Bringing spirits back to the Sun Inn

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To help bring the Sun Inn back to its roots, several Greater Lehigh Valley businessmen have joined together to form Christmas City Spirits LLC. The group filed a letter of intent to sign a lease with the building’s owner, the nonprofit Sun Inn Preservation Association, to install a production and tasting room for distilled spirits.

Brett Biggs, a financial consultant in Bethlehem, and his Christmas City partners have dabbled in the home-brewing of beer and wine and are eager to add locally distilled spirits to their list.

“The Sun Inn has been doing a great job of keeping it to its colonial roots,” said Biggs, who by day is vice president of investment at The Biggs Group of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in downtown Bethlehem.

“And we feel we can take that flavor for our business model.”

Biggs declined to provide further detail on the business plan or construction specifics until he and his partners obtain the distillery license.

The Sun Inn was built in 1758 and functioned as an inn until 1960. It changed ownership several times and underwent more than a few renovations over the years. Entire floors and facades were added and then taken away.

In 1975, the Sun Inn Preservation Association bought the inn to save the historical landmark. In 1981, funded in part by a grant dedicated by the city of Bethlehem, work began to restore the original architecture of the inn.

Self-guided tours of the first-floor entrance, bedroom suites and kitchen are available Saturdays and Sundays. Second-floor rooms can be rented for private events. Tours of the third-floor attic are available by request.

The distillery will be in a portion of the Sun Inn, and part of the building could become a restaurant; the preservation association is handling that portion of the inn and options are still open, Biggs said.

“We are very excited. The story kind of developed itself and now we are putting our expertise into it,” he said. “We can’t wait to get this open and running and make a true locally sourced spirit.”