On Christmas Day 1694, First Lord of the Admiralty Edward Russell found himself stuck in Cadiz, Spain, instead of at home celebrating in England. Rather than mope, Russell decided to throw a party. And at that party, Russell created a showstopping sight for his guests. In a Delft fountain, a small boy floated in a rowboat, effectively stirring 700 gallons of punch with his oars. The punch in said fountain included 25,000 lemons and five pounds of nutmeg among other copious ingredients, and it served 6,000 guests. Surely, Admiral Russell and his punch hold the world record for the grandest large-format drink ever created.
The original batched cocktail is, in fact, punch. It was mixed by sailors on long ocean voyages, sipped by the English at “Bridgerton”-style parties, and, later, in colonial America. The communal punch bowl eventually went out of fashion, only to be rediscovered by modern bartenders, who embraced the concept with enthusiasm. And it’s not just punch bowls. Cocktails on tap, kegged cocktails, bottled cocktails—the possibilities of creating easy-serve, high volume, cost-effective drinks are only as limited as a bartender’s imagination.
Today’s multi-serving cocktails certainly have no need of a rowboat (or 25,000 lemons). What they share in common with Russell’s punch is the ability to quickly and efficiently serve a large number of reliably consistent drinks to thirsty guests. Despite having only a 75-person capacity, Clive’s Classic Lounge in Victoria, British Columbia is a very high-volume bar. To address this, Lounge Manager and Executive Bar Keep Shawn Soole always has a variety of large-format drinks available. “Every menu has batched cocktails,” he says. “With 45 cocktails on the menu, we look at every drink hitting the table five to seven minutes after ordering.” His batched drinks include two frozen martinis, two barrel-aged cocktails, two large format punches, and four cocktails on tap. The tap drinks, says Soole, are the best seller with his Negroni reaching roughly five gallons per week.
At The Waterfront in Venice, California, the cocktail batches are stored in kegs under the bar or on tap.
When Dave Purcell stepped into the role of beverage director at The Waterfront in Venice, California, he knew he needed to satisfy multiple requirements for the tremendous traffic in the roughly 10,000-square-foot, multi-room space. His solution was to develop the entire menu as only large batch drinks.
“This is a venue that has really high-velocity days,” he says, “and I needed to be able to prepare and plan out all the moves ahead of time. I crafted our selection based on accessibility. If you are running a program fully committed to batches on draft, you won’t be able to accommodate every whim of the guests that come in.” Because of this, he balanced his menu with familiar crowdpleasers like the Aperol Spritz or the Old Fashioned and included a few more adventurous choices as well. The cocktail batches are stored in kegs under the bar or on tap, as with the espresso martini. Whether it’s a single cocktail, a pitcher for six, or a tower for 15 (with rubber duckies floating on top), every drink is essentially a curated RTD.
At Sassafras, which is owned by the 1933 Group, the Los Angeles bar featured a novel design/service element when it opened in 2010; it is still a defining feature in the space. Co-Founder and Designer Bobby Green always begins with a unique visual concept. “As a designer of hospitality spaces, I always like to add something with motion as I feel it creates energy,” says Green. “It could be anything as simple as a ceiling fan but when I came across a listing for a 1920s dry cleaning rack, I knew immediately that having a menagerie of bottles slowly rotating above the bartenders’ heads would make for a great eye catcher. And from a business standpoint, it actually made for some fun pre-batching possibilities and easy access for the staff. And every time they reach up to grab the bottle they need, it elicits excitement from customers.”
In the case of Sassafras’s bottled cocktail dry cleaning rack, form and function work side by side, producing a ‘wow’ factor that excites the guest.
Dynamic presentation and accessibility were at the forefront of Consulting Beverage Director Drew Record’s mind when he approached the menu at the Powder Room in Austin. According to Record, the table service concept evolved out of the desire “to bridge the divide between cocktail bars and more nightlife-driven destinations. We want to be able to serve a serious drink tableside and not just offer the same bottle service options.”
Among the choices are 20-plus ounce bottle service and mini, tableside kegs. The large-format bottled martini arrives right out of the freezer, the glass heavily frosted from the icy chill. As for the kegs, they were a bit of serendipity. “It started as a way of preserving the delicate nature of the cocktail,” explains Record, “and eventually the kegs made their way out onto the floor. It certainly brings a party to the table when you have a tiny tap to pour from.”
Sassafras’s bottled cocktail dry cleaning rack combines form and function to produce a ‘wow’ factor that excites the guest.
There is an added and often overlooked benefit to batching cocktails that Purcell sees. “In our training, we don’t need to have our staff knowledgeable about the exact measurements,” says Purcell, “just the ingredients and the way to communicate the drink and style to the guest. We can hire and train people in the better part of a day or two to have them ready for all the twists and turns they could expect. Our methods become about consistency and visibility, rather than technique and steps.” And, because there isn’t a huge learning curve for the staff, he says, “The ease allows our bar team to spend more time interacting with a guest and less time with their heads down. I think when utilized correctly, this can greatly increase the hospitality you can offer, especially when someone just wants a drink and isn’t looking to be held hostage by an intricate process of skill.”
This sort of streamlined approach to training is just one more element that contributes to efficiency, which in turn affects the bar’s bottom line. It was definitely part of the thought process for Record, who sees large format drinks as a sort of “suggestive selling tool…they can be used to consolidate an order, leaving the bar more time to make the next a-la-minute cocktails for other guests.” Quick delivery of both single-serving and large-format drinks leads to “a healthy menu mix [that] can create efficiencies and boost the per guest average spend.”
Still, there are pitfalls in the large-format arena. Soole pays particular attention to the stability of his drinks. His large format punches are vac-bagged to keep them fresh. He also avoids the fresh juices so essential for individual drinks. His solution: “We use a lot of acidified oleos to make the batches shelf stable but still give the flavors of the citrus you would typically use in an à la minute cocktail.”
And Record cautions, “Watch out for your proportions. Not every ingredient scales in a linear fashion.”
With large format drinks, you also need to be aware of some less glamorous, but essential, considerations, which can make or break your success. Purcell advises that you pay attention to specifics like how much dilution each drink needs, how ABV will affect the mixture, and what to do when ingredients separate. “Stabilizers and gums can help offset this, but ultimately, ingredients have different weights and densities,” he notes, “and will naturally separate. Jugs and Cambros need to be reincorporated constantly. Kegs need to be shaken hourly. In order to properly preserve the ingredients in a keg, you need to flush the keg of oxygen and fill with nitrogen or CO2 to help the ingredient oxidize more slowly.”
The demands of the bar and restaurant industry can make it difficult to balance the necessary hospitality with the bottom line. As any bartender will tell you, you have to create drinks that satisfy multiple requirements, from consistent quality to quick service to cost control. Large-batch drinks are, unquestionably, a valuable addition to the bartender’s toolkit, offering multiple benefits, as well as challenges. One has to master the intricacies of scaling recipes, consider the cost of ingredients and demands of delivery systems, and balance innovation with profitability.
When properly made, large-format drinks satisfy all these requirements, as well as freeing up bartenders to do what they do best: keep their guests happy. And, while single-serving cocktails can do the same, they can’t hold a candle to a boy stirring 700 gallons of punch in a Delft fountain.
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