Wander North Distillery

Cozy Distillery with friendly staff. Trivia Mafia on Wednesdays, a good spot to talk with friends since it’s not too noisy. If you are in the area, check it out. Had the Cucumber gin tonic. Pretty tasty

Drink local and drink up!
Wander North is chill and comfy. I love that when you come here, you can actually converse with your party. It’s nice to talk to and hear your friends, ya know? And there are lots of games to dive into too, as you dive into Wander North’s in-​house distilled craft cocktails.
I love everything from their whiskey sours and extra dirty martinis, to their seasonal specials. I just had a summer cocktail with lemonade and lavender and I was a very happy human. You can purchase their bottled spirits too — I have a perfect little bottle of «Winter’s Corn Whiskey» at home right now with, adorned with the owner’s mug on the label. Speaking of which, you will probably run into Brian Winter himself, as he’s usually there nursing his Lounge/​Distillery baby. Say hi; he’s one friendly and hilarious dude.
Other Wander North features: food trucks, private and free parking lot, Trivia Mafia on Wednesdays, occasional events («Adult Prom» and «Literature and Libations»), distillery tours, Flag Drop site, sweet merch, and they help fundraise for local non-​profits.
PS — Check out there site, you might see some familiar faces ;]

I love beer and wine (as you might have noticed all of my brewery and winery reviews), but sometimes it’s nice to change it up a bit and try some hard alcohol. I met up with 2 friends before a wedding to check this place out.
What I liked:
Good variety of drinks, I had a Nordest hag (their version of a Moscow mule) and a coffee drink (can’t remember the name). Both were really tasty!
The service was great, prices were good and they had a food truck outside.
What sets this place apart:
They aim to source all of their ingredients locally
Why not 5 stars?
I don’t know enough about hard alcohol to say this was the best, and I feel the interior could have been a little more welcoming.

My first visit to a distillery in the states, and I’m happy I started here. A laidback tasting room where it’s easy to carry on a conversation with your whole table. I came in for my first Unilocal Literati event, and the staff was so friendly and accommodating. They had a great seasonal cocktail menu in addition to the classics. I can’t recommend Bekki’s berries highly enough! Fruity and boozy but not over the top with sugary sweetness. Bekki knows her stuff!

Amazing! Came here late night with a groupon, our bartender was awesome, just the right amount of talkative without being intrusive. I wish I had gotten his name, the cocktails were perfectly made. I had the spicey and the nordeast nag, both perfectly prepared. My boyfriend had the dirty vodka martini and the special cucumber Collins with black pepper vodka, also delicious. We look forward to coming back!

Love Brian and the crew! He really puts effort into the cocktails and drink offerings. They try and respect people’s preferences

This is a great distillery that you may drive on by without even realizing it’s here. The staff is friendly, helpful, and passionate about the business… so nice to chat with them while they are mixing drinks and so knowledgeable too! I love the menu on chalkboards and the long tables… make some friends while you’re at it!
I tried the Gin Gimlet which was fantastic ($ 7 and well worth it) and had a couple sips of their Moscow Mule equivalent, made with fresh ginger so it was spicy enough to clear out those sinuses. If you’re not a ginger fan (no, Ginger Ale doesn’t count) this drink won’t be for you. Wide variety of vodka, gin, and whiskey drinks to choose from. They have some board games too, which would be fun to play while sipping on a few cocktails! They are open Wednesday-​Saturday as most distilleries are. Can’t wait to go back and try more on their menu! Cheers!

What a great place! And the staff just wants you to have fun, relax and enjoy. Love the chalkboard menus with space to write names of those you admire in the space to buy them a drink on the sly. Then there are the drinks. It is a distillery, so it’s the liquor that counts, and it is delicious! The vodka is nice and smooth, the gin had the perfect flare, and the whisky had just the right kick. The drink menu is fairly basic. Even with their own names you will recognize most of them. They do have a creative drink using coffee, and up their version of a Moscow Mule has a beautiful fresh ginger tang (so if Canada Dry ginger ale is your idea of ginger this might not be for you). Can’t wait to go for a trivia night or food truck night. Definitely more to explore.
And if you get a chance to tour the back, you will love the story!

Wander North is tucked away along the point where NE and SE meet in what I remember to be just a bunch of warehouses back when I lived on the SE side in college ten years ago. (Lawd, ten years.) It has a paved parking lot, and most nights it has a food truck. The night I was there the food truck canceled on them, which is pretty crappy.
The cocktail room/​tasting room is a little bit like the older sibling of Tattersall that has its life together, a kid or three, and is generally more into being chill AF. There’s no music playing semi-​loudly, it has proper tables and chairs you can sit down at without having to fight someone for, the cocktail menu is short and cheap, and there are board games in the corner for you to use.
The cocktails aren’t crazy inventive here, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you just want a good gimlet, you know? And to play some board games and hear your friends talking without shouting. I liked that bit best because I’m getting old (not really) and chill AF (yes really) as well.
Want some solid cocktails and a chill night out? This is your place.

Honestly, the drinks were pretty flavorless. I thought mine may have been made wrong so I tasted the drinks of the 3 others I went with. We were all disappointed and I end up not finishing mine. I had the cocktail with peppers and it tasted like jalapeño water. I recommend Tattersall if you want great cocktails and a cool spot to chill.

Met some friends here the other night. When I walked in I got vibe of someone’s garage that had a bar in it. The menu didn’t have any really inventive but I love a good executed classic so no problem. We tried their twist on a Moscow mule which was almost flavorless, a spicy vodka drink that tasted like jalapeño water and a Cosmo that tasted like flat cranberry juice.

Wander North and chill. If you are not a big beer drinker and want to get in on the local drinking scene come here. The cocktails are very good. The Nordeast Nag is their most popular drink, if you are a fan of ginger get this. The cocktail lounge is really plain but quiet. No food here but you can order in or they usually have a food truck. Trivia on Wednesdays is a blast. Drink Local!

A casual place for local spirits and good vibes. Had the pumpkin White Russian it hit the spot. The gimlet was spot on. Pizza food truck completed the stop. Food trucks are on sight most nights.

I was hesitant about heading to a distillery, because booze generally leads to poor life choices, but I think I’ll need to ignore that fact pattern to make my return someday!
Great booze (not that I’m a great critic, see general life strategy above), fresh juices, expert muddlers. Idk what else you could ask for.
Except parking. You could ask for parking. And you would find it, because they have that there.
I don’t know what I had to drink because this was where the night started getting a little hazy (#halloween), but it was so tasty! I’ll have to ask the boy.
The .seating area? (What do you call the «taproom» space in a distillery?) was GORGEOUS. Maybe I feel that way because I’ve been really into tables lately, but damn this place had some nice tables. I’ll post a picture, but you’ll have to ignore the posed Pikachu. What can I say? It was a long night.

All I had was the gin (gin and tonic) but I thought it was great. Talked with the owner and some of the staff and they were all very friendly and knowledgeable.

What a fantastic bar with amazing bartenders and a wonderful owner. Everyone is so friendly and the drinks are fantastic, I’m not sure why they are not extremely packed!!! All the drinks we had –spicey, ginger, coffee, and dirty martini were all wonderful, this is a must go to place

We came to Wander North Distillery on Saturday August 15^th to celebrate their one year anniversary. The place was not packed at all, which I loved. We showed up at 6:30pm and went up to the bar to see the menu. The bartender was super nice and engaging. He explained the steps as he was crafting our cocktails and it was lovely to hear all the delicious details!
The Southern Man featured their new whiskey they had been making. It also had their house made orange liqueur and a simple syrup. The presentation, color and taste were all outstanding.
The Nordeast Nag is Wander North’s take on the Moscow Mule. Containing vodka, ginger beer and lime, it was truly delicious.
The Cucumber Cilantro Gimlet was refreshing and bright, very citrusy and herbal. Containing cucumber infused vodka, mulled cilantro and a lime wedge. He poured it into a martini glass per my request which was amazing considering most places won’t do that.
We chatted with Brian the owner for a bit. Everyone was awesome and very welcoming. This is definitely a great spot to grab a craft cocktail. Northgate Brewery is right next door so if you’re into beer, stop over and have a pint. Overall, we will be returning to Wander North since it’s in a very cute little spot in the Mid-​City industrial area and it’s mostly en-​route to a lot of my usual places. Keep up the excellent work, it was truly a pleasure!

Went to this place the first week of its opening. Very pleased and impressed, and VERY glad that NE is going to be home to some distilleries to even out the playing field between local liquor and beer in the area.
Looks — the space is super bright and clean with music playing at a reasonable volume and lots of long wooden tables/​chairs. Looks great for big groups. Also have board games.
Drinks — everyone got something different and all were satisfied. Looks like they have a few classic options (like a gin and tonic or a dirty martini) and some rotating gin and vodka infusions and changing cocktails based on what those are. They had a jalapeño one brewing for their 2^nd week of business when we went and the owner offered to make me what he was planning but I opted for the citrusy vodka current option so I’d have an excuse to come back.
Prices — very reasonable for the quality. They were around $ 6 – 9 I think, and not tiny. They weren’t the fanciest cocktails (like the ones that have 12 super obscure ingredients), but the liquor itself is good and the ingredients they choose make sense and are refreshing.
There’s also a brewery really close if you want another place to go to. There’s also apparently a Living Social deal for this place? Will investigate.
They should try to hail some food trucks over to their lot — there’s lots of parking space to do so!

So hubby and I are super into craft brews, but craft distilleries are a new thing for us. But we’re totally into the «scene» of craft distilling!
I discovered Wander North at last month’s Unilocal event, where they provided the drinks. I checked out their website and read Johanna’s review, thought it all looked really cool, so I purchased the Living Social deal, which currently gets you +1 a tour, a free drink, and $ 15 towards a shirt (basically free) or drink tokens when the cocktail room (not tap room as I kept calling it!) opens. Just FYI it’s against state law for him to sell his liquor on site, so you can’t use the voucher towards a bottle!
We did the 1:30 tour on Saturday, and it was just us and 2 other couples. The owner/​distiller/​everything else Brian started us in the cocktail room and gave us a run down on his company’s history as well as some MN history regarding distilling, then took us back to the distilling room.
The distilling room is pretty cool. I wasn’t sure what to expect but, he’s basically got 3 tanks and 1 really awesome looking copper still. There’s a huge bag of corn (1 ton!) sitting in the corner and one little grinder that he uses to get it ready for the still. He explained all the steps from getting the raw corn to final product, how you change the process depending on what kind of liquor you’re making. A few mini taste tests (pinky in a mason jar) of the vodka at a few different ABV’s.
After that we went back to the cocktail room and he made us all drinks. My cosmo was lovely, and strong. I bought myself a racerback tank ($ 5 after the voucher) and we got a shot glass to bring home as well.
So I made the mistake of thinking he only did vodka, but that is not so! He has a vodka, and an apple jack, which he distilled using Sociable’s Free Wheeler cider, how cool is that? He has a gin in the works next I think. He’s planning on doing some other liquors distilled from local breweries beers, or aged in barrels that they’ve used, really cool stuff and awesome that they all work together like that.
The cocktail room should be opening sometime in May, so we’re really looking forward to getting back! Brian is a cool guy, he knows his stuff and was fun to talk to. He’s right in NE, something different and new in a sea of craft breweries!

I have been looking for more creative, inexpensive date/​night out activities. This endeavour landed me on Living Social and Groupon a lot. The boo and I like food and alcohol. The boo is also perfecting gallons upon gallons of hard cider in our basement. Basically, all signs were a go for a distillery tour.
Wander North has been distributing since July I think but their cocktail room is still under construction. The owner Ben is doing like 6 Living Social tours a weekend to start getting some buzz going. The deal includes an informational tour, two cocktails, a shot glass, and $ 15 of credit per couple
Last night, the boo and I did the tour with 6 strangers. The distillery is in the same building as NorthGate Brewery and the building industrial look made it a bit difficult to find at first; however, it seems like drinking in former warehouses is all the rage in NE anyways. The distillery also doesn’t have much of a sign but the interior is inviting with calming grey walls and recycled barn wood on the bar and table tops.
Brian is super nice and very knowledgeable. His vodka has a smooth, creamy taste. It smells malty. It’s not like any vodka I’ve tasted before. The mixed drinks were delicious too. I’m excited for the cocktail room to open soon! Ben said that he would start doing more infused vodka cocktails (yes, please!) and adding different drinks every couple weeks.