Nine years after the idea was first discussed, Savannah’s got a shiny new restaurant sitting on its front porch. The Old Savannah Distillery opens for keeps on Monday, adding roughly 14 thousand square feet of restaurant/special event/tasting room space to the MLK Corridor.

This place is massive.

We first told you about it some months ago. The project took forever, yes, because construction takes time, but the ideas and thought put into what this will offer visitors to Savannah is pretty remarkable.

The front of the restaurant faces the Savannah Civic Center on Montgomery Street between Liberty and Ogelthorpe. The back features a huge gift shop, tasting area and package shop to take home some of the spirits they are selling…..not distilling.

It is very important to note that while, yes, it is called the Old Savannah Distillery, there is no creation happening on the property. The spirits they offer here (in a wide variety of flavors) is being made by St Augustine Distillery down the road in Florida.

The building is essentially divided into 3 areas. Restaurant/Tasting area and gift shop/upstairs area that they are callilng a Speakeasy. There are 3 bars, including the Blue Bar which sits right up front in the restaurant.

Tastings can be purchased as a package or part of a trolley tour. The facility is owned by Old Town Trolleys. There’s a stop right out back. During the week, cocktail classes are running upstairs once an hour. Visitors can take the tour, get off, take a cocktail class, then get right back on the trolley tour to see the rest of downtown.

So what about the food?

I did not get to eat anything when I stuck my head in on Friday to see the finished product, but I did overhear some folks saying they had enjoyed the fried chicken and the ribeye. I saw a burger go by that looked pretty sexy. I’m looking forward to digging in soon. I will, of course, share any finds with you.

In the meantime, you get to enjoy it for yourself if you’d like beginning Monday. For those of you trying to place exactly where this is located…it is not the former Distillery that facee Liberty Street at MLK that closed some years ago. It is a ‘shorter’ converted warehouse right behind it. It is all, however, part of the same complex. See a quick video tour above.

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