Shady Distillery launches new site
Shady Distillery launches site in Fort Lauderdale
Inside downtown Fort Lauderdale’s new Shady Distillery, surfer and musician Jonny Ver Planck wears his DIY punkrock ethos on his sleeves, colorful arm tattoos that angle froma black Clash T-shirt.
It is difficult to reconcile the visual intensity of VerPlanck with his elegant work as a nationally recognized master distiller and the debut batch of vodka he has produced for Shady Distillery, a sip of buttery smooth suppleness best served straight.
VerPlanck’s Shady Vodka is the first release from Shady Distillery, a20,000-square-foot, full-production small-batch spirits facility located in aware house that shares a wall with the sprawling Sistrunk Marketplace & Brewery food hall.
Inside you’ll find VerPlanck at work in a room dominated by large aluminum tanks, pipes and copper pots that yield about 1,000 bottles of each release. Shady Vodka debuted two weeks ago, and a second vodka,
called Recount 2020, willbe released next week, in case you need it for an actual recount.
The versatile VerPlanck has won awards across multiple spirits categories and at Shady Distillery you’ll find he has a light rum and a dark rum aging in barrels and imminent plans for some single-malt whiskeys.
“I’m a distiller and I make booze,” he says, matter-offactly.
Shady Distillery is the latest project from Society 8 Hospitality Group, the Fort Lauderdale-based restaurant and nightlife team whose properties include Sis trunk Marketplace, Park &Ocean and Wild Thy me on Fort Lauderdale beach. In the future, Shady Distillery will be joined with Sistrunk Marketplace through a passageway in thewall.
Due to COVID concerns, access to the distillery is limited. Tastings can be booked through Sistrunk Marketplace, as can a Nov. 19 Shady Distillery Dinner. Visit S is trunk Marketplace. com.
The word is the massive Khoffner Brewery will be ready to open inside Sis trunk Marketplace in two or threeweeks, and brewery tours and distillery tours will follow.
A Southern California native, VerPlanck spent years in the Los Angeles music scene as a performer, then became a tour manager and sound engineer, both live and in the studio. He has worked with everyone from Linkin Park and Sublime to the Rev. Horton Heat and Hank Williams III.
VerPlanck says melding the idiosyncratic sounds and personalities of those acts into a cohesive whole is not unlike his work as a spirits producer.
“It’s the same thing for me. You take a bunch of raw ingredients, you mix them all up and you hopefully comeout with this beautiful outcome,” VerPlanck says.
Neil Sack of Society 8 Hospitality is brand ambassador for Shady Distillery. He says mill en ni a ls moving into downtown Fort Lauderdale are looking for ways to feel a sense of place in their new neighborhood.
“We wanted [to offer] something made in Fort Lauderdale. Why is everything on the [liquor] shelf from Texas, from San Francisco, from France. We figured, let’s take a shot,” Sack says.
VerPlanck, who has lived with his wife in Fort Lauderdale, now near the Galleria, for about a year, was introduced to Shady Distillery while doing distillery consulting, which has taken him across Latin America, South America and the Caribbean.
“I had to get back to the ocean, and Florida just seemed like a really good spot to relocate,” he says. “Fort Lauderdale is a really good hub for me. You’ve got this whole neighborhood that’s coming into its own and the Sistrunk Marketplace next door. … It’s just a super cool operation.”
Shady Vodka, 80 proof and seven-times distilled from corn, is available at Sistrunk Marketplace and at Park & Ocean, where Shady Distillery is adding a stand-alone bar area. Other sources include Archie’s Bar on Oakland Park Boulevard and Wild Thy meat the Atlantic Hotel & Spa.
In retail outlets, where it costs $18-$21 for a 750ml bottle, it’s available at Pompano Discount Liquor; Ocean Liquor & Fine Wine on Wilton Drive; Ocean Wine and Spirits on Las Olas Boulevard; and Beach Liquors and Cigars on Fort Lauderdale beach.
Nextweek, Recount2020 will be released in a limited edition, 300-400 bottles.
Sack says the name Shady Distillery is in the eye of the beholder — an image of relaxation under a palm tree or Florida Man pulling something underhanded in the shadows— but Recount 2020 is a straightforward acknowledgment of the year as a “debacle.”
Fittingly, Sack says, the Florida-made vodka is 81 proof instead of the more common80 proof.
“We just couldn’t get the proof right, so we bottled it at 81 proof. We just couldn’t count,” Sack says, laughing. “Everybody makes mistakes. After Nov .3, we’ ll know definitely what it’s at .”