December 10, 2025 • 25 mins
Tony Mazzarini turned his entrepreneurial vision toward Pittsburgh’s heritage by transforming a 19th-century rickhouse into The Distillery Complex — a six-story, multi-use landmark that is home to Big Spring Spirits’ distillery, tasting room and bottle shop, a rooftop bar with panoramic city views, a cigar lounge, event spaces and more. Under his leadership, the project blends historic preservation with modern hospitality, reviving a long-dormant pre-Prohibition whiskey site and offering a new destination for craft spirits. It’s a project that honors the past, serves the present — and pours the future.
https://www.thedistillerycomplex.com/
https://www.bigspringspirits.com/
https://www.thedistillerycomplex.com/
https://www.bigspringspirits.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
And welcome in. This is the CEOs Used to Know podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Hert. Well, let's say hello to
Tony mazarinia Big Spring Spirits. Thank you for joining me,
Thank you for having me so tell us everything we
need to know about your distillery.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We have just opened our second headquarters here in Pittsburgh
along the riverfront in the South Shore. The distillery complex
is the home of Big Spring Spirits here in Pittsburgh
and inside our complex we serve and delight our customers
with so many different great creations of the forty different
products we make, and we host it throughout our different venues.
(00:37):
Our rooftop bar called the Finch, our Reserve, riverside events space,
our drawing room, cigar Lounge, and our Big Spirits Big
Spring Spirits Bottle shop on the first floor in the
McKean Market.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
What spirits do you specialize in?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We have tremendous whiskey that has been aged for at
least a minimum of five years in White Oak, and
our whiskeys are fantastic. They've won gold label awards. We
also make tremendous vodka gin, but a great variety of
different products throughout. But I would say. Our whiskeys are
our premier, our premier line. The vodkas are second, and
(01:14):
everything tastes delicious wait till you try it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Well, I'm glad that whiskey is coming back here in
downtown Pittsburgh because Pittsburgh was known as the whiskey capital
of America for a long time. I know Tennessee has
taken the banner. Now let's bring that back because we
used to specialize in whiskey right here in the in
Western Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
No doubt about it, John that the Rye Whiskey Distillery
was one of the largest industries in the United States
when it was first founded, and it all ended up
in Tennessee because of the taxes that the federal government
put on the Western Rye Distillery, right, and so they
ended up moving down into Tennessee to escape the taxation.
But yeah, it's it's it's exciting to be back here
(01:58):
with our product, with a great story to tell and
a great quality product to deliver.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Well, not only do you have a product, you have
a complex and so tell us more. Let's dig in
deeper about the complex and everything that is what you
guys are doing.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So my first go round in life. I was a
real estate developer. I found this building sitting there along
the riverfront in Pittsburgh that was basically left for dead.
It was an unbelievably beautiful structure when I walked into
it the first time I saw it. All wood beam,
all wood floors, all wood columns, and just brick holding
(02:34):
this building up that's been there for over one hundred
and seventy years. Built back in the eighteen fifties for
a company called Joseph Finch Rye Whiskey Distillery. The Finch
group stayed in Pittsburgh for almost one hundred years distilling
up until the Prohibition, and then they moved up river.
But the building itself was just amazing to me, and
(02:55):
I said to myself, let's go find somehow, some way
to tell this story again. A long journey along the way,
several architects involved, we decided to keep and restore this
one hundred and seventy year old building. We end up
finding the partner that we eventually took in and made
part of our development, Big Spring Spirits and out in
(03:18):
Center County, but brought them into the fold and the
building now houses our manufacturing second facility for Big Spring spirits,
and a host of other great entertainment places. The rooftop
bar is an amazing view of the city unlike you've
ever seen before. It's you know, just a really When
(03:39):
people walk out onto the sixth floor deck and look out,
they're just wow, this is like incredible. The Smithfield Street Bridge,
the T Bridge, and the Liberty Bridge are basically the
frame around our view. And then you know, we have
a tremendous bar and restaurant in there that serves wonderful,
(03:59):
shareable food. You're not going to come to our facility
and maybe order a flame andgnoon, but you will certainly
get really high quality, great food that's very shareable and
very bar like. And then the cocktails is really what
we specialize in. Our specialty cocktails are just tremendous. Our
mixologists do a tremendous job of making really cool stuff
(04:20):
out of our products and presenting it in a really
beautiful fashion. So the cocktails are special for our guests.
And then we see about one hundred and twenty people
inside the space all year round. When people think of
our Finch Bar and Restaurant as an outdoor great space,
it is. It's a great rooftop but we also have
one hundred seats inside all winter long for our guests
(04:43):
to enjoy that are completely undercover. The view is still
tremendous from inside, just as much as it is outside.
So I really want people to know that that Finch
is open all year round and it's available for great dining.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
And how many days a week are you open?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
We're open six days a week Tuesday through Sunday hours
or three pm till close Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
We stay open and open a little earlier. We open
around noon, so you know, open a little earlier on
the weekends. We do serve lunch on the weekends as
well as dinner. And the menu is tremendous.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, I was going to ask you, what can you
give us an idea what the menu is like?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Sure? So we have a great version of our own
pizza on the menu. It's called Pitzelas and it's really
made on more of a flat bread than it is
a pizza crust. We have really good crab cakes, we
have really good meatballs. We have a really nice salad.
We've we've done a seasonal menu. We've only been opened
(05:40):
since July twenty eighth, but we've done two seasonal menus already,
so we like to mix it up as well, depending
on the time of year and what's out there right
now as far as fresh food and fresh fruit. But yeah,
we we have some really great shareble stuff. Our number one,
I would say, our number one served thing on the
menu is our large pretzel. Our large pretzel is like
(06:03):
just tremendous, and we can do it two ways. We
do it as a charcoutery pretzel or just a regular
great pretzel with some tremendous mustard and stuff. But yeah,
that's when people see it and they eat it, They're like, oh,
this is the best thing I've ever eaten in my life.
But yeah, So theinch, the Finch is the rooftop. It's
the crown of the building. It's also named as the
throwback to the original occupants of our space. Now, when
(06:27):
I talk about this, imagine the one hundred and seventy
year old buildings still existing. But then the part of
the building that has really taken on the tremendous views
are all brand new facilities. I built a you know,
our team built a six story addition to one hundred
and seventy year old building, and so we basically doubled
(06:47):
the size of the original structure and really put modern
architecture to work to encompass the beautiful views that we have.
So hats off to the guys that helped me design
it and build it. But yeah, the floor below, which
a lot of times ties into the rooftop is called
the Reserve Event space. So the reserve again floor to
(07:11):
ceiling windows that people can just host an event for,
whether it be your wedding, a corporate event. You know,
we had the South Short Chamber of Commerce down there
the other day. They had a big event. But there's
so many things going on in this city that you
until you get into the business, you have no idea
how many events there are. But we've been hosting. We
(07:32):
hosted the Charlie Batch Foundation with a tremendous event. We've
had a night called Nashville Night in the building which
we had multiple different bands in the building and enjoyed
having a different type of venue being used for different
type of music. But yeah, the riverside is terrific. And
then we also have the old side of the event
(07:53):
space called the McKean side. That's the street that runs
in front of us off of Parallels Carson Street. Uh,
and so we have that feel in that room is
really historic. You know, you go in there, you still
see the old brick and and that piece of it
people really like as well. So a lot of times
people are using the McKean side as the cocktail reception,
(08:13):
moving over to the riverside for the actual sit down, dinner,
dancing or whatever. But yeah, so a tremendous events based
on Level five. Level four is a cigar club called
the Drawing Room. Cigars have come back so much in
Pittsburgh and and and in the country and in the
world over the last twenty years.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And if you're going to have a whiskey, you got
to have a cigar.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, that was the thing John when I when I
started thinking about how to program this building and why
we were going to do what we were going to do,
we just thought about, Okay, what is everything else that
goes with great whiskies, great great spirits in general, and
cigars came naturally to mind. I'm going to have a
cigar enthusiast and and so the Drawing Room is a
(09:00):
member's driven cigar lounge. But are we also have allocated
a space for Johnny off the Street to come in
and enjoy a cigar, buy out of our humidor and
sit down and enjoy it. But the primary section of
what we're really emphasizing is exclusivity to our members. A
really beautiful place to take in the view, make some
(09:21):
great friends, have some great conversations, do some business, and
it's one of a kind. I've been in cigar lounges
all over the world and ours is unique and one
of the in my opinion, one of the nicest I've
ever seen. So the drawing room is an awesome place
if you're into the cigar scene. It's also very surprising
(09:42):
how many women come into our cigar lounge. I'm really
I'm really excited the fact that women have embraced cigars
and there's so many different levels of cigar smoking that
we're seeing a lot of the Pittsburgh ladies coming into
the Scars Club. So we're enjoying that. And then so
that's floor for or Floors three and two are undeveloped
(10:02):
in the building, so we're still testing concepts and thinking
what are you waiting for?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Tony. Well, you know, you have some very ambitious you
know plans, you got you you have the distillery, you
have the Finch, you have the the reserve, and then
the what is the drawing room? The drawing room? And
I was like, man, this guy is very ambitious. So
what what are you putting on in the floors two
(10:28):
and three? What? What's what are some of your.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Still in the works.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
But he says with a smile.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
We have tested the market the night we hosted the
Nashville event. The Nashville Night event kind of proved the
concept to me. That floor two new, which is the
addition portion of our building, has really nice high ceilings
and it's got the highest ceilings of all the spaces
in the building. And we hosted Chris Higbee, the great
(10:57):
country Western singer from Western Pennsylvania, and in that space
and he sounded so great.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
You're thinking about a concert venue?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Absolutely wow.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So you're so ambitious.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, I think I think Pittsburgh needs it. There's not
enough live music, there's not enough music in general. I
love live music, I love I love hosting DJs. I
love it all. So we want to make that space
a and and to add to it not just a
music space, but also the opportunity to make it a
(11:29):
little bit higher end too, So yeah, we can host
a band, and there's a beautiful long bar that we've
built into that space to eventually turn it into that
exact concept. But then on the old side of the building,
that is really the showcase of the entire saving of
that space, the brick and the wood that has been
saved and restored in there could be a very high
(11:53):
end VIP experience for those who want to maybe interact
with the with the concert performer, a city down with
the musicians and have an exclusively exclusive opportunity to do
that through a different type of ticket for that event.
So we're kind of kind of tie the two in. Hey,
if you don't want to buy the more expensive ticket,
you can still come enjoy the music, enjoy the drinks
(12:15):
on that side. But if you want to come over
and sit down, relax, maybe interact with the musicians a
little bit before, during, and after, and have a seat,
a comfortable seat in a maybe more speakeasy type feel,
that's that's what too Old will look like. And then three,
we actually did build the infrastructure into three to host
(12:37):
another restaurant in the building, so we have the hood
systems and everything in place. We just haven't decided what
that might look like yet, whether it be a food
hall which we kind of designed in initially and you know,
do the kitchens on the old side of the building
and to sit down and enjoy the view on the
new side, or potentially something different than somebody introduces to
(12:59):
as a different concept. So we're leaving those two floors
still in exploratory mode. But I would think that here
in the early onset of twenty twenty six will have
a plan in place to move forward.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Well, I think you need someone with your ambition on
the South Shore because thirty years ago South Shore was
hoppin' and for a time, I'm not going to say
it was ignored, but it was. It took a back
seat to other locations in Pittsburgh, Lawrenceville in the Strip district,
(13:32):
and they needed some love. But now you have someone
like you over on the South Shore, and I hear
there's some ambitious things that are moving towards that area. Well,
first of all, it's really nice to have the River
Houds on that side of the river and the success
that they're enjoying that certainly helps. But what are some
of the things that are going to grow around you.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
So yeah, great, great question, John, and I'm super excited
to share it with the audience. So the Station Square
property was just sold to a Boston group and we're
really excited to meet them when they get to town here.
I'm not sure exactly what they'll do with the property,
but I know they have plans. I think their their
(14:12):
concept is a little bit more high fine dining, high
level retail, maybe a Sacks Fifth Avenue back in the city.
I'm not sure exactly what will happen there, but we're
super excited to have them as our neighbors. Next door.
The Glasshouse Apartments are a great venue that was built
over the last five years that houses you know, nice,
(14:32):
nice apartments two three bedroom that are a lot of
those folks are our current customers. Now they walk over,
it's easy to get to us. The high Line on
the other side of us is a tremendous building that
is now getting highly occupied. So there their occupancy is
way up, uh, and they're they're on that side of
the river. And then we you know the River Hounds
(14:54):
with their expansion of their stadium and the Gateway clipper fleet,
all that, all that on our side of the the
south Shore. There is just tremendous continuity for that half
mile on that side of the river. We can't wait
for the River Hounds to expand. As a matter of fact,
my next meeting is with them. I've already spent time
(15:14):
with the management team at the Sheridan Hotel as well,
making partnerships with each and every one of them along
the river front there with us to make the South
Shore a destination again in Pittsburgh, can't. I'm really excited
about it.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Now. I want to ask you about the history of
Big Springs Distillery, but let's talk about are you able
to get some of your spirits in local bars here
in Pittsburgh in town We have been.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
We've been very fortunate. The brand has been really well received.
If you look around most of the bars and restaurants
in Pittsburgh, we do have one, two, or multiple brands,
our brands in there, whether it be our whiskey's, our gins,
our vodkas.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Is there a particular name you want people to ask for.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I would always just ask for the Big Spring. Do
you carry Big Spring? And uh, you know it's it's
the brand really was brought to us by the Big
Spring The Big Spring is the secret to our sauce.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
It is a tremendous body of water that we distill it.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
What is its palate? What does it taste like?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
It's soft and and when you when you take a
whiskey and you soften it in the back of your
throat and don't get that burn. That's what makes it special.
And a lot of times it takes a lot of
aging to get that done, and we do. We age
to a minimum of five years, but we can get
that softness earlier just by our water, the quality of
(16:40):
our water that we use. So we're very fortunate to
have the Big Spring as our distilling partner basically, and
it's a it's a tremendous body of water.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, tell us the history of the of that brand.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Uh, The Big Spring Spirits brand was actually founded by
my partner, Kevin Lloyd, who's a PhD in chemistry out
of Penn State University, Penn State, So you know, the
Big Spring basically runs right through downtown bellefont Pa, which
is about a ten minute suburb of State College. And
it was Kevin was in the testing lab business for
(17:15):
a number of years. He eventually sold that business him
decided him and his brother decided they wanted to do
something more enjoyable. They said, we're really good at making stuff,
so they started making spirits first vodka. Vodka is probably
the stepping stone into the spirits business because you don't
have to age it right, and then you know, through
(17:38):
creating revenue sources with the vodka, he was able to
start barreling and storing and aging our whiskeys. So when
I met Kevin, he was about five years into it,
and I just.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Picked a good time to get in ely, and I.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Just respected him so much because he didn't take a
lot from the business. Was he was looking to the future,
looking for the real beauty of the product aging, and
he put most of the money right back in and
let that barrel, those barrels accumulate. So there was several
hundred barrels aging when I met Kevin, and we've added
(18:13):
to it since. But we've been together about five years
now and we've watched the growth of the Spirit brand
continually grow about thirty percent year over year for the
last five years. So we're really proud of the growth.
You know, Primanny Brothers across the state has welcomed us
as one of their premier providers of spirits. We're an Azteco.
(18:34):
Mexican restaurants across the state are tequila, which is an
unusual thing for a craft Pennsylvania distiller to have. Our
tequila is awesome. We went and made a deal with
a Mexican agave producer. Not many guys in our state
took that. They actually we took the time to go down,
formulate the brand, label it, regulate it, get it over
(18:57):
the over the border and into Pittsburgh, and again we
bring it in concentrated and and proof it in Pennsylvania.
So it is called a Pennsylvania tequila. But authentic tequila
has to come out of Mexico.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
And it has to be blue agavi. Is that what
it is?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Absolutely, yep. Wow, you have you have such aspirational goals.
Where are you going to go from now? Where are
you going to go?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Well, you know the the brand. The sky is the limit.
This industry is. I've learned so much about it since
I've got involved. It's all about It's all about what
you want. So if you want to continue to grow
this thing, we see there is a growth opportunity beyond
the state lines of Pennsylvania beyond the borders of western PA.
(19:47):
We can do that through a number of channels if
we if we decide to go down the distribution route,
we can. We can partner with a distributor and take
it over the border. But truly, John, we haven't We
haven't even tapped into the eastern markets of Pennsylvania yet,
and everybody knows that's where most of the population in
our state is. So I'm looking forward to growing it east.
(20:07):
We're already big center. We've grown it nicely west, and
to get all of Pennsylvania covered, we still have some
ways to go. So we're going to focus on Pa
and then we'll see where it takes us. If you
get enough volume, the guys will come knocking on your door.
You don't really have to go looking for them, so
it it'll be a fun couple of years ahead of us.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
So tell us more about your partnership.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So, our partnership is a five man team. Four of
us are actually operating partners in the business. Well three
of us now, but we all get along great. We
all have different backgrounds coming into this. Some of us
owned our own businesses, some of us were salespeople. Our
CFO was a regional director of a communications company. So yeah,
(20:57):
everybody kind of brought something to the table and it's
been great. We've we've really enjoyed working together and coming
up with all these concepts and and growing the company.
You know, the production team and and the sales team
now or you know, our sales team is seven people strong,
(21:17):
our production team team is about ten people strong. And
you know, the partnership itself has really led let the
company grow in a in a in a smart way,
strategic way. Sometimes too fast is no good, too slow
isn't as well. But I think we're right on schedule
for where we want to be year over year.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
What's your biggest challenge?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I would say our biggest challenge today is is really
letting people know the quality of the craft distilling industry
in Pennsylvania is really high, especially from our company. A
lot of times people think craft distilling it's it's nice
to help the local guy, let's buy a bottle and
support them. But truly, our product, once introduced to it,
(22:05):
it sells itself. It's every one of our products I'm
so proud of, from our cream bourbons, to our vodkas,
to our gins. We have taken the time to formulate
the mixture properly to get it into the bottle at
the right time, including our whiskeys. We don't rush things.
(22:25):
We do it with quality in mind and service in
mind on top of it. We're one of the few
craft distillers that actually, if you buy from us, we
delivered to you as a bar restaurant. If you don't
do it that way, you actually have to go pick
the product up at the local Spirit wine and Spirit shop.
But if you're one of our customers, you get it
delivered to your door, which is big for us. We
(22:49):
specialize in quality and service.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
How do you give back to Pittsburgh and either from
a corporate standpoint or from a personal standpoint, do you
have a particular charity that you champion.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
We've we've already taken on the American Heart Association as
one of our main contributing charities. We've also done work
with the Charlie Batch Foundation, as I mentioned earlier, and
we love we love working with local Pittsburgh charities. Light
of Life is my personal one. My wife and I
(23:22):
have been partnered with them for about the last five
years and we love helping that cause it's so important
to get people in a new start a second chance,
and then also Children's hospital. Those are really the ones
we love to focus on and we will continue to
focus on and help the Pittsburgh community get stronger.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Is there anything else you want us to know about
Big Springs Spirits.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I would just say that, you know, give us a
try at Our location is a really unique, beautiful space
to come see at fifty nine South Second Street, one
five two, one nine. We're located at the south shore
of Pittsburgh. Are our Our different venues are open again
(24:09):
six days a week, and we would just love to
have you stop by, try it, experience the the brand,
experience the the building and uh and welcome. We'd welcome
you to try it on us the first time around.
So we have a we have a tasting room in
Pittsburgh that we give little samples out to and you know,
(24:30):
you come into our tasting room and you can always
sample something for on us. And our website is www
Dot Big Spring Spirits, One Spring, it's one Spring, Many Spirits,
so it's www. Big Spring Spirits dot com. And our
distillery complex is www dot Distillery Complex pg H dot com.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Tony Mazarini, a Big Spring Spirits and a CEO you
Should Know Tony. Thank you so much, Thank you, John,
It's been a pleasure. This has been the CEOs you
Should Know podcast, showcasing businesses that are driving our regional economy,
part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communities we serve. I'm
Johnny Heartwell, thank you so much for listening.
And welcome in. This is the CEOs Used to Know podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Hert. Well, let's say hello to
Tony mazarinia Big Spring Spirits. Thank you for joining me,
Thank you for having me so tell us everything we
need to know about your distillery.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We have just opened our second headquarters here in Pittsburgh
along the riverfront in the South Shore. The distillery complex
is the home of Big Spring Spirits here in Pittsburgh
and inside our complex we serve and delight our customers
with so many different great creations of the forty different
products we make, and we host it throughout our different venues.
(00:37):
Our rooftop bar called the Finch, our Reserve, riverside events space,
our drawing room, cigar Lounge, and our Big Spirits Big
Spring Spirits Bottle shop on the first floor in the
McKean Market.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
What spirits do you specialize in?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We have tremendous whiskey that has been aged for at
least a minimum of five years in White Oak, and
our whiskeys are fantastic. They've won gold label awards. We
also make tremendous vodka gin, but a great variety of
different products throughout. But I would say. Our whiskeys are
our premier, our premier line. The vodkas are second, and
(01:14):
everything tastes delicious wait till you try it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Well, I'm glad that whiskey is coming back here in
downtown Pittsburgh because Pittsburgh was known as the whiskey capital
of America for a long time. I know Tennessee has
taken the banner. Now let's bring that back because we
used to specialize in whiskey right here in the in
Western Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
No doubt about it, John that the Rye Whiskey Distillery
was one of the largest industries in the United States
when it was first founded, and it all ended up
in Tennessee because of the taxes that the federal government
put on the Western Rye Distillery, right, and so they
ended up moving down into Tennessee to escape the taxation.
But yeah, it's it's it's exciting to be back here
(01:58):
with our product, with a great story to tell and
a great quality product to deliver.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Well, not only do you have a product, you have
a complex and so tell us more. Let's dig in
deeper about the complex and everything that is what you
guys are doing.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So my first go round in life. I was a
real estate developer. I found this building sitting there along
the riverfront in Pittsburgh that was basically left for dead.
It was an unbelievably beautiful structure when I walked into
it the first time I saw it. All wood beam,
all wood floors, all wood columns, and just brick holding
(02:34):
this building up that's been there for over one hundred
and seventy years. Built back in the eighteen fifties for
a company called Joseph Finch Rye Whiskey Distillery. The Finch
group stayed in Pittsburgh for almost one hundred years distilling
up until the Prohibition, and then they moved up river.
But the building itself was just amazing to me, and
(02:55):
I said to myself, let's go find somehow, some way
to tell this story again. A long journey along the way,
several architects involved, we decided to keep and restore this
one hundred and seventy year old building. We end up
finding the partner that we eventually took in and made
part of our development, Big Spring Spirits and out in
(03:18):
Center County, but brought them into the fold and the
building now houses our manufacturing second facility for Big Spring spirits,
and a host of other great entertainment places. The rooftop
bar is an amazing view of the city unlike you've
ever seen before. It's you know, just a really When
(03:39):
people walk out onto the sixth floor deck and look out,
they're just wow, this is like incredible. The Smithfield Street Bridge,
the T Bridge, and the Liberty Bridge are basically the
frame around our view. And then you know, we have
a tremendous bar and restaurant in there that serves wonderful,
(03:59):
shareable food. You're not going to come to our facility
and maybe order a flame andgnoon, but you will certainly
get really high quality, great food that's very shareable and
very bar like. And then the cocktails is really what
we specialize in. Our specialty cocktails are just tremendous. Our
mixologists do a tremendous job of making really cool stuff
(04:20):
out of our products and presenting it in a really
beautiful fashion. So the cocktails are special for our guests.
And then we see about one hundred and twenty people
inside the space all year round. When people think of
our Finch Bar and Restaurant as an outdoor great space,
it is. It's a great rooftop but we also have
one hundred seats inside all winter long for our guests
(04:43):
to enjoy that are completely undercover. The view is still
tremendous from inside, just as much as it is outside.
So I really want people to know that that Finch
is open all year round and it's available for great dining.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
And how many days a week are you open?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
We're open six days a week Tuesday through Sunday hours
or three pm till close Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
We stay open and open a little earlier. We open
around noon, so you know, open a little earlier on
the weekends. We do serve lunch on the weekends as
well as dinner. And the menu is tremendous.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, I was going to ask you, what can you
give us an idea what the menu is like?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Sure? So we have a great version of our own
pizza on the menu. It's called Pitzelas and it's really
made on more of a flat bread than it is
a pizza crust. We have really good crab cakes, we
have really good meatballs. We have a really nice salad.
We've we've done a seasonal menu. We've only been opened
(05:40):
since July twenty eighth, but we've done two seasonal menus already,
so we like to mix it up as well, depending
on the time of year and what's out there right
now as far as fresh food and fresh fruit. But yeah,
we we have some really great shareble stuff. Our number one,
I would say, our number one served thing on the
menu is our large pretzel. Our large pretzel is like
(06:03):
just tremendous, and we can do it two ways. We
do it as a charcoutery pretzel or just a regular
great pretzel with some tremendous mustard and stuff. But yeah,
that's when people see it and they eat it, They're like, oh,
this is the best thing I've ever eaten in my life.
But yeah, So theinch, the Finch is the rooftop. It's
the crown of the building. It's also named as the
throwback to the original occupants of our space. Now, when
(06:27):
I talk about this, imagine the one hundred and seventy
year old buildings still existing. But then the part of
the building that has really taken on the tremendous views
are all brand new facilities. I built a you know,
our team built a six story addition to one hundred
and seventy year old building, and so we basically doubled
(06:47):
the size of the original structure and really put modern
architecture to work to encompass the beautiful views that we have.
So hats off to the guys that helped me design
it and build it. But yeah, the floor below, which
a lot of times ties into the rooftop is called
the Reserve Event space. So the reserve again floor to
(07:11):
ceiling windows that people can just host an event for,
whether it be your wedding, a corporate event. You know,
we had the South Short Chamber of Commerce down there
the other day. They had a big event. But there's
so many things going on in this city that you
until you get into the business, you have no idea
how many events there are. But we've been hosting. We
(07:32):
hosted the Charlie Batch Foundation with a tremendous event. We've
had a night called Nashville Night in the building which
we had multiple different bands in the building and enjoyed
having a different type of venue being used for different
type of music. But yeah, the riverside is terrific. And
then we also have the old side of the event
(07:53):
space called the McKean side. That's the street that runs
in front of us off of Parallels Carson Street. Uh,
and so we have that feel in that room is
really historic. You know, you go in there, you still
see the old brick and and that piece of it
people really like as well. So a lot of times
people are using the McKean side as the cocktail reception,
(08:13):
moving over to the riverside for the actual sit down, dinner,
dancing or whatever. But yeah, so a tremendous events based
on Level five. Level four is a cigar club called
the Drawing Room. Cigars have come back so much in
Pittsburgh and and and in the country and in the
world over the last twenty years.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And if you're going to have a whiskey, you got
to have a cigar.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, that was the thing John when I when I
started thinking about how to program this building and why
we were going to do what we were going to do,
we just thought about, Okay, what is everything else that
goes with great whiskies, great great spirits in general, and
cigars came naturally to mind. I'm going to have a
cigar enthusiast and and so the Drawing Room is a
(09:00):
member's driven cigar lounge. But are we also have allocated
a space for Johnny off the Street to come in
and enjoy a cigar, buy out of our humidor and
sit down and enjoy it. But the primary section of
what we're really emphasizing is exclusivity to our members. A
really beautiful place to take in the view, make some
(09:21):
great friends, have some great conversations, do some business, and
it's one of a kind. I've been in cigar lounges
all over the world and ours is unique and one
of the in my opinion, one of the nicest I've
ever seen. So the drawing room is an awesome place
if you're into the cigar scene. It's also very surprising
(09:42):
how many women come into our cigar lounge. I'm really
I'm really excited the fact that women have embraced cigars
and there's so many different levels of cigar smoking that
we're seeing a lot of the Pittsburgh ladies coming into
the Scars Club. So we're enjoying that. And then so
that's floor for or Floors three and two are undeveloped
(10:02):
in the building, so we're still testing concepts and thinking
what are you waiting for?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Tony. Well, you know, you have some very ambitious you
know plans, you got you you have the distillery, you
have the Finch, you have the the reserve, and then
the what is the drawing room? The drawing room? And
I was like, man, this guy is very ambitious. So
what what are you putting on in the floors two
(10:28):
and three? What? What's what are some of your.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Still in the works.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
But he says with a smile.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
We have tested the market the night we hosted the
Nashville event. The Nashville Night event kind of proved the
concept to me. That floor two new, which is the
addition portion of our building, has really nice high ceilings
and it's got the highest ceilings of all the spaces
in the building. And we hosted Chris Higbee, the great
(10:57):
country Western singer from Western Pennsylvania, and in that space
and he sounded so great.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
You're thinking about a concert venue?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Absolutely wow.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So you're so ambitious.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, I think I think Pittsburgh needs it. There's not
enough live music, there's not enough music in general. I
love live music, I love I love hosting DJs. I
love it all. So we want to make that space
a and and to add to it not just a
music space, but also the opportunity to make it a
(11:29):
little bit higher end too, So yeah, we can host
a band, and there's a beautiful long bar that we've
built into that space to eventually turn it into that
exact concept. But then on the old side of the building,
that is really the showcase of the entire saving of
that space, the brick and the wood that has been
saved and restored in there could be a very high
(11:53):
end VIP experience for those who want to maybe interact
with the with the concert performer, a city down with
the musicians and have an exclusively exclusive opportunity to do
that through a different type of ticket for that event.
So we're kind of kind of tie the two in. Hey,
if you don't want to buy the more expensive ticket,
you can still come enjoy the music, enjoy the drinks
(12:15):
on that side. But if you want to come over
and sit down, relax, maybe interact with the musicians a
little bit before, during, and after, and have a seat,
a comfortable seat in a maybe more speakeasy type feel,
that's that's what too Old will look like. And then three,
we actually did build the infrastructure into three to host
(12:37):
another restaurant in the building, so we have the hood
systems and everything in place. We just haven't decided what
that might look like yet, whether it be a food
hall which we kind of designed in initially and you know,
do the kitchens on the old side of the building
and to sit down and enjoy the view on the
new side, or potentially something different than somebody introduces to
(12:59):
as a different concept. So we're leaving those two floors
still in exploratory mode. But I would think that here
in the early onset of twenty twenty six will have
a plan in place to move forward.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Well, I think you need someone with your ambition on
the South Shore because thirty years ago South Shore was
hoppin' and for a time, I'm not going to say
it was ignored, but it was. It took a back
seat to other locations in Pittsburgh, Lawrenceville in the Strip district,
(13:32):
and they needed some love. But now you have someone
like you over on the South Shore, and I hear
there's some ambitious things that are moving towards that area. Well,
first of all, it's really nice to have the River
Houds on that side of the river and the success
that they're enjoying that certainly helps. But what are some
of the things that are going to grow around you.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
So yeah, great, great question, John, and I'm super excited
to share it with the audience. So the Station Square
property was just sold to a Boston group and we're
really excited to meet them when they get to town here.
I'm not sure exactly what they'll do with the property,
but I know they have plans. I think their their
(14:12):
concept is a little bit more high fine dining, high
level retail, maybe a Sacks Fifth Avenue back in the city.
I'm not sure exactly what will happen there, but we're
super excited to have them as our neighbors. Next door.
The Glasshouse Apartments are a great venue that was built
over the last five years that houses you know, nice,
(14:32):
nice apartments two three bedroom that are a lot of
those folks are our current customers. Now they walk over,
it's easy to get to us. The high Line on
the other side of us is a tremendous building that
is now getting highly occupied. So there their occupancy is
way up, uh, and they're they're on that side of
the river. And then we you know the River Hounds
(14:54):
with their expansion of their stadium and the Gateway clipper fleet,
all that, all that on our side of the the
south Shore. There is just tremendous continuity for that half
mile on that side of the river. We can't wait
for the River Hounds to expand. As a matter of fact,
my next meeting is with them. I've already spent time
(15:14):
with the management team at the Sheridan Hotel as well,
making partnerships with each and every one of them along
the river front there with us to make the South
Shore a destination again in Pittsburgh, can't. I'm really excited
about it.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Now. I want to ask you about the history of
Big Springs Distillery, but let's talk about are you able
to get some of your spirits in local bars here
in Pittsburgh in town We have been.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
We've been very fortunate. The brand has been really well received.
If you look around most of the bars and restaurants
in Pittsburgh, we do have one, two, or multiple brands,
our brands in there, whether it be our whiskey's, our gins,
our vodkas.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Is there a particular name you want people to ask for.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I would always just ask for the Big Spring. Do
you carry Big Spring? And uh, you know it's it's
the brand really was brought to us by the Big
Spring The Big Spring is the secret to our sauce.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
It is a tremendous body of water that we distill it.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
What is its palate? What does it taste like?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
It's soft and and when you when you take a
whiskey and you soften it in the back of your
throat and don't get that burn. That's what makes it special.
And a lot of times it takes a lot of
aging to get that done, and we do. We age
to a minimum of five years, but we can get
that softness earlier just by our water, the quality of
(16:40):
our water that we use. So we're very fortunate to
have the Big Spring as our distilling partner basically, and
it's a it's a tremendous body of water.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, tell us the history of the of that brand.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Uh, The Big Spring Spirits brand was actually founded by
my partner, Kevin Lloyd, who's a PhD in chemistry out
of Penn State University, Penn State, So you know, the
Big Spring basically runs right through downtown bellefont Pa, which
is about a ten minute suburb of State College. And
it was Kevin was in the testing lab business for
(17:15):
a number of years. He eventually sold that business him
decided him and his brother decided they wanted to do
something more enjoyable. They said, we're really good at making stuff,
so they started making spirits first vodka. Vodka is probably
the stepping stone into the spirits business because you don't
have to age it right, and then you know, through
(17:38):
creating revenue sources with the vodka, he was able to
start barreling and storing and aging our whiskeys. So when
I met Kevin, he was about five years into it,
and I just.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Picked a good time to get in ely, and I.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Just respected him so much because he didn't take a
lot from the business. Was he was looking to the future,
looking for the real beauty of the product aging, and
he put most of the money right back in and
let that barrel, those barrels accumulate. So there was several
hundred barrels aging when I met Kevin, and we've added
(18:13):
to it since. But we've been together about five years
now and we've watched the growth of the Spirit brand
continually grow about thirty percent year over year for the
last five years. So we're really proud of the growth.
You know, Primanny Brothers across the state has welcomed us
as one of their premier providers of spirits. We're an Azteco.
(18:34):
Mexican restaurants across the state are tequila, which is an
unusual thing for a craft Pennsylvania distiller to have. Our
tequila is awesome. We went and made a deal with
a Mexican agave producer. Not many guys in our state
took that. They actually we took the time to go down,
formulate the brand, label it, regulate it, get it over
(18:57):
the over the border and into Pittsburgh, and again we
bring it in concentrated and and proof it in Pennsylvania.
So it is called a Pennsylvania tequila. But authentic tequila
has to come out of Mexico.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
And it has to be blue agavi. Is that what
it is?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Absolutely, yep. Wow, you have you have such aspirational goals.
Where are you going to go from now? Where are
you going to go?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Well, you know the the brand. The sky is the limit.
This industry is. I've learned so much about it since
I've got involved. It's all about It's all about what
you want. So if you want to continue to grow
this thing, we see there is a growth opportunity beyond
the state lines of Pennsylvania beyond the borders of western PA.
(19:47):
We can do that through a number of channels if
we if we decide to go down the distribution route,
we can. We can partner with a distributor and take
it over the border. But truly, John, we haven't We
haven't even tapped into the eastern markets of Pennsylvania yet,
and everybody knows that's where most of the population in
our state is. So I'm looking forward to growing it east.
(20:07):
We're already big center. We've grown it nicely west, and
to get all of Pennsylvania covered, we still have some
ways to go. So we're going to focus on Pa
and then we'll see where it takes us. If you
get enough volume, the guys will come knocking on your door.
You don't really have to go looking for them, so
it it'll be a fun couple of years ahead of us.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
So tell us more about your partnership.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So, our partnership is a five man team. Four of
us are actually operating partners in the business. Well three
of us now, but we all get along great. We
all have different backgrounds coming into this. Some of us
owned our own businesses, some of us were salespeople. Our
CFO was a regional director of a communications company. So yeah,
(20:57):
everybody kind of brought something to the table and it's
been great. We've we've really enjoyed working together and coming
up with all these concepts and and growing the company.
You know, the production team and and the sales team
now or you know, our sales team is seven people strong,
(21:17):
our production team team is about ten people strong. And
you know, the partnership itself has really led let the
company grow in a in a in a smart way,
strategic way. Sometimes too fast is no good, too slow
isn't as well. But I think we're right on schedule
for where we want to be year over year.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
What's your biggest challenge?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I would say our biggest challenge today is is really
letting people know the quality of the craft distilling industry
in Pennsylvania is really high, especially from our company. A
lot of times people think craft distilling it's it's nice
to help the local guy, let's buy a bottle and
support them. But truly, our product, once introduced to it,
(22:05):
it sells itself. It's every one of our products I'm
so proud of, from our cream bourbons, to our vodkas,
to our gins. We have taken the time to formulate
the mixture properly to get it into the bottle at
the right time, including our whiskeys. We don't rush things.
(22:25):
We do it with quality in mind and service in
mind on top of it. We're one of the few
craft distillers that actually, if you buy from us, we
delivered to you as a bar restaurant. If you don't
do it that way, you actually have to go pick
the product up at the local Spirit wine and Spirit shop.
But if you're one of our customers, you get it
delivered to your door, which is big for us. We
(22:49):
specialize in quality and service.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
How do you give back to Pittsburgh and either from
a corporate standpoint or from a personal standpoint, do you
have a particular charity that you champion.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
We've we've already taken on the American Heart Association as
one of our main contributing charities. We've also done work
with the Charlie Batch Foundation, as I mentioned earlier, and
we love we love working with local Pittsburgh charities. Light
of Life is my personal one. My wife and I
(23:22):
have been partnered with them for about the last five
years and we love helping that cause it's so important
to get people in a new start a second chance,
and then also Children's hospital. Those are really the ones
we love to focus on and we will continue to
focus on and help the Pittsburgh community get stronger.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Is there anything else you want us to know about
Big Springs Spirits.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I would just say that, you know, give us a
try at Our location is a really unique, beautiful space
to come see at fifty nine South Second Street, one
five two, one nine. We're located at the south shore
of Pittsburgh. Are our Our different venues are open again
(24:09):
six days a week, and we would just love to
have you stop by, try it, experience the the brand,
experience the the building and uh and welcome. We'd welcome
you to try it on us the first time around.
So we have a we have a tasting room in
Pittsburgh that we give little samples out to and you know,
(24:30):
you come into our tasting room and you can always
sample something for on us. And our website is www
Dot Big Spring Spirits, One Spring, it's one Spring, Many Spirits,
so it's www. Big Spring Spirits dot com. And our
distillery complex is www dot Distillery Complex pg H dot com.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Tony Mazarini, a Big Spring Spirits and a CEO you
Should Know Tony. Thank you so much, Thank you, John,
It's been a pleasure. This has been the CEOs you
Should Know podcast, showcasing businesses that are driving our regional economy,
part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communities we serve. I'm
Johnny Heartwell, thank you so much for listening.
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