A lively business has recently opened in downtown Northfield: Loon Liquors Distillery and Pizzeria. Owners Mark Schiller and Simeon Rossi started Loon Liquors in 2012 with a microfunding campaign and have since expanded into their new downtown space. The welcoming cocktail room features large windows that offer a view of the distillation equipment. In an interview with The Olaf Messenger, Schiller and Rossi said they hope to begin offering tours of the production process soon. The location includes a full Italian still, a whiskey-aging barrel, and an in-house flour mill.
According to its website, Loon Liquors is committed to making its spirits entirely from scratch using locally sourced, organic ingredients, while being environmentally conscious in its production methods.
“For our production side, 90% of our ingredients by weight come from within 10 miles, so we’re primarily working with one local farmer: Brian and Tammy Lips of B&T Farms,” Schiller said.
The move downtown also inspired the pizzeria. “We got into pizza because we were coming downtown, and we were like, ‘What else could we use as a base stock to do our food, so we could apply the same ethic of sourcing locally to our food?’” Schiller said.
The flour is milled on site, allowing them to offer stone-milled, fresh-flour pizza alongside their spirits. “Everything besides our rum is 50-50 wheat and barley, so we use the same wheat and the same yeast in our distillation process as we do in our pizza process,” Schiller said.
The building has its own history — from a supper club in the 1950s to a bowling alley to the Northfield News — and now serves as a bustling distillery and pizzeria. Schiller and Rossi’s attention to detail in preserving the space’s history is evident throughout the building.
“We have the bowling alley gutters above the booth seating,” Schiller said. “We repurposed original wood to create our tables and bottle shelves.”
By the restrooms is a display created in collaboration with the Northfield History Center. It features photos of historic downtown and information about flour milling in Northfield.
Schiller and Rossi’s commitment to local sourcing and preservation is clear in every corner of the business. The spirits and mixers are carefully crafted, and the pizza is equally local, fresh, and flavorful. Loon Liquors is a welcome addition to the downtown space and only continues to grow.
