Hop Atomica moves beyond craft beer into craft cocktails with its own distillery

Hop Atomica is a bustling pizzeria and brewery located on 39 Street at East Broad. Open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, the crowded patio is filled with couples, friend groups, and families who have walked over from the neighboring Starland/Thomas Square Streetcar District, Baldwin or Ardsley Park. Inside the midcentury-modern dining room, there’s a gallery wall for curated artwork, an open kitchen where diners can see pizza dough being hand stretched and spun, and a large horseshoe bar.

Indoors and out, patrons are happily munching wood-fired pizza, wings, whipped feta dip, pimento cheese, salads and sandwiches while quaffing craft-brewed beers, which range from Hazy IPA’s to dessert-inspired, fruited Sours that cater to all palates. Until recently, I had no idea that this thriving business also is home to Savannah’s only distillery.

To find out more I met Smith Mathews who, along with brother Pratt, opened Hop Atomica four years ago. Smith Mathews is also founder and brewmaster of Southbound Brewing Co. and taproom, situated on East Lathrop Avenue just over the Bay Street viaduct. While an engineering student at Georgia Tech, he worked with Atlanta’s Sweetwater Brewing Co., fell in love with brewing, changed his major to business and after graduation, went on to receive a degree in brewing science and technology from the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago. He returned to Sweetwater as a brewer, and after earning an MBA from Georgia Southern University, founded Southbound, Savannah’s first production microbrewery.

Mathews tells me that Hop Atomica’s building was a gas station in the 1950’s, later became a convenience store, and then stood abandoned for many years. “When we found the property it was all boarded up. There was standing water inside. Half of the roof was missing. But it was a cool location. Now, it’s dogs, kids, strollers and families… it’s a great community environment.”

He continues, “We originally opened just as a brewery and with our license, we can only sell what we produce – meaning  we can’t purchase alcohol from a distributor to serve wine or call brands.”

To offer cocktails at the bar, the brothers applied for a distillery license, and started distilling their own spirits on a small scale.

Micro-batched vodka, gin, rum and whiskey

The distillery, which goes under the name Atomica, first produced vodka and then gin.

“We did the research ourselves. It’s a hard skill to learn because you can’t legally homebrew distilled spirits,” Mathews says. “Our still is very small, so it’s micro-batch only.”

The first batches were miniscule as they tweaked the process. “Then we got into rums and whiskey. We have a muscadine vermouth, and we just released an agave spirit. We bottle them for consumption and retail sale onsite and have a limited selection that are for distribution.”

With the closure of Ghost Coast Distillery, “We are currently the only operating distillery in Savannah.”

In addition to its Classic Vodka, the Atomica Spirits brand offers a London Dry Gin, which Mathews describes as being “a classic, super-dry, style,” and a New World Gin which is “more of an Americanized version – heavy citrus and a little sweeter.”

Smoother and less bitter than a classic British gin, it pairs well with citrus-forward cocktails. Additionally, the brothers are launching a one-off, small batch of Savannah Gin that I personally cannot wait to acquire.

“What’s cool about that,” Mathews says, “is that our distiller went around town and foraged all the plants and flowers blossoming within a 10-block radius of this building. It’s truly a seasonal botanical gin unique to Savannah.” The Savannah Gin, by necessity, is limited release, available only for purchase onsite. Mathews defines small batches as 50 gallons, which distill down to 15 gallons of liquor.

Atomica’s Rye Whiskey, aged in Bourbon barrels for almost three years, is exclusively reserved for the gastropub’s own bar use. Next are the three rums: Light Rum is a clear, cocktail-friendly, Caribbean-style rum distilled from Grade A molasses. Then there’s a copper-colored classic Caribbean Blend Rum with its heavier flavor profile of caramel and darker molasses, and finally, a Black Rum perfect for sipping neat or for a Dark and Stormy cocktail.

“We imported some Jamaican rum and blended it into our Black Rum. It’s one of my favorites,” Mathews says.

Just released to coincide with this year’s Cinco de Mayo is Atomica’s Agave Spirit. (It is illegal to call it Tequila if not produced to specific standards in certain regions of Mexico.) “We get 100% blue agave juice from our supplier in Mexico, and we have to ferment a lot of it to get a fairly low yield,” Mathews says. Again, only a few bottles are available for onsite retail with most of them planned for bar usage.

Crafting cocktails in collaboration with the chef and staff

Beverage director Cory Reuter joined the Mathews brothers after Ghost Coast closed its doors in 2022. Reuter’s passion is crafting new cocktails, and she enjoyed producing four different margaritas for the rollout of Atomica’s Agave Spirit on May 5.

“The blackberry margarita is one of my favorites,” she says. “Fresh blackberries muddled with limes and agave spirit, with a sugar or salt rim. It’s delicious! I love it when the bar program can collaborate with our chef. He created a homemade habanero pepper sauce, and I crafted a spicy margarita with that. I also love to share the creativity with other staff members: our cocktail menu has a ‘staff creation’ section that changes seasonally.”

I sample Hop Atomica’s best-selling cocktail, the Lavender Gin Sour.

It is made with 1.5 ounces of Atomica New World Gin, 3/4 ounce each freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice, and 1.5 ounces of in-house made lavender syrup. Reuter briefly shakes the cocktail before pouring it into an ice-filled rocks glass (all the glassware is imprinted with the brewery’s name and simple gold logo; like the beautiful liquor labels, the branding is on point). She then adds some drops of butterfly pea tincture. Made from Thai butterfly pea flowers, the tincture is a pretty blue color before the introduction of acid magically changes it to a stunning purple. Despite the generous pour of lavender syrup, I found this attractive cocktail to be citrus forward, surprisingly sharp, and quite refreshing.

Savannah’s only distillery is on a roll.

“We have plans for another Hop Atomica or similar concept in Savannah,” Mathews tells me. “We hope to have a second location and funding in place by the end of the year. And we recently partnered with a good college friend of mine in Louisville, Kentucky, to open a Hop Atomica up there. He loved our concept. He’ll make his own beer and distill our spirits onsite.”

And, if the brothers can ramp up the wholesale production as has happened at Southbound, I foresee a huge demand for Atomica Spirits from locals and tourists alike. The bottles’ exquisite labels proudly proclaim, “Handmade in Savannah, GA.”

Hop Atomica is located at 535 E. 39 St. Follow the business on Instagram @hopatomica and check out their website at hopatomica.com for details on upcoming  food and beverage events, art shows and markets. Atomica Spirits’ Instagram handle is @atomicaspirits.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Hop Atomica is Savannah's only micro-batch spirit distillery