Meet Eric Olson | Owner, Distiller , Award winning Chef, Father

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eric Olson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eric, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I started the business with all cash, no investors no banks to report to ROI in three years. become number 1 in our local competitive market. take two years to become highly educated in the distilling business, attend every distilling class available and every audible book available.
complete build-out under my General Contractor’s license to understand everything and how it works for future consulting work.
budget 50% growth each year and increase inventory by 25 %
Hire above market prevailing wage for all positions and create a culture unmatch in market ( I knew I could do this in the alcohol industry and not necessarily on the food side )
Stay clear of banks and garner grants and contracts for increased capital.
be on the floor every day and make customer service & satisfaction your number one priority.
write a battle plan to include your allies and your competition.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
the military taught me some life lessons, some I still have night mears about. But the discipline was excellent, the rule, never giving up, and staying mission first approach, people second, was instilled. after travels with the military going back throw some of the same country in chef training was the start of my next chapter. finally made it to a place in my chef carreer that was working at 5 diamond resorts like Ojai valley inn and pebble beach and the local newspaper said I win everything in cooking competitions. towards the end of my culinary career I was running a still with some chefs and told them I could make better sprits than the big names and as we tasting they laughed at my comment about my sprits being better, and laughed, something inside burned and that launched Central Coast Distillery. LA times launched my foraging creative side, Rum magazine recognized my first win Double gold best in show Rum in a Bourbon barrel in the Denver International rum competition. My culinary side has been a strong influence for the mash bills and my distillation runs, cuts and proofing. Good read Cant Hurt Me, David Goggins

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Hire toast tours to keep it safe, rent a place in Cambria overlooking the pacific in the windy pines, with hot tub and private chef that was fully stocked with forager sprits, local central coast cheeses my fav Seacape or big rock blue, I have seen fights over the blue. alle pia cured meats like tartufo and Guanciale . Leo Leo Gelato Abba Zabba is like crack… stocking the refer is step one Don’t know how much kale from Loo Loo farms but herbs for the drinks like lemon verbena, their homegrown tobacco and maybe some sugar rush papers.

hang out would be the rooftop bar in Paso Robles at sunset tetto.
dinner alchemist garden for drinks and dinner and 1122 speakeasy night cap

hikes on three bridges preserve and a run-in with the guy with the shovel
do some wildcrafting ( foraging ) pull some mugwart for our pellow back at the cabin or miners lettuce for the chef to play with.

zipline at margarita adventures, soaring over vineyards, valleys and mountains

land check out light at sensorio exhibit, Zoo to you Paso

exciting people’ everyone we meet on our trip

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My wife Anna Olson is truly the spirit behind the amazing branding, Tough federal and State compliance and mastery of the red thread throughout the operation. I think everyone knows this but can’t hurt to put it in writing.
The City of Atascadero and our local Chamber leaders have stayed the course on codes and standards and have been an amazing support to local businesses considering every avenue possible. Both have been heroic since C-19 organizing activities and promotions that have shown to be highly sucessful for the locial small business owners, surpassing past attendance records by double digits.
Our SLO Cal Tourism Board has developed some very creative programs and marketing concepts to bring in other markets to keep heads in beds and boozy dreams.
But most of all, our community locals we can’t say enough about and are so very grateful for the support they have given over the years voting us #1 in the county two years in a row, keeping us busy by buying food, drinks & bottles to go, purchasing our medical-grade hand sanitizer. A huge shout out to Cal Poly for running our distillation courses at the distillery, Traffic Records for promoting our business, and our spirit distributor J&l wines and sprits.
and a great read 12 Rules to Life Jordon Peterson

Website: foreagersprits.net

Instagram: @foragersprits

Linkedin: chef Eric Olson

Image Credits
Jennifer Olson Photography