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GREENBAR DISTILLERY Founders Followed Their Tongues to Sustainability Written by Gabe Toth
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reenbar Distillery in Los Angeles didn’t start off in 2004 with a focus on sustainability. It came about years later, purely by accident. Co-founder Melkon Khosrovian said he and his wife, Litty Mathew, followed their tongues as their approach to sourcing raw materials evolved. Greenbar started off producing infused vodkas of the type that could be drunk straight with food, products that hearken back to his native country of Armenia. “It was an attempt to make what my culture drank back in the homeland, liquor with food. What you would call today a botanical vodka, highly complex, very aromatic, multiple ingredients,” he said. “Wine is not the only thing that can go with food. Most people in most of the world drink liquor with food.” They came at flavor profiles from a culinary perspective. “That's mostly from my wife, who is a trained chef, loves food, can cook anything. And I was the eater in the relationship,” he said. “We took a culinary approach,” he continued, “just because it fit the bill in terms of complexity and captivating the drinker’s palate, aroma, and imagination. We had to somehow romance the mind and our path to the mind was through the nose and the taste buds.” They saw an opening as American consumers were becoming more familiar with flavors from various immigrant cultures like theirs. The distillery was even invited to the James Beard House to host the renowned establishment’s first-ever distillery dinner, where Greenbar paired cocktails and straight pours to go with the food. Khosrovian said the trend still hasn’t really taken off, however. “It was going in the direction where the spirits pairings that might make
PHOTO PROVIDED BY GREENBAR DISTILLERY
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Litty Mathew, co-founder of Greenbar Distillery, formulating a new recipe. W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M