New Columbia Distillers is a family business owned by Michael Lowe and his wife, Melissa Kroning and John Uselton and his wife, Elizabeth Lowe.

John and Michael come to their passion for craft distilling by wearing many hats in the restaurant and liquor business’”not to mention the military and legal worlds. From Houston to Boston to Washington, John has worked in all capacities of front-of-house restaurant work’”from humble busboy to award-winning bar- tender to savvy manager. Michael spent a couple of years on a Navy submarine and a few more at private DC law firms. He retired from the law in 2008, bought himself several cocktail books and started investigating the art and science of distilling.

In 2011 John and Michael were the first to bring craft distilling to DC. After a brief apprenticeship with Dry Fly Distillery, they located a home for their distillery in a 90-year-old warehouse near the Art Deco landmark Hecht Co. warehouse on New York Ave. When they learned the history of The Man In The Green Hat, they knew they had a name for DC’s own signature gin.