Buffalo, USA
Founded in 2013 and headquartered for its first two years at the old '''Pierce Arrow Factory Complex''' in North Buffalo, Lockhouse is (in the words of the motto proudly hung above the front door) "An Idea So Crazy, It Just Might Work": the first distillery to open in Buffalo since the end of Prohib
ition. Founder and co-owner Niko Georgiadis is a scion of the intertwined tangle of marriages and family ties that make up the core of Buffalo's Greek restaurateur community, and to hear him tell it, he's a natural for his new venture: some of his earliest childhood memories are of his father stomping grapes for homemade wine, and he was living in Woodstock at the time when '''Tuthilltown Spirits''' opened — the first new distillery to open its doors in the state after the passage of the Farm Distillery Law led to the birth of the New York craft spirits industry in its present form. In accordance with that law, Lockhouse Distillery sources at least 75% (in reality, much more) of its ingredients from New York growers, and the spirits crafted here run the gamut from barrel-aged gin, to a coffee liqueur produced in conjunction with '''Public Espresso''', to their original flagship product and still their most popular offering: a vodka distilled from grapes grown at '''Freedom Run Winery''' in Lockport. Lockhouse's products can be purchased to take home from their small retail shop or else sampled in the form of topnotch craft cocktails in their rustic yet classy barroom; there's also
Listen to the audio guide for Lockhouse Distillery Free on WIP — starts by itself when you arrive, even with the screen off