A Very New Jersey Whiskey Mystery

A bottle of whiskey with no online footprint. A bar that’s long been closed. An address that doesn’t exist.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dan Pashman?

  As we turn to fall and the weather starts to cool down, I think of things like crunching leaves. I think of sharing from the sidelines of a soccer game, walking the dog in the woods. And when I think of doing all those things, I'm usually wearing something from LL Bean. Whether it's my puffer vest, my puffer coat, my scarf, whatever you're doing outside this year, you probably need something from LL Bean, whether it's their boots, their Scotch plaid flannel, their rugged field coat, or more. Grab the layers and people you love and get outside. Visit llbean.com to shop the fall collection. LL Bean, be an outsider. As someone who has been lucky enough to go to Napa Valley, I can tell you, it's everything people say it is. Beautiful scenery, quaint, beautiful towns, and phenomenal food and

• 0:44Dan Pashman?

  drink everywhere you go. I don't even know that much about wine, but I know that every glass of wine I had in Napa Valley was excellent. I mean, there's no bad glass of wine and no bad meal. Choose between hundreds of wineries, tasting rooms, and chef-led restaurants from a low-key lunch on a vineyard terrace to a full tasting menu paired by the winemaker. Plan your trip at visitnapavalley.com.

• 1:09Speaker 01

  Serious XM Podcasts.

• 1:16Speaker 02

  A lot of antique type of things that we saw. Grandfather clocks, right? So that type of vibe.

• 1:21Speaker 03

  Craftsman staircase.

• 1:23Dan Pashman?

  I'm picturing like a thick olive green carpet.

• 1:26Speaker 02

  That might have been there. That might have been there.

• 1:30Dan Pashman?

  This is Akil and Nisha Dial. They're married and they love going to estate sales. That's when people sell off the belongings of someone who's died. Over the years, they picked up some pretty cool stuff, mostly nice artwork. Back in 2016, they're at an estate sale in Wyckoff, New Jersey, in the New York City suburbs, and they're poking around, searching for treasures. What conclusions could you draw about this guy who had died?

• 1:52Speaker 02

  Well-read, well, almost traveled in a sense, very worldly.

• 1:56Speaker 03

  You know, the quiet, cultured, you know, someone who likes to sit around with a nice glass and have a drink.

• 2:03Speaker 02

  Old gentleman, has a robe on, sits back, you know, in the evening, drinking his whiskey, sitting in front of the grandfather clock, smoking a cigar.

• 2:11Dan Pashman?

  Nisha and Akil spot a liquor table in the corner. It's got a lot of items you'd expect from a well-stocked bar, Remy Martin, Corvassier, a few bottles of champagne.

• 2:19Speaker 02

  Then we came across this particular one. Didn't know if it looked, you know, old, vintage.

• 2:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, it definitely looked older.

• 2:25Speaker 02

  It's a Ray Pavlik Private Stock blended Scotch whiskey, distilled in Scotland, imported exclusively for the Nutcracker Inn in Garfield, New Jersey.

• 2:39Dan Pashman?

  Nisha and Akil have never heard of Ray Pavlik Scotch whiskey. The bottle is green glass with a yellowed label and fancy font. Looks kind of like how they write the New York Times. The bottle's open. It's about half-full. Not unusual for an estate sale.

• 2:52Speaker 02

  You know, we weren't, you know, connoisseurs of whiskey, but we knew that age matters. So we figured, okay, this one looks old, looks vintage.

• 2:58Speaker 03

  It was very different. You know, it wasn't something you could just buy at the store.

• 3:03Dan Pashman?

  Nisha and Akil buy the bottle for about 15 bucks. They may not be huge whiskey drinkers, but they are collectors. They bring it home. And because they're in the process of moving.

• 3:12Speaker 02

  We brought it in and kind of stored it in our closet, where one day, when we get older, we'll, we'll crack open these bottles.

• 3:19Dan Pashman?

  One day you'll sit in your robes by the fireplace with the grandfather clock and drink Scotch.

• 3:23Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 3:28Dan Pashman?

  That closet is where the bottle stays for five years. Akil and Nisha never have a single sip of it. Then about a year ago, they have a friend over, and this friend actually is a whiskey connoisseur. They remember that bottle of Ray Pavlik Private Stock and pull it out to show him.

• 3:43Speaker 02

  Immediately he says, I don't recognize this brand. So first thing that you do, start Googling it. And still no results.

• 3:50Dan Pashman?

  Wait, you Googled this Scotch and there were zero results?

• 3:55Speaker 02

  There were zero results.

• 3:56Dan Pashman?

  So did you Google the inn?

• 3:58Speaker 03

  I actually didn't think to.

• 4:00Dan Pashman?

  Remember, the label says this whiskey was bottled exclusively for the Nutcracker Inn.

• 4:04Speaker 02

  The Nutcracker Inn in Garfield, New Jersey.

• 4:07Dan Pashman?

  Hang on one sec.

• 4:13Dan Pashman?

  Nutcracker Inn, nope. It's not coming up.

• 4:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't see it either.

• 4:17Speaker 02

  Wow. The address is 237 Palisade Avenue in Garfield.

• 4:23Dan Pashman?

  237 Palisade Avenue, Garfield, New Jersey. No business is coming up. I'm on Google Earth right now. 235 is Leon's Kitchen Chinese Restaurant. What's this one? Nope. That's 239. Wait a second. The Chinese restaurant is 235 Palisade Avenue, Garfield, New Jersey. The very next house, 239, there is no 237 Palisade Avenue in Garfield, New Jersey. Whoa. I just got chills. Do you just get chills?

• 5:01Dan Pashman?

  So we've got a bottle of Scotch that Nisha and Akil bought off a dead guy. As far as the internet knows, the brand, Ray Pavlik Private Stock, doesn't exist. And the inn for which it was bottled is at a location that doesn't show up on maps. Finding this bottle feels like catching a ghost. Where did it come from? How did it get here? What's its life story? And what does it taste like? I am determined to find out.

• 5:28Dan Pashman?

  This is the Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. And today, we're attempting to solve a whiskey mystery.

• 5:42Dan Pashman?

  I ask Akil and Nisha to get me any details they can recall about the house where they bought the bottle. If we can find the identity of the dead guy, he might have friends or relatives with clues. Nisha and Akil also agree to look into the bottling company named on the back label and tell them I'll dig into the Ray Pavlik brand and the Nutcracker Inn.

• 5:59Speaker 03

  All right, sounds good.

• 6:00Speaker 02

  That sounds good.

• 6:02Dan Pashman?

  Now, I'm no whiskey expert, but I do know a couple things. Scotch is a type of whiskey that must come from Scotland. The fanciest, most expensive Scotch is single malt, meaning everything in the bottle is made from malted barley in one distillery. A blend can be a mix of grain and malt whiskeys from different distilleries. Blends are usually considered lower shelf, and this Ray Pavlik Scotch whiskey is a blend. So I don't think it's very valuable. But to me, that makes this more intriguing. Like, why would this person who lives in a house with a grandfather clock and a craftsman staircase hang on to a cheap, no-name bottle of Scotch, save it seemingly for decades among all the fancy bottles? As I begin my search for answers, the first person I think of is my friend Noah Rothbaum.

• 6:45Dan Pashman?

  He's been writing about spirits for more than 20 years. I send him photos of the label. He writes back right away and asks for more photos. He wants to see the tax stamp on the bottle. That's usually the little paper sealed that breaks when you twist off the cap. I have no idea why he would want that, but the fact that he knows to ask for it makes me think I've come to the right person. I get a photo of it from Akil and Nisha, send it along, and wait. Meanwhile, I start looking into the Nutcracker Inn and the mysterious 237 Palisade Ave address. And I know just who to call about that.

• 7:21Speaker 04

  Hi.

• 7:22Dan Pashman?

  Hey, so a quick question for you. I'm working on a Sporkful episode, and I thought maybe you would like to be a part of it and help out with it.

• 7:34Speaker 04

  Maybe.

• 7:37Dan Pashman?

  So is this couple? This is my brother Howard. He's a lawyer in New Jersey who does some work with property law, and he's got a PhD in history, so he knows a thing or two about searching through old records. Frankly, he's perfect for this assignment. I bring him up to speed. He sits down in front of his laptop and begins paging around. I can tell he's very excited for our mission.

• 7:57Speaker 04

  Let's see. Would that be it? Let's see. All right, that doesn't help.

• 8:05Dan Pashman?

  Are you just Googling, or are you looking through some sort of special historian archive database?

• 8:10Speaker 04

  It's a special archive that only I have access to as someone who does a PhD.

• 8:15Dan Pashman?

  Seriously?

• 8:16Speaker 04

  No, of course not.

• 8:20Dan Pashman?

  Howard clicks around, looks at the county clerk's website, then the county land records. Eventually, he lands on a local tax assessor's website and navigates to the section that says Tax Parcel Viewer. He pulls up a map of Palisade Ave and zooms in looking for some trace of 237. If we were in CSI, this is the moment where he'd be in front of the computer and I'd be over his shoulder being like, enhance, enhance. Something catches his eye. The lot for 235 is exactly twice as big as all the others. It's a double lot.

• 8:51Speaker 04

  It's possible that the lots were combined. You know, it's possible that that doesn't exist anymore. The reason you can't find it is that it was essentially combined with another lot at some point.

• 9:03Dan Pashman?

  So, so what is now 235, like that same building or piece of land, could, could be where the inn was?

• 9:12Speaker 04

  Exactly. It's not that strange that the lot may have been combined. You know, the inn, if it went under a long time ago, or who knows? Maybe it was imported as a joke. Maybe there really wasn't a Nutcracker Inn. Maybe it was just somebody who liked Scotch, who always invited their friends over for, you know, poker night on Fridays or something like that, and they called themselves the Nutcracker Inn. So it's possible there was never actually a Nutcracker Inn to be anywhere.

• 9:44Dan Pashman?

  This is what it's like being in a family of lawyers. Everyone's like, is this reality? Are we even alive? I can't commit to an answer. Me, I'm still optimistic. I call the Garfield Town historian, thinking they might have details on all this. I leave a few messages. Then I check back in with Nisha and Akil. They must have some good news for me, right? Nope. The bottling company, long closed. The exact location of the estate sale, they can't remember it. Nisha does have the name of the company that hosted the sale, but after a month of phone tag with them, we hear back and they lost the records. So then I think, hey, usually after an estate sale, the house is sold, right? Maybe we can get a list of all the houses sold in the area and look through obituaries from the same time period

• 10:26Dan Pashman?

  that we can cross-reference them and narrow it down. But we quickly realize we do not have the time or resources for that kind of investigation. At this point, we basically have a cork board with photos of whiskey bottles, Google Maps searches, and property records, strings of red yarn all over the place, none of them leaving anywhere.

• 10:44Dan Pashman?

  And then?

• 10:45Speaker 05

  This bottle is more interesting than most that people ask me about.

• 10:54Dan Pashman?

  After the break, a whiskey expert gets back in touch with some surprising findings. Stick around.

• 11:16Speaker 06

  Ooh, advertisements. Yummy.

• 11:20Dan Pashman?

  As we turn to fall and the weather starts to cool down, I think of things like crunching leaves. I think of sharing from the sidelines of a soccer game, walking the dog in the woods. And when I think of doing all those things, I'm usually wearing something from LL Bean. Whether it's my puffer vest, my puffer coat, my scarf, whatever you're doing outside this year, you probably need something from LL Bean. Whether it's their boots, their Scotch plaid flannel, their rugged field coat, or more. Grab the layers and people you love and get outside. Visit llbean.com to shop the fall collection. LL Bean, be an outsider.

• 11:54Dan Pashman?

  Start the day strong with Quaker Protein Products. Quaker makes it easy and delicious to get a good source of protein. No matter what the day has in store, Quaker Protein Products give you a variety of ways to reach your protein goals. Oatmeal, granola, bars, and rice snacks in flavors you already love, like maple and brown sugar, and blueberries and cream. Quaker Protein helps fuel you to start whatever's next. Get your protein with Quaker, available at a store near you. I grew up on Lando Lakes cheese. I still remember going to the supermarket deli counter with my mom and her ordering Lando Lakes American cheese. And now, Lando Lakes cheese and butter are a huge part of my home. There are so many easy weeknight recipes using Lando Lakes cheese and butter that bring delicious restaurant taste right to your table. From

• 12:36Dan Pashman?

  chicken parm to weeknight shrimp pad Thai, Lando Lakes has plenty of quick dishes that'll have the whole dinner table talking. Visit landolakes.com/reцепes/collection for easy weeknight dinners.

• 12:52Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back to this Sporkful. I'm Dan Pashman, and I just returned from my annual pasta trip in Italy. It was as magical as ever. You know, each time I go, there's like a different highlight, something else that really captures me. This year was the focaccia. And one of these folks at Culinary Backstreets do, who I partner with in the tours, they find out-of-the-way spots, not the touristy standbys. And our guide, Massimo, took us to get this focaccia at a bakery like on the outskirts of Bari, on the water. We're out there with this beautiful view of crystal clear waters with this crunchy crispy focaccia, best focaccia I've ever eaten in my life. And there were so many more highlights, the spaghetti alla sasina, the fresh olive oil being pressed before our eyes. Now, why am I telling you all this? I'm not just trying to make you feel bad that you missed it. I

• 13:33Dan Pashman?

  want you to know that we're doing it again next year. Fall of 2027 pasta tour spots are open now, and in fact, half of them are already gone. So get on it. Details at culinarybackstreets.com/sporkful. Now, back to the mystery of the ghost whiskey.

• 13:51Dan Pashman?

  You'll recall I outsourced some of my sleuthing to Noah Rothbaum. He's the author of The Art of American Whiskey and the associate editor of the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails. It's a reference book that's close to 900 pages long.

• 14:03Speaker 05

  It's not a cheap book, but if you average it out by the pound, it's actually a pretty good buy.

• 14:12Dan Pashman?

  As I said, I don't know a whole lot about whiskey. So Noah gives me a quick primer on how he approaches research. Remember how he asked me to send a photo of the tax stamp? Turns out, the tax stamp can tell you a lot.

• 14:23Speaker 05

  Obviously, the government, since almost the beginning of the US, has been trying to tax the production of alcohol, right? That's what the whole whiskey rebellion's about.

• 14:31Dan Pashman?

  After the revolution, the US government had a lot of debt and decided to tax distilled liquors. People didn't like that. Hence, back in the late 1700s, rebellion. Ever since that time, all whiskey bottles are required to have tax stamps on them. And those tax stamps offer clues.

• 14:47Speaker 05

  Basically, they changed the tax stamp over time. So that's one way to date a bottle, because most bottles don't have a date. So I called my friend Edgar Hardin in the UK. He does a company called The Old Spirits Company, where they buy and sell bottles. And he was saying that basically, like before 73, the tax stamp would say the name of the importer or distributor. And since this one does not, it means it's from after 1973. And he thought from his expert opinion of looking at tax stamps all day and night, that it's probably from the mid 70s, like the bottle, which, if you told me that, I would find tax stamps, like, fascinating.

• 15:30Dan Pashman?

  Okay, so the bottle is from the mid 70s, which turns out to be a key period in Scotch history.

• 15:35Speaker 05

  In 1975, it's kind of the high watermark for sales of Scotch in America. At the time, almost all Scotch, except for a very little bit, is blend. Blended Scotch is huge. After 75, the whole market crashes. The distillers have to kind of reinvent themselves.

• 15:52Dan Pashman?

  This crash Noah's talking about, for years, distilleries were overproducing whiskey. Then, in the mid 70s, there was a cultural shift. Younger people saw whiskey as the stuff their parents drank. The cool kids wanted vodka and rum. So whiskey companies had to do something.

• 16:06Speaker 05

  So they create this whole idea that single malts are for connoisseurs, blends are kind of for rubes, and, you know, people in Scotland have always drunk single malt, which is not true, for the most part.

• 16:19Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 16:20Speaker 05

  But the blends back in the day were incredibly good. Where now, obviously, mostly we talk about single malts.

• 16:27Dan Pashman?

  So a blend from the 70s might have been high-quality stuff. After inspecting the tax stamp, Noah did something else that honestly, I can't believe I didn't think to do. This whole time, I had been searching for Ray Pavlik private stock, Ray Pavlik Scotch whiskey. I was looking for Ray Pavlik like it was a brand or a company. But Noah was searching for a person named Ray Pavlik. And he found one.

• 16:50Speaker 05

  Ray Pavlik was a almost lifelong resident of New Jersey who ran kind of a local institution called The Nutcracker Inn in Garfield. He was the owner of The Nutcracker Inn, and ran it for like 30 years.

• 17:03Dan Pashman?

  Noah does have a subscription to a special database full of old newspaper articles, which helped his hunt. With that, all he had to do was punch in Ray Pavlik, Garfield, New Jersey, and boom, there's our guy. Noah tells me, back in the 70s, it was pretty common for a bar to have their own private label bottles. Restaurants, airlines, hotels, essentially, anyone could order a generic bottle of liquor from a distillery and slap their own name on it.

• 17:26Speaker 05

  Literally, the bar next door could have the exact same Scotch with their name on it in a different bottle, and that's still done today. So this was either for people who were drinking at The Nutcracker Inn, or you could possibly purchase it, like as an alternative to J and B or Cuddy Sark.

• 17:44Dan Pashman?

  Was it actually an inn, or was it like a bar and tavern that was just called an inn?

• 17:48Speaker 05

  It was a bar, like that was called, like.

• 17:50Dan Pashman?

  Okay, okay. So they weren't having overnight guests?

• 17:53Speaker 05

  Not on purpose, anyway. I don't think, you know what I mean?

• 17:56Dan Pashman?

  Right. Noah says while some blends from the 70s were very good, he's not super optimistic about how this one might taste.

• 18:03Speaker 05

  If you note from the label, it's very ornate, right? You know, it looks private stock, and it's, the lettering is, it seems very impressive. If you look closely, it says, you know, "by popular request, you know, special liqueurs." And it's almost a little bit too much, you know what I mean? Where it's like, the lady does protest too much.

• 18:26Dan Pashman?

  What Noah's saying is, this label looks like it's trying very hard to convince you that the liquor inside is super fancy. To him, it looks like it's trying a little too hard. When Akil, Nisha, and I looked at the label and the name of The Nutcracker Inn, we imagined an esteemed international hotel, or maybe a cozy upscale B&B that served rare imported spirits. But what Noah's describing to me, sounds more like a dive bar. As he kept poking through old newspaper articles, Noah eventually landed on Ray Pavlik's obituary. He died in 1999.

• 18:57Speaker 05

  He was born in River Edge, New Jersey, which is not too far from there. He was a volunteer fireman. He'd been like a member of the Civil Defense Special Police. He even ran for councilman several times. And Ray had lived almost his whole life, except for eight years in Florida, in Orlando, in New Jersey. This is like a Springsteen song, right? I mean, he's living the dream. He's running the bar. People know him. He's got his name on a bottle of Scotch. I mean, this is like, who wouldn't want to go there on a happy hour for, you know, some of his Ray Pavlik's private stock on the rocks? I'd like to think of his sort of unofficial councilman of Garfield, you know, holding

• 19:38Speaker 05

  court behind his bar, which, I mean, that's really the traditional purpose of a bar. This was where people did business. This is where people came to socialize. You know, they were the heart of the town.

• 19:49Dan Pashman?

  I love a bar that's a real, like, community gathering spot.

• 19:52Speaker 05

  This is really a piece of New Jersey history that you found. And I feel like almost we should have Bruce Springsteen in the background, singing a song about Ray Pavlik and this bottle. Forget Thunder Road. This is the story of New Jersey right here.

• 20:10Dan Pashman?

  I love that, Noah, but I'm not fully satisfied. I, I, I mean, this, thank you, thank you. This has been fantastic. You did an incredible job with your research. But I'm still curious to learn more about Ray Pavlik and The Nutcracker Inn. I have an image forming in my head of who Ray Pavlik was, what his bar was like. But it's still very fuzzy. I want to talk to someone who actually knew Ray, someone who's actually been to The Nutcracker, spent time there. What was it like? Who were the characters inside? As I'm wondering about this, I get an email from my brother Howard. He acted like he wasn't into this. Meanwhile, he's been poring through archives on the hunt, and he's dug up an old land deed. Turns out, he was right. The lots were combined. So

• 20:54Dan Pashman?

  237 Palisade Ave is now part of 235 Palisade Ave. Then, I finally hear back from the Garfield Town historian, who's never heard of The Nutcracker, but sends a few clips from old newspapers, including one with a picture of the bar. I pull up Google Earth and compare the Chinese restaurant at 235 Palisade Ave to the picture. It's a match. This is confirmation. The Nutcracker was 237, Leon's Kitchen is 235, but they're the same building. The Nutcracker is still standing. Coming up, I finally tracked down the people who were inside the building back when it was The Nutcracker Inn. Stick around.

• 21:36Speaker 06

  Hope you're hungry because it's time for some ads.

• 21:42Dan Pashman?

  When you're cooking, ingredients matter, right? You use higher quality ingredients, you usually get better results. And if you're listening to this show, you're probably the kind of person who puts some thought and effort into your ingredients. But ingredients don't just matter with food, they also matter with laundry detergent. Of course, the cleaning job needs to get done, the odors and stains have to be tackled, and I want to feel good about the detergent and the ingredients in it. Because remember, whatever's in your laundry detergent is essentially in your clothes, and then you're putting those clothes on, you want good stuff in there. And All Free Clear uses only essential ingredients. It's 100% free from dyes, perfumes, parabens, and irritating residues. Check out the label and see for yourself, it lists all the ingredients and what they do. We've been using it in my house, we're very happy with it, and let me tell you, family

• 22:23Dan Pashman?

  of four, two teenagers, we do a lot of laundry, so we have put All Free Clear to the test. It's a powerful clean that you can feel good about. All Free Clear is the number one detergent brand recommended by dermatologists for sensitive skin. When it comes to laundry detergent, the choice is clear, All Free Clear. Pick up a bottle for your next laundry day. You put a lot of love into the things you send during the holidays. It's baked with love, carefully packed with love, or shipped with love right from home. Because what you're sending isn't just what's inside the box, it's the time, thought, and care you put into it. And this holiday season, the United States Postal Service is delivering your love to more addresses in America than anyone else. So send it with love, send it with USPS, the United States Postal Service.

• 23:06Dan Pashman?

  Learn more at USPS.com/holiday. Start the day strong with Quaker Protein Products. Quaker makes it easy and delicious to get a good source of protein. No matter what the day has in store, Quaker Protein Products give you a variety of ways to reach your protein goals. Oatmeal, granola, bars, and rice snacks in flavors you already love, like maple and brown sugar, and blueberries and cream. Quaker Protein helps fuel you to start whatever's next. Get your protein with Quaker, available at a store near you.

• 23:39Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back. Now that I've confirmed the Nutcracker building is still there, I just need to find someone who's stood inside it. After a lot of snooping on Facebook and more than a few wrong numbers, I find a couple people who fit the bill.

• 23:51Speaker 07

  My name is James Donald Pavlik.

• 23:53Speaker 01

  I'm Vincent William Pavlik.

• 23:55Speaker 07

  We lived above the bar, it was a three-story house.

• 23:58Dan Pashman?

  Jimmy and Vinnie are brothers, Ray Pavlik was their dad, their mom was Carol Pavlik. They have a bunch of siblings who are much older, and the entire family lived above the bar in the 80s. Jimmy and Vinnie were very young when their parents were running the Nutcracker, so they don't have many firsthand memories of the place. But 237, or now 235, Palisade Ave, still means a lot to them and their family.

• 24:20Speaker 07

  My dad lived in the bar, he woke up 6:00 AM and he bartended until 12:00. He ran the whole place.

• 24:27Speaker 01

  My dad loved that bar. It was all his friends, all his friends were the drunks. They would all come there and hang out, from what my mom told us.

• 24:36Dan Pashman?

  From what Jimmy and Vinnie tell me, the Nutcracker was a pretty classic, simple joint, one big room with a pool table and a jukebox. Sometimes, as the night wore on, Ray would fall asleep behind the bar. Patrons would pour their own beers and leave cash by the tap. Even as a little kid, Jimmy was in and out of the place.

• 24:53Speaker 07

  I used to shoot pool with a lot of people that went there, I would enter pool tournaments, and they all knew me. It's definitely an older folks' bar. They would come after work and they would sit at the bar and just shoot the stuff and talk and drink until dad kicked them out, basically.

• 25:09Dan Pashman?

  It wasn't a hip trendy place.

• 25:11Speaker 07

  Oh, no. No, the only time it was hip and trendy is probably when my brothers and sisters would take the bar over, when my parents went bowling.

• 25:20Dan Pashman?

  Oh, what happened those nights?

• 25:21Speaker 07

  I was bowling with my parents, so I couldn't tell you. God knows.

• 25:27Dan Pashman?

  Ray's wife Carol worked during the day as a nurse, but she was a key fixture at the bar, too, sometimes cooking chicken and dumplings for the patrons for dinner. She kept a cot in the back for people who sometimes slept at the bar instead of attempting to drive home.

• 25:40Speaker 07

  Nobody called her by her name, she was mom to everybody.

• 25:43Dan Pashman?

  For Jimmy and Vinnie, talking about the Nutcracker clearly brings back warm memories, especially about their parents. But as we keep talking, it becomes clear, it wasn't all rosy. And what about your mom's role in everything? What do you think her feelings were about the bar?

• 25:59Speaker 07

  Well...

• 26:02Speaker 07

  I believe, now I don't know this because it was before my time, but I believe at one point, she was an alcoholic. And so she probably didn't care much for the bar, because she never really drank again in her life.

• 26:17Dan Pashman?

  Jimmy and Vinnie say it was the same for Ray.

• 26:19Speaker 07

  He was an alcoholic at one point, from my understandings. I've heard stories.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  From my understanding, it was when he was in the army, when he was younger, he used to, he used to drink a lot.

• 26:33Dan Pashman?

  And what was your impression of the place? How did it look to you as a 10-year-old?

• 26:41Speaker 07

  I didn't like it, because a lot of the guys would pee themselves, and so I've seen a lot of stuff, a lot of fights, a lot of, nothing I would want to live with on a daily basis.

• 26:55Dan Pashman?

  So that's, that's quite a thing to think about, two recovering alcoholics running a bar, that was partly patronized by alcoholics, based on what you're telling me.

• 27:07Speaker 07

  Mm-hmm, right.

• 27:10Speaker 07

  A lot of people that came, though, were like family to them.

• 27:13Dan Pashman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:15Speaker 07

  Like, there are certain points where some of them lived in our basement, I still talk to some of them.

• 27:22Dan Pashman?

  Ray and Carol ran the place for about 30 years, starting in the 1960s. The Nutcracker caught fire twice and suffered some pretty bad damage. They rebuilt both times. By the late 80s, Ray was getting older and started having some health issues. One day, while working behind the bar, he had a major heart attack. Running the bar became too much. In 1991, he and Carol sold the Nutcracker and moved down to Florida, along with Jimmy and Vinnie, the youngest of their kids. But they took pieces of the bar with them. The house in Florida became a sort of museum dedicated to the bar.

• 27:54Speaker 01

  Didn't we have the jukebox on the porch?

• 27:55Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 27:56Speaker 01

  We had all the little trinkets, like Budweiser trinkets and all that stuff, always hung up on the cabinets and all that. I remember the pool table lights being in the attic.

• 28:07Dan Pashman?

  So I should tell you why I'm so interested in your father's story and the Nutcracker. I host a food podcast, as I'm sure you know. So when we reached out to Jimmy and Vinnie, we told them we were interested in their father and his story, but we didn't give them details. This whole time we're on Zoom together, they're looking at me kind of funny, like, why do you want to know so much about our dad's old bar? And what does this have to do with us? So I fill them in on how Akil Anisha found this mysterious bottle of Scotch at an estate sale, how my friend Noah dated the bottle from the tax stamp, how we traced it to their father, and now to them. So I'm going to share my screen with you, I'm going to show you a picture of the bottle. You ready?

• 28:44Speaker 01

  Oh, shh. Oh, my God.

• 28:47Speaker 07

  It's crazy.

• 28:48Speaker 01

  Are you serious?

• 28:49Speaker 07

  It's so crazy. Ray Pavlik, private stock, blended Scotch whiskey, distilled in Scotland, imported exclusively for the Nutcracker Inn, 237 Palisade Ave, Garfield, New Jersey. That's what it says.

• 29:04Speaker 01

  That is insane.

• 29:07Speaker 07

  Wow. Never knew that.

• 29:09Speaker 01

  Me either.

• 29:11Speaker 07

  How come I don't have a bottle of that?

• 29:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  I get kind of teary-eyed just seeing his name on the bottle. You know how I am, I'm a big sap.

• 29:21Speaker 07

  I've never seen this.

• 29:22Speaker 01

  I've never, I've never seen or heard about this.

• 29:26Dan Pashman?

  What do you think this tells you about your dad?

• 29:30Speaker 01

  That he wanted to be, uh, he wanted, he wanted his bar to be known.

• 29:35Speaker 07

  He loved what he did, obviously.

• 29:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. When he was passing away, everybody came to visit him. I didn't know my dad was so popular. I grew up in Florida, so it's like, when we came to Jersey for his burial, it was insane. They had the police, they had the fire department, they had, there was hundreds of people, right, Jim?

• 29:57Speaker 07

  It was over 400.

• 29:59Speaker 01

  I was like, dude, who is this guy?

• 30:02Dan Pashman?

  To the Pavliks, the Nutcracker was more than just a bar. It anchored their lives, for better or worse. Their friends were the customers, their whole family lived above it. There was a pool in the backyard where the kids would swim in the summer.

• 30:14Speaker 01

  Like my other brothers and sisters, like, jumping off the roof into the pool, and my dad would be running the bar, and everybody would run up to him, Jimmy would run up to him, get quarters to go to the arcade, and he, he loved the bar. He was always in the bar. He was talking to his friends, and like Jimmy said, everybody was family who went to that bar. So I would definitely see him doing this type of thing, just to be like, yeah, I'm Ray Pavlik, and this is my bar, and look, this is my whiskey.

• 30:45Speaker 07

  I'm still blown away by the bottle. The whole time we've been talking, I've been staring at it.

• 30:50Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 30:51Speaker 07

  Like it's going to talk to me or something. I'm like, just blown away, blown away.

• 31:00Speaker 01

  Hey, Dan?

• 31:01Dan Pashman?

  Yeah.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  I have a question.

• 31:02Dan Pashman?

  Yeah.

• 31:03Speaker 01

  Is there any way I could, like, come see the bottle in person?

• 31:12Dan Pashman?

  On a sunny day in early October, I'm standing on Palisade Ave outside of Leon's Kitchen in Garfield, New Jersey. It's a pretty main road, a combination of two-story apartment buildings, row houses, and storefronts. A coin laundromat, a convenience store, a printing press that looks like it closed. I'm with Akil and Nisha, and I've hinted that one more person will be joining us, but I haven't told them who. Yeah, I think that's him. Hey, man. Great to meet you in person.

• 31:37Speaker 01

  Nice to meet you.

• 31:38Dan Pashman?

  So, Vinny, this is Akil.

• 31:39Speaker 02

  Hey, how you doing?

• 31:40Dan Pashman?

  This is Nisha.

• 31:41Speaker 03

  Hi.

• 31:42Speaker 01

  Vinny, it's nice to meet you.

• 31:43Speaker 03

  Nice to meet you, too.

• 31:44Dan Pashman?

  So, I didn't really tell Akil and Nisha who else was coming. We're at 235 Palisade Avenue in Garfield, New Jersey. How does it feel to be here, Vinny?

• 31:54Speaker 01

  Um, I actually was just by here the other day, just to make sure I knew where it was.

• 32:00Dan Pashman?

  At this point, Vinny lives nearby. He moved back to Jersey as an adult. Jimmy couldn't make it. He still lives in Florida, in the same house that he and Vinny grew up in, with all the trinkets from the bar. So, Akil and Nisha, in case it's not clear, Vinny's full name is?

• 32:14Speaker 01

  Vincent Pavlik.

• 32:16Dan Pashman?

  This is Vinny Pavlik. Ray Pavlik was his father.

• 32:20Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 32:21Dan Pashman?

  Hearing this, Akil and Nisha seem in shock. By this point, they'd heard the story of Ray Pavlik. They knew he died. Seeing someone with such a close connection to Ray standing right in front of them, it's almost like they're seeing a ghost.

• 32:34Speaker 01

  When he showed me the bottle, I said, "Oh, my goodness. Like, where did you guys get that?"

• 32:39Dan Pashman?

  Akil and Nisha tell Vinny about how they got the bottle, about the estate sale and the old house with the grandfather clock, about how the bottle of Ray Pavlik private stock caught their eye. So, Akil and Nisha bought this bottle knowing nothing about it. What do you want them to know about it?

• 32:55Speaker 01

  That my dad put a lot of hard work and, like, all his time and effort into the bar and into selling liquor and having a good time, and he had people that literally lived here.

• 33:07Speaker 03

  Home away from home?

• 33:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, home away from home, basically.

• 33:09Dan Pashman?

  I think we should break out the bottle.

• 33:12Speaker 01

  I'm down.

• 33:13Dan Pashman?

  Let's have a look. Akil pulls the bottle out of the bag he's carrying.

• 33:17Speaker 01

  This is so awesome, guys. Listen, this is like a part of Garfield history right here. Are we gonna take a shot?

• 33:25Dan Pashman?

  Yeah.

• 33:26Speaker 01

  Let me go get my girl over.

• 33:27Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, yeah. Vinny's fiancee, Jackie, was waiting in the car. He goes to bring her over so she can see the bottle, too. Oh, hey, Jackie. Hi. I'm Dan. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. It's time for a toast. I brought plastic cups. All right. Vinny, why don't you do the honors?

• 33:42Speaker 02

  All right.

• 33:43Dan Pashman?

  Am I right, Akil and Nisha? This is the first time this bottle's been opened.

• 33:47Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 33:48Dan Pashman?

  You bought it seven or eight years ago.

• 33:49Speaker 01

  Well, you didn't even try it yet.

• 33:50Dan Pashman?

  No, they haven't tried it.

• 33:51Speaker 03

  That's awesome. So, the last person who may have drank that bottle is a family member.

• 33:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:57Speaker 03

  That's amazing. Could've been your dad.

• 33:59Dan Pashman?

  All right. Cheers. To Ray, to Ray and Carol.

• 34:02Speaker 03

  To Ray and Carol.

• 34:03Speaker 01

  All right.

• 34:04Speaker 03

  To Ray and Carol.

• 34:05Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 34:06Speaker 02

  That's good. Delicious.

• 34:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's good.

• 34:11Speaker 01

  It's actually really smooth.

• 34:15Dan Pashman?

  Akil and Nisha, thoughts?

• 34:16Speaker 03

  It's really good.

• 34:17Speaker 01

  Delicious. Smell it down than I thought.

• 34:20Dan Pashman?

  I am flabbergasted at how good that tasted.

• 34:23Speaker 01

  Seriously.

• 34:24Dan Pashman?

  I did not expect...

• 34:26Speaker 01

  That bottle is, what, 50 years old?

• 34:28Dan Pashman?

  Yes, and typically, like, alcohol doesn't technically go bad, but the water can evaporate and can lose some of its smoothness. This is delicious.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  Let me finish it off here.

• 34:39Dan Pashman?

  Yeah.

• 34:40Speaker 02

  Oh, thank you.

• 34:41Speaker 01

  Listen, thank you, guys.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  Of course. Now, look, um, obviously, you know how much this means to you, your family, the history you have here, so...

• 34:48Speaker 01

  Are you really giving me the bottle?

• 34:50Speaker 03

  Aww.

• 34:51Speaker 02

  Love for you to have it. It is, uh, we know how much sentimental value and stuff it is.

• 34:56Speaker 01

  I have to cry now? Thank you, guys. I appreciate it.

• 35:01Speaker 03

  He talks about that every day, anytime he gets a chance. This is amazing.

• 35:03Speaker 01

  Thank you so much.

• 35:04Speaker 03

  Thanks a lot.

• 35:05Speaker 01

  I'm a big sap, so it's like, imagine Jimmy was here, we would've been ballin'. Honestly, this is a one-of-one, and this is gonna go right in my brother's house, and it's gonna go right on the top, right with all his other stuff, so I appreciate it so much.

• 35:28Dan Pashman?

  Before we wrap up, one more thing. Noah Rothbaum was right. This whole story does sound like it should be a Bruce Springsteen song. So, we decided to write the song we think Bruce would write. As a native New Jerseyan myself, whose first concert was Bruce Springsteen and the East Street Band in Giant Stadium on the Born in the USA tour, I felt well-qualified to write the lyrics. To write the music and perform the song, we have Jeff Morgenstern. He's a Bruce fan who was also born in New Jersey, but most importantly, he's the father of Sporkful managing producer Emma Morgenstern. And he's a musician. So, here's our song, "Palisade Ave," in its entirety.

• 36:03Speaker 01

  Well, they closed down a steel mill in Garfield late last year. Went down to Ray and Carol's just to get me a scotch and a beer. Ray said, "If I fall asleep, son, drink up everything that I have.

• 36:40Speaker 01

  It's gonna be a long night down on Palisade Ave." Well, you know, back in high school, Bobby was the star of the team. Now he's ten drinks in, trying to figure out what it all means. When I sit in this place, seems the world outside ain't so bad. Leave my cash on the bar and head out to Palisade Ave.

• 37:19Speaker 01

  He was sick, granddad was the mayor. But me, I got expelled for bad behavior. Drove by your house just looking for a savior.

• 37:41Speaker 01

  Jersey, everybody's saying their prayers.

• 39:08Dan Pashman?

  That's Jeff Morgenstern. To us, he's most famous for being the father of Sporkful managing producer Emma Morgenstern. But what he's not singing, he's the executive director of Spanish River Concerts in South Florida. You can find out more at spaniserriverconcerts.org. Casey Holford mixed the song and consulted on its production. Thanks to Eric "The Killer" Kilburn at Wellspring Sound Studio, who produced the track and played bass and guitar. We had Seattle Scotty Shetler on sax, Big C, Mike Connors on drums, and Joey Bats, Joey Barbado on piano in Oregon. I just made up all those nicknames. Those are not officially sanctioned nicknames by those people, but Bruce nicknames the people in his band, so we're gonna go with it. And while we're giving shout-outs to family members, I want to thank Janie. For logistical reasons, I was in Garfield with my whole family, as were Akil and Nisha.

• 39:52Dan Pashman?

  Janie set up a coloring activity on the sidewalk and entertained all four kids so the rest of us could drink scotch and record. Thank you, Janie. You're the best. Next week on the show, I talk with chef Alan Shaya about his new book that chronicles the stories and recipes of World War II. That's next week. While you wait for that one, check out last week's episode about the true story behind the poisoned Halloween candy myth. Or is it a myth? I thought it was a myth, but it turns out the question's a little more complicated. And hey, if you want to hear new episodes of the Sporkful ad-free, subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts, or visit siriusxm.com/podcastsplus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. This episode was produced by me, along with managing producer...

• 40:35Speaker 03

  Emma Morgenstern.

• 40:36Dan Pashman?

  And senior producer... Andres O'Hara. And producer...

• 40:39Speaker 03

  Johanna Mayer.

• 40:40Dan Pashman?

  The show is mixed by... Casey Holford. And...

• 40:43Speaker 02

  Jared O'Connell.

• 40:44Dan Pashman?

  Music help from Black Label Music. The Sporkful is a production of SiriusXM Podcasts. Our executive producer is Camille Stanley. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.

• 40:51Speaker 03

  And I'm Brittany from Rahway, New Jersey, reminding you to eat more, eat better, eat more better.

• 41:05Speaker 01

  Hey, Richmond. Mark Smith, Midas Richmond, 2026. We have been doing what we do for 29 years. Total Car Care, Total Community Care. In 2026, we are donating $365,000, $1,000 a day, to the nonprofits we've historically supported. Gooch and Care, Shalom Farms, St. Joseph's Villa, Ask, the Colonial Heights Food Pantry, everybody we've helped over the years. These are important things making a big impact in our society right now. Total Car Care, Total Community Care, that is Midas of Richmond.

• 41:35Dan Pashman?

  Hi, it's me, your gutters. Everything is totally fine. There's just a lot of debris up here, and I've been managing it mostly on my own. I just thought you could find someone on Angie to clean me up. I could really use it. Your gutters have waited long enough. Find a pro at angie.com.