Guy Rehorst

Burger Restaurant Opens Inside Great Lakes Distillery

Fox Den replaces The Galley, and offers up a variety of traditional and vegan burgers with an eclectic mix of sides.

Clementines Evokes the New Bay View

Even as it honors the history. Bartenders and owners love it. You may, too.

Contribution to José G. Pérez of $250

Contribution to JoCasta Zamarripa of $250

Ten Years of Sales Celebrated with Ten New Spirits

While most of these releases are one of a kind limited releases, several will become ongoing products for the distillery.

Contribution to José G. Pérez of $100

Santa Cycle Rampage Rocks Out

The English Beat flew in from Britain to play and the turnout was great.

More Improvements on Milwaukee River

Environmental group upgrades river banks and creates orientation center near Humboldt Avenue.

Local Artist’s Gift to Obama Gets Complicated

Tim Meyerring's present to the president gets caught up in the law on gifts and consultations with the White House assessor.

Milwaukee Vodka Maker Moving to Walker’s Point

FO BEVERAGES A HOBBY Originally uploaded by strobist Great Lakes Distillery, Milwaukee’s local vodka distiller, is moving their operations from Capital and Holton to 616 W Virginia St in The Tannery complex of buildings. This has been picked up by a lot of other sources (including the JS, The Daily Reporter, RNN, and the Business Journal) so I’m not going to bore you with details on what it includes, but the tours sound great. I’m more concerned with what it means for the city. Guy Rehorst wanted more space, and he could have went anywhere in the metro-area and still called got away with calling it Milwaukee’s vodka. He chose to stay in urban Milwaukee though. Why? I haven’t talked to him directly, but here’s a couple guesses. It’s nice being close to your customers. It’s also a plus when you’re located by a Harley museum to generate a steady stream of customers for your tours. Being in a historic tannery building feels cool too, one could imagine. What does his business mean to Milwaukee? Realistically, not a lot of jobs directly, but there are other benefits. Everyone involved in local alcohol production deserves a huge round of applause from me, as do the people that drink it. Milwaukee is going to drink it’s share of alcohol, so it’s best that it’s made in Milwaukee. Every time you sip Rehorst compared to Absolut more money is staying in Milwaukee. Same with Lakefront, Water Street, and Alehouse beers vs Budweiser (and yes, even Miller). So while none of these distilleries create massive amounts of jobs, they keep wealth from leaving the city, and hopefully long-term bring wealth in (as they ultimately sell outside 124th Street). They also have this huge marketability asset that makes all of them being so close together so great. They’re great places to go. Now Guy’s tour is not running yet, but I imagine it’ll be something people talk about. It’s yet one more thing for people to do in urban Milwaukee (see: Fonz statue) that isn’t enough to draw people to come here on their own, but adds to a mixing pot of great things that make Milwaukee special compared to somewhere huge like Atlanta or small like Janesville. Milwaukee is a great place to be and with entrepreneurs like Guy Rehorst, isn’t anywhere close to losing it’s alcohol heritage, even with Miller moving to Chicago or Dallas (yeah, I said it).