Cowboy State Daily’s ‘Drinking Wyoming’ is presented by Pine Bluffs Distilling

ALADDIN — At most bars, bartenders will tell you they can make anything. They know all the “usuals.”

They can make margaritas, whiskey sours, old fashioneds. They’ve got red wine. They’ve got white wine. And they’ve got beer, including Wyoming craft beers.

In other words, they’ve got the same-old, same-old.

But when you walk into the Aladdin General Store, what you’ll find are some truly creative cocktails. They’re not the same-old, same-old.

Like this year’s Sturgis rally drink, designed by Jordan Yates, a self-taught mixologist who has been working at the Aladdin General Store for five years with her fiance and bar owner Trent Tope.

The drink is called The Hurricane. It’s a simple shot of Koltiska, a Sheridan Wyoming liquor and not to be confused with the signature drink of New Orleans of the same name.

What you’re buying at Aladdin is not just a drink. It’s an experience.

For this drink, the bartender climbs on top of the bar and sits in front of the customer. The shot of Koltiska is poured directly into the customer’s mouth. Then, after the customer successfully swallows the drink, there’s a bit of a unique water chaser.

Water is actually flung into the customer’s face, and then is slapped. Not too hard, but it’s enough to make a sound.

“For the (Sturgis Motorcycle) Rally, we kind of do more shots that are out there,” Yates told Cowboy State Daily. “If you can get an experience with a drink too, then that’s a good way for the bartender to make more money, too.”

The Hurricane costs $40. The bar only keeps $5 of that. The bartender gets the rest.

Who’s Buying These Drinks

While it seems like no one would voluntarily pay $40 for a shot and a slap in the face, Yates averages 15 to 25 Hurricanes a day during the two to three weeks in and around South Dakota’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

“Some of the ones I’ve served were wives buying them for their husbands,” Yates said.

Other times, someone was just curious and brave enough to take a shot in the dark, because Yates won’t tell them what’s all involved with the drink is until they buy one.

There was something contagious, though, about the drink because after one person bought one, pretty much everyone else in the bar would follow suit, Yates said.

During the rally week, The Aladdin General Store bar was always filled to the brim. It was standing room only for this historic 128-year-old stop that’s right across from the South Dakota border.

While Cowboy State Daily was there, several bikers who had found the place for the first time walked in and their immediate reaction was, “Awesome! I like this place, it’s so cool.”

They took a seat on the rustic wooden bar stools draped with animal fur and ordered a beer or a shot in a place that combines history with a kitschy ambiance. Historic brands on the front of the bar speak to the area’s rich, ranching roots, while jars of Vienna sausages, rebranded as Porcupine Peters or Chorizo De Coyote are offered for sale.

The Aladdin General Store also offers a range of alcoholic products that include Wyoming craft beers and liquors. Black Tooth Brewing Co.’s Hot Streak is one of the more popular beers, while the shot of Koltiska is the bar’s No. 1 seller.

The seemingly never-ending stream of rallygoers visiting the location has provided an enormous financial boost to the Aladdin General Store over the past five years that Yates and Tope have owned it. They estimate that up to half their annual business happens during the month of the Sturgis rally.

“For the rally, we have some of the bartenders who are hired just as shots girls,” Yates said. “They specialize more in shots. So it’s the fun shots, and the specialty shots too.”

Specialty shots are a little more than a simple shot of Jack Daniels or Fireball.

“These are more like lemon drop shots and stuff that take a little bit more to create,” Yates said. “But we always try to have fun with the cocktail menu.”

Year-Round Creativity

But it’s not just during the Sturgis rally that Yates’ creativity is on tap at the Aladdin General Store. She is always dreaming up new cocktails for upcoming events the bar plans — Christmas, Fall Festival, St. Patrick’s Day — there’s always something going on that makes a great excuse for a party, and the Aladdin General Store is more than happy to take advantage.

“Right now what I’m working on is the Fall Festival,” Yates said of the store’s annual autumn celebration. “I actually grow pumpkins out back here, and then I make a pumpkin mix out of them.”

That fresh pumpkin mixture gets used for pumpkin pie shots, which also include a bit of Mozart Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Liqueur, vanilla vodka, and cream.

“It’s so nice and creamy,” Yates said. “We do a little whipped cream on the top of it, and that’s usually one of our biggest hit.”

The Pumpkin Pie Martini is another popular one, that has just a bit more of the vanilla vodka, and is less creamy.

To round out the menu, there’s a margarita that uses apple cider, caramel apple butter rum, and an apple cider Moscow mule.

“You always have to have a margarita on the menu, right?” Yates said. “We dip the rim of that in caramel, then do a bit of salt on it, so it’s a salted caramel rim.”

The Fall Festival includes a crockpot cook-off, which is open to any dish that’s cooked in a crockpot, whether it’s chili, bread, cobbler or something else.

“It was perfect last year because we had people who made full meals in their crockpots and people who made desserts, so it was a full meal for everyone,” Yates said. “Every year that gets a little bit bigger. Last year we had 200 people.”

Aladdin has a population of just 15, so the event is clearly bringing in a lot of tourists who don’t live in the community, and it’s just another vital part of keeping a piece of 128-year-old history alive.

Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.