Little Lon Distilling Co opens small bar hidden in Melbourne’s CBD

A heritage-listed brick cottage in an alleyway off Little Lonsdale St had many uses over the years— it was a brothel, sly-grog house and today it’s one of the city’s smallest gin distilleries. Here’s how to find it.

Brad Wilson is a creative who loves a challenge. He loves making things, whether it be restoring his1977 Trans Amor renovating his new Ballarat home.

So it’s not surprising the 42-year-old former creative director went from a flashy job in Singapore to later open one of Melbourne’s smallest gin distilleries in the CBD.

“We put too much effort into letting ideas die, so I’d like to see this one through,” he says.

Brad opened Little Lon Distilling Co last July — a tiny bar that’ll fit 20 people and one of the smallest heritage buildings in Casselden Place, off Little Lonsdale street.

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Brad Wilson prepares a gin and tonic with the gin he’s made at Little Lon — one of the smallest gin distilleries in Melbourne’s CBD. Picture: Tony Gough

The brick cottage, a sly grog house back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, is where Brad and his brother Jarrod make four types of small-batch gin, something they say they couldn’t have done without a grant from the City of Melbourne.

“We’re not trying to reinvent gin, we’re going the way it needs to be made,” he says.

Instead Little Lon is about staying true to its, ahem, roots — with the brand named after its former city slum and brothel district.

Each gin is named after notable characters linked to the property — the Proudfoot; a traditional London Dry, Ginger Mick; a savoury drop and Little Miss Yoko; a lychee-infused gin.

Early in Little Lon’s story, Brad met with Michael Shelford who runs Melbourne’s Historical Crime Tours.

“He came in and had these hand held projector and he just shot mugshots of people (linked to Little Lon) up on the wall,” he says.

One was Constable Bill Proudfoot, a police officer and a premiership winning Collingwood captain in the 1890s.

After retiring from footy Proudfoot worked as a cop, patrolling the red light district and slum Little Lon.

The Ginger Mick, Little Miss Yoko and Proudfoot.

“With Proudfoot, we wanted to do a typical London style gin but using our own base spirit. A little more wheat gets through,” Brad says.

The next gin, Ginger Mick, was named after a character from the C.J Dennis book The Sentimental Bloke, which spoke of the ‘low, degraded broots of Little Lon.’

“Ginger Mick’s a bit more savory but Proudfoot is quite clean, rosemary and piny,” he says.

While the last gin in the range, Little Miss Yoko, was named after lady of the house Yokohama Tiecome Ah Chung.

“She ran this house as a brothel,” he says. “We made a lychee-infused gin and named it after her.”

Little Lon’s fourth gin, Dutchy Thomas, is a jenever named after joker Arthur ‘Dutchy’ Thomas.

The boys also use beer as the base spirit to create their gin, working with brewhouse Tallboy Moose, instead of commercially viable ethanol.

“95% of the industry use ethanol, which makes much more business sense,” Brad says.

“We use beer as our neutral spirit, so it’s not as pure. We have extra wheat and grain coming through. It’s more about being truer to the craft … I like how things are made from scratch.”

Brad also reached out to Philippines illustrator Kerby Rosanes to design Little Lon’s bottle.

The art-inspired bottles feature a unique sketch design of the Little Lon slum.

While it’s taken a few months to get off the ground, Little Lon hopes Melburnians continue to enjoy their gin while they can.

The boys only have a 12 month contract for the space.

“The idea would be to grow, outgrow this space, but we’d love to stay where we are in Melbourne.”

Brad had his still made to measure so he could fit in inside the tiny brick cottage off Little Lonsdale St. Picture: Tony Gough

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