New day, new digs for Eastern Kille Distillery
PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — After leaving its original space in downtown Grand Rapids, a favorite distillery is back in its new location just a few minutes away.
Eastern Kille recently reopened at its new Rockford-area hub, located at 7755 Childsdale Ave NE. The new space comes with 4,000 square feet of restaurant and bar space, another 1,500 of outdoor patio space and another 8,000 for the distillery itself.
The building has allowed the distillery to continue to grow, according to co-owner Brandon Voorhees.
“We obviously miss being in downtown Grand Rapids but we were kind of outgrowing that space anyways. And this way, it allows us to create a much more unique customer experience as well that could help further grow the brand,” Voorhees said.
News 8 spoke with Voorhees in January 2023 at the groundbreaking ceremony. He said then that the deal was mutually beneficial between Eastern Kille and Corewell Health, which purchased the original location downtown.
The new location has been welcoming customers for just over a month but has avoided making too many announcements due to the number of people who have been coming through the new doors.
“When we opened this, we slowly got the word out with one Facebook post, talking about our customers again, we had a line out the door at 3 o’clock on a Friday into the parking lot and it was so awesome,” Voorhees said.
The popularity of Eastern Kille stems from the years the company put out award-winning spirits. Voorhees said that the regulars have ventured out to the Rockford area to continue to get the same quality cocktails. But he added that he hopes the new food menu will bring in new customers and give the regulars another reason to come back.
Eastern Kille has added a variety of salads, appetizers, desserts and most importantly, pizza. They have taken a “neo-neopolitan style” approach to the pies which have been specially crafted by Voorhees and his team.
“We’re really, really intentional about the food that we wanted to offer. We’re very well known for our cocktail programs and we definitely wanted to put our product that met or exceeded those same expectations,” he said. “What one might see as simple items on the menu that are just elevated in a way that makes it a really special experience for our guests.”
Now that the move is out of the way and customers are flocking back, Voorhees said that the goals for Eastern Kille in 2024 will be working out the remaining kinks in workflow and opening up the new patio space later this summer.
The journey to the new space has been a long one, but Voorhees said that just seeing it filled with customers had made it worth it.
“To see that and to witness it for the last six weeks has been really awesome for us and our team. Makes us feel like we probably made the right move, we still see all of our familiar faces from the Ottawa location and the Wealthy location and now we’re able to introduce ourselves and meet a whole lot of new folks as well,” he said.
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