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Witnessing Progress

The temporary removal of a large window from the building that housed a family furniture story for decades signifies progress in the development of a unique business in downtown Vandalia.

That window was removed in order to bring into the building the still and grain mesh tun that will be used for the production of spirits in the former home of Allen Furniture at the southeast corner of Fourth and Gallatin streets.
Rick and Cindy Radliff announced in March of that year that plans for Witness Distillery, where they will “distill, age and sell finished product to the public.” Those products will include bourbon, single-malt, rye whiskey, rye, wheat whiskey and flavored infusions.
The first product to go through the mesh tun and still is rum.
“It’s easier – has an easier recipe and it’s quicker,” Cindy Radliff said on Saturday.
“We’re going to start with that to kind of get ourselves used to it,” she said.
The production process includes heating the appropriate grain in the mash turn, allowing it to cool and then putting the product in barrels to forment.
Depending on the recipe, she said, rum will ferment in three to five days. Straight whiskey needs to be in a barrel for a couple of years.
Cindy said, “Ideally, we’d like to start production (of rum) maybe in March, but it may be close to summer before we start producing.
The Radliffs currently reside in Des Moines, Iowa, but plan to move to property they own in northeast Fayette County after Rick retires.
“Our goal is to bring tourists to the city,” Rick told city officials last March. “It’s a real opportunity.”
In their application for Tax Increment Financing approved last spring, the Radliffs said that once the distillery is up and going, “Tours will explain how spirits are made and the history of distillation, including the impact of prohibition in Illinois, a little-known but incredible piece of history.”
“Everything is going well,” Cindy said on Saturday. “We haven’t experienced any old-building surprises.”
On how the Radliffs came up with the idea of a distillery, Cindy said, “He (Rick) was trying to find something he could do when he retired, something that we could potentially leave for our kids while also giving back to the community, to help support school programs and community programs, just be a part of the community and do something that’s fun and different.
“He started doing research and looking into distilling, and we decided that this was something we wanted to do.
Several factors entered into the Radliffs’ decision to create a distillery in Vandalia.
One of the reasons is their familiarity with the community.
Rick grew up in Decatur and Cindy in Moweaqua, but Rick’s father grew up in the Four Mile area and his mother in Vera.
“We wanted to do it here, first of all, because in other areas, such as large cities like St. Louis, we couldn’t have done it, because of the cost there,” Cindy said.
“And, there’s the historical aspect of Vandalia, and his family being from here,” she said.
“We had (always) planned to move back to this area,” she said. Originally, Rick planned to build a cabin on their property in Fayette County. “Initially, it was just something that he would come here for hunting in the winter.”
In deciding to locate their business in Vandalia, the Radliffs looked at a couple of other buildings before deciding on the former home of Allen Furniture, with their story sounding like that of the Three Bears tale.
“The first building was just too small to have a production area,” Cindy said.
“The second building just wasn’t cost-effective for us,” she said.
The third building that they looked at, of course, was just right.
“This building had a history of its own, and having the history of Allen Furniture and being across from the Statehouse just kind of spoke to us,” she said.
The building still has many old features inside, and the Radliffs are working to keep as much history of the building alive as possible.
“It’s important to us,” Cindy said. “It’s an 1895 building.
“One of my favorite pictures of this building is one from 1910, when it was a dry goods store, an all-brick building with six chimneys down the side.
“I feel like even though it has kind of an industrial vibe, I feel like we pay tribute to the history of the building, with the lighting and the beams from an old barn that we are using,” Cindy said.
“I feel like we leave quite a bit of the old in here,” she said.
Having picked the location, the Radliffs planned to have their distillery and tasting area in two sections of the building. They had no plans initially for the third section.
“Having this space next to us, and trying to think of what we could do with that, it never occurred to us to rent the space for a restaurant, and then someone mentioned it to us,” Cindy said.
“I told them that I didn’t know if we wanted to get into the restaurant business, but they said, ‘What if you have somebody that wanted to get into the restaurant business.
“We thought, we can talk to them, but I don’t know.
“Then we met Amy (Gaffney),” Cindy said. “Her enthusiasm is infectious and I was like, this could be a good fit for us.”
Gaffney, the former owner of Copper Penny, hopes to open that restaurant the third week of February.

 

Rick Radliff, right, watches Andy Craig put the still for Witness Distillery into the distillery home, the longtime home of Allen Furniture in downtown Vandalia.

Old photo of building at Fourth & Gallatin

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