Page 48 - Demo

48 WINTER 2025 slovisitorsguide.com
Los Osos
Foggy Bottom Distillery, crafted
spirits in a coastal village
Owner Todd Adams opened
Foggy Bottom Distillery in the
often-foggy coastal village of Los
Osos in March of 2017. The small
but mighty distillery produces a
wide array of spirits including corn
whiskeys, bourbons, ryes, gins, and
spiced rums.
Adams says he enjoys creating
new variations of spirits, “Distilling
is a very good fit for my personality
and lifestyle,” he says. “I enjoy using
the tasting room as a social outlet. I
am normally a very private person,”
he says. “Plus I have a captive audi-
ence and they have to laugh at all
my jokes and wild stories.”
Adams loves to give distillery
tours to his patrons, who often
will ask incredulously, “You make
everything in here?” His reply is,
“Yes, all 35 plus spirits were made
in here! That is when they are
really blown away; seeing that the
distillery is the size of a small walk-
in closet.”
Finding a
location for
his distillery
was no easy
feat, accord-
ing to Ad-
ams. He says
that being a
distillery was
a deterrent
for many
leasing agents. Adams also works
as a county building inspector and
said that one day on the job he was
Small but mighty
distillery produces
an array of corn
whiskeys, bourbons,
rye’s, gins, and
spiced rums
inspecting the build-
ing that houses Martin’s
restaurant for a remodel
when he said jokingly
that there was an unusual
condition on the permit:
that 100-square feet be
dedicated to a craft dis-
tiller. After some convinc-
ing and a whiskey tasting,
the owners agreed to let
Adams open his distillery in a small
100-square-foot room. They would
later alter the plans for the distillery
to add a deck for the tasting room.
Adams also has an off-site barrel
room for aging.
Adams is a busy man; inspect-
ing during the week and giving
tastings every weekend. You may
even find him running the still,
which he says he did often up
until the COVID-19 pandemic
hit. During the pandemic, Adams
joined several other local distillers
in making an immediate pivot to
producing hand sanitizer. Foggy
Bottom sold half of it and gave the
other half away, “I just wanted to
make my money back on it.” Adams
said.
The future of Foggy
Adams has big plans for the
future of Foggy Bottom. He says he
plans on retiring from the county
building department in about 3
years, after which he will be able to
devote more time to growing the
business. He says he can have three
locations with his current license,
and if he adds a restaurant he can
have a full bar. “My little brother is
working on having a location near
his home in Roseville California,” he
says. He has big plans for the restau-
rant, he says, “but I don’t want to give
up those secrets yet.”
Foggy Bottom is open for tastings
on Saturdays from noon - 7 p.m. and
Sundays from noon - 6 p.m. “If you
come for a tasting, you will be en-
tertained by my telling of the Foggy
Bottom story,” says Adams. Drinks
and entertainment? Sign me up!
Foggy Bottom is located at 905 Los
Osos Valley Rd., Suite B, in Los Osos.
For more information about their
spirits and tasting room location, visit
https://www.fbdistillery.com/ or call
805-795-1727.
—Skye Pratt
Owner, Todd Adams.