""What was this place? What significance does it have?""
""And ever since then, I've only been working in the beer, wine and whiskey world. I only drink on the job," he said, laughing. "I don't drink at home at all. I only drink at the job.""
""You know, those old Filipino men, they were hard drinkers,' Orpilla said. 'My dad and his brothers, they loved their whiskey. They loved their beer. But I don't think it would have ever been part of their reality that Mare Island would turn into the Wet Mile.'""
"Since the Navy left, Mare Island has grappled with environmental contamination. Clean up and renovation have taken decades longer, and been much more expensive, than originally anticipated."
Redwood Empire Whiskey established a distillery and events space in historic Mare Island buildings, incorporating original brick walls and a concrete vault. Kunjan Joshi serves as general manager and recounts a career spent in beer, wine and whiskey, noting that he drinks only while working. Longtime residents recall Filipino shipyard workers who drank heavily and never imagined the island becoming a cluster of bars dubbed the Wet Mile. Migrant labor created Vallejo's persistent diversity. The island continues to face costly, prolonged environmental cleanup, even as new enterprises, including a health sciences university, move in.
Read at Kqed
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