Sip, Sip, Hooray!

Whether you consider yourself a craft beer connoisseur or an at-home mocktail mixologist, these local drink-slingers are serving up something for everyone with new offerings.

text MEGAN WHITE

Cordial

A staple in the Twin Cities catering scene, Chowgirls has had its liquor catering license for several years, but recently made the leap to highlight this service with Cordial, a sub-brand that specifically focuses on elevated cocktail offerings with expanded bar staff. Leading the Cordial team are Eleni Beloy and Meghan Larson, who both have amassed extensive knowledge of beverages and hospitality from years of experience at various well-known local establishments.

Beloy and Larsen are experts on cocktails and beers, respectively, and work with couples to curate custom drink menus. Be it based on a couple’s color palette or an ingredient that is meaningful to them, Cordial is happy to accommodate. They also offer a cocktailtasting add-on, which is a great way for them to understand a couple’s vision and taste. This entails asking seemingly simple but telling questions, like a couple’s favorite place to grab a drink, their favorite cocktails, and what their wedding guests are like, allowing them to tailor the bar menu to suit.

“We can provide any and all bar service, no matter the event! We especially love to do multiple events for the same wedding. It garners familiarity and gives the celebrations a family feel,” says Amy Brown, Chowgirls’ co-founder. Their services are priced per person, per hour, and they offer a variety of different packages, with optional additions such as a champagne toast, wine pour, custom signature cocktails and spirit-free cocktails. They can serve anywhere within Minnesota, and while they mostly work within an hour’s radius of the Twin Cities, they can travel elsewhere in the state for a fee. What makes Cordial stand out are the intentional details and processes that are also the backbone of Chowgirls Catering services, such as seasonality, locality and sustainability. They source local, in-season produce whenever possible, and also have their own garnish garden for edible flowers and fresh herbs to top it all off, literally. They also prioritize working with local and BIPOC-owned beer and liquor companies, as well as women-owned and organic wineries. Their house-made tonic, syrups and other mixers are at the core of many of their concoctions.

Cordial also has a spirit-free menu that features drinks that are just as creative and thoughtful as the boozy ones, and they are working on branching out into fresh cold-pressed juices that will enable them to work with their kitchen to process fruits and vegetables before they go to waste.

EARL

Giles Restaurant And Distillery

What started as two guys crafting nonalcoholic mixers and elixirs from an apartment in 2015, Earl Giles, backed by founders Jesse Held and Jeff Erkkila, has been steadily growing and evolving, with their latest expansion being Earl Giles Restaurant and Distillery. Located in Northeast Minneapolis, they recruited the expertise of Shea Architects & Design to turn a former stagecoach and horse-drawn carriage production facility into a modern hot spot of carefully curated spaces and offerings. Below the soaring 32-foot ceilings that feature the building’s original timber, they added the Mezzanine, a second level that not only boasts a view of the entire production floor but also serves as an intimate private gathering space that can comfortably fit 60 people. Along with their spirits services, their full kitchen can also provide food to suit your event needs, and for an extra charge, you can consult with a chef to curate your own personalized menu.

And, staying true to their mixer origins, the Earl Giles team is at your service for an array of customizable cocktail options, offerings and advice. With years of experience in sustainably concocting elixirs with extracts from all over the world and consulting other beverage businesses, their team is a sure shot when it comes to navigating your way to refreshments that are uniquely you. If you’re looking to add an experience to your bachelor or bachelorette weekend, try the immersive cocktail experience. Earl Giles can host up to 40 people for this event, where you and your crew can learn, imbibe, and take home your custom creations creations that you could also incorporate into your big day. Or, schedule a tasting just for you and your partner to create custom cocktails that represent your style, taste and personality.

The Fab Tap

The mobile bar service that began with The Queen, a refurbished Airstream, has grown in many ways from developing add-ons like flower crown-making to partnering with the Vine Room to host cash bars and is now taking its offerings up another notch, in two unique ways. The first is a new, patent-pending addition to their mobile services. After receiving requests for serving in smaller spaces, owner Lindsey Pattee noticed a gap in the marketplace and along came her idea for Petite Pete an adorable mobile beverage cart that is much more compact than its Airstream predecessor. Petite Pete can serve any and all drinks, from beer to mixed drinks, and has three taps that are pressurized with CO2 to keep things fresh and delicious. They offer “Fab Favorites,” which are tried and true cocktails, but Fab Tap wants every couple’s menu to feel personalized and happily accommodates customizations. Pattee also suggests offering a mocktail version of your signature cocktail to keep it simple while still being considerate of your NA guests.

“Although Pete is relatively small, he is a bit mighty,” and requires at least a 37-inch-wide space, says Pattee. Depending on budget, Fab Tap can travel all over the state. And, if you’re looking to keep things a little more sustainable, they suggest using kegs of beer and bubbly as a more efficient way to serve large parties. For example, did you know a keg of bubbly can serve roughly 110 glasses? That’s about the same as 27 bottles of wine, sans all the extra packaging!

Fab Tap’s other new endeavor, Fab Drink Toppers, is a personalized service and an Instagram-able touch to add to your beverages. Made out of premium frosting sheets, Fab Drink Toppers are edible decorations that float on your beverage of choice. The Fab Tap team sources the sheets, and designs and produces the final products in-house. The team spent countless hours researching and testing various types of frosting sheets, and landed on the highest quality sheets to provide the most appealing experience. They offer both custom and pre-designed graphics, and even the pre-designed toppers still allow for some customizations, such as the couple’s initials. While they like to have the design files finalized two weeks prior to the event, they are open to working with couples with shorter timelines or custom shipping needs. *