In a matter of months, the largest new construction project on Tallahassee's South Monroe Corridor will be ready to receive its first wave of customers.
Construction work at SoMo Walls is complete, with the exception of minor punch-list items. With delays pushing a full-opening to the summer, all but one of its tenant spaces is leased. The Monroe restaurant and Walls Distilling Co. are conjoined anchor tenants within the redevelopment project estimated at more than $11 million.
The distillery will be the largest regional producer of homegrown gin, rum, vodka and whiskey and one of the top producers in Florida, said developer Bugra Demirel, the controversial face of the project from the start.
Demirel assembled a team of hospitality heavy hitters who've hustled behind the scenes and remained quiet about their involvement – until now. They all bring something to the table:
- Jesse Edmunds, a restaurateur who owns Bar 1903 on Park Avenue and El Cocinero, The Hawthorn Bistro & Bakery, the Black Radish and Liberty Bar — all in Midtown.
- Jason Grant, a founding partner at Ology Distilling.
- Jaymi London, who's worked alongside Edmunds to craft a unique tasting experience at Bar 1903 that reimagined the building's previous life as a library, now a bar serving cocktails from throughout the decades.
On a recent tour of the nearly complete distillery and restaurant space, the four business partners shared their vision with the Tallahassee Democrat. They said the project represented a unique opportunity to bring something unlike anything ever done in the capital, especially to Tallahassee's south side.
For Edmunds, even with all his success, this new venture is the crown jewel in his career. His passion for what's to come was evident the more he spoke about The Monroe restaurant, which will feature what he describes as "refined, sociable, shareable, small plates."
"We want to check the box when you think about us for date night," said Edmunds, regarding the target customer. "We want to be that part of your anniversary. We want to be part of the baby shower group of 20 on the patio. But we also want to be a place you can come on Tuesday and have a cocktail, grab a nice snack at the bar and enjoy your time and be social."
SoMo Walls vision evolved over time
Located about a mile away from Florida's Capitol, SoMo Walls is slated to bring commerce and custom art to its 2.3-acre city block on South Monroe between Oakland Avenue and Harrison Street.
Inside The Monroe's space, still littered with construction dust, boxes and equipment yet to be installed, Demirel and Edmunds talked about how they became partners. They were both surprised how they hadn't connected sooner.
For 10 years, it turns out, Demirel has been a fan of Liberty Bar and other businesses that fall under the Seven Hills Hospitality Group, where Edmunds is managing partner.
"We had like a whole plan for this," Demirel said, about the restaurant. "Then he showed up, and we changed everything."
"Just ruined it," quipped Edmunds, who came on board about two years ago. "Lobbed grenades at the whole thing."
Demirel said about more than half of the original plan shifted once Edmunds shared his thoughts on the potential direction, including the distillery tower, infrastructure, lighting and kitchen design.
The Monroe will have capacity seating for more than 200 people both inside and outside, which should be complete in about two weeks. Demirel describes the restaurant concept as "upper casual" and "the experience and interior design and the feel is going to be more than casual restaurant."
Jesse Edmunds brings insights and vision to The Monroe concept
Demirel has partnered with one of Tallahassee's youngest and most successful restaurant professionals.
Edmunds, 38, has been in the hospitality industry for more than 20 years; at age 14, he lied about his age to get his first restaurant job washing dishes. The weekend job allowed him to give his mom money to help put food on the table, he says.
That determination helped him build Seven Hills Hospitality as an exploration of different concepts, cuisines and styles and "things that have been interesting or things that I've wanted to see in Tallahassee."
This new restaurant will be the culmination of his other work and a chance to put himself "on a plate in a way I've never done before."
"Not that I haven't brought my best (in the past), but now I'm bringing a new level of experience and maturity based on where I'm at in my career," he said.
He's hoping to have a trained staff and be fully operational for a full house by early- to mid-summer. Right now, Edmunds describes the remaining push as "that annoying part where it's death by a thousand cuts, and you're just chasing all the details and the refined work."
Then "it snaps together and three weeks later, you're like, 'Oh, restaurant just happened,' " he said. "This is nine for me ... We do this every single time."
SoMo Walls faced political, supply chain and labor challenges
SoMo Walls will mark a redevelopment milestone for South Monroe Street as its commercial evolution continues. The project has garnered both support and fierce criticism, with Tallahassee City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow among the most vocal.
Matlow railed against the project led by Demirel, who chairs the Grow Tallahassee political committee and helped support Matlow's challenger, David Bellamy, who lost the last election.
On social media, the outspoken commissioner skewered Demirel's request for additional public dollars for the project without knowing more about the project's financial viability. It was already slated to receive $776,000 in Community Redevelopment Agency funds once complete: $560,000 in grants and $216,000 as a reimbursement.
Matlow has since questioned the delays in a TV interview, but says he will attend on opening day to wish them well.
Last September, a 6-5 vote among Blueprint board members approved giving a "recoverable grant" in the amount of $1.8 million and allowing Demirel a chance to repay $1 million. Such a funding option had never been offered in Blueprint's history.
Demirel said much of the public money went toward on-site infrastructure upgrades, which cost an estimated $1.3 million. He said no public money went toward the operational equipment.
While the project previously was slated to open by now, he said it's been affected by storm impacts, the COVID-19 public health crisis and supply chain issues the pandemic created, along with labor shortages that still plague the local and national economy.
"We've been through a lot but it shows my team's resilience," Demirel said. "All the way from the design to execution, and also from an anchor standpoint with Walls Distilling and The Monroe, my team did an amazing job pushing this project through all these difficulties and speed bumps."
With the exception of one unit, the tenant portion of the project is leased out. Burn Boot Camp's build-out is under way, making the SoMo Walls site its second location in town. An unnamed pizza business is committed, along with a national franchise, to be named soon, with dozens of locations throughout Florida.
About 15 tall outdoor panels called "fins" will feature artwork from local artists. Some panels are dedicated to tenants, such as Burn Boot Camp, to commission a local artist to bring their unique flare.
"Every single fin has the lighting attached, so at night, the front is activated," Demirel said, as he explained the concept. "If you pass by this project at night, it looks really cool with the fins. That was the goal."
His group considers South Monroe "to be a gateway, to be honest, to the south side," he continued. "Also, it could be part of the airport gateway. A lot of folks use this road to go to an airport. So beautifying this front, activating South Monroe, has been the key component of the project."
Walls Distilling Company will be specialized manufacturing
The operations side of the Walls Distilling Company looks like something out of a sci-fi film. Copper tubes and columns create a floor-to-ceiling maze that resemble a science lab.
It's an industrial manufacturing facility, not just commercial grade. Eight tanks have various jobs, including fermenting, along with grist cases used for holding the grains.
The operation — from milling, cooking and fermenting the grains and then after fermentation, distilling the grains — is so hyper-specialized that the partners have had a tough time finding local contractors to work on its assembly.
"It's not your typical heating and air conditioning chiller or boiler," Edmunds said. "These things have very specific purposes. We're also dealing with the fact that we've got not a lot of people in this town that have even seen or installed that kind of stuff."
SoMo Walls contractors have had to Facetime with out-of-state engineers to walk them through the installation of piping and other equipment for the distillery. Amid the flurry of other details to be finalized, the partners have to determine which spirits will be available in time for The Monroe's debut.
"That's going to change the timeline as well," Edmunds said. "We're going into growing seasons. We got to look at wheat and corn availability. There's just a lot."
Heating boilers alone are another specialized area, said Jason Grant, head distiller and director of operations for Walls Distilling Co. He said a 50-horsepower boiler is needed to run three pieces of equipment, which would more commonly be used for a small house.
The partners are on site, six days a week, for hours at a time. They often have to roll up their sleeves and do some of the project's punch list themselves because it's so close to go-time.
Grant, who earned his doctorate in biochemistry at Florida State University, said the distilling operation plans to produce rum and vodka first, followed by gin and agave spirts.
"The gin and the agave take a little bit of experimentation on what we want to put on the shelf," he said. "We'll experiment with those because we'll probably make eight different gins before we're like, 'Hey, we're happy with this one.' "
Clustered on the concrete floor of The Monroe, the partners spilled details on the project. London, the beverage director, gushed about the excitement to work with the distillery and writing up a one-of-a-kind beverage program.
She serves as COO of Edmunds's other restaurants. When she saw the space and plans, London said she went to Edmunds and said, "I need to have fun with this one."
She describes the opportunity as a dream.
"The way that I look at any restaurant is, you're coming in for an experience, and my hope is that everyone comes in and really finds something for everyone."
Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on X.
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