Seed & Spirit Distilling is planning a new tasting and mixing room at 1900 E. Lincoln Avenue in Fort Collins, bringing its spirits and cocktails to a space that will serve cocktails, spirit tastings, and food, with live music planned for the patio. The distillery is targeting an early fall 2026 opening, though it has not announced a specific date.
According to WhatNow, the new location will include a full bar serving specialty cocktails made from Seed & Spirit’s own spirits, alongside a menu built around oysters and wood-fired pizzas. The Fort Collins distillery is expanding its footprint in Northern Colorado with the project, which it also plans to use for events. Guests hoping for exact timing are being directed to the company’s website and social media for updates.
A Bigger Space Built Around Food
The Lincoln Avenue building was previously occupied by Belgian-style craft brewery Funkwerks before that company ceased operations, according to BizWest. During an August industry panel, Seed & Spirit founder Joel Gustafson explained that taking over the larger space is what prompted the company to build out an elevated dining menu featuring raw oysters and tartare, an approach that leans on low-cost in-house alcohol production to support a small-scale fine-dining concept, the outlet reported.
Gustafson founded Seed & Spirit under what the company calls a seed-to-spirit philosophy, growing corn on local farmland and running an in-house malthouse to process grains before distillation, per In Good Taste Denver. The distillery currently operates out of an industrial park facility in Fort Collins, and its signature product is Whiszcal, a hybrid liquor made by vapor-infusing and double-distilling wild Mexican agave spirit smoked in-house with hardwoods, then blending it with a three-grain Colorado white whiskey mash.
A Counter-Move In a Shrinking Industry
The expansion arrives at a rough moment for Fort Collins’ craft distilling scene. CopperMuse shut its Old Town tasting room in mid-2024 before filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April 2025, while Old Elk closed its downtown venue, The Reserve, in May 2025 after selling to Ohio-based Middle West Spirits, the same BizWest report noted. Hoodline previously covered a decade-old distillery’s closure tied to the broader slump hitting Colorado’s craft spirits producers…