A highlight of the dessert menu, the eponymous dark, nutty whiskey cake soaks in a pool of rich spiked sauce that soothes bitter streaks and blends neatly into a fat dollop of whipped cream riding on top. Besides, it easily beats out a few possible alternative names drawn from the same menu.

If, for example, the owners decided simply to call the place “Whiskey,” one might hone in on their list of brown spirits and end up scoffing at the proud inclusion of Chivas, Crown Royal, Seagrams Seven, and the like. Had they decided upon “Jerky,” on the other hand, attention would turn to the kitchen’s home dried meat—a selection of surprisingly tender yet one-dimensional strips. Between flawed extremes, underneath the wonderful dessert, you’ll find the real Whiskey Cake.

And it’s rather a fun place. Whiskey Cake is a bar of deft signature cocktails fronting an ambitious kitchen that stakes a claim to local, seasonal ingredients, as far as possible. There’s a pile of wood outside, farmstead cheeses, house-treated pastrami and whole Holmes Farm chickens continually turning on a spit—an ironic ethic for an outbuilding in a Kroger parking lot. It’s a good spot for drinking, dining, and dessert. And that’s a rarity.