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Drinks: Every Beverage We Served at Our Inaugural Story Feast Gathering
The Drinks Table: Every Beverage We Served at Our Inaugural Story Feast Gathering
From Brother Justus whiskey to Northstar Kombucha, every beverage at our inaugural Story Feast gathering at St. John's Abbey was local, artisan, and chosen to celebrate Minnesota's makers. Alcoholic and nonalcoholic options, no formal pairings, just great drinks for everyone.
Hibiscus Raspberry Kombucha from Northstar Kombucha
At a Story Feast gathering, the drinks matter just as much as the food. Not because we fuss over formal pairings or tell you what to drink with each course. It’s because every bottle, tumbler, and glass on the table tells a story about the place where you're sitting.
At our inaugural gathering at St. John's Abbey, we wanted the beverage table to feel like a tour of Minnesota's best craft and artisan producers. Whiskey built on Benedictine values. Kombucha brewed in small batches in Minneapolis. Cider pressed from heirloom apples grown just down the road. Wine donated by the monks themselves. A sparkling nonalcoholic beverage developed with Michelin-starred chefs. Craft beer from the Stillwater’s very first taproom.
All of it local or independent. All of it made by people who care deeply about what goes into the bottle.
And all of it available to you, however you wanted it.
There was an open bar throughout the entire Story Feast event
Your Table, Your Way
Here's something we believe in strongly at Story Feast: we don't do formal beverage pairings.
There's no sommelier telling you which glass to reach for with each course. No card at your place setting suggesting the "correct" combination. No pressure to drink alcohol at all.
Instead, we set the table with a generous spread of extraordinary options and let you choose what feels right. Maybe that's a whiskey cocktail during the cocktail hour and kombucha with dinner. Maybe it's cider all night. Maybe it's TÖST from start to finish. Maybe you start with a beer, switch to wine, and end with a Pommeau from Milk & Honey.
We trust you to know what you like. Our job is to make sure every option on the table is worth reaching for, whether it contains alcohol or not. Nonalcoholic beverages aren't an afterthought at Story Feast. They're given the same care, the same quality, and the same prominence as everything else.
Because hospitality means everyone at the table feels celebrated.
The Brother Justus cocktail being prepared
The Beverages
Brother Justus Whiskey
Brother Justus is Minneapolis-based and Minnesota's first legal whiskey distillery since Prohibition. Founded by Phil Steger, it's built on Benedictine values of community, craftsmanship, and hospitality. These are values that run deep at St. John's, where Phil himself is an alumnus.
Phil didn't just donate whiskey for our gathering. He showed up in person, poured for guests throughout the evening, and created an original cocktail for the occasion: Vespers, a contemplative mix of Brother Justus American Whiskey, Benedictine liqueur, cream sherry, and mole bitters. The name comes from the evening prayer service observed in monasteries around the world. It was fitting for a meal shared by candlelight in a monastic dining hall. Phil described it as velvety and smooth, with black coffee colour and ruby red refractions in the light.
During dinner, Brother Justus whiskey was poured neat into handmade ceramic tumblers crafted specifically for the event by JD and Megan Jorgenson of Maine Prairie Studio. Phil and JD embraced when they saw each other at the gathering. They were old friends, both St. John's alumni, reuniting at a table set with JD's pottery and toasted with Phil's whiskey.
That's the kind of moment that makes Story Feast what it is.
Milk & Honey Ciders
Milk & Honey Ciders sits in the rolling hills of Stearns County, just down the road from St. John's Abbey. Founded by Peter Gillitzer and partners, they make dry, tannic, highly aromatic ciders from heirloom apple varieties with names like Calville Blanc d'Hiver, Arkansas Black, and Kingston Black. Their motto: Let the apples shine.
A few days before the gathering, we drove out to pick up the kegs and ended up staying for a bonfire tasting as the sun dropped behind their orchard. They insisted we take the proper tulip glasses for service, because they care about how their cider is experienced right down to the shape of the glass.
Throughout dinner, guests enjoyed their Estate Cider: dry, aromatic, and a perfect counterpoint to the richness of the harvest menu. After dinner, we poured their Pommeau: a blend of apple brandy and fresh-pressed juice aged two years in barrels. Warm, spiritous, with notes of caramel, oak, and dried fruit. Served neat, in those tulip glasses, exactly as intended.
Northstar Kombucha was served throughout the Story Feast dinner and also found its way into the goody bag
Northstar Kombucha
Northstar Kombucha is brewed in small batches in Minneapolis using organic ingredients and live cultures. Their flavors are creative but balanced. It’s the kind of kombucha you actually want to drink, not just tolerate for the health benefits.
Throughout the evening, guests sipped their Raspberry Hibiscus kombucha, bright and refreshing alongside the rich courses coming out of the kitchen. And every goody bag included a bottle in one of their gorgeous flavors: Grapefruit Basil, Lavender Ginger, Strawberry Rose, Cherry Elderberry, Honey Ginger, Blueberry Maple, and more.
Northstar is based in a shared maker space that houses a small community of independent producers, each one crafting something by hand. When I drove over a few days before the event to pick up the kegs and bottles myself, I loved walking through that building. It's what Minnesota's food and beverage scene looks like at its best: collaborative, community-rooted, and absolutely extraordinary.
TÖST being poured during the Story Feast dinner
TÖST
TÖST is a premium nonalcoholic sparkling beverage crafted with white tea, white cranberry, and ginger. It's dry, not sweet and was developed in collaboration with Michelin-starred chefs and James Beard Award winners to pair beautifully with food, just like fine wine.
TÖST was available throughout the cocktail hour and dinner. It gave guests who weren't drinking alcohol something genuinely celebratory to raise. It looked elegant in the glass, tasted wonderful, and offered everyone something special and festive.
Every guest also took home a bottle in their goody bag: a little reminder of the evening and an invitation to recreate that feeling of celebration at their own table.
Lift Bridge Root Beer was served during dinner (along with a selection of Lift Bridge beers) and the root beer also went home with guests in their goody bags
Lift Bridge Brewery
Lift Bridge Brewing Company was founded in 2008 in Stillwater, Minnesota. It’s the first brewery to operate there since Prohibition. When Minnesota changed its laws in 2011 to allow craft breweries to sell pints on-site, Lift Bridge opened the state's very first taproom.
We served a selection of their craft beers throughout the dinner, because this is the Midwest, after all, and great beer belongs at the table. And in every goody bag, guests took home a can of Lift Bridge Root Beer, crafted with the same care as their beer: no shortcuts, no artificial anything, just a delicious old-fashioned root beer that feels like a celebration in itself.
The stained glass honeycomb in the church of St. John’s Abbey
Wine From the Monks of St. John's Abbey
And then there was the wine.
The monks of St. John's Abbey generously donated wine for the gathering. It was a gift that felt deeply meaningful given the setting. Benedictine monasteries have a centuries-long relationship with wine, from the vineyards I visited at Cistercian abbeys in Spain for Elysian Kitchens to the sacramental role wine plays in monastic life around the world.
To have the monks' own wine on the table alongside the harvest feast, in a hall where they've gathered for generations, was a subtle but powerful reminder of where we were and who had welcomed us in.
Why Local and Artisan Matters
Every beverage at our St. John's gathering came from Minnesota or from an independent producer who shares our values. That wasn't a coincidence. It's central to what Story Feast is about.
When we host a gathering, we want the drinks on the table to celebrate the sense of place. We want you to taste where you are. We want to introduce you to makers you might not have discovered otherwise, and to support the small producers who are doing extraordinary work in every region we visit.
At St. John's, that meant whiskey from a distillery built on Benedictine principles, cider pressed from heirloom apples grown a few miles away, kombucha brewed in a Minneapolis maker space, beer from the state's first taproom, and wine from the monks themselves.
At our next gathering, the producers will be different because the place will be different. But the philosophy stays the same: local, artisan, chosen with care, and always with options for everyone at the table.
Because the best drink at a Story Feast gathering is the one you want to be drinking.
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Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.
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Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →
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What's In Your Bag? Our Approach to Goody Bags
What's in the Bag | Story Feast Goody Bags | St. John's Abbey
No junk. No promos. Just high-quality products from the people who made the evening possible: ceramics, honey, baked goods, pickles, kombucha, sparkling beverages, root beer, and more. A look inside the Story Feast goody bag.
Root Beer from Stillwater-based Lift Bridge Brewery was included in our well-stocked goody bag!
From our inaugural Story Feast Gathering at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota
Let's be honest: most event goody bags are forgettable. A few branded pens, some promotional flyers, maybe a granola bar. You toss it in the back of your car and forget about it by the time you get home.
That's not what we do.
A Celebration, Not a Promotion
At Story Feast, the goody bag is an extension of the gathering itself, a way to carry the evening home with you. Every item is chosen with care: things to eat, to drink, to savor long after the candles have burned down and the table has been cleared.
No junk. No logos on cheap plastic. No flyers for things you'll never read.
Just beautiful, high-quality products from the people and places that made the evening possible.
The St. John's Abbey Goody Bag
When guests left our inaugural gathering, they carried home:
A ceramic whiskey tumbler from Maine Prairie Studio — handmade especially for the event to accompany whiskey from Brother Justus Whiskey
TÖST — the nonalcoholic sparkling beverage served throughout the dinner
Lift Bridge Brewery Root Beer — a Minnesota classic. Lift Bridge was a Story Feast partner and we served their fantastic beer during dinner and then sent guests home with a nonalcoholic product from this must-visit brewery in Stillwater
Honey from St. John's Abbey — harvested on the monastery grounds and included in Chefs Mateo and Erin Mackbee’s dishes throughout the evening.
Baked goods from Flour & Flower Bakery — made by Chef Erin Mackbee
Housemade pickles from Krewe — made by Chef Mateo Mackbee and also served throughout dinner
Kombucha from Northstar Kombucha — in a variety of flavors and also served throughout dinner
And more!
The only problem? The bags were so stuffed that guests had to hold them from the bottom. We genuinely worried they might break.
That's the kind of problem we're happy to have!
Why It Matters
A Story Feast gathering isn't just a meal. It's an experience, one that we hope stays with you. The goody bag is our way of extending that feeling: a reminder of the place, the people, the flavors, and the stories you shared.
When you open a jar of those pickles a week later, or pour a glass of that kombucha on a quiet evening at home, we want you to remember the candlelight, the conversation, the moment you realized you were sitting next to someone who would become a friend.
Every future gathering will include a goody bag like this, a celebration of the place and the people who came together to create something unforgettable.
You'll leave happy. You'll leave content. And you'll leave with something worth keeping.
My newsletter
Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.
Subscribe to What's Good Here →
Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →
Interested in joining a future gathering? See upcoming events →
Partner Spotlight: TÖST Sparkling NonAlcoholic Beverage
TÖST Nonalcoholic Beverage | Story Feast Partner Spotlight | St. John's Abbey
Nonalcoholic options shouldn't be an afterthought. TÖST, a sparkling beverage made with white tea, cranberry, and ginger, helped us create a table where everyone felt celebrated. Plus we sent the celebration home in every goody bag!
TÖST was served throughout the evening and a bottle was also sent home with every guest in their goody bag
At every Story Feast gathering, we want everyone at the table to feel celebrated, including those who aren't drinking alcohol. Nonalcoholic options shouldn't be an afterthought. They should be just as thoughtful, just as delicious, and just as beautiful in the glass.
That's why we were thrilled to partner with TÖST for our inaugural event at St. John's Abbey.
What Is TÖST?
TÖST is a premium nonalcoholic sparkling beverage crafted with white tea, white cranberry, and ginger. It's dry, not sweet, developed in collaboration with Michelin-starred chefs and James Beard Award winners to pair beautifully with food, just like fine wine.
All-natural ingredients. No artificial flavors. Low sugar, low calorie, and sophisticated enough to hold its own at any table.
It's the kind of drink you actually want in your glass, whether you're driving, sober-curious, abstain from alcohol, or simply choosing not to drink that evening.
TÖST not only tastes fantastic, it paired so well with the colors at our Story Feast dinner!
At St. John's Abbey
Throughout the cocktail hour and dinner, guests sipped TÖST alongside the other beverages we served. It looked elegant, tasted wonderful, and gave everyone something celebratory to raise.
And when guests headed home, each goody bag included a bottle of TÖST to enjoy later… a little reminder of the evening and an invitation to recreate that feeling of celebration at their own table.
Why It Mattered
Hospitality means making everyone feel included. At Story Feast, we believe the drink in your hand shouldn't determine whether you feel part of the toast. Partnering with TÖST helped us create a table where everyone belonged.
We're so grateful they said yes.
My newsletter
Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.
Subscribe to What's Good Here →
Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →
Interested in joining a future gathering? See upcoming events →