Paul Hletko has brewing in his blood. His grandfather was a brewer in the Czech Republic but lost his business in World War II, and, despite moving to the U.S., continued to fight to get his brewery back until he died in 2008. Hletko wanted to pay homage to his grandfather and, with a passion for whiskey and gin, opening a distillery seemed like a natural option.

Hletko started as a home brewer in his hometown of Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. While a brewing hobbyist, Hletko worked as a patent attorney and had also worked in the music business, doing everything from playing guitar to running a record label to designing custom guitar effects. He began to plan the distillery, and it took five years before it was operational. Hletko was juggling two businesses but knew it was time to exclusively focus on distilling spirits.

“I was no longer able to do both and it was a real gut check,” he says. “The mind will tell you all sorts of things that it wants you to believe, like you need the money or that people will laugh at you or that you aren’t good enough to do it or whatever it takes to keep you in your comfort zone. But I had to make a choice between doing what I wanted to do and doing what I had to do.”

The shift from home brewer to commercial distiller occurred in 2011 when FEW Spirits opened its doors.

What’s in a Name

Evanston, Illinois was founded as a dry community and was the headquarters of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the organization that fought for suffrage, as well as to ban alcohol. Frances Elizabeth Willard, an inhabitant of Evanston, was a longtime president of the organization. While she died in 1898 before Prohibition, she was influential in the movement and was the first woman to have her statue in Statuary Hall in U.S. Capitol.

FEW Spirits was named using Francis Elizabeth Willard’s initials. On the one hand, it is a slap in the face to the history of temperance. But on the other hand, the name works perfectly in marketing taglines, such as “we don’t make a lot, we make FEW” or “if you are only going to have one, have FEW.”

The Challenges

With an anti-alcohol history, no alcohol was sold in Evanston until 1970 and there had never been alcohol production. Hletko was instrumental in laying the new groundwork to open a distillery in Evanston. But there was no instruction manual.

“The wide range of things that you need to have instant expertise about, as well as the lack of an instruction manual, were the biggest challenges,” says Hletko.

To get through these challenges, he credits hard work, trial and error, creating, science and art. He also turned to friends and mentors.

“I’ve had the privilege to learn from some of the best, including Robert and Sonat Birnecker at Koval, Drew Kulsveen from Willett, Matt Hoffman from Westland, Johnny Jeffrey formerly of Death’s Door, Rob Masters from Spring44, John Couchot from Rogue and now Boston Harbor Distillery, Scott and Becky Harris from Catoctin Creek, and more.”

While there were no guidelines when Hletko began, he helped establish alcohol production in Evanston. While FEW is still the only distillery, two breweries have since opened in the area.

Read the complete story at FoodableTV.com.