As the company’s products land on more grocery shelves and interest in craft-made vinegar rises, Vargas is raising $1.5 million toward his latest ambitions.
At the end of the road weaving through Worcester’s historic Whittall Mills industrial complex sits a small vinegar manufacturing facility with big, big goals.
“We're creating what we intend to be America's mass premium vinegar of choice,” said Rodrigo Vargas, owner and founder of American Vinegar Works.
Robert Vargas bio box
Vargas opened his small-batch, barrel-aged vinegar company in 2019, reviving a vinegar-marking process from the 19th century. Not yet six years old, American Vinegar produces nearly 13,000 gallons of vinegar a year from its 3,500-square-foot Worcester headquarters, and space is getting tight.
As the company’s products land on more grocery shelves and interest in craft-made vinegar rises, Vargas is raising $1.5 million toward his latest ambitions: quadrupling his manufacturing space and expanding beyond a direct-to-consumer model.
“We're starting to see manufacturers and industrial tenants in general start to make some moves that they weren't last year,” said Evan Koogler, commercial real estate agent at Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates in Worcester. “Over the next year, especially if interest rates are coming down like they're expected to, I think you're going to see a lot of those large-scale expansions taking place, especially in Worcester County.”
Old ways, new taste
Vinegar is made when naturally-occurring acetobacter bacteria, in the presence of oxygen, converts the ethanol in alcohol into acetic acid. American Vinegar produces 20 varieties out of beer, mead, cider, wine, and rice wine.
Industrial vinegars are most commonly made using an aeration method where air is blown into stainless steel tanks of alcohol, converting the alcohol into vinegar in one to two days.
Conversely, Vargas’ drip method takes six to eight months before it can be shipped to consumers: Two months to pass the mix of vinegar and alcohol between two vertical chambers, and four to six months to barrel-age.
“Vinegar has really been treated as a commodity product, even though it's been around for thousands of years. It actually has the potential to be incredibly nuanced from a flavor perspective,” said Vargas.
For 2026, The New York Times declared vinegar as the publication’s ingredient of the year, due to its rising use in food and drink.
To make his vinegar, Vargas partnered with Boston University to recreate 40-gallon stainless-steel versions of drip machines invented in 1823, which had essentially gone extinct since the early 1900s. He then worked with the University of Maine to create 500-gallon versions for scaled production.
American Vinegar products now are sold in all the New England locations of Whole Foods Market, at 33 Big Y locations, and hundreds of independent grocers throughout the country. In January, Vargas launched four of his vinegars at 170 The Fresh Market locations, mainly in the southern states. In March, American Vinegar will be available at 10 Metropolitan Market locations in the Pacific Northwest. Vargas is in talks with a distributor in Japan.
Tina Zlody, director of The Market Pantry PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MARKET PANTRYThe Market Pantry inside the Worcester Public Market started selling American Vinegar in 2021, prior to its move from Lowell to Worcester. Tina Zlody, director of the pantry, found Vargas’ vinegars through an aggregate site for local makers and producers. His vinegars are one of her top sellers.
“His products play a big role in my store,” said Zlody.
When Vargas needed workers at his Worcester facility, Zlody recommended he reach out to the Mercy Centre in Worcester, an initiative of the Catholic Charities Worcester County working to empower adults with developmental disabilities. Zlody was connected with the nonprofit because of her late brother Michael, who had Down syndrome. Vargas did as she suggested, and today, folks from the center bottle vinegar once a week.
American Vinegar doesn’t have a storefront, so Vargas directs requests for in-person shopping to Zlody’s store, which exposes customers to more products from local and minority makers.
“He's helped drive people to my space, which in turn, helps me sell things to other people that are coming in just for that [from] other makers that are Worcester-based, or Massachusetts-based, or woman-based, or first generation-based,” said Zlody.
Manufacturing flash poll
More room for manufacturing
American Vinegar mainly operates out of a 2,000-square-foot facility with an additional 1,500 square feet nearby. Vargas wants $1.5 million in capital to relocate to a larger site by the end of the year, eyeing a space between 10,000 and 15,000 square feet close to Worcester.
Unlike other manufacturers, Vargas doesn’t have complex structural needs, as a lot of the space will house barrels to age his vinegar.
“Even if somebody were to picture a brewery, they would be picturing something that has a much higher level of infrastructure build out than we require,” said Vargas. “We’re ... a much simpler type of business.”
Evan Koogler, commercial real estate agent at Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates PHOTO COURTESY OF KELLEHER & SADOWSKY
Worcester County is experiencing unprecedented growth for open manufacturing space. Vacancy rates for industrial space, which includes manufacturing, have rapidly risen since 2022, largely because of new inventory on the market, said Koogler.
In the last three years, 8 to 9 million square feet of industrial space has come on the market. In 2025, uncertainty regarding tariffs made manufacturers hesitant to implement large-scale expansion, said Koogler, but he expects that to change this year.
For manufacturers like Vargas, Worcester’s labor market is healthy, Koogler said. In more affordable Central Mass. communities like Lunenburg to the north or Blackstone to the southeast, hiring enough workers for large manufacturing starts to become difficult as population density tapers off.
“You're not going to have the employees that are able to get out there. You're probably gonna end up having to pay more in benefits and concessions to employees to try to convince them to get out there than you would saving money and rent,” said Koogler.
American Vinegar has primarily sold direct to consumer, but Vargas is beginning to sell half-gallon plastic jugs of vinegars to restaurants where glass is often not allowed in the kitchen. One of American Vinegar Works’ largest customers is a three Michelin-star restaurant in Chicago. Vargas is in talks with more food distributors. He wants to develop products using his vinegars, making his flavors accessible for consumers with less cooking knowledge.
“There [is] this really great opportunity to be the owner of a niche, and that's what we're doing here,” he said.
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare, manufacturing, and higher education industries.
