New York’s first whiskey distillery since Prohibition, Great Jones Distillery, opened downtown.
“There is a reason why no one built it before. Because it was very difficult, ”says project manager Andrew Merinoff. There were only 122 buildings in Manhattan that could be used for high-strength distillation, and the team examined all of them before settling in the 28,000-square-foot space at 686 Broadway, formerly a shoe store and cash register factory.
Located a few blocks north of Houston Street, the ambitious flagship and new whiskey brand has been in development for six years. The multi-level space, designed with education at the forefront, includes a working production facility, a restaurant, several bars, and an immersive art installation.
The opening of the space also marks the official launch of the Great Jones whiskey label. Current bottles include a straight bourbon, which is sold in bulk, as well as a four-grain bourbon and exclusive rye from the distillery shop. The bottles are priced from $ 40 to $ 50. The product is produced entirely from New York materials; The beans are grown in the Black Dirt region of Warwick, where the brand has an auxiliary production facility to grind the grain and bottle age the product.
“Everyone associates bourbon with Kentucky, but the story is different. There was a very strong tradition of bourbon making here in the New York area, ”says Distillery Experience director Rodrigo Braun, noting that the history of distillation dates back to Staten Island in the 17th century. Taking guests through the distillation process was key, and the facility will offer daily tours. The highlight of the flagship is the working distillery on the second floor, visible behind a wall of glass. Visitors can also look down on the facility from behind a glass balcony on a higher level. The centerpiece is a custom Vendome created to mimic the New York skyline.
“We are not trying to hide the fact that we are manufacturing. Think high places, but manufacturing is seamless in all of them, ”says Merinoff. “We are not hiding the fact that we have forklifts, that we have barrels.”
Opening a distillery in Manhattan was a long-time goal for Proximo Spirits founder Juan Domingo Beckmann. (The opening was preceded by the Our / New York Vodka Distillery in Chelsea, the first distillery to open in Manhattan in more than a century.) It was also a unique challenge, given the city’s strict building laws – the construction required more than 6,000 different floor plans. But the team emphasizes that the building was built to exceed safety requirements: the distillery’s production room is explosion-proof and all the air in the room can be drawn in within 30 seconds in the event of a fire.
An elegant ballroom on the upper floor will be used for private functions, and the lower level features a speakeasy for workshops, tasting events, and classes. The facility tour also takes visitors through an immersive installation created by French artist Sébastien Léon that uses light, sound, sculpture, and olfactory elements to transport visitors to the Black Dirt region in the north of the state. The scent in the space, intended to match whiskey, is also sold as a candle in the gift shop.
The interior design is rooted in an aesthetic that references 1920s and 1930s New York City, with lots of brass accents and honey tones. “The design premise here was for the essential to join the industrial elite,” says Merinoff. A custom map in the restaurant’s dining room is illuminated to reference the location of the city’s various speakeasies during Prohibition, and the team discovered an underground tunnel during the renovation that was likely used to transport spirits illegally.
“The key part of the space was paying homage to New York’s rich history while leaning toward the future,” says Merinoff. “This is how we always look at it: how we acknowledge the past and also show that we are here for the long term.”
Courtesy of Great Jones Distillery
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