New Ligonier bottle shop specializes in area winery, distillery brands
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A lot of ideas get tossed around over a few drinks, but most of them don’t survive until the light of day. One that did resulted in Wandering Spirits, a boutique bottle shop that opened Oct. 8 in Ligonier.
Owners are Emily and Ty Honhart, who live in nearby Laurel Mountain Park with their three young children.
“A little seed was planted in my head about September 2020,” Emily Honhart said. “What really started it was, during covid, we would be sitting around a campfire in our little bubble with our friends and neighbors. Someone would bring a bottle of something — a new kind of whiskey, a new kind of gin — and we would make a drink and talk about it. It became a thing to do.
“We realized how little access there was here to some of these local wineries and distilleries,” she said. “Their options are either selling at the state store, folks coming to their distillery or winery or doing the farmers markets and what-not.
“We offer a very different experience from going to a state store, where you’re left to your own devices to figure out what you want,” she said. “Folks can come up here and taste the spirits or the wines and know they like it before they buy it.
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“Ligonier is so big on craftsmen and makers and growers that I thought this kind of store would do great here, to have folks exposed to these smaller brands,” she said. “Ligonier didn’t have anything like it; it doesn’t have any wineries or distilleries. The little boutiques and shops do very well here because there is a big tourism base.
“We realized this was an untapped market.”
Wine and spirits
Currently, Wandering Spirits carries products from Altered State Distillery in Erie, Blackbird Distillery in Brookville, Kingfly Spirits in Pittsburgh’s Strip District and Lucky Sign Spirits in Millvale.
Featured wineries are Tattiebogle Ciderworks in Acme and B&L Winery in Johnstown.
“We’ll be adding another distillery by the end of year, maybe two, and also adding a meadery and another winery,” Honhart said.
Along with being the first shop of its kind in Ligonier, Wandering Spirits is unique in another way.
“To our knowledge, in talking with our attorney and the Liquor Control Board, ours is the first place in Pennsylvania to have distillery and winery products in the same shop,” Honhart said. “This is actually considered by the LCB as two separate shops because we have two separate sales systems and two points of entry.”
Distilled products are displayed in one area of the shop, while wines are in a second area. There are four varieties of hard cider on tap, with growlers available.
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The shop also carries packaged cocktails to-go, mixers, artisanal food items, glassware, gift boxes and works for sale by a local artist. Everything the Honharts sell is made in Pennsylvania.
They also offer mobile event services and full-service brokerage to restaurants and resorts. At some point, they hope to add in-house tasting events.
Feet to the fire
Before opening the shop, Emily Honhart worked as an independent grant writer for nonprofit organizations. While she staffs the shop, Ty Honhart continues to work as a sales manager for a Pittsburgh company. They moved to the Ligonier area from Pittsburgh about four years ago.
They are intending to keep the number of brands they represent small.
“We don’t want someone to walk in and be inundated with choices,” Emily Honhart said. “We want to give people options, but we don’t want to oversaturate our market. It’s important that (our brands) get good representation from us.”
Wandering Spirits is on the second floor of a historic brick building at 201 E. Main St., above Crumpets Tea Shop. With wood floors and abundant windows, the space previously housed a photography studio.
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“We brought in fixtures from estate sales and auctions, along with some antiques,” Honhart said. “What’s cool is that all of our products have a story to tell, and every piece that’s in here has a story to tell.”
Neighboring shop owners have been welcoming and business has been good, she said. Their opening day coincided with the start of Fort Ligonier Days.
“It was pretty crazy, but we had a great turnout and a lot of fun,” Honhart said. “It was feet to the fire — but if we can do that, we can do anything.”
Shop hours are from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, with an extra hour until 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Hours may change when winter sets in, Honhart said.
For more information, visit wanderingspiritspa.com.