[Hallsy's Toupee]

'Smallest distillery in North America' starting retail sales in Old Strathcona operation
http://edmontonjournal.com/business/...cona-operation

Strathcona Spirits owner Adam Smith is so keen to put local ingredients in his company’s booze, he flavours the gin with wild juniper berries and sea buckthorn he picks himself.

What Smith claims is North America’s smallest distillery opened last December in a 69-square-metre former radiator shop on a gentrifying Old Strathcona industrial block, outfitted with a $100,000 custom-made still he and a friend drove 10,000 km to pick up in the Ozarks.

Although Strathcona Spirits has been selling 200 to 300 bottles of its gin and vodka each month through 150 liquor stores, bars and restaurants in Alberta and Saskatchewan, the company isn’t yet breaking even.

Smith admits he’s not sure how this compares to the anticipated sales volume.

“I don’t know what I expected. I’m not much of a businessman. I thought it would be easy to keep the door open, and it’s been more challenging because everything is expensive.”

Smith, 37, worked for an Eastern Canada craft brewery before he decided to start making the hard stuff in a one-storey space at 10122 81 Ave., where he’d operated the Baby Seal Club music venue.