It’s always exciting to check out a new place and Downtown Detroit is having all sorts of great bars and restaurants pop-up. The most recent was the Detroit City Distillery.

The place is down a fun back street of Eastern Market called Riopelle. It has a distinct big city feel and other shops are around it with what looks like more to come. This could be a really fun corner of Detroit. The outside is rather nondescript  but you can find it by the giant whiskey barrel outside the tasting room.

The inside is spacious, dark and inviting. There are plenty of seats at the bar and around the room. The spartan decorations allow you to focus on the real art in the drinks. Hey look, it’s Graves! Hi Graves.

Lish, Graves and I tried near half of the menu sampling each others as we went. The drink featured above is the I Only Want You (full menu here). Their Bourbon, Italian Aperitif, “monk juice”, maraschino (liqueur?), house bitters and a lemon twist.  The drink was well balanced and had a bit of spice from the “monk juice” and the bitters. Bonus points if you can guess what the monk juice is. Hint: It’s green.

I purchased two bottles from DCD; one bourbon and one whiskey. I skipped the vodka and the gin isn’t due out for a bit still. The whiskey by itself is mild and easy drinking which will make it easy to mix. I think the price is on the high end ($55 each) but it’s local and I like what they are doing.

There are lots of upgrades and improvements on the horizon for them. I could see this place as a great location for parties and would be a lot of fun on summer market days.

Budmo!