TV Archives | Page 3 of 3 | Long Road Distillers

The West Side of Grand Rapids is undergoing a transformation.

For a long time, the saying among West Siders has been “The West Side is the best side,” and now it seems others outside the area are taking notice.

“I’m really, really excited about all the new things that are happening; the new developments that are going on, this is just wonderful,” said Nola Steketee, the executive director of the West Grand Neighborhood Organization.

Thursday, the Grand Rapids Planning Commission approved plans for the latest development: A new brewery along Alpine Avenue called Grey Line Brewing Co.

Steketee said the area from Bridge Street to Leonard Street used to get only three or four businesses per year looking to move into the area. Now, she says, they get three to four per month.

The transformation has been years in the making.

“There was a tad bit of hesitation at first,” Steketee said. “But everybody realizes that we have to shake it off and go to the next level, and the next level would be all the new things that are happening. We have to give this all to the youth; we have to give this all to the next generation that is coming though.”

One of the new businesses is Long Road Distillers, which is going in along Leonard Street.

“For us, it’s really exciting to invest money and our heart and soul into this neighborhood now,” Kyle Van Strien, co-owner of Long Road Distillers, said.

Van Strien and his co-owner have lived on the West Side for the past decade. He said he couldn’t imagine opening the distillery anywhere else.

“Part of it is a lot of investment from outside groups or new business in the neighborhood. Places like Rockford Construction and the Mitten Brewing Company — they are great additions to the west side. But it’s also these business that have been here decades, a hundred years,” he said.

Long Road Distillers is joined by a host of other new businesses: The Mitten Brewing Company across the street opened a few years back; Two Scotts Barbecue hopes to open later this month; over on Bridge Street the fences are up where ground will soon be broken on New Holland Brewing Company; down the road, the old Little Mexico building is being transformed into Harmony Hall; and not too far away on Alpine is the latest project to get approval, Grey Line Brewing.

“This little corner here has seen a ton of investment over the past two years and I think it’s only going to continue,” Van Strein said. “You’ve seen a ton of stuff on Bridge Street, Fulton and coming up Seward and I think really it’s going to continue in all of our business district on the west side.”

The West side is an area steeped in tradition; but also an area Van Strien sees as growing in diversity. Just one of the reasons so many are setting up shop.

“You go into the Mitten on any given weeknight and you don’t feel like you necessarily walked into a pretentious craft brewery. It’s like anybody walked in. It’s not white collar, it’s not blue collar. It’s everybody together enjoying a beer together,” he said. “That’s what we really enjoy about the West Side. Everybody is welcome. You come as you are. You just show up. You are who you are.”

WOOD TV 8 – Full Story

Tom Hillen, March 13, 2015

You can soon add craft spirits to Grand Rapids’ craft brewing reputation. The Grand Rapids City planning commission unanimously approved West Michigan’s second craft distillery on Thursday.

Long Road Distillers leased space on West Leonard Street and now they have the go-ahead to establish a micro-distillery, tasting room, and special event space.

Long Road Distillers will open this fall at 537 Leonard Street NW, across Quarry Avenue from Mitten Brewing Co.

In co-ownerKyle Van Strien’s eyes, Mitten Brewing Company is a Westside success story.

“They were an example of, they’ve done a great job, they’ve made it work,” he said.

Now he stands across the street from the Mitten, fresh of the city’s unanimous decision to move forward with his plans, inspired to turn an old brick building into a booming distillery. He and co-owner Jon O’Connor are long-time, active Westside residents.

“We’ve just been really passionate about the Westside, we love the Westside,” said O’Connor.

The city gave them the unanimous go-ahead to renovate the 8-thousand-square-foot space. The clothing company will move out, making way for a tasting room and special events space.

“We’re the first grain-to-glass distillery in the city,” he said.

“There will be barrel storage here, fermenters laying the wall, and our still will sit up in the tasting room and be glassed off so people can see it when they walk in,” he said.

Van Strien is excited for what customers will taste at the new Long Road Distillers.

“A really high-quality vodka, a gin, a clear whisky, and then a malted gin,” he said.

It’s all coming from Michigan farmlands. Flavored spirits will come later, along with distribution.

But the immediate concern now is parking. Some neighbors and businesses say there isn’t enough already and they went before the city with their concerns. Jamie Taylor represented her business, Grand Rapids Hydroponics, which is directly across the street from the Mitten.

“Their customers park in front of our store and they’ll be there eating lunch and stuff and it limits us because we have to carry those out and load their cars. And if they’re parks blocks away it can be a big issue,” she said.

Van Strien says they’re working to accommodate.

“Our deliveries, coming through our parking lot in the morning, by re-surfacing our parking lot and re-orienting it so there’s more parking spots.

He and O’Conner will add 11 spots behind the distillery and the church parking lot across the street will lease 25 spots. It already leases to the Mitten. They expect a crowd; it remains to be seen how congested the area will get.

“There’s a bus stop right there,” he said. “People can take the bus to get here and to go home.”

The owners say music will be an acoustic; nothing too loud. There’s a few restrictions. The bar area must close by midnight Sunday through Thursday.

WZZM – Full Story

West Side the new ‘it’ neighborhood in GR? (WOOD TV 8)

Distillery coming to Grand Rapids’ Westside (WZZM)

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