines. For example, the best and most current Southern music — from hip-hop to hillbilly — shares musical traditions that connect polyglot New Orleans to the Mississippi Delta to the hollers of Appalachia. In food, there’s a great movement going on to connect the food that people eat in restaurants to the food — and the ways of making that food — that have existed in the South for centuries. In Southern literature, writers are dealing with the topics we’ve always had to deal with (and still have to), such as race and class, but they’re bringing their stories into the 21st century. Writers are looking at how the South is changing because of social forces, as LGBT people are beginning to get the acceptance and rights they deserve, and because of socioeconomic forces, like integration. The threads are all still there, but people are really beginning to weave them into new things.

Q. Why did you choose to do one story a week? And are there certain stories that really entice your editorial eye?

A. We choose to do one story a week because we figured (correctly, as it turns out) that was all we could handle while we all did other things to keep the bills paid. But the effects of that choice have been interesting. People really seem to enjoy the fact that we don’t overwhelm them with a steady stream of information, as most websites do. They seem to enjoy anticipating what we’re going to do next week. It’s kind of like a weekly TV series that way. We never expected that, but it’s a nice thing to have happen.

Check out The Bitter Southerner every Tuesday for new articles that will change the way you think of the South and its people, bittersoutherner.com.