MAY 7 • 2020 | 17
Traverse City Whiskey turns from
booze to hand sanitizer to meet
community’
s needs.
SAM BLAKE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Jews in the D
O
n March 16, when Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer
ordered all Michigan
bars and restaurants to close
temporarily, Traverse City
Whiskey Co. was the largest
whiskey company in the state by
output and sales, according to
co-founder Jared Rapp, and one
of the largest craft distilleries in
the country.
Since then?
“You can’
t believe what’
s
happened,
” Rapp said. “We are
taking e-commerce orders in a
way that we never thought was
possible.
”
But TC Whiskey isn’
t ship-
ping any whiskey, brandy or
cocktail cherries. The Traverse
City-based distillery hasn’
t even
made a bottle of booze in five
weeks.
Instead, the typically small-
batch operation is producing
and shipping massive quantities
— as much as 10,000 gallons a
week — of hand sanitizer.
Rapp, who grew up in
Bloomfield Township and had
his bar mitzvah at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek in Southfield,
founded TC Whiskey with Moti
Goldring and Chris Fredrickson
in 2011. Their products, many
of which are kosher, are now
sold in bars and retailers across
the country. In Michigan alone,
Traverse City Whiskey has
around 4,000 retail partners.
In 2019, the company
opened a Ferndale location on
Woodward Avenue — its first
outside of Traverse City —
called The Outpost. Rapp was
headed there when he heard
about the governor’
s executive
order. By 3 p.m. that day, the
Outpost’
s general manager Jeri
Seeley had locked the door.
“It was surreal,
” Rapp
recalled.
For a week, Rapp and his
team desperately sought clar-
ity. With bars and restaurants
closed indefinitely, about a third
of their income had suddenly
vanished. And social distancing
rendered TC’
s tasting rooms,
tours and events inactive. “We
were just totally freaked out,
”
Rapp said.
Customers called to ask about
previously scheduled events,
and TC didn’
t know what to
tell them. Meanwhile, the ded-
icated staff of about 50 was left
wondering whether they’
d have
paychecks coming.
Leadership ensured employ-
ees they wouldn’
t lose their jobs.
Having heard about hand san-
itizer shortages, the company
figured it could use its on-hand
“tails” (the alcoholic leftovers
from distillation, “only good for
things like vodka and sanitizer,
”
said Rapp) to help out and keep
employees on payroll.
On March 21, TC posted
a Facebook message: “TC
Whiskey Hand Sanitizer is
now available.
” It included
a link to make a purchase,
Changing on the Fly
COURTESY OF TRAVERSE CITY WHISKEY
continued on page 18