

The 1930s mahogany bar reinforces the tasting room's sense of place. The business promotes itself as distilling liquors "for revolutionaries rewriting the history of a great American city." (Facebook photos)

The public debut of downtown's third craft distillery moves up a day to kick off Labor Day weekend with Detroit spirits.

Detroit City Distillery starts pouring on Riopelle at 6 p.m. tomorrow, followed by its regular Saturday hours -- 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday. Because who doesn't welcoming a bracing shot or two before browsing Eastern Market produce stands nearby?

The holiday weekend schedule is posted atop the new venture's Facebook page.

Food will be available between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday from Chef Marc Bogoff of the Stockyard pop-up.

Original article -- Friday, Aug. 22:

Detroit's newest watering hole will swerve "artisinal cocktails" with home state vodka, bourbon and whiskey. And by late fall or winter, those spirits will be made on site.

After shakeout drills at three recent launch parties, the Detroit City Distillery is preparing to open Labor Day weekend at 2462 Riopelle St. in Eastern Market, Anjana Schroeder reports at Crain's.

Michael Forsyth, one of eight managing partners of the microdistillery, expects to open to the public Saturday.

Its debut will come two weeks after Our/Detroit, a small-batch vodka maker, opened a tasting room and sales counter at 2545 Bagley in Corktown.

On Michigan Avenue in Corktown, Two James Spirits opened last summer.

The Detroit trio of craft distilleries reflect a national trend reported on Aug. 23 by The New York Times:

American craft spirits, whose rapid expansion from a few dozen distilleries five years ago to more than 600 today, have helped revive the country’s once-stagnant distilling industry.





The new Eastern Market tasting room in a 2,700-square-feet former slaughterhouse has an elegant 1930s wood bar, subway-style tiles, stools, cafe chairs at four-seat tables and an oak barrel hanging over the entrance, Crain's shows and tells . It's stocked with Gilded Age Vodka, Two Faced Blended Bourbon and Bloodline Whiskey, as well as syrups, bitters and juices that all are made there.

"Classic cocktails" cost $8 or $9 and bottles are $35 for vodka or $55 for whiskey and bourbon. (At the Corktown newcomer, vodka is $17 for a smaller 375-milliiter bottle, cmpared to 750 milliliters at the Eastern Market nbewcomer. Our/Detroit is part of an Our/Vodka network backed by the company behind Absolut Vodka.)

In a storage area at the Riopelle site, whiskey ages in barrels stamped with a large, stylized "D," multimedia producer Schroeder shows in one of 17 photos illustrating her five-paragraph preview.

The three liquors are distilled at Michigan State, which has a craft liquors program, while the business finishes installing its own equipment, which also will make gin.

On the newcomer's Facebook page, investors describe themselves as "the spirits of Detroit."