The first LGBTQ-owned distillery in Pennsylvania started, in part, because of some crappy Pittsburgh weather. Katie Sirianni had started a successful business with Sips Mobile Bar Co., providing cocktails and drinks at BYOB restaurants and events throughout the city.
Yet, no matter how fruitful that idea proved to be, Mother Nature always has a way of interfering. And operating a traveling bar that primarily operates outdoors can be a logistical challenge in the dead of a Pittsburgh winter.
“I had no desire to deal with a brick-and-mortar; I just wanted to do my own thing,” Sirianni tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “Fast-forward a year and a half later, it's wintertime, it's slow for the mobile bar industry, so I started watching the [distilling] process and thought, ‘I could do this’”.
And here we are, with Love, Katie Distilling having soft-launched in Sharpsburg, an immediate addition to an area in transition, and a stamp of progress at the same time.
“I’ll be the first LGBTQ-owned distillery in Pittsburgh — and by the looks of my endless research the first LGBTQ-owned distillery in the state of PA,” Sirianni points out.
Sirianni is no stranger to staking out a bold idea and working towards achieving it. She says Sips started in part as a response to Pennsylvania’s frankly archaic liquor laws.
“We were trying to find different avenues to sell because Pennsylvania, being a Commonwealth state, makes that very difficult,” she said. “So our little loophole that we found was partnering with breweries, wineries, and distilleries, and almost being independent contractors off that.”
Sips essentially became a reverse food truck, coming to places where patrons wanted a cocktail that the establishment couldn’t provide, and meeting their consumers where they were.
As Sirianni, a native Pittsburgher, decided to carve out her own space and open a true distillery, Sharpsburg seemed like a natural home for the venture. “The businesses down here, I go in somewhere to grab breakfast and everyone right away is asking me about the business, how it’s coming. I just love the direction the area is going.”
Even amongst all of this community, the local distillery industry is a competitive one, with large, established brands like Wigle Whiskey being long-time fixtures in the area. Sirianni sees Love, Katie as a place to grab a great drink, for sure, but she believes other aspects make it stand out.
“It’s going to be a really premium product because I can’t put it on my shelf if it’s not a good product,” she explains. “But it’s even more about the atmosphere. It’s going to be speakeasy-style, so we have dark walls, dark ceilings, crystal chandeliers coming down, some really cool egg-shaped chairs, marble look on the counters and tabletops, with all ‘40s and ‘50s music.”
This atmosphere will be supplemented with a liquor menu featuring gin and vodka to start, with an expansion into whiskey and rum — both of which require more complex distillation processes — as time goes on. (Sirianni adds, “I’d love to challenge myself to distill tequila as well, as there are very few places locally that do it.”)
Being an LGBTQ-owned distillery, in a beverage industry that hasn’t exactly been the most inclusive, isn’t lost on Sirianni. It’s an accomplishment that she’s immensely proud of. But she wants Love, Katie to represent a broad spectrum of love, the kind of love that can mean a couple sharing a drink after a long day of work, or a son buying a bottle for his dad as a gift, or a love of a community like Sharpsburg that is finding itself with the help of projects like this.
Sirianni says that, ultimately, Love, Katie comes down to a space to find some joy, for whoever might be seeking it. After all, the whole project was partially born out of love and the celebration of it.
“It’s called Love, Katie Distilling because it’s really a love letter,” Sirianni says. After a relationship ended, "I put myself out there," she says, "more for friends than a relationship..." But eventually, "I met my now-girlfriend. So it’s my love letter to her, but it can be your love letter to anyone.”
Love, Katie Distilling. 816 Main St., Sharpsburg. lovekatiedistilling.com
