Most of the time our trips take us off the beaten path, but St. Michaels was proof to me that you can find new adventures right in your back yard.
Chances are that if you grew up in the Washington, DC area you spent your summers heading to Ocean City, MD or the Outer Banks. We’re an Ocean City family and still to this day I make sure I make it to the beach at least once a year. The afternoon we spent in St. Michaels just proved to me that you never know what you could be missing in your own backyard.
A few weeks ago Maria and I decided to take a weekend and head down before the off season ended and the droves of tourist from the worst place on earth New Jersey started to show up. This time was a little different though, we had managed to leave a few hours early (something that usually never happens) and Maria had found a little article about a new distillery that opened in St. Michaels. Now I have probably passed this town at least a hundred times on my way to Ocean City, it’s a short drive off of Route 50, but I had always considered the Eastern Shore of Maryland as a giant dead zone. Boy was I wrong.
Lyon Distilling Co.
When you pull up to the Lyon Distillery you immediately get an almost speakeasy kind of feel, its tucked away right down a little side street and there’s no window around the door. For a second I was pretty sure I was lost until I saw the doorbell, proceeded to ring it, and heard a voice yell for us to come in.
When we got in we were immediately greeted by Jamie Windon and Ben Lyon the owners of this fine establishment. We had a great conversation with Jamie and we managed to figure out that Ben spends all his time making the booze while she handles the books and marketing (she also makes for a damn good bartender). Ben was gracious enough to give us a tour of their facility, show us every step of the distilling process, and in the process made me wonder how I could do this in the back of my Land Cruiser.
Right now everything they produce is in a pretty small batch but we were able to taste their white whiskey, white rum, and dark rum. Unfortunately for us they only had a few bottles of white rum for sale though because everyone else before us must have enjoyed the booze as much as we did.
I just want to give Ben and Jamie a big thank you for their hospitality, and I know that I’m just counting the days till I can make my way back.
St. Michaels Winery
At our previous destination Jamie was kind enough to tell us about the “booze triangle” as we like to call it which is comprised of their distillery, a winery, and a brewery, all within 100 feet from each other. With this knowledge in hand we headed off to the winery DRT style which obviously in a lifted truck with mud tires.
As soon as we got in we decided that we needed to try a full flight of wines, this is also where we found out that all of St. Michaels is de facto dog friendly except the indoor areas of restaurants. We really enjoyed conversing with the locals and we enjoyed the wine even more. I’m not even going to try to describe them because I don’t have a very refined pallet, I blame all of the cheap beer I drank in college.
Finally before we headed out Maria really wanted to buy this sign but I bought her a few bottles of wine instead. As any man knows hanging stuff always falls on your shoulders, and you can never get it done fast enough.
Eastern Shore Brewing Company
Our last stop for the afternoon was the Eastern Shore Brewing Company which is easily a beer lovers dream (I can already hear Ben running to start up the 4Runner). We easily found the brewery and quickly made ourselves at home.
I couldn’t decided which beer to try first as there were just to many good choices, everything is brewed in house about 50 feet from the bar. We ended up deciding to get 2 flights and debauchery ensued.
This place is easily a locals bar, the owner Adrian Moritz had a few beers with us and we were also happy to celebrate his birthday with him. Adian easily has the best job in the world, he brews beer, gets people to pay for it, and can drink it whenever he likes. If you can think of a better job than that please let me know. Please excused the blurry photo, this was the only one I was able to get with the man and I’m pretty sure we all couldn’t stand still.
We’re glad this was our last stop because if we started here there is no way we would have been able to make it to the other places in the “booze triangle”. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in St. Michaels and the hospitality in this town was second to none, it easily made our shortlist of places to head back to.
We eventually made it to dinner, but that’s a story for another time.
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