Ludlow, Kentucky's steampunk spirit-maker Second Sight is expanding its footprint. The craft distillery has announced it is taking over the space adjacent to theirs to make more room for their small-batch rums, Kentucky bourbon and visitor experience. The expansion is slated to be open by April 2019 and the current space will be open during renovations.
Helmed by co-owners Rick Couch and Carus Waggoner, Second Sight Spirits has been in operation since 2014 and is using grant funding from Duke Energy and Catalytic Fund to grow.
“Expanding into a new space will allow us to hold more visitors; both locally and those on the B-line and Kentucky Craft Trail, as well as serve cocktails in a lounge setting and feature a stage area for events," said Waggoner in a press release.
The two friends met in high school in Hebron in the ’90s and returned to Northern Kentucky in late 2011. Couch, a mechanical engineer, and Waggoner, an industrial designer, had been in Las Vegas working on Cirque du Soleil shows. Their experiences with props and sets started in their formative days with the Cincinnati Ballet on The Nutcracker and has proved fruitful when it comes to their passion: distilling premium alcohol. Their pot still looks a bit like an ominous fortune-telling robot, festooned with a cooper turban and crystal-ball condenser. And it greets visitors to the distillery from underneath fringed drapery — a contraption straight from the mind of Jules Verne.
With the spirit of carnival barkers, the duo has tapped creative Jason Curtis to design the expanded space. "Jason’s strength is in not only creating unique spaces, but experiences; as he’s designed national amusement parks, Rock & Roll and theater touring shows and parades — locally he’s worked with King’s Island Halloween Haunt as well,” Waggoner says.
The new space will hold 94 guests and allow Second Sight to host private events and gatherings.
Second Sight Spirits will be located at 301 a and b Elm St., Ludlow. More info: secondsightspirits.com.
