Tavern’s holiday gift goes all in on strong typography. Faccia Brutto’s stacked, old-world letterforms take over the label, borrowing cues from Italian apothecary bottles and mid-century spirits packaging, while Tavern’s condensed logo cuts through the middle with firm graphic clarity. Metallic gold accents and a wax seal elevate the bottle without drifting into cliché luxury cues.

Nothing says happy holidays like a bottle of fernet. 

Transporting the Brooklyn Italian American social club into a bottle
To celebrate our third year in business, we partnered with our friends, clients, and Brooklyn neighbors, Faccia Brutto, to create something truly one-of-a-kind: a 30-month barrel-aged Fernet Pianta crafted exclusively for our clients, collaborators, and closest friends. Fewer than 450 bottles exist. None will ever be sold.

Two Brooklyn brands. One shared heritage. A holiday tradition that feels right at home in the Tavern universe.

A collaboration born from Brooklyn craft and friendship
Tavern and Faccia Brutto have been intertwined for years. We’ve helped them build the brand on the ground — from bar activations to local hype — and along the way became genuine friends and admirers of their work. Their Fernet Pianta is, without exaggeration, one of the best Fernets on the market, beloved by bartenders and obsessives alike.

Taking their signature Fernet Pianta, they placed it in white oak barrels and aged it for 30 months exclusively for Tavern. This is their first-ever aged Fernet, made specifically for this collaboration, never to be reproduced again.

A world built from Italian American ritual
Our previous holiday gifts — Tavern Beer (Year 1) and Tavern Wine (Year 2) — established a brand universe rooted in hospitality, heritage, and that timeless, slightly kitschy magic of neighborhood haunts, dive bars, and social clubs. This aged Fernet extends that universe, deepening it with a new chapter.
It feels unmistakably Tavern. It feels unmistakably Brooklyn. And it weaves perfectly into Faccia Brutto’s own story as a maker of old-world Italian spirits crafted in modern-day America.

The Liquid
Overall, it carries a little less bite than the core Faccia Brutto Fernet. The bitterness steps back, allowing the age and white oak to unfurl toward the finish — slow and confident, a perfect holiday treat.

Tasting Notes:

• Chocolate candy cane
• Peppermint bark
• Nonna candy

Design: modern heritage in its purest form
Inspired by a century’s worth of Fernet and amaro labels from our personal Italian amaro archives, the design reflects the early-20th-century aesthetic that once defined these spirits — a restrained Art Deco sensibility, geometric and bold typographic forms that signaled both medicinal use and futurism. We revived those early design codes, then reinterpreted them through the lens of Modern Heritage, creating a label that feels unmistakably contemporary while still carrying the weight of a hundred years of craft.

Key design elements include:

A towering, red TAVERN wordmark
Commanding the center of the label, inspired by the proud vertical typography of old-world amari. A visual nod to the social-club signage and hand-painted storefront lettering that defined Italian American neighborhoods.

The FACCIA BRUTTO mark
Preserved and rebalanced to create a tri-layered hierarchy.

The Tavern Horse wax seal
The red wax seal, stamped with the Tavern horse crest, serves as a mark of provenance and exclusivity, signaling that this collaboration was crafted not just for us, but by us.

Aging callout in months, patterned in period typography
Referencing the barrel-aging method and celebrating the rarity of the 30-month process as a slightly ghosted pattern.

Typography
Drawn directly from vintage labels and ephemera. This early-century Art Deco style is uniquely Italian in the world of amari, yet it echoes the architecture and typography that defined New York City in the same era. Our typeface was redrawn using both traditions as primary reference points, deliberately blurring the lines between them to create something unmistakably Italian American in its expression.

Color Palette
Maintaining some connective tissue to the Faccia Brutto Fernet Pianta but tweaking it ever so slightly so that it visually cues the level of aging the liquid has undergone.

A gift you can’t buy — only receive

This Fernet isn’t a product. It’s a gesture.
A thank-you.
An invitation.
A token of belonging in the Tavern universe.

Less than 450 bottles exist.
None will appear on shelves.
You can’t order one, barter for one, or track one down in a shop.

This is Brooklyn hospitality at its purest expression — something lovingly made, quietly shared, and poured for friends, collaborators, and the people who’ve been part of our story this year.