“On a peak Friday or Saturday night, we easily serve around 200 Espresso Martinis, sometimes even more,” says Hailey Knight, the longtime beverage director at Félix Cocktails et Cuisine. Given that not all bartenders even like making Espresso Martinis — and that a good one takes time and care — it’s impressive that Knight and her team can accomplish these mass orders with uniformity and expediency.
“Our team actually loves making them,” Knight adds. “I actually don’t think the ‘hate’ comes from complexity because it is a straightforward cocktail. I think it is more about the hype. Before we perfected our recipe, it was a challenge to get it right every time. Now that we’ve mastered it, it consistently hits.”
So how do bars find that consistency? “Maintaining quality at scale looks like a marriage of chemistry and logistics,” says LP O’Brien, beverage consultant with LP Drinks, the inaugural winner of Netflix’s Drink Masters and global creative director of beverage at F1® Arcade. “For example, many top-tier bars now use ‘acid-adjusting,’ where they use precise amounts of citric or malic acid to make a stable juice, like pineapple, mimic the tartness of a lemon. This ensures that the 200th drink of the night has the exact same brightness as the first, avoiding the flavor degradation that happens with fresh-squeezed citrus over several hours.”
Whether it’s hacks like these, pre-batching, proper bar organization or just pure drinks-making repetition, there are methods to making complex drinks in a quick amount of time for a large group of customers. The key is making it look effortless.
“To the guest, a drink looks like a work of art made in seconds,” O’Brien says. “In reality, it’s the result of hours of calculated preparation designed to protect the integrity of the recipe from the chaos of the crowd.” With that in mind, we asked nine drinks professionals to explain the secret behind their high-volume, high-popularity cocktails.
Lucy’s Dream (Adventure Time Bar, Denver)
“Our highest-volume drink is a flash-frozen Ramos Gin Fizz with the flavors of a Key lime pie, eaten with a spoon,” says Sam Wood, co-owner of Adventure Time Bar. “A Ramos Gin Fizz is already the bane of any bartender, so adding in the extra level with liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze it just makes the cocktail that much more intricate.”
How they make it: “To build the cocktail, we use a shelf-stable, pseudo-citrus that I invented to sub in for the lime juice so it doesn’t lose its flavor and doesn’t turn,” Wood says. “We use brewers’ enzymes to liquefy graham crackers for the syrup and then readjust the ratios of the cocktail itself to better hold and fluff when it hits the liquid nitrogen, along with using methyl cellulose and xanthan gum to give it hold and body. Then, when it comes to the front of house, the cocktails are loaded into ISI whippers, and we build them in the bowl with the liquid nitrogen. To be able to serve so many each night, our bar team will make sure to prep all ingredients in the back of house a day or two before service.”
Espresso Martini (Félix Cocktails et Cuisine, Charleston, SC)
“We use high-quality spirits and freshly pulled espresso, which sets our Espresso Martini apart immediately,” Knight says. “Most places rely on espresso liqueur or flavored vodka, but we pull a full shot of espresso for every Martini. It makes a huge difference in balance, aroma and mouthfeel.”
How they make it: “We batch the spirit components so they’re always ready to go,” Knight says. “When we build the drink, we add a fresh pull of espresso and a touch of cream. We also use a tin shaker that fits three cocktails at once, which allows us to make six at a time (with two shakers) for larger groups. Plus, our Perlick system keeps every tool and bottle within easy reach, and nothing ever gets rearranged. Juice, bitters and spirits sit in the same spot they did five years ago. That kind of consistency lets muscle memory take over, which is crucial when the bar is at full speed.”
Irish Coffee (The Dead Rabbit, New York City)
“Our Irish Coffee is the drink people come in for,” says Cory O’Brien-Pniewski, bar director at The Dead Rabbit. “It became popular because we took great care and detail to make it truly remarkable and something that can be repeated day in and day out without losing quality.”
How they make it: “The coffee has to be hot enough to warm the whiskey (Teeling Small Batch) without scorching it, and the cream has to be whipped just enough so it floats cleanly without sinking or splattering,” O’Brien-Pniewski says. “When you’re making dozens or hundreds a night, consistency is everything. We keep the coffee/rich demerara sugar syrup at a precise temperature in a sous vide bath and keep the cream whipped to the exact texture we need before service begins. That contrast between the hot coffee and cold cream is very important — it’s not only a contrast in temperature but also a contrast in texture, and it adds to the overall experience.”
The 20/20 Vision (Dusk, Santa Barbara, CA)
“The 20/20 Vision is a labor of love that we work to make look effortless during service,” says Paul Mendoza, lead bartender of Dusk. “Its bright orange color, garnished with a dill sprig to resemble a carrot, immediately catches your eye, and the ingredient list sparks curiosity.”
How they make it: “What makes this cocktail challenging is the number of components involved, which can slow service during high-volume periods,” Mendoza says. “To meet demand without sacrificing quality, we batch all of the spirits into a single bottle and infuse dill directly into our carrot syrup instead of muddling it into every drink. This significantly reduces build time and streamlines our workflow.”
The Alchemy (1587 Prime, Kansas City, MO)
“The Alchemy is a laborious preparation process,” says Juan Carlo Santana, the beverage director at Noble 33 and 1587 Prime (created in partnership with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce). “We go through about 25 to 30 liters of The Alchemy per day. That’s 120 to 150 of them a night.”
How they make it: The cocktail was apparently inspired by Taylor Swift, and the drinkware’s stem is covered in steel wool and set aflame tableside. That’s the fun part. The prep, however, is intense. “We cold steep dry curacao with oolong tea for 10 hours,” Santana says. “Then we can assemble all other ingredients and squeeze fresh lime. This cocktail is essentially a Cosmopolitan Milk Punch, so ensuring we have proper acidity is important. It takes the better part of six to eight hours to completely clarify the punch. In the first few days we opened the restaurant, keeping up with high demand was challenging. We had to develop some unique methods after a lot of testing to make the whole process as efficient as possible. We tested different containers, perforated pan sizes and filtering materials until we found the Goldilocks setup. Garnish work is all cut and manicured before service starts.”
The Most Underrated Cocktails on Every Bar Menu
You’re likely skipping over some of the best mixed drinks the bartender can make
Eastern Standard Ward 8 (Eastern Standard, Boston)
“The ES Ward 8 became a guest favorite by offering a modern, elevated take on the only classic cocktail Boston can truly claim as its own,” says Eastern Standard lead bartender Julian Bernal. “We wanted to honor the drink’s rich local history while refining it for today’s palate. We take two of the drink’s core components, orange juice and grenadine, and rebuild them with precision. The fresh-squeezed orange juice is adjusted with carefully measured amounts of citric and malic acid, calibrated by the gram, to achieve consistent brightness and structure. Our grenadine is fortified with molasses and winter spices to add depth and complexity that complement the rum and rye base.”
How they make it: Things can get a little crazy in Fenway during and after Red Sox games, but Eastern Standard is used to sudden demand: The bar actually won a Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for “Best High Volume Cocktail Bar.” “It comes down to preparation and systems,” Bernal says. “The bar team pre-batches and measures key components to ensure consistency while maintaining the technical integrity of the recipe. The cocktail program is curated collaboratively by me and our beverage director, Jackson Cannon, with a focus on drinks that can be replicated at a high level without sacrificing creativity, precision or speed.”
Blind Box Punch (Oddball, New York)
This one’s a little different — as in, you may never have the same drink twice. “As our punches and Daiquiris are limited items (in the ‘rotating’ section), we like to spotlight them at the table,” says beverage director Logan Rodriguez. “The ingredients aren’t listed in print, so selling it tableside lets the crew talk through it with their own personal energy. We really like to emphasize that many of these are one-and-done batches with ingredients we won’t have in the mix again. So some people are happy to snag these kinds of ephemeral offerings.”
How they make it: Customers literally roll D8 dice to determine ingredients in their drink. “There’s a measure of fate that, at times, combines very unlikely ingredients,” Rodriguez says. “Some of them work well from the start, others need a little finessing. The rule for us is that we can add anything we like beyond the rolled ingredients, and it allows us to get very creative and sometimes utilize ingredients from our R&D sessions that didn’t make it into any of the menu cocktails. We prepare small-enough batches of punches that contain citrus so we can rotate them into new batches by the day, although we often use milk-washing to clarify the punches and smooth out the flavors, which acts as a stabilizing, preserving force on any fruit juices in the punch. Alternatively, we use acid solutions to achieve the proper balance, which allows us to fill the volume with other ingredients while still keeping things focused in flavor.”
Gully Creeper (Bon Vivants, Nassau, Bahamas)
“We wanted to create a cocktail that was distinctly Bahamian and strong enough to stand up to the energy of a packed room,” says Bon Vivants managing director and co-founder Kyle Jones. “The Gully Creeper is inspired by the classic Gully Wash, which is a simple cocktail born out of necessity and celebration, made with gin, sweetened condensed cream and coconut water. Our interpretation refines the original. It contains multiple calibrated elements, including citrus balance, layered spirits, textural components and intentional garnish. When serving it at scale, oxidation, dilution and consistency can become a challenge.”
How they make it: Jones and his team operate with strict controls. “Batching is done by weight to ensure exact ratios,” he says. “Citrus is freshly pressed and timestamped. The ice format and density are standardized to control dilution, and the garnishes are pre-structured so the presentation is perfect every time.”
Tom Collins (Valerie, New York)
“Over the years, we’ve moved into even more work behind the scenes to make sure that the time spent from order to service is minimal,” says Valerie beverage director Marshall Minaya. “At Valerie, we now have six cocktails on tap, two of which are force carbonated, currently a Tom Collins and Gin Rickey. With force carbonation, we are adding the ingredients to an 18-liter keg and charging the keg with CO2, which is replacing the oxygen inside. With these cocktails, we are not just topping a cocktail with an ounce and a half of club soda, but every ingredient is carbonated.”
How they make it: Thanks to this setup, the bar team can execute these cocktails in mere seconds. “We have all of our ingredients prepared and tested before put on tap,” Minaya says. “The ingredients we use help us in our efforts of less waste in our bar, as we juice our citrus daily. If we have lime or lemon leftover from service, we will clarify and make a cordial to use in our force-carbonated drinks. But organization is where we begin — we have an overhead view spreadsheet of where every bottle goes in our setup every shift, and this changes each menu to make sure ingredients that go into the same cocktail are next to each other in our layout. The more consistent your layout, the more the muscle memory builds and more time our team can spend making eye contact with guests and not looking down so often.”
Meet your guide
More Like This
Every Thursday, our resident experts see to it that you’re up to date on the latest from the world of drinks. Trend reports, bottle reviews, cocktail recipes and more. Sign up for THE SPILL now.
