Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Barkman.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
In 2008, I moved my family to College Station and built the Republic Steakhouse. Less than two years later, we became the first restaurant in the area to win Wine Spectator Magazine’s Four Diamond Award. Two years after that, we began brewing beer out the steakhouse. We were the county’s first and only brewery and there was a steep learning curve. We were using a 15-gallon keg system and brewing four batches a day, six days a week, we still weren’t able to keep up with demand.
In 2012, I sold my stake in the restaurant to family members so that I could build my whiskey distillery. (The Texas three-tier system prohibits the owner of a manufacturing plant from also owning an alcoholic beverage retailer.) In 2013, we began mashing, fermenting and distilling a sweet mash of 63 percent corn, 25 percent wheat and 12 percent malted barley whiskey that we sold at 90-proof, unfiltered, as Whistlestop Texas Whiskey.
Soon after that, Spec’s picked us up and began selling it in more than 200 stores across Texas. Starting with the second batch, we began putting this same whiskey in charred barrels and, after a few years, we started bottling Boxcar Blended Whiskey and RBD Texas Straight Bourbon. Other stores followed Specs’ lead, and soon after, our brands were sold at chain restaurants throughout Texas, New York and New Jersey. Today, you can find our products on shelves and in bars in Dallas, Manhattan, Amsterdam and Okinawa.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In early 2020 – at the beginning of the pandemic – we were approached by several community members who had no alcohol sanitizer for their families, including elderly patients and sick children. Our local hospitals and senior centers were left with no sanitizer for their syringes and dialysis systems.
So, we broke about a dozen state and federal laws by producing sanitizer with hundreds of gallons of clear spirits we had on-hand, putting it into unapproved whiskey bottles and handing them out to paramedics, police, firefighters, doctors and nurses. About two months after we started, we received letters from government agencies telling us we wouldn’t go to jail for doing the things we had already been doing. We also received hundreds of offers to purchase our hand sanitizer, all of which we turned down. We gave away every drop.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I worked as an investigative reporter for a number of newspapers in New Mexico, Texas and Alaska, where I covered crime and government affairs. I wrote stories on tribal issues, robberies, assaults, murder and elections. While I was serving as managing editor of the Bristol Bay Times newspaper in Dillingham, Alaska, I met Larry Little, an old veteran who taught me how to use a 55-gallon drum to turn corn meal into whiskey. In 2005, I moved to Bloomfield, New Mexico and built a laundromat, which I later sold. I used this seed money to build the The Republic Steakhouse.
How do you think about happiness?
My wife Tiffany and our kids, Matilda, age 12 and Samuel, age 10. Matilda was born while we were just starting up. They both grew up in this distillery.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.riobrazosdistillery.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riobrazosdistillery/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riobrazosdistillery
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFp-Y3AtCs
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rio-brazos-distillery-college-station?osq=rio+brazos+distillery
Image Credits
Feature photo
Photo credit: Steven Miric
All other photos:
Photo credit: Nathan Barkman
