Get your fix: Drink Mechanics to open downtown Hartford location

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A Connecticut-based canned cocktail startup is set to open its first location at the former Morton’s Steakhouse in downtown Hartford.

Drink Mechanics, which launched in 2020 during the pandemic, announced that it will open a distillery with a tasting room and full bar at 30 State House Square sometime in 2024. 

Named State House Distilling by Drink Mechanics, the business will occupy about 8,000 square feet of the sprawling 1.3 million-square-foot office building across from Constitution Plaza.

Renderings of the new distillery show indoor and outdoor seating areas.

Morton’s Steakhouse, once considered one of the best steak restaurants in Connecticut, closed its only location in the state on New Year’s Eve in 2015. 

The founding partners of Drink Mechanics, Aaron Stepka and Taylor Gillaspie, took advantage of a state law passed in 2020 allowing cocktail delivery, to convert an ice cream truck into a mobile canned cocktail retailer.

Drink Mechanics began distributing its products to liquor stores in 2022.

The business currently sells five flavors of cocktails: Strawberry Fields, Christopher Oaxacan, Spa Water, Love It When Ya Call Me Big Papaya and Bourbon Legend. More flavors are expected.

As of July 2022, the Hartford Chamber of Commerce had approved a $150,000 Hart Lift grant to help retrofit a space at 30 State House Square for State House Distilling Co.