John Howie Restaurants

Beverage central and a new ale house

With a goal of enhancing their guest experience, John Howie and wine Director Erik Liedholm have ventured beyond having their own wine blends to having their own bourbon blend. Erik has created Wildwood Spirits, making vodka and gin and, in the future, grappa. With the upcoming opening of a new ale house in Bothell, it isn't much of a stretch to brew their own beer.

Erik works with Mark Ryan to produce a Merlot, and Duvall-Leroy in France to produce a Champagne. With the popularity of bourbon and the amount they sell, particularly at John Howie Steak, it made sense to create their own. "We like to work with producers represented on our menus. The next level is to craft something even more to our specific needs," says Erik. Their intent is to offer something that can't be found elsewhere.

"Woodford Reserve's Master Distiller has a map to each of his 114 barrels of bourbon, noting what he wants from each-vanilla, oak-and blends them to create a consistent bourbon. We tasted eight at barrel strength, 129-138 proof," says John. Erik adds, "We made tasting notes and ranked them to our preference. We came up with four barrels, giving us six different blends, and brought it down to bottle strength, 90.4 proof, narrowing it down to one." Their chosen blend was put up on May 31, 2007. John "may have pushed hard" for this one as May 31 is his youngest son's birthday and the day he made a hole-in-one. For Erik, it was simply his favorite. "So far, we've had raves from our customers." On their next round, they plan to double oak it.

Erik has wanted to take their spirits to the next level for some time, but legislation had to change in terms of a restaurant also owning a distillery. He bought a still from Portugal and started making grappa at home. Research led him to Kris Berglund, a professor at Michigan State University, where Erik's father is also a professor and where Erik went to school. "Plus I'm Swedish, so all the stars were aligned," he laughs. "We wanted to have them beta test the brand for us. It's the only lab of its kind. On one side of the plant you have PhD students working on solvents and on the other side, craft distilling. For four years, I've been staging, learning to distill, researching and developing."

They've purchased copper stills that will be here in a few months. "Vodka should be absolutely neutral, flavorless and odorless; it should take nothing away from a drink. Kris and his students all work on different aspects of vodka-it's been amazing to have the benefit of all these resources." Their vodka is called Stark Vatten, Swedish for "strong water." They also make a classic London dry gin called Kur. The bottles mimic a late 19^th century apothecary bottle (gin was originally used as a curative). Both spirits have high top glass seals. "These are the perfect seal and give an elegant look," says Erik. "People can reuse the bottles and still get a good seal. We used our own vodka to make the gin, to ensure the great mouth feel of the vodka carried over. There are 12 botanicals involved, two from my own back yard-apple and Douglas fir. There's juniper, and a hint of citrus. We feel we have the perfect blend. Many distilleries put botanicals in a sachet; we blend separately to make sure we have the right proportions. We sent red winter heirloom wheat, an Italian varietal that has been grown in Washington for 50 years, to Michigan. We wanted to do it there first to get it right."

"As far as we know, no craft distilleries are doing anything like this. The difference for us is that we aren't as concerned about yields. We're doing this to make the best product, not the most product. In distilling, you have heads and tails. At either end, you may get an acetone or rotten bitter flavor. We use the center cut," explains John. Their attention to detail is working as their Kur gin received a gold medal at the American Craft Distillers Association competition in Denver this year. See results at: http://www.americancraftdistillers.org/craft-spirits-judging-results.html. At the American Distilling Institution's  annual judging of craft spirits, Stark Vatten won gold, best of class  certified craft spirits, and best of category. Kur won silver, excellance in packaging, and best of category. An homage to his home, Wildwood Spirits is named after the street Erik grew up on. The art on Kur was done by a Tommy Bahama artist (Erik's wife used to work at Tommy Bahama).

Now they have the recipe down, they will make it in Washington. They wanted their Bothell location to house a distillery, brewery, and ale house. The State allows businesses to make wine and spirits, but not beer and spirits. So they now have a building with walls/hallways between the distillery and brewery, and two separate LLCs. The location is a two-minute walk from both Cascadia Community College and the UW Bothell campus. "The ale house menu will be prime burgers, flatbreads, and house-made bread, plus a charcuterie locker in-house and a Berkel slicer out front," says John. "The table tops are made from a giant sequoia that was taken down for the development. It's also a decorative part of our outdoor fireplace. It will feel rustic, with wood on the walls and wrought iron pieces, and reasonably-priced food."

"Making our own beer allows us to tailor the beer to our restaurants' specifications; what will go best with our food," explains Erik. John adds, "We can make beer for each restaurant at a better price point and sell it as well. We want to appeal to beer geeks as well as the average beer drinker."

In March, Erik was in London to pursue his Master Distiller certification, with a final exam in May. "If he passes, and he will, he'll be the only true certified Master Distiller in craft distilling in Seattle," says John. He already has several people interested in buying his grappa. Ultimately, they'd like to make their own American bourbon and a single-malt scotch using local peat. Down the road, they want to offer distilling and brewing courses. "Education is an important aspect of our company," says John. "We want our servers to go through the primary level of the cicerone certification at the brewery."

Beer, spirits, a new ale house, and a lease that keeps Seastar in its Bellevue location through 2024 will keep John Howie Restaurants offering a unique experience for some time to come.

Connie Adams/April 2014