Bringing the Party to You

Boutique and mobile bartending businesses are serving in style

By Brighid Driscoll

Just as the kitchen is the heart of a home, a bar is the heart of a party. Outdoor gatherings especially raise spirits (pun intended) when the bar goes above and beyond, and local mobile and pop-up bars are doing just that with plenty of versatility and style.

Ready to bring that heart to your next wedding, reunion, birthday, or get together? Here are three local traveling bar options to elevate and inspire your party planning.

(Pro-tip: Depending on your event, you may need to obtain a liquor license. You’ll also need to purchase your event’s alcohol in addition to bartending fees. But worry not, your mobile bar service pros will guide you. Cheers!)

Tonic & Lime

You can’t talk mobile bars without talking about northern Michigan’s original in bartending service: Tonic & Lime. Owner Amber Jaeger had helped a friend run a similar business when she was living in Denver, and when she moved back to northern Michigan she brought the concept with her.

“I knew the wedding industry was growing rapidly and no one was really doing something like this,” she tells Northern Express

Jaeger had always been designated as the cocktail curator among friends, so starting the business was a natural fit. In 2017, T&L officially opened for service and it has been nonstop since. While our other two mobile bars serve out of caravans, T&L staffs their bar sans wheels. The company is billed as “boutique bartending” and can adapt to a variety of settings whether you’re at home, at the workplace, or at an event venue.

“Service is our number one priority and the most important aspect to us,” Jaeger says. “We have a team of over 20 bartenders who are wonderful and very professional. I go through a pre-event checklist to make sure they’re completely prepared, stocked, and ready to go.”

And when it comes to the night of, Jaeger’s passion for cocktails shines through her creative concoctions. “One of my favorite signature drinks right now that people seem to be loving is a gin lavender lemon cocktail. We use a really beautiful purple simple syrup. Even without the gin, it has so much flavor that you’re not missing out.”

She’s also putting effort into great mocktails, a rising event trend that’s gaining momentum. “We can definitely provide non-alcoholic spirits options—a lot of times we can make a signature cocktail non-alcoholic,” Jaeger says. “The request for NA options at our events has increased tenfold over the last year. We already saw it gaining popularity in the West Coast, so we knew it was coming. We don’t want anyone to feel like you have to drink to have a good time at an event.”

Learn more at tonicandlimemi.com.

Wandering Spirits

Local couple Haley and Cody Zietz were due to get married in the summer of 2020. As we know, the world had other plans.

“We ended up having to cancel our wedding and get married in the backyard instead,” Haley explains. But the bump in the road led to some inspiration. “Some friends of ours had a similar [mobile bar] business downstate, and we thought that it would have been really cool to have had something like that at our wedding.”

The duo took the plunge in the form of a vintage camper and invited another couple, Kaitlyn Grangood and Evan Merrill, along for the pursuit. Cody and Evan renovated what is now called the Leland Blue, the first in Wandering Spirits’ fleet of traveling bars. The second is a renovated horse trailer called the Petoskey Pebble.

“The Leland Blue generally gets rented more for weddings because it’s white. The Petoskey Pebble is black and a bit sharper and more modern looking, that gets rented out more for retirement parties and birthdays. It all just depends what look people are going for,” says Haley.

Something else to note about the Petoskey Pebble is that it has four taps, great for beer-heavy celebrations.

Wandering Spirits provides the mobile bar, all of its equipment and decor, and furniture for a small seating area, but bartenders will need to be hired and beverages will need to be bought separately. According to the FAQ section on their website, the Wandering Spirits team will help connect bartenders with the folks who need them.

Learn more at wanderingspiritsmi.com.

Roaming NoMi

Local couples and friends Maria and Matt Drost and Danielle and Adam Oster are the powerhouses behind Roaming NoMi, which opened in September 2022.

Maria, Matt, and Danielle are all teachers and met through work, “and we just became best friends,” Maria says. She and Matt had been playing with the idea of opening a mobile bar for a couple of years, but the idea of opening and running a business was intimidating…at least until they added Danielle and Adam to the mix. “A partnership with our best friends made this feel totally possible,” Maria says.

She and Matt already had some wedding event experience, him with DJing and her with bartending. “I had spent time bartending in bars and restaurants and knew I didn’t want to do that again. But bartending a wedding with Matt was fun. We could talk with members of our community and not have the pressures of the restaurant industry.”

Adam and Matt renovated their traveling speakeasy with meticulous care. They provide the bar and staff all events. “We are the bartending service as well and don’t rent out the mobile bar by itself,” Danielle explains. “We see it through from start to end.”

The bar can accommodate two kegs plus refrigerated wine and beer, and the team can provide fun signature cocktail ideas. They also can provide self-serve non-alcoholic stations with custom NA creations flowing from barrels. “It’s nice for people not drinking to have more than just pop and water to choose from,” says Maria.

For a taste of what they do, stay tuned on their Facebook page (@roamingnomibar) for public events.

Learn more at roamingnomi.com.