Over the years, Jesse Steward Jr. would listen to his grandfathers trade family stories over cigars and glasses of whiskey.
Steward learned how the men met their wives, how one liked to drag race, and how they migrated to Chicago from Arkansas. As an adult, he even joined in the drinking and smoking sessions.
During one of their gatherings, inspiration struck: Steward decided to launch his own whiskey brand and name it after his now-6-year-old son, Alexander James.
“I’m really big on legacy,” said Steward, 32, of Beverly, who works as an airport operations supervisor at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. “All of our family’s history and legacy was told over a glass of whiskey. So, I wanted to continue that tradition of storytelling and encourage people to do the same.”
Today, Alexander James, Bull Young Bourbon and Renard Whiskey are the only Black-owned whiskey brands in Chicago. Having launched within the last four years, the companies are part of a nationwide increase of Black entrepreneurs founding alcohol brands, according to Pronghorn, an Atlanta-based business that invests in Black-owned spirits brands. Leading the pack is Uncle Nearest, the award-winning Tennessee whiskey brand that honors the first-known African American distiller, Nathan “Nearest” Green.
Seven years after launching, Uncle Nearest is now valued at $900 million.
Despite that momentum, industry insiders say Black-owned alcohol brands are still just a fraction of the industry, due to lack of access to capital and other resources. And research by Pronghorn shows that, while Black people represent 12% of alcohol consumers, they only account for 7% of the employment base, with only 2% at the executive level. Still, Chicago’s Black whiskey brand owners are enthusiastically pressing forward while supporting each other.
“It’s really cool to see somebody that looks like me in the same industry, and in the same city, do their thing,” Steward said. “We all have our own different niches and customer bases. So, I don’t look at it as competition. The pie is big enough for everybody to eat.”
‘Underfunded and overlooked’
Alexander James’ success has been swift. Since launching in 2022, Steward has sold nearly 2,000 cases of his straight bourbon whiskey and rye whiskey. The bottles are available in about 200 bars, restaurants and retail stores in Illinois, including Binny’s Beverage Depot and Mariano’s grocery chain.
Steward said he hopes to sell 1,000 cases statewide this year and eventually branch out to Washington, D.C., and Georgia.
Consumers appreciate the taste of the product, which is aged for at least four years in charred oak barrels at Two Eagles Distillery in Mount Prospect, he said. But they also like the story behind the brand.
“It’s something that everybody can relate to,” he added. “I’m an everyday, average person. I don’t come from money. … I still go to work every day.”
Impressed with Alexander James’ growth in Chicago, Pronghorn decided to invest in the company. Its goal is to make financial contributions to 57 Black-owned spirits brands and place 1,800 Black Americans in jobs in the industry by 2032.
“In general, Black-owned brands have been historically underfunded and overlooked,” said Steven Brown, senior vice president of finance at Pronghorn.
That reality, combined with limited access to information about the highly regulated alcohol industry, can create barriers to making headway, Brown added.
That’s why Pronghorn also provides Black-owned spirits brands with consulting services from industry experts, he said.
“We do this to ensure that they don’t just have access to cash, but also to our knowledge, our network and resources to help them grow their businesses exponentially.”
‘Curated from a chef’s palate’
When it came time to secure funding for his whiskey brand, Chef Danny Bullock relied on angel investors, as well as savings from his time cooking overseas.
From 2017 to 2020, Bullock worked as the personal chef for Chicago basketball player Jeremy Pargo, who played with the Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club in Israel. While living abroad, Bullock began trying out different whiskeys for fun.
“My chef spidey senses got activated,” said Bullock, 33, of Bronzeville, who owns Bull Young Bourbon. “I found it parallel to my chef creations. Bourbon is made with rye, corn and barley. I use [those] in savory cooking, too. The process of it was very similar to making a consommé.”
But when he returned to Chicago to launch Bull Young Bourbon, he initially hit a snag.
“It’s definitely a gate-kept industry,” he said. “Before I found a distillery, 300 distilleries said no.”
Bullock eventually secured a partnership with the MGP Ingredients distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where his bourbon is aged in barrels for nearly five years. From there, the alcohol is bottled at Thornton Distilling Co. in south suburban Thornton.
After launching in 2020, Bull Young Bourbon has grown significantly, now boasting an annual revenue of just under $500,000 and sales of 700 to 800 cases per year. And bottles are retailed in 48 states online, and in about 100 physical locations in Illinois and several other states.
“It’s curated from a chef’s palate,” Bullock said of his product. “It’s a whiskey drinker’s whiskey. It’s 90 proof, so it gives you some bourbon burn. It stands up well in a cocktail and has notes of citrus, vanilla, caramel and smoke.”
In celebration of Bull Young Bourbon’s anniversary, Bullock will collaborate with the Kentucky-based Bardstown Bourbon Co. on the 115-proof Bull Young Senior bottle in early summer.
In addition to managing the brand, Bullock continues to work as a personal chef, culinary instructor at Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School and curator of social events. He hopes to open his own bar in the near future.
“I definitely had a lot of naysayers saying, ‘Well, you’re not Jack Daniel’s,’ things like that,” he said. “But I just use that as fuel because I think what I’m doing now will open the doors and give people proof that it can happen, that it is realistic.”
‘The industry is on the verge of making a turn’
Another entrepreneur hoping to realize his dreams is longtime educator and mental health professional Renard Lewis.
He was inspired to start his own whiskey brand as a 40th birthday gift to himself.
“I kind of just jumped into it,” said Lewis, now 46, of Bronzeville. “I wanted to create something that had that true whiskey taste without the burn in your chest. I believe I accomplished that.”
Lewis spent time researching and planning, drawing on his experience tasting whiskey during his travels to more than 50 countries. He eventually partnered with a distillery in Florida and launched Renard Whiskey in 2023. He chose a fox for the logo — the animal’s name is “renard” in French.
In addition to its smoothness, Lewis points out sweet notes in his whiskey, which is aged in toasted barrels for three years.
So far, Renard Whiskey is only in a handful of stores and restaurants, including Windy City Ribs & Whiskey at Navy Pier, A&S Beverages in Hyde Park and Bevdas Wine & Spirits.
“There’s a lot of room for growth,” Lewis said. “However, even with that small number of locations, the sales are going really fast. I sold out of my first run [of 500 cases], and I’m running out of my second run.”
In the future, Lewis wants to offer a rye version of his whiskey, and sell canned mixed drinks, including his signature apple pucker cocktail, “The Quick Fox.”
He also dreams of opening his own distillery in Bronzeville.
Lewis said he thinks even more Black entrepreneurs will be encouraged to enter the industry.
“Sometimes you’ve got to see somebody else doing it to visualize it,” he said. “I think that the industry is on the verge of making a turn.”
