Hello there. I am Sonja Kassebaum, the Co-Owner and Co-founder of North Shore Distillery, LLC, which is located in north suburban Chicago. I spend most of my time at the distillery or with the bars, restaurants and stores that carry our spirits, so I will mostly write about cocktails, spirits, the liquor business and a related topics. In addition to spirits & cocktails, I love a good road trip, weird road signs, quirky art and my little garden, where I talk to my plants.
Some years ago, when blogging was new-ish, I had an influential cocktail blog called Thinking of Drinking. Like many of my writer friends, I stopped blogging around 2011. I have started and stopped a couple more times over the years – this is my latest rendition. I’m a bit older, wiser and opinionated now, and a bit more cynical.
Just for the record, I am a published author on the subject of cocktails and cocktail culture, and have spoken to groups across the Midwest about cocktail history, cocktail making and Chicago cocktail culture. I’ve been mentioned in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Forbes, Daily Herald and Edible Chicago, among others, and have repeatedly been named to New City’s Big Heat list of the 50 most influential people in Chicago food and drink. In 2020, I was named one of “Eight Women who Changed Gin History” by Wine Enthusiast.
Thinking of Drinking 