Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey is taking it back to the beginning.
The whiskey maker, which was founded in 2004 and has often been billed as the first new distillery to open in Colorado since Prohibition, plans to debut a new tasting room, Stranahan’s Whiskey Lodge, sometime this winter in Aspen, according to the company.
This “marks our first outpost beyond our Denver distillery and tasting room, and it is being designed to be the ideal environment for fans, already made and new, to experience our award-winning American single malt whiskies – and to say thank you to those who helped start it all,” the company, which is now owned by beverage giant Proximo Spirits, added.
Stranahan’s was co-founded by longtime Aspen resident, millionaire, physicist and entrepreneur George Stranahan and former volunteer Aspen firefighter Jess Graber. The story goes that Graber was part of a team that responded to a fire at Stranahan’s barn, and that the two got to know each other after that and hatched a plan to start their own whiskey distillery.
They did just that in 2004, at 2405 Blake St., in Denver, before buying their own building and moving the operation to their existing location at 200 S. Kalamath St. New Jersey-based Proximo bought the company in 2010; Stranahan himself passed away in 2021.
Details on the new location are slim, though the Aspen Daily News reports the bar will take over the former Aspen Pie Shop, at 307 S. Mill St., downtown. Stranahan’s is currently hiring a head chef to lead the creation of “alpine-inspired bites” from a kitchen onsite.
Stranahan’s will join another soon-to-open bar and restaurant at the MOLLIE Aspen hotel, which partnered with Gin & Luck, owners of Death & Co., to create the food and beverage program.
