Cosby, Tennessee: Moonshine Bar (Closed)

Sad to know that it's closed. I used to visit quite often back in the 1980s. Fred and Maria were a real treat to talk with, and Fred's libations were as smooth as Kool-Aid. I thought for sure that Janet and Arthur would keep the ol' place going. I will miss everything about Fort Marx.

I used to visit this place all the time in the 1980s. I finally went back last week, the first time in about 25 years. The building was still there, but closed up and overgrown. We found the old Fort Marx sign out front -- half of it had been removed and someone added the word "Restaurant" to it.

I'm afraid to say the moonshine bar is no longer! After searching for the street (which is now labeled, by the way), I drove 2 miles up the road to a two-tone blue trailer. They were closed, but while peeking in the window, a lady opened the door for me. I explained how R.A. led me to the place and asked about the moonshine. She said the guy who made the moonshine had died about 2 years earlier, and the homemade booze had gone with him. Now it's just a restaurant. Kind of interesting, though, because the ceiling is decorated with thousands of old, yellowing business cards put up with tacks. But the moonshine is a thing of the past!

We found an honest-to-goodness moonshine bar right here in the hills. Located on Dark Hollow Road (unmarked) in Cosby, TN (a decades-old moonshine town), Fort Marx specializes in homemade beer and spirits. You'd never know the place is a public establishment because it's housed in two ramshackle double-wide trailers that rest uneasily against a thrown-together wood building. There's a tiny, scrawled sign in the window that reads Fort Marx.

Anyway, the bar is run by an old German couple; the wife makes an awesome sausage and potatoes dish. The beer tastes like apples (incredible) and the moonshine, flavored like banana, hazelnut, and a bunch of others....well let's just say you never know til it hits you! Take-home mason jars filled with moonshine and cherries or pears are available for 20 bucks, but I highly recommend the sit-down experience. Local flavor at this place is amazing, very backwoods!