Etto co-owner Peter Pastan and manager Kat Hamidi have been making vermouth at the 14th Street NW restaurant since it opened and at Obelisk before that. Now, they're partnering with Green Hat Gin producer New Columbia Distillers to bottle and distribute the product, which they're planning to call Capitoline Vermouth.
"We've tasted a lot of mediocre to bad vermouth over the years," Hamidi says. "We had been making this product in the restaurants for some years, and we decided that it's a lot of fun and it's really delicious, so let's see if people like it as much as we do."
Hamidi says they plan to produce a couple different recipes, although she's waiting to share specifics until closer to the release. "The vermouth that we make is not what most consumers think of when they think of vermouth," she says. "It's got a little bit more complexity." The goal is make Capitoline available in bars, restaurants, and liquor stores throughout the city.
The group is currently in the middle of getting the bottle labels approved by federal regulators. They're aiming to debut the vermouth sometime this summer.
Photo of Etto's vermouth by Jessica Sidman