ORLANDO, Fla. – It took Joe and Ginger Leigh more than two years to realize their dream of opening Orlando’s first meadery — a winery focused on making honey wines.
The effort has seen the pair put in long hours.
“It’s incredible. We’ve been doing 120-hour weeks for the past year,” Joe Leigh said. “It’s just the two of us. We have wonderful bartenders. But we do everything else.”
The pair opened their taproom at 1121 N. Mills Ave. in August after a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2021. After that, they had to find a location and then jump through all kinds of red tape.
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“Alcohol production is highly regulated with the government. It’s both state and federal. So every formula needs to be approved, every label needs to match the formula — so every word is regulated,” Joe Leigh said.
Beyond the regulatory hurdles, Ginger Leigh, who is also an artist under the name Synthestruct, designed the entire taproom while also working with the city for various grants.
“We complement each other really well,” Ginger Leigh said. “Alongside with doing the creative, the fun parts, there’s also applying for the permits and things. It couldn’t possibly have gone faster because we were working on that — we would wake up in the morning, and then pretty much until we went to sleep at night.”
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All of the hard work has paid off for the couple, as their taproom has been a big draw in Orlando’s trendy Mills 50 neighborhood.
“People notice as they’re driving down Mills Avenue, big black building, and a lot of people the logo catches their eye,” Ginger Leigh said. “They don’t know what it is, so it intrigues them. So, yes, we’ve had so many people say that they were driving by and they had to do a quick U-turn to see you know what exactly is this big black building.”
The pair said they get a lot of people who have never tried mead before entering their taproom.
“They don’t realize that it can taste very different depending on the honey that we use,” Ginger Leigh said. “And there’s different styles — it can be fruited, it can be spiced — and so even if they’ve had it before, a lot of people that come in, they’re still trying it like it’s the first time they’ve had it because they’re trying something new.”
On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Joe and Ginger Leigh walk us through the mead-making process. They also share insights on the different kinds of honey they use and all the different styles of mead they offer.
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