There and back again
Fort Hamilton Distillery is on the second floor of a taupe, cement-faced building at Industry City, a sprawling old manufacturing hub that stretches across 35 waterfront acres. The site counts restaurants, retailers, design studios and creative businesses among its tenants. With its high ceilings, neutral tones and stone floors, the distillery should be a cold, industrial space, but the interior design – featuring lots of stools, old barrels and bar spaces – lends it a warm, welcoming feel.
At the bar, visitors can order a taste of Fort Hamilton’s cask strength, four-year-old rye; double-barrel rye; double-barrel bourbon; and a smartly curated selection of boozy, stirred cocktails. In the next room, visible through a windowed wall behind the bar, are dozens of barrels and a bottling system – the stills have not arrived yet. In March 2020, just as construction of this new distillery was reaching its zenith, Covid shut the whole thing down. Now, after nearly two years of delay, a
