Philip McDaniel

The St. Augustine Distillery was founded in 2012 by Philip McDaniel and Mike Diaz in St. Augustine, Florida. The distillery is located on Riberia Street in the historic Lincolnville neighborhood and operates out of the old Florida Power and Light (FL&P) Ice Plant that was originally built in 1907. The Lincolnville Historic District is the first African American neighborhood established in the United States by freedmen following the Civil War and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Moreover, the old Ice Plant is listed as a contributing building of the Lincolnville community. McDaniel, seeing the potential of the old building, was instrumental in acquiring, modifying, and restoring the Ice Plant into a functional distillery after the building had sat empty for fifteen years and set the stage for the March 15th, 2014, opening of only the third distillery in the state of Florida.

In the decade that has followed, the St. Augustine Distillery has averaged over 150,000 visitors a year, received the Drammie Award for Best Whiskey Tour in North America in 2018, Best Craft Distillery Tour by USA Today in 2023, and the American Distilling Institute (ADI) Bubble Cap Award for Distillery of the Year in 2024. The Bubble Cap award recognizes the top distillery for excellence in spirits quality, innovation, transparency, authenticity, growth, and community engagement.

Philip McDaniel is originally from Greenwich, Connecticut and was born on August 22, 1957. McDaniel attended Assumption University located in Worcester, Massachusetts and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics in 1979. McDaniel is married, and he and his wife Wendy have four children: Addi, Kit, Dexter, and Zoe. Prior to opening the St. Augustine Distillery, McDaniel had been the President and Founder of US Imports and Promotions Company from 1985 until the company was acquired by Equity Marketing in 1998.

Philip stayed on as a Senior Vice-President with Equity Marketing until 2001. By 2011, Philip had retired and was working with the St. John’s County Cultural Council and the Tourist Development Council and had begun dreaming about opening a distillery. However, McDaniel, and cofounder Mike Diaz, had no experience operating a distillery and were unsure how to proceed. To gain a better understanding of the industry, McDaniel and Diaz attended the 2011 American Distilling Institute’s conference and then recruited Dave Pickerell, the “Johnny Appleseed of Craft Distilling”, to help with developing the concept of the distillery and create recipes for their spirits. In 2020, things came full circle for McDaniel when he was awarded the first Dave Pickerell Memorial Craft Member of the Year Award at the Inaugural Spirits Industry Conference held by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS).

McDaniel received the 2014 Excellence in Adaptive Reuse/Repurpose Award from the Urban Land Institute for his work to preserve the old Ice Plant building and repurpose it into a functional distillery. McDaniel was also awarded the 2014 Adelaide Sanchez Award from the city of St. Augustine for historic preservation, restoration, education, and interpretation in recognition of his work to restore the Ice Plant building. Finally, in 2015 McDaniel was recognized with the Regional Award for Excellence in Culture, Historic Preservation, or Adaptive Reuse from the Northeast Florida Regional Council for his work to preserve the historic Ice Plant and transform it into a working distillery and gift shop.

McDaniel currently serves as co-founder and CEO of the St. Augustine Distillery and worked diligently to push for updated legislation that would ease the restrictive liquor laws in the state of Florida. When the St. Augustine Distillery first opened, they could not sell bottles directly to consumers nor could they sell their products by the glass. The first major success came when the law banning bottle sales in distillery gift shops was changed to allow for sales of two bottles per person annually. Then two years later the law was expanded to allow for two per type of liquor per person annually and then further expanded to six bottles annually. Finally, in 2022 legislation was passed that ended bottle sale limits and by-the-glass sales became legal. The legislative progression took over a decade and Phillip McDaniel, and his partner Mike Diaz, were instrumental in getting these laws changed. In 2019, McDaniel and Diaz opened City Gate Spirits on historic St. George Street in downtown St. Augustine. City Gate sells “easy drinking” spirits including flavored moonshine, rum, and flavored whiskey.

Contributed by: David Waddell, Jacksonville, Florida

with support from M. J. (Michael) Jacobs, Tennessee Whiskey Section Editor, Smyrna, Tennessee