Black Business Spotlight: Royal Foundry Crafts Spirits

Building a community asset

When Royal Foundry Craft Spirits distillery opened in 2018, it was advertised as “the Minneapolis craft cocktail scene with a British flavor,” producing spirits—gin, single malt whiskey, and rum—made in the traditional way using grains, botanicals, and classic recipes. Fast-forward to 2023, and Royal Foundry Craft Spirits was about to close its doors, one of many businesses that succumbed during the pandemic.

Seizing the opportunity to open a new business that would serve North Minneapolis, Kamillah El-Amin approached the owners of Foundry, and is in contracts to acquire the business, which includes 15,000 square feet that encompasses the distillery and event space.

“We’ve lost so much on the Northside,” said Kamillah, referring to the recent Aldi’s and Walgreens store closings. El-Amin plans to re-brand Foundry and use at least 7,000 square feet for events and as co-working space for other small businesses and vendors. “It just felt like we needed to develop a community asset.”  

MSR: Tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up? And what was your life like before you purchased the distillery?

Kamillah El-Amin: I grew up here in North Minneapolis. I’m the middle child of five. My father was a school bus driver for 30 years. So, this is truly my stomping ground.

My family is kind of well-known in Minneapolis for a couple of different reasons. My father was a Muslim minister and one of the first chaplains to start a ministry program in correctional facilities in Minnesota. Even though my father and mother both worked full-time jobs, I can’t remember a time where they didn’t have their own businesses on the side.

I grew up working in my dad’s janitorial business and my mom’s seamstress business. When I was 12, my father bought a food truck. He was the first African American food truck vendor here in the city and back then the city didn’t just let you just pull up anywhere with a food truck. My dad fought with the city a lot about where he could park his truck and where he could serve his food.

There was a lot of adversity with the city trying to make money with the food truck, so we had to get creative. We traveled the state of Minnesota, going to all kinds of festivals and fairs. They’d be up north, down south, in different counties, and things like that. So, I really got to see Minnesota as a child which broadened my horizons. I wasn’t just confined to the Northside. 

For the past 30 years, I worked for my family’s nonprofit, and we were based out of a religious organization. We created a social service entity—then built that social service organization to have multiple for-profits within the nonprofit. Creating those projects, programs, putting together the systems, automation from concept all the way to implementation. Figuring out the administrative problems and issues was kind of my job.

MSR: What inspired you to buy this business, what stood out to you?

KEA: The first thing that inspired me was the location. It’s in North Minneapolis, a place where I’ve lived all my life. The second thing that inspired me was how big it was, how much I could do in this space, how many people I could bring into the fold and help. Just the ability to do something big. I’ve been doing big things on small levels for so many years. I feel like I’ve been built for this—creating for-profits within nonprofits gave me a different perspective.

MSR: How do you feel the business impacts the community?

KEA: I feel that there’s a huge impact because it’s not just a business, it’s multiple businesses. Working with several small business owners to create a place that was in a very good location, one that is at the entry and exit to North and South Minneapolis, and southwest, and that’s right off downtown is ideal to help the economic development of the community. This is such a convenient location that it made me want to have a business here and to grow something here. Minneapolis is my home, so the location is perfect. 

MSR: What is your best-selling product? 

KEA: Right now, our best-selling product is the event space. I’ve worked with the Farmers Market. I’ve worked with the People’s Market. I’ve worked with many different nonprofits and several different corporations. I’ve worked with a couple of young promoters. Young promoters and entrepreneurs really get it, you know. 

The Royal Foundry is a distillery as well, so the liquor is the top-selling product. However, I am adding to the menu. We’re going from just alcoholic drinks to a whole line of non-alcoholic beverages—lemonade, seltzers, ginger drinks, kombucha, instant tea, and then with the coffee shop we’ll have our own coffee.

MSR: What do you think the biggest challenge has been so far in owning this business?

KEA: Finding an investor that sees the vision. A lot of investors are really focused on just the numbers. They only look at the ROI [return on investment] as dollars in, dollars out. Finding an investor who sees the vision, understands the dollars that go in and how they multiply dollars going out into the community.

MSR: What do you think has been the most rewarding part so far?

KEA: Seeing people come in here and smile when they find out I’m in the process of buying the place. I mean, knowing that’s my community and they’re happy for me, they’re rooting for me. They’re patronizing us more because they want to see it work and be successful. I think that and my employees.

MSR: What’s your overall vision for this place? What does success look like for you?

KEA: My three-to-five-year plan is to expand to some non-alcoholic beverages, ones that bring in a lot of foot traffic—you know coffee, a juice shop. I’d like to bring in food, a food truck, and add an adult ‘playland’ outside, which we don’t have on the Northside. Inside, I’d really like to make sure that most of the square footage in here is making money.

MSR: Where can readers find the products like the alcohol you sell?

KEA: Currently, we do not have distribution outside of our location. We’ll be going through a whole new rebrand because we’re really, really new. It’s gonna take me a few more months—maybe six months—to get all of the things in play. And then we’ll have some more distribution opportunities at that time. But right now, everything that we have is available here at the Foundry.

MSR: Is there any advice you have for people that want to be an entrepreneur?

KEA: If you think leaving your job to work for yourself is going to be easy, don’t. Because this is 10 jobs versus just one. You really have to have the drive. You have to have the vision, and then you’ve got to have support. A support system is really important. I would say to aspiring entrepreneurs to get out here and do it!

Royal Foundry Crafts Spirits is located at 241 Fremont Ave. N., Minneapolis, MN. It is open from Wednesday to Sunday. For more information, go to royalfoundrycraftspirits.com or call 612-208-1042.