by Andrew Morrison | A couple of weeks ago I poked my head into the 3,700 sqft, two-level construction site at 1672 Franklin Street in East Vancouver. It’s the future home of Resurrection Spirits, a brand new distillery project from Peckinpah restaurateur Tyson Reimer, polymath barman Brian Grant and defense lawyer Adrian Picard.

The plan is for a closed circle distillery making white dog, gin, rye whisky, several eau de vie products and possibly even absinthe (likely in that order) with the assistance of consulting distiller Laurent Lafuente. They’ll be sourcing local ingredients (eg. grain from Anita’s Organic Mill, Okanagan fruits, BC botanicals) and bottling on site. Grant estimates maximum annual production to be about 20,000 litres.

They’ve put in an application for a lounge designation, which would allow them to make full use of their 50 seat tasting room, which includes a long bar with a wide peekaboo into the production area with its sexy, whisky-helmeted 1,000L combo still. If all goes according to plan, customers will have their pick of beer and cocktails and the place will also be home to a variety of special events, not to mention retail sales.

Resurrection is going to look good. The high ceilings and mezzanine gap in the bar area give it a voluminous feel, and the branding is totally on point (I’m also digging the crystal decanter lights). Helping them with the wood details (eg. torched beam and maple-trimmed bar, three levels of cubed backbar shelving) is Nakedwood, Jaxon Howell’s design studio, which is conveniently located right next door.

They took possession of the place two years ago but had to wait 13 months for a development permit. They’re anticipating their final inspections for occupancy in the coming weeks and are looking at some point in May for a best case opening scenario. It may have been a long time coming, but it looks like it will be well worth the wait…

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