A brewpub, but make it liquor: Take Flight Spirits lifts off in Skokie

Brewpubs have become cornerstones of the nation’s vast beer landscape, places where the beer made on site is largely, if not entirely, consumed in the same place it’s made. Unlike production breweries, the model is not about getting onto store shelves or on tap at bars — it’s about cultivating unique experiences.

Take Flight Spirits, which opens this month in downtown Skokie, is taking its cue from the brewpub model, charting a course rare in the spirits industry: the distillery pub.

Owned and operated by the married team of Carrie and Andrew Cole — she’s the owner, he’s the distiller — Take Flight is taking off with several familiar spirits, including rum, gin and whiskey. But the Coles are focusing on small and frequent batches, with few immediate plans to sell their spirits beyond 8038 Lincoln Ave.

The priority, Andrew Cole said, is cultivating “guest experience, rather than building a brand.” Such talk would be heresy at many new distilleries, where the brand is the entire point.

But at Take Flight, “We wanted to focus on the people coming to interact with us,” he said.

The Coles would like their spirits to reach a few nearby restaurants for cocktail-making purposes, but for at least the first couple of years, they’re content to keep things small.

“For us, honestly, the goal is to be a family business,” Carrie Cole said. “The goal isn’t to get into Binny’s tomorrow. It’s to make products we’re proud of and share them with a community we’re very fond of.”

Rather than a stately distillery packed with rows of barrels aging whiskey, Take Flight is more of a charming and breezy operation, equipment packed into the production space behind the tasting room. Rather than age spirits in the classic 53-gallon oak barrel, the Coles are using 5- and 10-gallon barrels sourced from Crozehead Cooperage, in suburban Monee, which allow for faster aging and experimentation.

[ Judson & Moore distillery opens after a decade of planning — and a fire, the pandemic and an untimely death ]

Take Flight also serves a trim roster of beers, wines and spirits from other distilleries — including the legendarily bitter Jeppson’s Malort, owned by CH Distillery in Pilsen — to appeal to a broad audience. Take Flight even spikes milkshakes from the bakery two doors down, Kneads & Wants Artisan Bakery and Cafe, with a shot of rum or gin on Thursday nights.

The goal, the Coles said, is simply to experiment, have fun and become a part of Skokie’s downtown revitalization, which includes a newly opened 12-story apartment building and the 2020 arrival of Sketchbook Brewing. The village gave the Coles nearly $100,000 in tax money to rehabilitate a long-time flower shop.

Andrew Cole is a first-time professional distiller, and not above getting tips from YouTube videos as he maintains his day job in human resources. The penchant for experimentation comes across in subtle ways, such as Take Flight’s house gin, Sasha, which is redistilled from Take Flight’s rum and made with a contemporary bent, featuring juniper, cardamom, lavender, fresh orange peel and fresh grapefruit peel. Andrew Cole called it “gin for people who think they don’t like gin.”

It’s featured in several cocktails, including a gimlet ($10) and the Bee’s Knees ($10). The menu will turn over frequently based on the latest spirits. On the way are Take Flight’s first whiskeys, including a bourbon, a malt whiskey and an Irish-style.

There are also more overt experiments, such as spirits distilled from Revolution Brewing’s Belgian pale ale A Little Crazy and More Brewing’s Mozie, a hazy IPA. Both beers were about to turn out of code, (aging beyond its sell date), when the Coles snapped them up to give them second lives as spirits.

The result is Full On Crazy ($12), made with the A Little Crazy spirit, plus housemade grapefruit juice, simple syrup and club soda. It’s a jarringly unique cocktail with the first sip: lightly sweet and brightly refreshing, but earthy and floral with a touch of spice poking through from the beer’s hops. Most important, it works. But Andrew Cole took no umbrage at a swift reaction of, “Oh that’s weird” after a first sip.

“It’s very strange,” he agreed. “The best compliment I got was it tastes like Malort if Malort was good.”

Spirits are served as straight pours and in flights, but the cocktails, so far, are Take Flight’s appeal. The opening list includes ambitious experiments such as Full On Crazy and a rum-based Old-Fashioned ($12) that hits a welcome intersection of sweet, boozy and nutty. It can get a highly recommended extra wrinkle with smoke in the glass from a lighter put to a barrel stave.

The menu also features basic cocktails many distilleries wouldn’t bother with, such as a gin martini ($10) or a Cuba Libre ($8) — essentially rum and Coke with lime.

The Coles said they want to appeal to a broad range of customers while finding their way in a second career expedited by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We want to play and experiment,” Andrew Cole said. “We don’t want to put on airs that we know everything we’re doing and everything is perfect.”

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Carrie Cole called Take Flight the couple’s “pandemic baby.” They weighed such a move before the pandemic — or maybe opening a brewery or a bar — but as happened for so many others, the pandemic reordered their priorities and sped up vague plans. Carrie Cole quit her job in the running industry and plunged into the mechanics of opening a distillery.

“My mental health is a lot better since focusing on this,” Carrie Cole said. “I don’t know if I would have been in same headspace if pandemic hadn’t happened.”

The Coles are Wilmette residents who said they looked to open in that suburb or in adjacent Glenview before settling in Skokie, in part because of the village’s interest in luring the business.

Take Flight began distilling in March and is slowly adding touches to its tasting room, including plans for art on the walls, bookshelves and an electric fireplace. Cocktails are the backbone of the operation, but they also sell bottles of white rum ($30) and gin ($35) to go.

“We want to work with people in our neighborhood,” Carrie Cole said. “Hopefully we’re filling a need.”

jbnoel@chicagotribune.com

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