Few Spirits

Took the tour and guided tasting. Guide was very friendly and knowledgeable and the stock was delicious! Not the easiest place to spot, but I think that adds to the ambiance.

For $ 10 you get to taste their entire lineup of whiskey’s and gin, a tour of the albeit small brewing facilities, a brief their history along with the prohibition movement in Evanston, all wrapped in a fun, funny and educational hour to hour and a half visit.
If there was a ever an official trolley tour of Evanston this would be a definite stop!

Yes, Few Spirits is that brick building at the end of the alley/​driveway, and in that building you’ll find great spirits, informative tours, very knowledgeable staff (if you ask them questions, the answers can even be borderline too technical), and good service.

Had a blast on our tour. We got a little history, a little brewing info, and some delicious samples. Sadly, you don’t walk away with anything other than smiles and a nice buzz, unless you succumb like we did and buy something to take home. Loved it.

Tried the Evanston Few Spirits Breakfest Gin and Anguish and Regret. This distillery is taking favor up a notch and Evanston is lucky to have them! I am within walking distance and Friday Night Events are Great!

I came to Few for their distillery tour. As others note, the distillery is hard to find. If not for a small chalkboard sign strategically placed at the front of the alley on Chicago, I know we never would have found it.
For $ 10, you get about an hour and half tour that details out Few’s history, the spirit making process, a view of the stills, and a sample of everything they make. The tour is worth the $ 10. However, I had a free VIP tour pass that I had gotten a while back — maybe 2 years ago. When I went to make reservations online, I saw you had to enter your credit card info and pay for your tour tickets online to reserve a spot on the tour. The free tour voucher said to email to schedule your tour, so my husband did. He received a quick response, and had no trouble booking our tour of choice (Saturday at 2pm). When we arrived with our vouchers, our tour guide smiled, took them without question, and complemented us on the good condition of the vouchers 2 years after receiving them.
The history portion of the tour was interesting. Our guide talked about how Evanston was dry after the Prohibition and how the distillery (and its name) came to be. We then headed in the back of the place, where they make their liquor. They had a very tall still, which is different from what I saw on any other distillery tour. Our guide, as well as the other employees back there, were very personable and were able to answer any question they were asked. One of the stills had liquor coming out of it into a bucket, and we were encouraged to have a small taste of it. Neat.
The final portion of the tour was the tasting. We tasted everything from gin to whiskey. We were even able to try their limited release — Breakfast Gin — which was released just a week earlier. They took tea leaves and other herbs/​spices, and steeped it in gin. It was greta and very unique. We ended up taking a bottle home.
I really enjoyed our time at Few and would encourage anyone who asked to go on their tour.

Worth a visit if you live in the area, but I prefer Koval (the tour and the whiskey). The tour is pretty short, but for $ 10, you do get to try a lot of their spirits. I should have done this a year ago before buying a bottle of their American gin, which I ended up really disliking and had to give away.

I took my dad here for a late Christmas gift to check out the distillery and try some spirits. The place is very small but does a lot. I liked Elise, the tour guide. She was no nonsense but knew her sh*t. I hadn’t really been to a distillery before (winery, brewery yes, distillery no). I learned all about the heads, hearts, and tails, the devil’s cut, and the angel’s share. It was really interesting. The best part was trying all of the booze at the end. I ended up purchasing the barrel aged gin (and I’m enjoying it right now on this lovely winter eve). My dad got the rye because he liked the sweeter nature of it. I’d go back. For $ 10 you learn all about the whiskey making process, get to try out their 5 – 6 products, and purchase some for home. It’s a little pricey but they’re local and top notch so it’s worth it!

I really enjoyed touring FEW Spirits. They are located down an alley so I walked by it 5 times before I broke down and called for directions. The lady who took my call was very polite… probably not the first time she’s received that inquiry.
This was one of my favorite distillery tours I’ve been on. Our tour guide and one of the FEW master distillers, Mark, was great. He explained the origins of FEW brand and walked us through the process of how their product is made.
I’m happy FEW is something local and worth bragging rights as far as local distilleries go. If you have a chance, definitely check it out.

Besides the factual uniqueness of FEW (first distillery in Evanston, down a small alley to get to its entrance) — this place is just so full of character and so neat. They are down to earth, knowledgable — and truly a craft distillery. Their $ 10 tour is SO worth it. You get to taste everything they have on the market — unlike many stingy tours I’ve been on at other distilleries/​breweries across the world.
Double plus bonus: yummy Greek food across the street if you’re hungry after, Cross Rhodes.

I gotta be honest. When i hear bourbon i think Kentucky, not Illinois. Though the area is becoming a bed for eat and drink so it’s no surprise artisan spirits would happen. Had a good tasting and though it’s not Pappy level, it’s still a good way to liquor up

FEW Spirits is a fun way to spend an hour on a Saturday. The tour is pretty short (small place), the info is pretty basic, and it costs 10 $ but it’s worth it. Tour guide was really knowledgable about whiskey/​bourbon/​Chicago history and she was super upbeat and friendly. Willing to answer all our questions. Tasting at the end is generous. The spirits are super unique, especially the gins. All around fun times. I’m glad to know about FEW and will certainly purchase a bottle or two. Actually had a G and T with FEW gin at a bar around the corner after the tour. Side note: dope to have such a sharp female guide in an industry so dominated by men! Get it, GURL!

What an absolutely cool little place! My wife and another couple went for a tour and tasting. Love the barrel aged gin and the bourbon. Also love the fact that it’s off the beaten path in a short little alley. Gives it that Speakeasy feel. Cool. Highly recommend it.

Most importantly — they make a tremendous product. Perhaps the best whisky I’ve ever had. I will continue to buy it from Whole Foods, etc.
However, the people that man the station are insufferable punks. They truly act like Few is God’s gift to Evanston. «On the very streets that once fostered the ideas of the Temperance movement, FEW Spirits has established the city’s first licensed distillery.» Yup, they named the operation (FEW stands for Frances Elizabeth Willard) to mock the movement. Can’t get more condescending than that.
I like what they bring to the city and really really love their product, but every time I have called or stopped in, I’ve been greeted with a «we walk on water» attitude. This isn’t Paris, or even New York. Please hire some humble and friendly staffers that actually seem honored to have guests and the opportunity to pursue their craft.

I’ll agree with the lion’s share of reviews on the ‘Yay for local’ sentiments, but as far as the tour and tasting goes… it gets a ‘super meh’ from me.
Maybe if FEW Spirits were the only distillery tour I’d ever gone on I’d have been more impressed, but it was not the first, nor the last… in fact we’d actually planned an entire day of distillery tours on the day we went to FEW, and this one was far and away the least impressive, most sales-​y, and had the poorest organization, sadly.
The tour costs $ 10 (pretty standard), which you’ll wait in a long line after the tour to pay. You can’t pay online at this time. On our visit, the wait in line to pay for the tour lasted as long, if not longer, than the actual hour-​long tour. Obviously not ideal.
You can reserve space on the tour online (though you can’t pay that way) but it seems like you can also just walk in and do whatever you like since they didn’t check names or anything. I found this mildly annoying as we’d wanted to reserve 2 more spaces for the tour a week earlier, but online told us there were no more spaces available. I’d emailed the info email they provided and never heard back, so the 2 other members of our group did not come to this part of our distillery day. Online, they make it seem as if the tour is capped at around 20, but our touring group had close to 35… in fact, they ran out of glassware and a portion of the tour was spent with people rinsing makeshift tasting-​ware.
Given the size of the group, and inability to move about and get closer to the tour guide, you basically needed to know how to read lips in order to decipher anything being said on the tour. I probably took in a quarter of what our guide had said and spent the rest of the time wanting to push and shove for minimal personal breathing space and trying to hear anything above the couple next us who was busy taking advantage of the close quarters by goose-​ing each other and giggling throughout the whole thing. I was both annoyed and a tad jealous, as it was quite obvious that they were having exponentially more fun than anyone else on the tour.
When enough mini cups were rounded up to do the tasting, we spent the first half basically having all their merchandise that was for sale (posters, copius novelty items with their logo, and of course, their product) pointed out to us, and then the remaining 10 – 12 minutes was the tasting, which prior to that I would’ve thought was going to be the most exciting part, only it was the part the tour guide seemed to be absolutely over the group… who, by the way asked absolutely ZERO questions during the tour, so I’m not really sure what set him off. If I had to guess, I’d say it was because he was the only one working and probably knew he’d be spending the next hour standing there, checking out everyone out.
As for their product, I think they do a nice job. I’m not a great judge of spirits on their own, I’d much prefer to taste them in a fine example of a cocktail, but that pretty much goes against the guidelines for spirits or any kind of purist. I will say that we learned things at the following two distilleries that negated some of the tidbits we learned here and mentally had everyone in our group docking them some points on quality, but I do love their idea and look and that they’ve incorporated so many local-​isms into their brand, labels, story, etc.
So while I’d much rather have spent my time at a bar and putting my $ 10 towards a real-​deal drink that contained their product, I do think this FEW Spirits is one to watch and that they’ll have no problems growing and expanding based on what I’ve seen so far, plus I’m sure Evanstonians (?) are full of pride and happy to support this homegrown brand.

I was so excited to go for the Few Friday celebration to introduce their new single malt whiskey. I found out about it on Facebook and asked my dad if he wanted to come with me. Since he’s such a huge single malt scotch fan, I thought it would be fun for him to experience something a bit different. He was really excited to try it out and support a new local business.
It was a rainy night, but the Jerk food truck was parked outside and we were both pumped to make this a fun night together. We walked in and it was quite crowded… Good sign, I guess, but when it took us 15 minutes to finally get to the «bar» we were feeling a bit claustrophobic. When we finally made it to the front, we were somewhat greeted by two people that didn’t seem too excited to have new customers. My dad isn’t a cocktail man, so he just wanted to try out the spirits available… I had one of their specialty drinks made with their new single malt.
Neither of us were very impressed. Dad had issues with the fact that their whiskeys were overly sweet… I didn’t really like the taste of the cocktail (which I can’t remember the name of). However, my dad wanted so much to support the local company and round out his liquor cabinet that he purchased a bottle of their rye (I honestly still think it was because he felt bullied into it), a $ 48 investment.
All of this would seem like an experience that would leave the average reader saying, «Ok, none of this seems all that bad… What’s your deal?». But I’m walking away quite annoyed. This is a new distillery that has all of Evanston excited because of what they stand for… A company that is throwing Evanston’s temperate history in its face and is bringing in a well-​needed type of business to the area.
But one, they’re not giving us a product that’s really all that good. And two, the ambiance of the place was ridiculously hipster and made people that wanted to support the new venture feel like they were imposing when all they (we) wanted was to try what they had to offer. My poor 70-​year old dad felt bad having to ask if he could try their bourbon because when he asked to try their rye (the second spirit he asked to try after the single malt) the «bartender» gave him a look and attitude that could have burned both of us.
I understand that a company may try to cater to certain markets but when you burn people that may be loyal customers, or at least people that may recommend your business to others, you lose something that could catapult you further.
I urge Few to remember that they’re a new company and building lasting relationships with their neighbors is what will burgeon their business… Regardless of their age. I still feel embarrassed for bringing my dad here, and I’m not sure I will be trying their products again anytime soon.

So I hosted a small event there a few weeks back and I’m still thinking about their awesome barrel aged spirits. Marcus was a very knowledgeable and entertaining host that walked us through their processes and answered all our questions.
The best part of the tour? The tasting. I haven’t had Gin in awhile and they definitely didn’t disappoint. Also I’m always open to finding new Whiskey Bourbon to try out and after trying their Whiskey Bourbon this is definitely now on my list.

Hurrah for local craft distillers!
Hurrah for local craft distillers with outstanding product!
Hurrah for local craft distillers with outstanding product in a famously formerly dry town!
They besides outstanding product, they have great employees conducting tours, tastings, and everyday business here. Marcus is passionate, earnest, and expert, and Winston… well, Winston is a delight and a treasure. He is a former scotch whisky brand ambassador and a current silver-​tongued devil. He is one of those great talkers who seem to exist only in fiction, with a supernatural life-​of-​the-​party quality that is absolutely priceless whether in large groups or one-​on-​one. His knowledge and references are broad and deep, his speech is rapid and heavily Welsh-​accented, and every sentence is a gem of mischievous humor or fascinating information.
As great as the staff are, the spirits are the true stars at Few. I have tasted all six in their regular lineup: white whisky, gin, American gin, barrel-​aged gin, bourbon, and rye. The best product also happened to be the most interesting – the barrel-​aged gin. This was a first for me and I instantly knew that I must buy a bottle of this stuff for summer sipping. Marcus and Winston described it as a cross between gin and whisky, which is apt. My second-​favorite was the rye, which I had planned to purchase eventually anyway, but now I know that, when fall comes and I’m ready for brown liquors again, Few will be my first stop.
PS. Few also sells some great merchandise, much of it featuring their cool logos which share a motif of artwork inspired by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

Love them for many reasons:
1) Tasty spirits. Barrel-​aged gin is my favorite. Until I went here I didn’t even know that was a thing. Now I’m sold.
2) The dudes that work there are awesome. They’re personable, remember their customers, and are really knowledgeable and helpful.
3) They do tours, and they often put out calls for community volunteers to help bottle/​label their products. How many people can say they helped bottled whiskey? Not many. It’s awesome.
4) They have a solid social media presence and interact with their customers constantly on Facebook.
5) The sell cool products (in addition to their liquor) — I need to go get one of their FEW flasks.
6) They’re a local business and the first distillery in a formerly dry town, and they named their company after one of the biggest prohibition supporters ever. Love the irony.

The tour is not very extensive but Paul is the man! Awesome guy. Kudos to him for what he has built and continues to build.
Cool information and great color from the owner/​master distiller/​janitor himself. Tastings afterwards are interesting (whiskey, gin, bourbon).