Tag Archives: craft spirits

Homecoming: OOLA Capitol Hill opening new bottle shop, cocktail bar, and restaurant at 14th and Union

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(Image: OOLA)

(Image: OOLA)

OOLA Distillery picked up its barrels and still equipment and left 14th and Union three years ago but the Capitol Hill-rooted owners behind the craft spirits maker never did. Now, OOLA is returning to its birth neighborhood with a new bottle shop, cocktail bar, and restaurant.

“Our production facility will remain in Georgetown, but the face of all things OOLA will be on the Hill,” founder and head distiller Kirby Kallas-Lewis tells CHS.

With hopes for a July opening if all the paperwork goes well, OOLA Capitol Hill is being readied to open in the former home of Marjorie next to Skillet on the northeast corner of 14th and Union. CHS reported here on Donna Moodie’s decision to move Marjorie nine blocks to a new home at 23rd and Union.

For Kallas-Lewis and KT Niehoff, the couple behind OOLA, the new project is a full melding of life, business, and making great gin and whiskey. They were married at Marjorie and still live “a stone’s throw” from the corner. Their plans include “fresh herbs, edible flowers and eggs from their chickens” from their “extensive” backyard garden and a promise for “a true farm to table urban oasis.”

“Expect to be hosted by KT and Kirby when you come by — this is the definition of ‘owner operated,'” they say in the announcement of the new project. Continue reading →

Oola Distillery saying goodbye to 2020 and Capitol Hill with move to Georgetown

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Kallas-Lewis on Oola’s five-year anniversary

14th and Union has been home to a lively slice of Capitol Hill with a “Southern” dive bar, a gay bar, and the neighborhood’s sole remaining craft distillery. All of that will be gone when things get back closer to normal after the heights of the COVID-19 crisis — Oola Distillery is joining the rest in exiting the corner.

Nine years after it poured its first tastes of small batch vodka and gin, owners Kirby Kallas-Lewis and KT Niehoff announced the distillery and its 10 Degrees event space are leaving Capitol Hill for Georgetown.

“We are sad to leave the Hill,” Kallas-Lewis said. “KT and I have been a devoted part of the neighborhood for almost 25 years. Covid related challenges created a sooner than expected departure, but we are staying positive and looking forward to joining the Georgetown community.” Continue reading →

Sun Liquor moving distillery off Capitol Hill

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Capitol Hill’s craft distillery industry is being downed by half and one of the neighborhood’s longest running purveyors of craft cocktails is contemplating more changes on E Pike.

CHS has learned that Sun Liquor Distillery, one of two craft-level spirit makers operating in Pike/Pine’s light-manufacturing zone left behind by the neighborhood’s auto row legacy, is moving operations to a nondescript warehouse on the backstreets behind University Village.

“We need two times as much space and the loading on E Pike is just too dangerous,” Sun’s founder Michael Klebeck tells CHS. Klebeck said his company is also considering working with a new owner to take over the Sun Liquor lounge across the street from the bottling facility on E Pike. Continue reading →