Sagamore Spirit Distillery — Attraction in Baltimore

Had a great weekend at Whiskey on the Water. Met a phenomenal server named Samira. She has professionalism, a great personality and definitely a wonderful person..she took time and patience with me and my circumstances even when it was crowded and hectic this past Saturday. Her great service shined through the unfortunate experience I had with another server at Sagamore. The server was a Caucasian woman with black hair in a Mohawk with a streak of green in her hair. I didn't get her name because she was rude. My bad experience began with watching her wait on everyone around me and another African American young man next to me at the outside bar. This young woman serviced all Caucasian individuals around us, but not me and the man next to me. Initially I thought it's crowded maybe she didn't see us, mind you we weren't together, I was there alone, but she ignored us blatantly several times. Finally in order to get her attention I had to scream across the bar and she finally came back over. I informed her that both of us needed service,but her demeanor was not friendly at all. In addition, we both finally ordered 1 drink a piece and I asked for my tab and she adds the man next to me drink on my bill. I asked for her to remove it and she says I thought you were together. Instead of asking she combined it together and got an attitude when I asked for her to correct it. She also gave the guy an extremely rude attitude when asking if he wanted to start a tab. He was so frustrated with her, he left soon after I did. Initially he asked his two sisters to join him down at Sagamore but changed his mind based upon the server with the black hair and Mohawk. For some reason, this server did walk away from us before paying both of our tabs , so this is where Samira stepped in and assisted both us. Samara also assisted me when I initially arrived at the outside bar and handled the busy crowd with nothing but professionalism. Thanks to her because she made the bad experience better. Another fyi. the young man sitting next to me is good friends with the Mayor of Baltimore Brandon Scott. He definitely said he would mention his bad experience to him regarding the poor...

I've done the tour a few years ago (not currently available because of COVID, but may be back in a few months) and I just came back for drinks at the relatively new bar they have opened up.

The tour is pretty interesting and worth doing for some hands on insight towards the distilling process. We took my father on the tour for a special occasion because he is a big whiskey drinker. It's a nice outing for a birthday/Father's day.

The bar is pretty small inside and with social distancing protocols only a handful of people can be inside at once. We had to sign in and wait a couple minutes for space to open up. You might be able to call ahead and reserve a spot, but I'm not sure. The small size was nice in that it gave the place a cozier and friendlier feel. There is an outside space as well that can accommodate many more, but it had been raining so it wasn't being used. The outside space would be lovely on a nice day as it is right on the water. We are actually hoping to come back to enjoy the outside area in a few weeks!

The drinks were very good and although the drink menu is limited, there is something available to please any palate. Ask for a black eyed rye, that one is not on the menu and its fantastic!

They don't offer food at the distillery itself, but they often host food trucks and in a few months they are going to expand on the food truck offerings.

The service was great, although we knew one of the bartenders so there may be some bias here 🙈, but they treated everyone else just as well as us!

I can definitely recommend checking this place out. I know I'll be frequenting it more often once the weather improves and the food...

Nice bar, good snacks, friendly, and overpriced. I should state upfront that I like Sagamore Spirits and the visit to the outdoor bar was fun. I cannot recommend the distillery shop, however.

At the bar, my friend and I got the Palo Cortado finished rye which was delectable with the Baltimore fish bites. The Palo Cortado is simply wonderful stuff and something I haven't seen on liquor stores recently. (Maybe it's gone.)

The bar was friendly but loud when we were there. Live music, meh. The vibe is interesting in this development near Under Armour on the water where there are luxury flats and lots of instant neighborhood vibes. It's okay but still feels "Under Construction" as an area. Parking nearby winds up being free but requires registration - such is life.

The distillery shop really disappointed me. When folks make a special pilgrimage to the mother ship of a well-regarded distillery, they expect to find unusual and cool bottles to buy there. This is the only distillery I've been to where that wasn't the case. Only the core range was available on the day we visited (as far as we could tell). Getting your name engraved on a bottle is okay I guess (?) but I would rather come home with something rare that can only be gotten at the source, a bottle to splurge on and to savor. They had that kind of stuff at the bar in the open bottles but not in the shop.

Or did I miss something? I would be glad to return and try again here. I still love their rye but I left feeling that the best place for Sagamore might be in an MD county...