Spirit’s Alley offers premium libations
Vodka, Zinfandel and Pale Ale. It’s quite the inventive attraction for a series of airplane hangars that overlook the San Francisco Bay at the decommissioned Alameda Naval Air Station.
Yet for the past three years, the City of Alameda has been helping promote the half-mile stretch of Alameda Point’s Monarch Street into an official “Spirits Alley,” as a collection of premium distilleries, wineries, breweries, and specialty beverage producers.
The transformation actually began in 2002, when St. George Spirits opened a warehouse in the district, housed in a 65,000-square-foot former airplane hangar and now built to a portfolio of 15 spirits spanning single malt whiskey, agricole rum, absinthe, gins, vodkas, brandies and liqueurs.
Over the years, similar
drink-centric operations moved into the long deserted area, now including Proximo Spirits’ Hangar 1 Vodka, Rock Wall Wine Company, Faction Brewing Company, Building 43 Winery and Brix Beverage. Another artisanal brewery, Almanac Beer Co., is planning to open soon, celebrating its farm-to-table suds fashioned in small batches with local fruit, grains and herbs.
Today, many of the craft operations are open to the public with vibrant tasting rooms that operate as much as community hangouts as places for sipping and shopping. Another draw comes in the sometimes unusual quaffs offered, like Hangar 1’s Distiller’s Exclusive honeycomb vodka, and St. George’s green chile vodka made with crushed jalapeños and lime peel distilled through an assembly layered with fresh cilantro.
Last October, Hangar 1 debuted an expansive new tasting room with facility tours. The space is one of the most dramatic statements for the former aviation neighborhood, showcasing repurposed plane parts such as riveted, silver metal plane fuselage skin adorning a wall, and vintage turbines turned into light fixtures above a rustic metal flights bar. The space inside delivers views into the copperand stainless steel-clad distillery, while the patio overlooks the water to the San Francisco skyline.
Here, 1- to 1.5-hour tours ($20) start in the WWII-era hangar, admiring the fresh produce and botanicals sourced from local farmers and Hangar 1’s own garden (standouts include the Buddha’s Hand citron segmented into finger like section, and perfume-rich makrut lime leaves). Then, it’s on to tasting six vodkas, including the Distiller’s Exclusive line, a rotating seasonal small-batch collection available only in the Tasting Room.
Faction Brewing Company is another top destination, where savvy guests know to enter at the back, past the 26-foot-tall grain silo and around the corner to the waterfront patio set with picnic tables. It’s always busy here with more than 200 seats, too, with more picnic tables right next to the brew tanks, and an entry lounge boasting an entire wall of the specialty brews on tap.
In an unusual touch, children are welcome here (as well as dogs, of course) — the little ones certainly will appreciate the décor of a black-and-white cartoon mural of women riding elephants, pudgy men stuffed in barrels bobbing in a pond, and a cannon shooting a naked warrior into a mosh pit.
Husband and wife team and owners Rodger Davis and Claudia Pamparana specialize in Pale Ale, but every few months, they change things up, romping between Belgians, strong ales, sours and seasonals, for sips like a 2Hop Pale brewed with Southern Passion and African Queen hops, a gluten free all oat Moon Germs ale brewed with Mosaic and Centennial hops, and a playful new Alternative Facts IPA Imperial Session that’s brewed with Mosaic, Mandarina and Dr. Rudi hops for an “overly dramatic” delivery.