LONG ISLAND CITY — Astoria Distilling Company, which started selling its "Queens Courage" gin to bars and liquor stores last year, is opening a tasting room and production space in its home borough.
The company — which is based in Astoria but does its actual distilling upstate — has inked a lease to set up shop on the first floor of the Falchi Building in Long Island City, to serve as a "nano distillery" with a small cocktail bar where patrons can sample its products.
"We'll be opening up the first craft distillery in Queens since prohibition, hopefully by the end of the year," said Astoria Distilling owner Chris Murillo.
The bar and tasting room offers patrons a chance to sample cocktails and buy bottles of Queens Courage and other products. Murillo also wants to eventually open tours of the site where people can learn about the distilling process, he said.
Though most of its production will continue to be done at its larger facility upstate, the Queens site will be where the company tests out new concoctions or make one-off batches of spirits.
"[We'll do] test batches and small runs of things that we create," he said. "If it's popular in the tasting room and we're really happy with it, we’ll make a big batch upstate."
The Falchi Building space will also be used to blend and bottle their liquor, Murillo said. The distillery is still in the process of applying for necessary permits but are hoping to open before the holidays.
So far, Astoria Distilling Company sells its Queens Courage Gin — an "Old Tom" style gin, a kind that that was popular in 1800's, which is sweetened slightly with honey and has hints of malt and grapefruit.
The gin launched locally last year and is now available in more than 150 bars and liquor stores across the state, according to Murillo, who left a career in law to start the business as a labor of love.
"We don’t have any big investors," he said. "We don't have a lot of big money behind it. It's literally a small family-owned business. We're growing it slowly, step-by-step."
The company plans to create and offer other kinds of spirits besides its gin, and are already working on an ouzo, a traditionally Greek drink.
"We're born in Astoria, the company was, and Astoria has one of the most vibrant Greek communities in the world, so we thought it was totally appropriate to create an ouzo," Murillo said.
Other future offerings may include a limoncello, and other drinks inspired by the company's home borough.
"[We're] creating spirits that celebrate the cultural heritage which is reflected in Queens, which is so diverse," he said.
