Heritage, Stillaguamish partner on new Angel of the Winds distillery

A new tasting room at Angel of the Winds Casino Resort is open for business.

A multi-year project, Heritage Distilleries partnered with the Stillaguamish Tribe on the new bar that opened Friday. With its selection of whiskeys and mixed drinks to try — and bottles to buy — it adds yet another offering for the casino that already has a brewery and several restaurants.

It’s the first distillery in a casino in the Pacific Northwest, company literature said.

Stillaguamish Tribal Chair Eric White learned about the company’s Tribal Beverage Network, a program seeking to connect tribes with Heritage for commercial opportunities.

“We just wanted to help tribes with diversifying their portfolio, economic opportunities, bringing more amenities down to their players and tribal land,” said Jennifer Stiefel, who started the business based in Gig Harbor along with her husband, Justin. “And so that’s kind of how it sparked.”

Until 2018, tribes were not allowed to distill alcohol on tribal land under federal law.

White hopes it provides new opportunities for casino patrons.

Similarly, Heritage is “looking for partners in the tribal network who are aggressive, who really want to stand out, and who want to, most importantly, provide an amazing customer experience to their players, their patrons together,” Justin Stiefel said.

And as far as the space itself?

“It’s awesome,” White said. “We’re just trying to find experiences for our players.”

The tasting room itself is modern and comfortable, with plenty of seating. It is almost identical to other tasting rooms Heritage has built across the western United States. That’s on purpose — if a customer goes to one of their tasting rooms, the Stiefels want it to mirror the others.

The room has an alcove displaying bottles of spirits, all for sale. There’s two places to get drinks — one for mixed drinks, and another a straight bar.

“Angel of the Winds, we’re not just a casino,” said casino CEO Travis O’Neil. “We don’t just want to be a casino. We’ve got the bowling, we’ve got the entertainment, we’ve got the restaurants. We’ve got a variety of things for people to do. So we thought this concept would be perfect, perfect on our casino floor.”

Throughout the room sit small barrels. These are part of Heritage’s “cask club” where customers can create their own spirit blend. After it ages (between 2-8 months, depending on the spirit) customers get bottles of whiskey from the cask. Cask club membership starts at $279.

The wood is American, noted Justin Stiefel, but the barrels are built in Spain.

“It’s really exciting, because when you come here to this particular location, they have their own story and their own tribal story, and that’s a part of our cask club,” Jennifer Stiefel said. “At Heritage, every spirit has a story.”

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