What does it take to turn a vacant warehouse into an award-winning distillery? Claudia Saric and Spencer Michiel learned the answer to this question and more during a special edition of So You Want To Run a Restaurant. Our co-hosts were joined live from the Gordon Food Service Food Show in Grand Rapids, Michigan by Jon O’Connor. Jon is the President of the Michigan Craft Distillers Association and co-founder of Long Road Distillers on nearby Leonard Street.
Jon and his business partner Kyle launched Long Road in 2013 with a novel idea, a lot of enthusiasm, and little to no restaurant experience. In fact, confessed Jon, his only hospitality gig before launching Long Road was a short tenure washing dishes as a teen. Otherwise, Jon says, “In my past life, I was a real estate appraiser and real estate broker. I ran my own business with Kyle, but we really loved spirits, and nobody had ever done it in Grand Rapids.”
More than a decade later, Long Road is at the heart of a vibrant neighborhood and at the forefront of Michigan’s thriving craft spirit scene.
Before they were business partners, Jon and Kyle were fellow members of their West Grand neighborhood board. They struck up a friendship based on their shared love for the community around them. They celebrated that love by enjoying everything their neighborhood had to offer.
“We’d take our wives out. We’d go wine tasting. We'd go bourbon touring. We'd go hit up all the great breweries in town and across Michigan,” Jon told us. These experiences would often lead to late nights and long conversations on every imaginable topic.
“But,” Jon said, “the conversation always led back to ‘Man, I wish Grand Rapids had a distillery.’ We both appreciate spirits and especially craft cocktails. And at that point in time, Grand Rapids really didn't have a craft cocktail scene.”
Jon and Kyle both recognized the opportunity to fill that void. Not only that, but they saw a chance to put the spotlight on their home state.
“I think Michigan is this beautiful, unique place,” said Jon. “Michigan's the second most diverse state in the country in terms of agricultural production.”
Jon and Kyle both agreed that a Michigan-based distillery should source ingredients exclusively from in-state. Though they discussed the idea often, everything finally clicked into place during one of their late night conversations. John recalled that “It sounded like a great idea at midnight, after a little whiskey. Then Kyle called me the next day and said, “You know, Jon, we should really try to figure this out.”
Clearly, they figured it out. Just 18 months later, Jon and Kyle opened the doors to Long Road Distillers. Take a quick glance at the Long Road website for the incredible list of awards they’ve won since then. And watch the whole podcast above to find out which of their cocktails is Jon’s favorite.
Below, check out a few of our favorite moments from the conversation.
Jon and Kyle were both entirely new to the restaurant business, so they did plenty of research before launching. There was one thing they learned right away. Jon revealed that “There are a lot of mistruths that get told in our business. There are people who just want a brand. They're just going to create a package and tell you some yarn about their granddaddy's recipe. They don't actually make anything.”
Right from the start, Long Road was designed to be something different.
“We're proud Michiganders,” said Jon. “I'm from the east side of the state, where we make cars. In Grand Rapids, we make furniture. So we wanted to be the makers of something.”
With Long Road, Jon and Kyle set out “to prove to the world that you can make world class spirits using exclusively Michigan ingredients. That's how we landed on the name Long Road. It's about not taking shortcuts. It's about doing things the right way.”
Jon and Kyle already had deep roots in their neighborhood when they made the decision to open up on Leonard Street. In fact, they were inspired by another local success story. “We're good friends with the guys at Mitten Brewing Company,” Jon told us. “They're in our neighborhood. They had taken a historic building and turned it into something cool. It was the epicenter of the resurgence on Leonard Street.”
[Check out our chat with Mitten Brewing]
With his background in real estate, Jon seized the opportunity to buy the building right next door. The building itself, said Jon, was ugly and tired. “And,” Jon acknowledged, “we didn't take the easy path in selecting our location. We wanted to be part of something that was happening at the grassroots level, not something that was already ascending.”
It turned out Jon and Kyle were getting in on the ground floor for a community-wide revitalization. Today, Long Road is one of three neighboring craft beverage makers on Leonard Street. “I couldn't be prouder of the fact that we're sitting on West Leonard and seeing all the great things that are happening in Grand Rapids,” Jon told us. “And the West Side as a whole has seen a significant investment over the last few years.”
The restaurant business naturally comes with a lot of risk. That risk was perhaps even greater for two newcomers to the industry. But as Jon pointed out, “You don't hit home runs if you don't swing at pitches.”
They were clearly swinging for the fences with Long Road. A lot of work went into transforming an old dry goods warehouse into a distillery. That work included knocking a hole in the roof to bring in the stills. And of course, “there have been some lumps along the way. There have been some failures, but we like to fail quickly, and we’re willing to admit when we're wrong,” said Jon.
Ultimately, Jon told us, the only way to offset that risk is through hard work. Jon recalled that “From day one, we were in the building, from eight in the morning until one in the morning. You just put your blood, sweat, and tears into it.”
“When we started, we opened our doors with three spirits – vodka, a dry gin, and an unaged whiskey,” said Jon. Jon referred to these as the staple spirits. But the spirit that really helped to put Long Road on the map was a rather bold choice.
The fourth spirit they added to their repertoire was something called aquavit, which Jon described as “a very esoteric Scandinavian spirit made with caraway and dill. And we made that because we wanted to make that, not because we thought there was a market for it.”
It turned out there was a market for it. In 2017, Long Road’s aquavit became the first clear spirit ever to win best in show at the American Craft Spirits Awards. It remains on the menu today.
Consumer habits are always changing. As a restaurant owner, you have to be attuned to these changes. This is especially true in the craft beverage business, where trends and tastes can shift rapidly.
As Jon explained, “Beer is on the decline. Wine is on the decline. Spirits are relatively flat nationwide. Bourbon was extremely hot for the past six or eight years. But now there are several notable bourbon distillers that have closed in the last 12 months.”
So how does a business like Long Road avoid becoming another casualty of changing trends? Jon told us that the key for Long Road is pivoting to growing markets while keeping the same high standards for ingredients and quality control. Jon noted that “The ready-to-drink canned cocktail space is the fastest growing segment and the non-alcoholic stuff is the next wave.” Today, Long Road is enjoying a growing revenue stream and broader brand visibility by selling both canned cocktails and mocktails in retail locations throughout Michigan.
Today, Jon owns two restaurants and a rapidly growing local brand. He advises anybody considering the same route that “opening a restaurant comes with its own set of challenges but also opportunities.”
The right technology can go a long way toward helping you manage those challenges and seize those opportunities. Not sure where to start? Reach out to one of our in-house restaurant tech experts for your free, personalized consultation.