West End Gin wants to turn a stretch of West Main Street in Louisville's Portland neighborhood into a distillery and tasting room. The project is planned for 1301 W. Main St., and its backers say it's as much about reinvesting in the surrounding community as it is about pouring gin.
A Portland Address With Big Plans
The Wades are preparing to open their first distillery in summer 2027. The West Main Street project is planned to include a tasting room, bar and retail space.
Yahoo reports that the Wades are investing $6.7 million in the project. The couple also purchased an 84,000-square-foot building in West Louisville to build out as their distillery and tasting room.
From Launch to Legacy Project
Dawn and Stacey Wade launched West End Gin in July 2024, before this distillery was ever on the table, per the same Courier-Journal account. The brand has positioned itself as a public benefit company, meaning part of its proceeds are meant to flow back into the community rather than just into the Wades' pockets.
That community pledge has a specific number attached to it. For every bottle sold, West End Gin commits $1 to the community or market where the bottle is purchased, according to yahoo.com. The same report notes the Wades said their research at the time indicated gin represented about 5% of consumption in the United States when they were sizing up the market.
Betting On a Clear-Spirit Moment
Stacey Wade has framed the timing as part of a broader shift in drinking habits. Cocktail-forward, clear-spirit-driven drinks are trending, and gin fits perfectly into that space, Wade told rollingout.com. That same outlet reported the couple describing their purchase of the 84,000-square-foot building in West Louisville that they're building out as their distillery and tasting room.
West End Gin isn't the only spirits brand staking a claim in West Louisville. Von Payne Spirits plans to transform a historic building at 1400 Broadway into what it calls The Von Payne Castle Distillery and Tasting experience, according to WHAS11. That project is set inside a 60,000-square-foot structure designed by architect Arthur Loomis that opened in 1908 as Bond Bread, and founder Steven Allen has said he hopes to have the first stages of that distillery complete within the next two years.
Taken together, the two projects suggest a growing appetite for distillery tourism on Louisville's west side, with both brands betting that visitors will travel beyond the city's more established bourbon corridors. The Wades have tied West End Gin's business model to a commitment to Louisville's West End.
