Michiana is home for Laura Tuthill. So when she and her husband, Howard, sold their distillery in Colorado to return to the area, they decided to create a new family-friendly distillery where some of the menu items would be dishes she most enjoyed as a child.
“My aunt Gayle took her macaroni and cheese to every potluck and all the family events—everyone knew it,” says Laura. “Her recipe is top secret, but we promised if she let us use it, we wouldn’t share.”
Other family recipes include their Autumn Squash and Creamy Roasted Tomato soups.
But it’s not all down-home, says Laura. She and head chef Joseph Lewellyn work together to come up with such best sellers as their decadent Piglet Candy: thick slabs of bacon slow- cooked in a sauce of spices and brown sugar.
And, of course, there are the spirits, all distilled onsite using corn from farms within a 100-mile radius.
“We’re a true grain-to-glass distillery,” says Howard, who creates his own small-batch recipes.
There is vodka made from sweet corn; white and amber rums; a rotating assortment of single-grain whiskeys, bourbons and ryes; the Fifth Horseman, a bourbon cream liquor; plus two Italian liqueurs, Lakeside Orangecello and Lovebug Limoncello. The latter is such a big seller that, when Howard makes a batch, it sells out by the end of the day.
“People line up at the door,” he says. “I doubled the batch and we still sold out.”
With rums aging in bourbon barrels and small batch whiskeys in American oak, Iron Shoe is already at capacity and will soon start storing offsite.
Howard designed a business plan for a craft distillery as his MBA thesis, which led him to leave his family’s grocery business and open, with Laura, the Whistling Hare Distillery in Westminster, CO.
When asked about their current distillery’s moniker, Laura has a story at the ready: Saint Dunstan, a 10th-century cleric, was the patron saint of farriers, people who shoe horses. When asked to shoe the devil’s hooves, Saint Dunstan did so by pounding on red-hot horseshoes. Ouch. In exchange for their removal, the devil promised to stay out of any place with a horseshoe over the door.
The name is fitting in other ways as well. Laura, a former college professor with a PhD in curriculum and education, coaches an equestrian team. She’s also an avid photographer, and her enlarged photos of farms and horses grace the walls of Iron Shoe. The exterior mural, covering the entire corner building, is an elaborate black, gray and white design honoring the long history of distilling. Granger, IN, artist Chris Stackowicz painted the oversize vintage stills and the words, written with a flourish, “Discovering the Spirit of Niles, Michigan,” plus, of course, horseshoes.
The couple have two young daughters, so they wanted a place where all ages are welcome. That’s why their menu features mocktails and milkshakes.
There’s also whimsy.
“Each week we offer eight infusions on taps that we post on social media,” says Laura, who oversees all the distillery’s social media. Those have included Apple Pie Rum, Bacon Jalapeño Vodka, Red Velvet Rum and S’mores Vodka.
Downtown Niles has had its struggles, but the Tuthills—who want to offer a destination not only for out-of-towners but also locals—like the feel of being part of the new and old businesses there.
And, of course, it’s good to be home.
3 N. 3rd St.
Niles, MI
269.262.0454
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