A local distillery is “coming out” on OutFest weekend.
Midnight Madness Distilling, based in Quakertown, the maker of Fortis craft spirits, is staging the “Fortis Coming Out Party” Oct. 9 at several Gayborhood bars to raise money for the Oct. 18 AIDS Walk.
With a $5 Fortis wristband, patrons at six local venues — U Bar, Tavern on Camac, Tabu, Franky Bradley’s, Knock and ICandy — will have access to all-night Fortis drink specials. All proceeds from the wristband sales will be donated to the AIDS Walk.
The event marks the first fundraiser of its kind for Midnight Madness, founded in 2012 by Anthony Lorubbio and Casey Parzych.
“From the beginning, our motive has been to produce craft spirits, locally made here in Pennsylvania, at a price that’s affordable to customers,” Lorubbio said.
Fortis currently has nine products: gin, white rum, vodka and six flavored vodkas. For the past three years, the company has focused on moving their products into bars — an effort that forged Lorubbio and Parzych, both LGBT allies, good relationships with Gayborhood locales.
“We’ve been working to get our products into bars and restaurants and a lot of the bars in the gay neighborhood have taken a liking to our products. From the beginning, they’ve been really big customers,” Lorubbio said, noting Fortis now serves as the “house pour” in the six participating venues. “If you go into one of these bars and order a gin and tonic or a rum and Coke, Fortis is used for that. So the bartenders, managers and owners all know our products. But so far, that’s been it.”
That’s about to change, though, as Fortis products hit shelves in state stores starting later this month. The bottles will, according to the company’s commitment to affordability, be priced from $13.99-$15.99.
“Now that we’re reaching retail shelves, we want to transition from being just a back-of-the-house product at a bar to something more mainstream,” Lorubbio said, noting that that the confluence of the retail launch, OutFest and AIDS Walk sparked the fundraiser idea. “Given that we’ve reached this milestone, and with the walk coming up, we approached the bar owners in the Gayborhood about doing this fundraising event and they all wanted to help out. They were extremely receptive and it’s been great working with them.”
Each bar will have its own Fortis specials, all starting at 5 p.m. Lorubbio noted that the $5 wristband will likely pay for itself in just a couple drinks.
Midnight Madness staffers will be at all the participating bars, offering free Fortis swag, much of it OutFest-themed.
“There will be a lot of people in town for OutFest, and this is a great thing to do the Friday before to get out and have fun, all for a good cause,” Lorubbio said.
Wristbands are being sold in advance at www.rallyup.com/fortis-aidswalk and at the bars the night of the event. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1485543211746333/.