No season is wrong for selling cocktails. If done right, they’re highly profitable, add to check averages, improve the customer experience, and improve engagement on social media, especially if they’re colorful and festive looking like the ones in this gallery.
Summertime in particular is when guests like to celebrate small things, like a beautiful day or simply the fact that it’s Tuesday.
Often bartenders reach for vodka, tequila, gin, or light rum for cocktail development during the warmer months, but brown spirits can be enjoyed all year long, too, particularly in drinks like the Suckerpunch at The Delphi Lounge in Los Angeles, where Cognac is the base spirit for a clarified milk punch, or the Pho Wimme at The Felix in San Francisco, which is made with a tallow-washed rye.
Polynesian Spell #2 at The Bamboo Room, a section in Chicago’s Three Dots and a Dash that specializes in Rum, is made from barrel-aged cachaça.
But vodka and the aromatics of Persian cooking are behind Amalthea’s Last Regret at Urban Hill in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the clear Korean spirit Soju is used to make K-Shawty at Hondae 33 in Houston.
New Zealand Dry Gin is in the Kozmic Blue at Farmhouse at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, Calif., and light rum is the foundation of the Oh La La Sour at four-unit Left Bank Brasserie in California.
The Cloud Cutter at The Bamboo Club in Long Beach, Calif., is a variation on The Fog Cutter, which is normally made with Cognac and sherry, and is made instead with a botanical rum and pisco.
Gin and salted plum-infused shochu (the Japanese version of soju) are in the Idol’s Eye at Queen Miami Beach, and The Troublemaker at Silver Lining in New York City doesn’t have any alcohol at all, because you don’t need to drink to have a good time, and your customers don’t need to drink to enjoy a thoughtfully crafted beverage.
We hope these drinks will help get your own creative juices flowing as you develop your own cocktails.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
