Ken Lewis was teaching high school English when his father asked him to come back home to run a failing family-owned liquor store – and an accidental entrepreneur was born. Over the next three decades, Lewis broke the mold and changed the liquor retailing business. The failing family business evolved into The Party Source – an 80,000 square foot, $40 million thriving liquor store and the largest outlet of its kind in the country. Never one to sit back and count his earnings, Lewis longed for a new challenge – a “new riff” in his life. Driven by his experience in the liquor business, not to mention living in the heart of America’s Bourbon Country, the idea for New Riff Bourbon was born. Lewis sold The Party Source to his employees and walked across the parking lot to the next chapter in his life. New Riff was founded in 2014 and sold its first bourbon four years later. Still doing things his own way, all New Riff Bourbons are bottled in bond and non-chill filtered, producing an unprecedented level of quality in American Whiskey. Lewis claims his job is to put together a phenomenal team, clarify their mission, give them the tools to get the job done and get out of the way.
