Page 47 - SLO Visitors Guide Fall 2025

slovisitorsguide.com FALL 2025 47
Los Osos
Serving delicious local food and craft beer!
Outdoor Fireplaces & Live Music
945 Los Osos Valley Rd, Los Osos • theoldealehouse.com
Foggy Bottom Distillery, small but
mighty crafted spirits
Owner Todd Adams opened
Foggy Bottom Distillery in the
often-foggy coastal village of Los
Osos in March of 2017. The small
but mighty distillery produces a
wide array of spirits, including corn
whiskeys, bourbons, ryes, gins, and
spiced rums.
Adams says he enjoys creating
new varia-
tions of spirits,
“Distilling is
a very good
fit for my per-
sonality and
lifestyle,” he
says. “I enjoy
using the tast-
ing room as a
social outlet. I
am normally
a very private
person,” he says. “Plus, I have a
captive audience and they have
to laugh at all my jokes and wild
stories.”
Adams loves to give distillery
tours to his patrons, who often will
ask incredulously,
“You make everything
in here?” His reply is,
“Yes, all 35 plus spirits
were made in here!
That is when they are
really blown away,
seeing that the distillery is the size
of a small walk-in closet.”
Finding a location for his
distillery was no easy feat, accord-
ing to Adams. He says that being a
distillery was a deterrent for many
Not to be missed
array of corn
whiskeys, bourbons,
ryes, gins, and
spiced rums
leasing agents. Adams also works
as a county building inspector and
said that one day on the job, he
was inspecting the building that
houses Martin’s restaurant for a
remodel when he said jokingly that
there was an unusual condition on
the permit: that 100 square feet be
dedicated to a craft distiller. After
some convincing and a whiskey
tasting, the owners agreed to let
Adams open his distillery in a small
100-square-foot room. They would
later alter the plans for the distillery
to add a deck for the tasting room.
Adams also has an off-site barrel
room for aging.
Adams is a busy man; inspect-
ing during the week and giving
tastings every weekend.
The future of Foggy
Adams has big plans for the
future of Foggy Bottom. He says he
plans on retiring from the county
building department in about 3
years, after which he will be able to
devote more time to growing the
business. He says he can have three
locations with his current license,
and if he adds a restaurant, he can
have a full bar. “My little brother is
working on having a location near
his home in Roseville, California,”
he says. He has big plans for the
restaurant, he says, “but I don’t
want to give up those secrets yet.”
Foggy Bottom is open for tast-
ings on Saturdays from noon - 7
p.m. and Sundays from noon - 6
p.m. “If you come for a tasting, you
will be entertained by my telling
of the Foggy Bottom story,” says
Adams. Drinks and entertainment?
Sign me up!
Foggy Bottom is located at 905
Los Osos Valley Rd., Suite B, in Los
Osos. For more information about
their spirits and tasting room loca-
tion, visit fbdistillery.com or call
(805) 795-1727.
—Skye Pratt
Todd Adams shares his wild stories and custom-crafted spirits.