Capitol Hill’s new Heritage Distilling tasting room won’t be on the scale of the Gig Harbor HQ but it will still produce a steady flow of small batch spirits (Image: Heritage Distilling)
In August, CHS reported on the plans for Gig Harbor’s Heritage Distilling to open a new Pike/Pine tasting room. The neighborhood’s hooch manufacturing sector, it turns out, will also get a boost.
Heritage owner and master distiller Justin Stiefel tells CHS the project moving into the Central Agency building on the backside of Pike/Pine will be “doing everything you would expect distillery to do – distillation in site, barrel aging, blending. Flavoring and bottling.” Continue reading →
Although Capitol Hill may hold the distinction of being Seattle’s favorite area for a late night cocktail, most of its patrons probably don’t expect the city’s premiere nightlife neighborhood to also produce the liquor that it liberally imbibes. Yet, for the past two years, co-owners Kirby Kallas-Lewis and Jeana Harrington of OOLA Distillery have done just that, turning a labor of love into a model for the city’s slowly growing but swiftly changing micro-distillery movement. More change is in store for OOLA as the partnership behind the distillery shifts.
“It hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m leaving,” Harrington tells CHS. “One of my big flaws is that I haven’t taken the time to reflect. But looking back, given how capital intensive starting a business is and the fact that we’ve only been selling for a year and a half, getting into the black recently made me really proud. To see that is really exciting, and there was a week in November when we got orders to 17 different states out. It takes a lot of strategy to get that accomplished.”
One of the founders of Capitol Hill’s micro-distilling movement, Harrington is leaving the Pacific Northwest for Chicago after eight years in order to be closer to her family. Although Harrington will remain on as a co-owner, her presence within OOLA will be relegated to that of a “de facto ambassador” for the brand as she moves on to other opportunities within the spirits industry.
Harrington
Even though her time at the distillery will come to a close at the end of February, Harrington says that she still has a hard time imagining that the business she helped build will no longer be a part of her every day life. But when she does manage, the fact that she helped start a new, independent business in one of the most competitive areas of town will always fill her with pride.
“I wanted to be in a dense urban setting to help build the brand,” said Kallas-Lewis on their decision to open OOLA in the core of Capitol Hill at 13th and Union. “When we started, the state liquor stores were in place and an active sales room at the distillery was key to our early success. Plus, I have lived on the Hill for a long time — it has the best of what Seattle can offer and I wanted to be solidly part of that.” Continue reading →
