North Shore Distillery Celebrates 20th Anniversary – Chicago Magazine

These days, it seems like a bottle from a new craft distillery hits the shelves of liquor stores every other day, all desperate to stand out from the crowd. But that wasn’t always the case; in 2004, North Shore Distillery opened as the first small-scale distillery in Illinois and had to hustle, lobby, and work like hell to get their bottles on the shelves. Today, North Shore is a well-established brand, with one of my favorite gins on the market, but let’s rewind the clock 20 years and learn the history of the distillery.

North Shore Distillery founders Sonja and Derek Kassebaum both worked in corporate jobs in the early 2000s, with Derek running a startup consulting firm and Sonja serving as the company’s global HR lead. Sonja didn’t love her job, as the early 2000s tech boom was winding down and she spent a lot of time laying off employees around the world. “My nickname in Canada was the Angel of Death,” Sonja recalls. As part of his consulting work, Derek wrote business plans for potential startups for fun (yes, that sounds weird), and the idea of ​​a small distillery simply caught his eye. Neither of them had any experience in the spirits industry, but they decided to quit their jobs and give it a try.

They founded the company and ordered their still, named Ethel, in October 2004. It’s not easy being the first at anything, let alone the first in a heavily regulated and antiquated industry. “We were following regulations dating back to 1933,” Sonja says. For example, they had to buy all the equipment, have a handmade still built, and set up the entire business before they could apply for a license—which they didn’t know would be approved. It was a huge risk, but it paid off, because in May 2005 they were allowed to actually try making alcohol, and in October 2005 they sold their first bottle.

But that didn’t mean it suddenly got easier. Sonja called every alcohol wholesaler in the state, but no one returned her calls; craft liquor didn’t exist yet, and the people who actually sold alcohol weren’t interested. North Shore had to go through the process of becoming its own wholesaler, which meant Sonja had to go from bar to bar, store to store, walking the sidewalks to try to sell their product piece by piece. “I still remember the first few days when I went out to try to be a salesperson, I’d never been a salesperson before,” Sonja says. “I sold five cases the first day and I was thrilled.” Unfortunately, every day of sales wasn’t so great: “There’s a restaurant that I still feel traumatized walking into; the owner kept telling me he was going to see me and then he never showed up. He was always rescheduling and then he was gone. After the third time, people at the bar told me he did it on purpose, just to make fun of us.” Initially, because of a 1933 law, North Shore wasn’t allowed to have a tasting room, offer samples or even sell bottles out of its office.

Initially, North Shore Distillery produced two products: North Shore Vodka and North Shore Gin #6 (named after the sixth gin recipe they tried). But it took a long time to land on those products. “Derek was relentless in his experimentation; we created a lot of things that were so-so or terrible,” Sonja laughs. “We created loads and loads and loads of iterations, and a lot of things got thrown out.”

Business slowly picked up as drinkers across the region discovered their products. Sonja takes credit for some of the Chicago magazine (hurray!) as one of their breakthrough moments. “A food critic wrote a review of the gins and said our Gin #6 was the best of them all,” Sonja recalls. “Suddenly all the Binny’s were carrying our stuff and people wanted it.”

More products followed. North Shore Gin #11 (my favorite) was originally a product for a private dining club in Vernon Hills, and it was so popular they brought it to market. They called it #11 as an internal nod to Spinal Tap. “We turned the juniper up to 11,” Sonja explains. Then came aquavit. “We think we were the first people to produce aquavit in the United States,” she says. North Shore released its second U.S.-made absinthe in 2007, and since then they’ve moved on to whiskeys, flavored vodkas, and a variety of experimental small-batch spirits, including offerings distilled from things like mustard seed and pak choi.

Now, North Shore Distillery has a massive taproom and tasting room, and is hosting a series of events to celebrate its 20th anniversary. On October 5th, the tasting room will host a party with live music, limited-edition spirits, and cocktails. Stay tuned for other events throughout the year, including a special collaboration with Hopleaf, a party at Weegee’s (which features a collection of all their previous limited-edition spirits), and more.

After all these years, North Shore Distillery is still experimenting, creating new products, and gaining new fans. “We are artists in our hearts, and spirit is our medium,” says Sonja.