Page 44 - SLO Visitors Guide - Summer 2026

44 SUMMER 2026 slovisitorsguide.com
Los Osos
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 variations of spirits, “Distilling
is a very good fit for my personality
and lifestyle,” he says. “I enjoy using
the tasting room as a social outlet. I
am normally a very private person,”
he says. “Plus, I have a captive audi-
ence 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
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
Not to be missed
array of corn
whiskeys, bourbons,
ryes, gins, and
spiced rums
Join the crowd for exquisite spirits at the Foggy Bottom Distillery.
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. You may
even find him running the still.
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 restau-
rant, 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 enter-
tainment? 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