The long-quiet distillery at ArtsRiot is starting to buzz. In late October, Middlebury-based Split Spirits, formerly Appalachian Gap Distillery, opened a small pop-up tasting room attached to the Burlington restaurant and club at 400 Pine Street. ArtsRiot’s own booze will soon flow from the stills behind it.
Will Drucker founded Split Spirits in 2018 in partnership with Appalachian Gap, which Lars Hubbard and Chuck Burkins had started in 2011. He bought their climate-neutral-certified Middlebury distillery in July 2023 and has rebranded it under his own moniker. Split Spirits’ fully merged lineup — which includes whiskeys, gins, an agave spirit, espresso and creemee liqueurs — will still be made in Middlebury but is now available for sampling, tasting flights and bottle sales at ArtsRiot.
The move is part of a broader rebirth of ArtsRiot under the management of Kayla Maron, Matthew Wagner, Craig Wilkinson, Ralph Wagner and Joe Gorfinkle, who have “full operational and financial control” of the multifaceted business as of October 1, Maron told Seven Days. She added that the group does not currently own the ArtsRiot brand but will have the opportunity to purchase it in the future.
Entrepreneur Alan Newman bought ArtsRiot from its founders in 2020 and built the distillery, but it never opened. The venue sat empty from the end of 2022 until last spring, operated by an unnamed group of investors.
Maron and Matthew Wagner relaunched the ArtsRiot restaurant in March with a menu of New York-style pizza and globally influenced small plates. They brought back live music and events in May.
“We’re really excited to offer a full-spectrum experience, stimulating all the senses across all the arts — performance, culinary and chemistry,” Maron said, nodding to the planned opening this month of on-site ArtsRiot Distillery.
The distillery, separate from Split Spirits, will start by providing housemade booze to the restaurant and venue. Eventually, the restaurant will serve cocktails featuring both brands, chef and restaurant manager Wagner said.
“It’s a big effort,” said Wilkinson, who runs distillery operations. “This is a community space, and it’ll be different every time you come in here for a little while.”
Drucker said the group envisions eventually making the collaborative tasting room into “a one-stop shop for craft cocktail needs on Pine Street,” with other Vermont-produced spirits, cider and beer. For now, Split Spirits’ offerings are available Wednesday through Saturday, and the tasting room is stocked with mixers and Vermont-made provisions curated by Local Maverick, a sales and marketing platform for small businesses.
ArtsRiot will host a Riot Reborn Renaissance Party on November 29, which will showcase the new operators’ “intentions for the space,” Maron said. “It’ll be our grand reintroduction.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Split Spirits Opens Tasting Room at ArtsRiot in Burlington”
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2024.
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