Just a few blocks east of the mighty Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota sits the Tattersall Distilling Company — one of America’s finest and frequently awarded producers of spirits and liqueurs. Back in late 2013, friends and founders Dan Oskey and Jon Kreidler began researching the viability of starting their own distillery. Laws were changing in the U.S. allowing more micro and “craft” brewing and distilling businesses to start up operations. Recognizing an opportunity to turn their passions into a viable business venture, the partners played to their strengths and pooled their talents to hit the ground running. Oskey picked up bartending in college and turned it into a lifelong vocation. In fact, he became so adept at making cocktails from scratch that Minneapolis Eater named him the 2013 Best Bartender in the city. His entrepreneurial flair in the beverage industry took him out from behind the bar and into the world of production. He helped found Joia All-Natural Soda and Easy & Oskey Bitters Kits. Today you can find him developing the spirits and craft cocktails for Tattersall. Kreidler approached the partnership from the financial side. Equipped with an MBA from the University of Chicago, he decided that the time was right to jump from the world of banking and hedge funds into an industry that was more about passion than number crunching. He enrolled in the Michigan State Distilling School, joined forces with Oskey, and Tattersall was born.
Construction began on the distillery in early 2015 and they started distilling in March of the same year. A mere four months after that, Tattersall spirits hit the distribution trucks. Spotlight on Business spoke with co-founder Jon Kreidler about their early success and expansion.
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OCTOBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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