High Bank Distillery Co.

High Bank Distillery Co. was established in 2017 at 1051 Goodale Boulevard, in the Grandview Yard development just west of the Olentangy. The name refers to the high bank above the fork where the Olentangy meets the Scioto — a Columbus geographical reference rather than a whiskey one. It is a genuine production site: bourbon, straight bourbon, bottled-in-bond, uncut and unfiltered expressions, rye, a bourbon-barrel four-peel gin, vodka and an apple brandy are all distilled on the premises, alongside limited releases and a nocino. Attached to the still house is a full distillery pub with free off-street parking, serving lunch, dinner, weekend brunch and late-night food.

For a distillery — a category where the whole business model points towards drinking the product — the non-alcoholic list is more considered than it needs to be, and it runs all year rather than appearing for January. Local coverage of the current menu names four: a non-alcoholic mule built seasonally, most recently on apple cider syrup and ginger beer; the Berry Burlesque, which uses a blackberry purée as its base; a Cinnamon Apple; and Wings Over Ohio. Earlier iterations of the same list carried a Beachside Coffee — cold brew with honey syrup, blood orange purée and fresh citrus — and the Lost Jewel, a cranberry-vanilla drink finished with mint and citrus. The rotation is the point: the zero-proof drinks change with the seasons in step with the cocktail list rather than sitting static at the bottom of the menu. Worth knowing that Sunday service ends at 3pm, and that the address, while carrying a Columbus postal designation, sits inside the Grandview Yard district rather than downtown. The pub itself is a large, casual room built for volume rather than intimacy, which makes it one of the easier bookings in the metro for a mixed group where some people are drinking and some are not. Brunch runs at weekends, the kitchen serves late, and parking is free and off-street — small logistical points, but the kind that decide where a group actually ends up. The distillery also runs tours and a bottle shop on site for anyone visiting for the production side.