Online school starts for craft distilleries

Two Spokane natives have started The Artisan Craft Distilling University, an online educational program for those who want to start their own craft distillery. 

Owners Rockwell Rutter and Daniel Siegel have set up an office for the new venture in the Spokane Entrepreneurial Center, at 608 W. Second.  

“I originally wanted to start my own craft distillery, but found there just weren’t any good educational resources that answered my questions,” says Rutter.

Through an agreement with Artisan Craft Distilling Institute, an organization that offers five-day hands-on courses in Western Washington, Rutter and Siegel attended workshops and collected video footage. They then took all the information available in those hands-on workshops and made it available as online course content. 

To get started online, students have two membership options—a lifetime membership or a less-expensive monthly membership. Rutter says of the business, “I’ve been surprised to see that our lifetime plan has provided more than half our business to date. Our main source of business is actually our email list, which grows by about 70 signups per month.”

Rutter believes the startup’s offer a certain advantage over more expensive hands-on workshops. “These courses give you all the same content. Yes, there is something to be said for actually learning and using the equipment with your own hands. However, we offer the best education you can get on this without spending thousands.” 

Despite his success helping others to realize their dream of starting a distillery, Rutter says he has been too busy to start his own. In addition to the Distillery University, he owns Zoydan Games, a board game development and publishing company, as well as a Spokane-based digital marketing company called Se7en LLC. 

Rutter also has plans to evolve the Distillery University into Artisan University, an umbrella resource that will cover many different types of artisan trades. 

“I want to help people who want to work with their hands and make things they’re passionate about,” he says. 

—LeAnn Bjerken

Naturopathic clinic planned on S. Perry

Two local naturopathic specialists plan to open a clinic in the South Perry District later this month.

Patrick Love and Lauren Boldebuck will co-own the clinic, called Wellness Tree and located at 1025 S. Perry, next door to Perry Street Brewing.

“We decided to start this little clinic on our own,” Love says. “I’ve been doing home visits and online consulting up to now.” Love and Boldebuck each graduated from the National University of Health Sciences in Chicago in 2013.

Naturopathic medicine is an approach to health care that uses natural, non-toxic therapies to treat people while encouraging the self-healing process.

Love is a naturopathic specialist and chiropractor. Boldebuck is also a naturopathic specialist, acupuncturist, and has a master’s degree in Oriental medicines, Love says.

Their 1,500-square-foot business space will have four treatment therapy rooms and a juice bar stocked with specialty teas and natural juices. 

“From the retail side, anybody can come in and buy drinks,” Love says.

 

—Kevin Blocker

Allstate agent opens office on North Side 

Insurance agent William Jorgenson opened a new Allstate agency office at 6416 N. Nevada last month. 

“This office has been a goal since we first started,” says Jorgenson, who has been an insurance agent for 2 1/2 years. 

Jorgenson has leased an 11,000- square- foot office space in the North Nevada Center building. 

Prior to becoming an insurance agent, Jorgenson worked as a retail store manager for various Osco drug stores. Jorgenson first started working in insurance through Farmers Insurance. After about a year, he switched to working through Allstate. 

Jorgenson completed Allstate’s training process in June and opened the new office July 1. 

The new agency offers a full range of insurance products, including auto, home, condos, renters, motorcycle, business, life, and other kinds of insurance, he says. It’s a family-run business, operating with Jorgenson as the exclusive agent while his wife, Joni, and son, Shane, serve as licensed producers, handling property and casualty insurance. For now the family members are the agency’s only employees. 

Prior to working for the agency, Joni worked in accounts payable for Bouten Construction Co. and Shane was a welder at a Spokane fabrication company. 

Of the new offices, Jorgenson says “We’re really looking forward to working with the people of north Spokane. We’re happy to have gotten this location. It’s near a busy intersection and provides us with lots of exposure.” 

Part of the services Jorgenson says they’re able to offer customers are both extended and weekend hours of operation. The agency is open past 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. It also offers Saturday hours. 

 

—LeAnn Bjerken

Bookstore takes on partner, new name

A Spokane Valley shop once known as The Brass Plates Bookstore Inc. has partnered with Utah-based Deseret Book, and changed its name to The Brass Plates, an Independent Deseret Bookstore, says co-owner Cori Wright.

Wright and her husband, Rob, purchased the bookshop in May 2008 and moved the business to its current location at 15704 E. Sprague, she says.

The Brass Plates is aimed at the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints population, and the company serves a wide geographical area, including northeastern Washington, North Idaho, and Montana. The shop offers LDS books, along with Christian artwork, cookbooks, gifts, and more, says Wright. The store also has an array of literature that doesn’t focus on religion, she says. She describes these books as “good, clean fiction,” with genres ranging from murder mysteries to romance.

Partnering with Deseret Book means The Brass Plates can offer a wider variety of products, says Wright. Deseret catalog items will be available in the store as well, she says. The partnership also enables customers to use their Deseret Book platinum memberships locally, a service that isn’t available elsewhere in the Spokane area, she asserts. 

In addition to the two owners, four part-time employees work at the shop, including Wright’s family.

“We’ve had so much fun with the store,” says Wright about the bookstore, “and we want to bring the best in LDS products to Spokane.”

The Brass Plates is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and usually has extended hours during the holidays.  

 

—Samantha Howard

Shipper changes name, plans move 

Manito Ship & Copy has changed its name to Manito Shipping Company in an effort to give the business a more modern feel, says owner Mary Walker. 

“If I’d kept the name Manito Ship & Copy, I might as well have just called the company, Manito buggy whips and high-button shoes,” Walker says, adding that changing the name and focus is necessary to stay in business.

The company is in the process of moving from to a 1,600-square-foot retail space at 1914 S. Monroe, between Huckleberry’s grocery store and an Ace Hardware store on the South Hill. It’s relocating to a similar-sized space at 3030 S. Grand Blvd. 

Walker bought the business in 2001 and has two part-time employees. She says the proliferation of technology has forced her to constantly rethink how to remain in business. “I had to stop resenting that people buy everything online and began exploring different ways I could survive,” she says.

 Walker says a big part of her new marketing focus will be on customers needing a secure location to have their packages delivered and stored. 

“If you register with us, you can have your packages delivered here for a $5 charge, and we’ll hold it until you can pick it up,” she says. “It’s a lot safer than leaving your packages on the front doorstep of your home or apartment.”

 

—Kevin Blocker