Hello friends! Last night was a big night at the distillery. After a minorly epic push to get the bar mostly completed (thanks dad!) and the space cleaned up (thanks Kevin!), a bunch of folks came in from the cold...
Cold it has been. We were verging on -30f absolute, never mind the wind chill, and just about everything possible has frozen. Our boilers. Our chimney. Our truck. Our asses. Our minds. But it's warming up now - It was actually above 0 when we drove in this morning.
But no more complaining, because last night was awesome.
There was jazz:
There were miniature cupcakes:
There were beverages, especially from Bent Paddle Brewery:
And most importantly, the guests of honor, Duluth mayor Don Ness and his wife Laura.
We were celebrating Don's and Laura's birthdays. They're lovely people, and Don is roughly the best mayor ever. He has approval ratings in the 90s, at least in part because he's genuine in a way we don't expect from our public figures. Also, in case you wondered, he has the same Myers-Briggs personality type as Joel. And Emily as Laura. Yes, wow.
Speaking of, this is how Joel serves a drink! Much arm waving required.
Meanwhile, some folks congregated in the kitchen as people do.
And lots of great Duluth people got a good look at the place.
Which apparently was a delight.
We had fun too.
in other fun news, our gin labels have been approved, and our bottles are being printed and should be here in a couple weeks, so we should be on the liquor store shelves and bars in Duluth early next month. We can't wait!
Cheers,
Joel and Emily
