News

Where are new distillery, Pasta Lady opening?

By Bill Moss, Published: August 4, 2022

The revitalization of the Historic Seventh Avenue District is continuing its recent momentum with the addition of soon-to-open businesses on Maple Street that offer food and drink.
M&T Distilling has announced on its website that it will open soon at 711 Maple Street and the Pasta Lady, who makes homemade pasta and teaches cooking classes, will also open in the coming weeks two doors down. In between, a flooring company is moving in.
M&T Distilling partners Joseph Taylor and Bill McConnell asked the City Council for a zoning amendment that allows the distillery in the historic district.
McConnell said he and Taylor hope to open in mid-September after replacing a crushed sewer line and finishing the interior work. The two partners and their wives plan to staff the distillery. They plan to be open Wednesday through Sunday.
On their website (mtdistilling.com), they pledged that their “Sippin’ on Seventh” distillery will produce “small batch, high quality moonshine and other spirits in the ways that follow the heritage of our forefathers.
We believe in using an all copper still the same as the old time moonshiners did in this region which helps in producing a higher quality spirit,” they said. “We will offer our straight 100 proof corn moonshine. We look forward to serving traditional moonshine along with our flavors: Coffee, Lemon Cinnamon Apple Pie, Peach, Salted Caramel Amoretto. There are other flavors in the works once we open and are established. We will be offering tours of the distillery and featuring cocktails made from our spirits.”
Dunlap Construction Co. is doing the upfit for the distillery, one of three storefronts in the 700 block of Maple Street owned by Miami developer and investor Lyle Chariff. Chariff has invested heavily in the Historic Seventh Avenue District, buying and renovating property at 317, 319 and 330 Seventh Avenue in addition to the Maple Street buildings.
Two doors down from the distillery, people may notice the aroma of spaghetti. Launa Marie Tierney declares that she makes pasta “the Old World Way” passed down from her Italian family. She has a popular pasta stand at the Flat Rock Farmers Market and has been teaching cooking classes at her home in Flat Rock. Because the cooking class has outgrown her home, more people will soon get the chance to taste her pasta and learn how it’s made.
“I'm going to expand my production so that I can offer the fettuccine and ravioli and gnocchi and sauces for anybody to come pick up during operating hours and also continue at the market,” Tierney said last week. “I've been doing hands-on pasta classes out of my home in Flat Rock since the pandemic ended, and I can only fit six people. I’ve had such a large demand for cooking classes with wait lists so now I can expand that.”
She has no immediate plans for dine-in customers.
“I'll probably start with takeout only because everyone knows the staffing issues everywhere,” she said. “Primarily it's going to be production, cooking classes, special events, and takeout.”
She will be next door to her husband, Sean, who is renting the space at 713 Maple Street for Tierney Floors.