Watershed Distillery will open a restaurant and bar at the site of their Grandview area distillery in early 2017.
Until legislation was passed in May, Ohio distilleries were not able to apply for an A-1-A permit, or “brewpub license,” which meant they were not able to operate an on-premises taproom. Ohio breweries and wineries have been able hold the A-1-A permit and serve their own products on-site for several years. Fellow Central Ohio distillery Middle West Spirits is also taking advantage of the change in legislation and is working on a restaurant, called Service Bar, expected to open soon.
The new concept, called Watershed Kitchen & Bar, will include a seventy seat restaurant, thirty seat patio, craft cocktail bar, and fifty-person private event space. Guests will be able to observe the distillation process while dining through a glass wall that will separate the distillery from the restaurant.
Watershed has hired Jack Moore as Executive Chef for the new restaurant. Moore, formerly of Bill Glover’s Sage American Bistro, has spent the last three years embedded in the Cleveland food scene working as the Sous Chef at Jonathon Sawyer’s Greenhouse Tavern and Chef de Cuisine at Michael Nowak’s The Black Pig. Alex Chien — who recently won a regional competition and went on to compete in an international competition in London for the title of The Most Imaginative Bartender where he earned high honors — will lead the new bar’s cocktail program.
Watershed Kitchen & Bar is expected to open by February 1, 2017, and hopes to be able to host private events in the new space as early as December of this year.
“So far we are on track to meet our first quarter goal, but as we are discovering delays are the only certainty when opening a restaurant,” said co-owner Dave Rigo in a statement. “We will not open the doors until everything is just right.”
