Courtesy AO&Co.
Five varieties of batched cocktails in stylish bottles are now available at AO&Co. in Botanical Heights
Who knew that bottled cocktails would become a thing? Interest in mixed drinks to-go has grown as restaurants and bars have figured out how to translate craft cocktails to the bottle and invested in creative packaging, but the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted more St. Louis venues than ever to get on board.
“As soon as we made plans to reopen, we knew that our Botanical Beverages needed to be a part of the experience we provided for guests to take home,” says Vicia general manager and co-owner Tara Gallina. “Our cocktails are made with ingredients from the Vicia garden and were a big part of the dining experience in pre-COVID times.”
With many restaurants operating on threadbare margins after being ordered to close dine-in service in mid-March, many restaurant across the region began selling take-home alcoholic beverages, which have provided offered a vital source of revenue.
“For many restaurants, it’s a lifeline to keep revenue coming in the door as we all wait for things to progress in some way back to normal,” Gallina says. “I’ve seen a lot of creative offerings from our restaurant community, from what they make to how it’s served.”
The state has issued a series of waivers allowing restaurants and bars to continue selling to-go drinks until the end of this year, but industry associations and business owners are lobbying for the exception to become permanent.
Courtesy Vicia
In comparison with cocktails served in glasses and consumed on the premises, the appeal of take-home cocktails is more reliant on presentation. A distinctive bottle shape, packaging, or well-designed label can be the difference between a customer placing an order or not. Gifting is a component of the bottled cocktail market, so appearance matters. Indeed, the packaging is almost as important as the drink itself, especially over the past few months, with restaurants and bars largely relying on social media for marketing.
The bottles used by Vicia have a medicinal feel, which lines up with the botanical and vegetal notes featured in cocktails such as the Garden Herb Martini, made with gin and infused with cucumber, lovage, and basil. A wax-finished top adds to that sense of the artisan’s hand at work. Other current options include the Minted Old Fashioned, Strawberry Mule, and Strawberry Top Margarita.
Courtesy Vicia
“Phil Ingram, our head bartender, is a wizard and creates some amazing infusions, tinctures, and more,” Gallina says. She added that the take-home cocktails are created with just as much care as a drink served in house. “Phil has put the same amount of love and creativity into each bottle,” she says.
Gallina says the Vicia team was conscious that the packaging had to be worthy of the product. “For that drinking experience to translate at home in the elevated way it deserves, we felt that bottling the cocktails, creating custom-made labels using plants from the garden, and waxing each one was the best way to package them.”
Vicia’s bottled cocktails serve two drinks and sell for $20 each. Vicia also offers two syrups, hibiscus mint and grapefruit basil, which can be added to a cocktail or enjoyed with club soda for a refreshing summer drink.
Courtesy Brennan's
Brennan’s also recently added bottled cocktails to the selection of wine, spirits, beers, cheese, and charcuterie sold via its Booze and Snacks delivery program.
“It's cool to be able to deliver our cocktails to people in this way,” says Zach Gzehoviak of Brennan’s. “Even if they are coming in—if all restrictions were opened up and we got going with business as usual again—I think it would still be great to deliver people some of our signature cocktails.”
The bar announced batched cocktails would be part of the delivery offerings when Booze and Snacks launched in April. With Brennan’s currently in the middle of transitioning to a new location on Euclid, expanding the delivery inventory took longer than expected
“I give props to Mission Taco and others for getting cocktails to get approved [by the state]. It helped a lot of people out,” says Gzehoviak. “We were kind of late on getting on the bandwagon, but we'd always had bottled cocktails as part of the plan.”
Courtesy Brennan's
The seven cocktails include more traditional classics, such as the Manhattan, Old Fashioned, and Aviation, as well as classics with a twist, such as the Jalapeño Margarita and Lavender Sidecar. Each 16-ounce bottle will serve an estimated four to six drinks. "You can get them to last a night or two,” says Gzehoviak. Prices run $26 to $32.
Courtesy Brennan's
Gzehoviak and his fiancee, Courtney Tharpe, designed the labels for Brennan’s batched cocktails. If you’re buying them as a gift, Brennan's will even print a personalized message on the label.
“That's part of a campaign that we're going to launch called ‘Drink it Forward,’” Gzehoviak says. “We’ll send out some bottled cocktails to different folks and encourage them to drink it forward and send a message along.”
Some adaptation is necessary to make sure that recipes for cocktails served in house translate well to the take-home format. “For the most part, the recipes are pretty similar,” Gzehoviak says. “When you're batching cocktails that have citrus, you may have to scale down the citrus a little bit to prevent it from being too tart, or you may have to tweak the recipe a little bit. But overall, I don't think you lose a lot going into the bottle. I think they really turned out delicious.”
Photo by Garrett Jackson
Courtesy 1220 Spirits
Chris Voll of Little Fox created "What Spring Does," made with 1220 Spirits Origin Gin, dry vermouth, mint, cucumber, and lime
1220 Artisan Spirits, the distillery label of 4 Hands Brewing, is also doing some of its most interesting work in bottled cocktails—and bringing the restaurant community along with it. Every week, 1220 puts out a different specialty batch cocktail in collaboration with a local bartender. One of the more recent, Path of Victory, created by Naomi Roquet from The Scottish Arms, was a “tropical, easy-drinking cocktail” that incorporates 1220’s Encrypted Vodka, creme de cacao, guava nectar, lemon, and coconut syrup. There have also been collaborations with bartenders from Little Fox, Billie Jean, Taste, Yellowbelly and Planter’s House. Each bottle features an elegant label design and retails for $35 on 4 Hands' online store.
Courtesy Elmwood
Elmwood keeps it simple with the description of its Negronis: “Good gin. Good bitter. Good vermouth. We promise.” The drinks are available in either wax-sealed 375-ml or 750-ml bottles. The Maplewood restaurant also offers Manhattans in two sizes, and a Spicy Tequila Cocktail (750-ml only). Bottles range from $24 to $46.
Chef Ben Poremba has also just released his own line of batched cocktails, available at AO&Co. Five options are available: a Vesper, Spritz, Corpse Reviver No. 2, Negroni, and Negroni 2. Each are available in a slim bottle with an elegant black-and-white label.
Courtesy Louie
Louie has also joined the batched cocktail frenzy with a trio of 16-ounce cocktails to take home. The Demun restaurant offers a negroni, Manhattan, and La Monarca, a spicy twist on a margarita. The stunningly designed $40 bottles are listed on the curbside/carryout menu. "It works out to about $10 per drink, which is about what you'd pay in a restaurant, and they're potent," says owner Matt McGuire.
Looking ahead, Gallina says she believes that customer demand for bottled cocktails will grow, even after the effects of the pandemic subside.
“As long as it stays legal, which I feel it should, there’s no reason to slow things down,” she says. “Even as we start to see people come back to restaurants, the appeal of being able to bring restaurant-quality drinks home is a concept that makes tons of sense, even in ‘normal’ times.”
