Quincy Street Distillery Is On Its Way to Somewhere

If you're going to start a micro-distillery, try to put it in an attractive older building in an attractive older part of an attractive older suburb of a major city. Visitors can be crucial to a distillery's success. Jack Daniel's and Jim Beam know this and so does Quincy Street Distillery, a new micro located in historic Riverside, Illinois.

When you think about your visitor experience, remember that it begins long before the guest crosses your threshold. That industrial park may have practical advantages for you and your employees, but it probably wasn't designed by Frederic Law Olmstead. Downtown Riverside was. Your customers will be much more likely to enjoy your place and your products if they've already begun to enjoy themselves before they get there.

Quincy Street is very new and very small but they have some interesting ideas about using old recipes and using their town and its history for inspiration. They sell a white whiskey, a lightly-aged bourbon and rye, a gin, and some unique spirits. Every product has a rich back story. At this point you can mostly get them at the distillery, but last month they got a distributor.

Sure, Daniel's has Lynchburg, but one thing the giants can't do is provide an intimate and idiosyncratic experience tied closely to a particular place. That's where micros such as Quincy Street have an advantage.

(Pictured: Owner Derrick Mancini and distiller Daniel Maguire.)