Kings County Distillery: the oldest in New York, founded in 2010

When Europeans move to America, their most common refrain is that the place has no history – and nowhere is this more apparent at somewhere like Kings County Distillery. Perched in the northernmost tip of Brooklyn at the Navy Yard, this olde-worlde style producer of bourbon, rye and other speciality whiskeys is the oldest distillery in New York City, founded in 2010.

Kings County is the official name for the county of Brooklyn (the official names of NYC’s five boroughs – Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx – when written as counties seem to only be there to trip up unknowing outsiders, especially considering Manhattan’s county name is New York. Technically, people living in the Lower East Side or Greenwich Village could therefore say their address, written inclusive of county, city and state, was New York, New York, New York.) To give it a proper sense of space and time, then, the distillery has chosen to use Brooklyn’s big-boy name. And this is a bar-cum-events space that takes itself seriously, with daily tours of the distillery machinery and minimalist bottles of whiskey sold in the gift shop that set out the alcoholic volume and tasting notes of each bottle in typewriter-style script.

Yet this isn’t just a bar for hardcore whiskey enthusiasts; far from it. Close to the hipster havens of Greenpoint and Williamsburg but separated from them by a dense thicket of intimidating roads, Kings County Distillery is inaccessible enough to have a dedicated crowd but accessible enough to be full at all times. And while dark peated whiskey is sipped by flat-capped men eager to impress each other with facts about the colonial era at the solid wood corner tables of the bar, there is also a lot to be said for the offerings made with the whiskey-curious – rather than the evangelicals – in mind.

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A preferrer of tequila myself, I was first taken to Kings County Distillery by a friend who was keen to check it out before making it the setting of an important first date. There, I was surprised by the adventurous menu. Among the “barrel-strength bourbon”, “bottled-in-bonds” and “empire rye” were some – whisper it – slightly more fun options. It helps that in the US “moonshine” isn’t a term that immediately conjures up prisoners playing around with mouldy bits of bread in U-bends or teenagers reported as going blind in local papers; instead, it is offered as a friendly alternative to its stronger-tasting sisters. Hence, you can find a bottle of (or a cocktail made from) “jalapeno grapefruit moonshine”, a clear spirit made from 80 per cent New York organic corn and 20 per cent malted barley, double-distilled and infused with grapefruit peel and crushed jalapeno peppers. Hot, bitter and with a good kick, it makes for an excellent base for the distillery bar’s whiskey margaritas, something that elsewhere might make someone raise an eyebrow but here seems as natural as an old fashioned.

With its exposed brickwork, its unpretentious bar staff and its just-dark-enough corners, Kings County Distillery has chilled-out enough vibes that you can turn up for a date or with your mum. Cosy in the winter months, it has a killer back yard in the summer, populated with picnic tables, that doesn’t fill up by 11am in the style of other nearby establishments. It’s off the beaten path but it isn’t isolated, and it deserves a place on any Brooklyn visitor’s list.