We visited the location at 245 S Main St., Carrolltown PA 15722, which I am told is a secondary…read morelocation to the original Excise distillery in Patton. First, the location is convenient to find. It sits right on the main street, and there is a welcome flag outside.
There is plenty of parking and the outside of the building is very nice and well kept. Those are the last good things I can say about this location.
We walked inside and it looked crowded, but in actuality, there were less than 30 people in the entire place and only about eight sitting at the bar. I do consulting work so I travel frequently and when I do my husband and I take those opportunities to visit wineries and distilleries in the area and this is the first distillery I have ever been in where the display is located right behind the barstools and with the people sitting at the bar And their friends standing behind them, we could not even see what the distillery had to offer.
We stood at the bar for about 15 minutes and the bartender never even acknowledged we were there. Now again, it looked busy, but of the 8 to 10 people sitting at the bar there were 4 to 5 at the far end of the bar who were there either before or after a wedding reception that should have been cut off , and they were monopolizing his attention.
After we waited for him to take a drink order for more than 15 minutes after we were told he would be back twice, we just decided to buy liquor to try at home. I squeezed my way amongst the group to find the very small display in the back And literally just grabbed a few small sample bottles and one bottle of caramel something and made my way back to the bar. We put the bottles on the bar, put my husband's wallet next to the bottles, and we stood there for 33 minutes, I timed it on my phone because my husband and I had a bet on how long it would take the bartender to come back. I won at 30 and at 33 minutes. We walked out and left the liquor on the bar.
The gentleman sitting in the seat next to where we were standing, could see our frustration and told us if we wanted to go to a real distillery to go to the Moonshine Distillery in Namty Glo, which we did and it was worth the drive!
Unfortunately, this location looks like it's a bar with some samples on the wall, which is great if you wanna be a bar, but for people that look for distilleries and spend $$$$ when they are there, this is not the place to go. My recommendation, always acknowledge your customers when they are at the bar, even if it's just to say hey I'm busy, I'll be right back, but never ignore them. I have been to distilleries and wineries that are in old barns, in the middle of nowhere, and they still smell like active farms, but, the liquor was superb, the displays were amazing, and the people that worked there were friendly, engaging, and just amazing people which made the experience a five star visit every time.
