I've long held that history flows better in the barroom than in the classroom. So pull up a leather stool here in TJ's Lounge and let me tell you why we devotees of the civilized cocktail today owe Thomas Jefferson a major debt of gratitude.

In the late 18 th century, frontier farmers were transforming their amber waves of grain and harvested fruits into whiskies and brandies. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, thirsting for new revenues to feed our infant government, mandated in 1791 that every whiskey still be registered and a 7-cent excise tax levied on every gallon bottled.

Enraged farmers revolted, tarring and feathering tax collectors. Fearing yet another revolution, President George Washington mobilized 13,000 troops to quell what was called "the Whiskey Rebellion."

After Washington died, the merciful Thomas Jefferson repealed the despised tax when he was elected President in 1802.

Jefferson wasn't a whiskey drinker like Washington, who briefly had a small distillery at Mount Vernon and reportedly sold his potent output at 50 cents a gallon. Instead, the genteel Jefferson was a health buff who usually drank claret wine made from his own grapes grown at Monticello, I'm told by Ben Eubanks, director of restaurants at the palatial 112-year-old Jefferson Hotel (www.jeffersonhotel.com) here in Richmond where the lower lobby itself is intoxicating.

Indeed, I am here on this investigative reporting assignment drinking in the magnificent architecture, marble columns soaring 70 feet to support a gilded, gold-leafed ceiling and a steep, sweeping staircase from the mezzanine where U.S. presidents, foreign royalty, countless dignitaries, debutantes and newly minted brides and grooms have made grand entrance for over a century.

TJ's Lounge, meanwhile, is a terrible name for the main bar in this gracious Beaux Arts landmark, one of America's few independently owned hotel awarded both a Mobile five-star and a AAA five-diamond ranking. It sounds like a corner saloon in Queens where wiseguys power down boilermakers. But here's the great irony: On this particular night, more women than men are sitting at the bar and this is supposedly not unusual.

Kristi, who works in the health care practice in Houston for a global accounting firm, is sipping a Virginia merlot, having her dinner at the bar and reading a book. "I feel very comfortable here," she says, "and it's beautiful."

A stool away, Deirdre, a Los Angeles film producer, also having her dinner at the bar, tells me "It's been a long week, I miss my daughter more than anything, I don't want to eat in my room and everyone (in TJ's) is so very friendly." The courtly Thomas Jefferson always was a ladies man and his legacy lives on in his namesake hotel. The new legacy is the Black Angus filet mignon hamburgers for $10 at the bar.

The entire restaurant menu can be served in the lounge.

Credit bartender Jacquie DeGroat who, like Eubanks, has good stories and great taste. "Most of our clients," she says, "prefer single-malt Scotches and single batch bourbon and classic cocktails. We don't do a lot of 'cutesy.'" That said, the house signature drink is a Bellini-tini, a marriage of two classic cocktails. It's made with Grey Goose, fresh peach puree and sparkling wine, $12. Only house-made fresh puree and fresh juices are poured here.

Prices are reasonable for a five-star, five-diamond hotel. For example, Les Grandes Arbe, the wine by-the-glass chardonnay and Columbia Winery merlot from Washington State are $8. Single malt Scotch lovers will find the 12-year-old Glenlivet for $12. Six beers, including three local brews, are on tap and the popularity prize goes to Legend Lager, a Richmond microbrew at $4.50 a pint.

"We're a Richmond tradition and we keep our prices reasonable," says DeGroat. One tradition, she says, is long gone: baby alligators are no longer splashing in the pool on the upper Palm Court lobby near the desk under the opulent 40-foot-high stained glass rotunda dome.

This bar, attached to TJ's well-provisioned restaurant, is a waystation for interesting local folk as well as business travelers where conversations are easily struck up. "I hate the word ambiance," chuckles a GQ-stylish Tom Howard, retired assistant managing editor of the Richmond Times Dispatch and novelist, "but this has it — a good comfortable Southern bar."

We're sipping Woodford bourbon over a couple of ice cubes and Howard is debunking local myths. "That staircase was not the inspiration for the stairs in Rhett Butler's home in the film 'Gone With The Wind.' Not true."

For a historical treat, saunter over to The Jefferson's small museum across the lobby that whisks you back to 1895. Its glass display cases illustrate a story of cotillions and snobby private clubs, of Tobacco Balls where they crowned the Queen of Tobacco Land, of guests like John D. Rockefeller IV, Teddy Roosevelt, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Lindbergh, and of rooms that fetched $1.50 a night. And, of course, Thomas Jefferson, who lost his head when his white marble statue was toppled in a 1901 fire.

He stands tall and intact today in the upper lobby facing the entrance so raise your glass to a true Virginia gentlemen —and come up with a new name for the bar TJ's Lounge.

IF YOU GO

The Jefferson Hotel, 101 Franklin St., Richmond, VA.

More info about the Richmond Hotel can be found online at www.jeffersonhotel.com.

The direct telephone line to TJ's: 804-649-4672.

Chris Barnett writes on business travel strategies that save time, money and stress. Reach him at cbarn@aol.com. To find out more about Chris Barnett and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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