Business of Drinks

In 2025, Sunday Hospitality Group served 1.2 million alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages across eight venues, including the Lobby Bar at Hotel Chelsea, Sunday in Brooklyn, Rule of Thirds, and Dynamo Room. Add coffee, tea, and soft drinks, and that number rises to 1.5 million. Brian Evans, the group’s director of bars, joins Business of Drinks to unpack the decisions behind those numbers -- from designing cocktails that sell to building systems that keep service moving and understanding what guests actually want. At Hotel Chelsea, a signature cocktail called Mercury Pool barely sold. Renamed the 1884 Martini, it became the Lobby Bar’s most popular cocktail. Brian explains why familiar names and concise menu descriptions can make adventurous drinks easier to order -- and why even a drink guests love can prove too costly or cumbersome to keep serving. Speed shapes the entire program. Most menu cocktails require just one to four touches, and Dynamo Room has five freezers behind the bar stocked with batched martinis for the pre–Madison Square Garden rush. Brian breaks down how preparation affects the guest experience, profitability, and the chance to sell another round. For suppliers and distributors, he offers a candid look at what earns his attention: Let him taste before launching into the brand story, understand how the product fits his venues, and bring support that benefits the team. He shares how High Road Spirits has built a strong relationship through education, access to producers, and thoughtful hospitality. We also explore what’s changing on the restaurant floor: Fewer rounds at the Brooklyn venues, familiar classics gaining ground, and a nuanced picture of non-alcoholic demand, with steady NA cocktail sales alongside a surge in coffee and tea at Rule of Thirds. For anyone selling into restaurants or running a beverage program, this conversation connects product appeal, buyer priorities, and the operational details that determine whether a drink earns its place. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

Lost Lantern just hit $1 million in revenue over the trailing 12 months, and its velocity is increasing. After growing sales 10% in 2025, the whiskey brand forecasts doubling them in 2026. Its approach to expansion starts with evidence that consumers already want its bottles. In this episode, Nora Ganley-Roper, co-founder, general manager, and head of blending at Lost Lantern, joins Scott Rosenbaum to explain how the company builds that demand -- and uses it to make better decisions about distribution. An independent bottler, Lost Lantern buys mature whiskey from distilleries across the U.S., then selects and blends distinctive releases. It has launched more than 100 SKUs, some totaling just 200 bottles. For its first three years, e-commerce did much of the heavy lifting, and its newsletter became a testing ground for which products and stories inspired purchases. That feedback strengthened the retail pitch. The team could explain who would buy a bottle, why it fit a particular store, and how Lost Lantern would help drive sales. When releases sold out online, the newsletter could send customers to retailers that still had them. Nora explains the three things Lost Lantern needs before expanding: consumer demand, the right stores, and a distributor that fits the brand. With a team of six, the company also has to weigh whether it can provide the support a new market requires. Its latest project, the United States of Bourbon, shows how a broader product can accelerate growth. The blend of straight bourbon from all 50 states generated online sales at about 3x forecast, while wholesale’s share of company sales rose from 40% in Q1 to 55% in Q2. We dig into: How e-commerce reveals what customers will buy. What makes a retail pitch compelling. Why distributor interest alone doesn’t justify expansion. How limited releases build an audience for broader growth. What it takes to support placements once you’ve won them. For anyone weighing a launch or expansion, Nora offers a practical look at how consumer demand can guide where -- and how -- a drinks brand grows. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

Badger Bevs sold more than 100K 9L cases in 2025, growing more than 230% YOY. Yet more than 95% of its sales still come from restaurants, bars, and hotels. Founder and CEO David Vogel made a deliberate choice to build the premium mixer brand in the on-premise first. Drawing on his experience at Blue Buffalo and The Chef’s Warehouse, he saw an opening for a mixer designed for high-end hospitality -- and a chance to earn the trust of bartenders and beverage directors before pursuing broad retail distribution. That trust took work. In New York, David walked into bars with samples and was often turned away. Buyers might like the tonic or ginger beer, but they also needed to know Badger could deliver consistently. Today, the brand has more than 1,000 customers in that market and sells in 33 states. In this episode, David explains how Badger expanded one market at a time, why delivery frequency and service matter as much as a distributor’s reach, and what it takes to support accounts after the first sale. We also get into the product choices behind the growth -- from bartender input on flavor and carbonation to a resealable bottle designed around how cocktails are made behind American bars. For drinks founders, it’s a useful look at how a brand can grow quickly while staying focused on the customers it set out to serve. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

Getting into more doors is not the same as building a scalable drinks business. As brands move beyond founder-led sales, the burden of proof changes. Early on, strong velocity and repeat purchase may be enough to attract investment. But by $3M-$7M in revenue, investors want to see rising same-store sales, faster reorders, and evidence that the team understands exactly what is driving growth. And before raising a $10M+ round, experimentation is no longer a strategy: Founders need a repeatable playbook showing how each new dollar will translate into accounts, reorders, and sustainable expansion. Few investors have seen that transition from as many sides as Jason Sherman, co-founder and managing partner of Top Shelf Ventures. At AB InBev’s ZX Ventures, he was part of a team that completed about 200 deals and nearly $1B in investments and acquisitions. He later founded TapRm, an e-commerce platform and beer distributor serving close to 5K New York City accounts. Today, he backs early-stage companies across beverage and other “vice” categories. We discuss: 🔸 Why Top Shelf uses roughly $1K in annual sales per retail door as an initial benchmark -- and points to their portfolio company Gratsi at $4K-$5K as an outlier 🔸 Why a 5K-account footprint means little if 4K accounts sell only $50-$100 annually 🔸 What investors expect at different stages, from sub-$1M brands to companies preparing for major growth rounds 🔸 How to turn founder-led selling into a repeatable market-expansion playbook 🔸 Why brands should move beyond self-distribution early -- and choose distributors based on attention rather than size 🔸 Why financial fluency around inventory, working capital, and cash flow becomes essential as a company scales This episode is a practical guide to the moment when founder hustle must become a system. For drinks entrepreneurs preparing to raise capital, enter new markets, or build a larger sales organization, Jason lays out how to prove that growth is repeatable -- and that the business is ready to support it. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

You’re paying for tastings, winning placements, and sending teams into the field. But can you tell which of those investments are actually driving sales? For too many drinks companies, the answer is no. The relevant data is buried in spreadsheets, email chains, and program recaps that arrive months after the money is spent. In this sponsored episode of Business of Drinks, Erica Duecy sits down with Ian Ferguson, CEO of PIÑATA, to explore how brands can connect what happens in the field to the numbers that guide their next investment. The conversation grew out of our interview with Saint Spritz’s Ben Patton, who revealed that the brand uses PIÑATA to manage its nationwide team of roughly 100 brand ambassadors. But the opportunity extends well beyond scheduling tastings: It’s about helping sales, marketing, distributors, and agencies act on the same information. One example: Ian says PIÑATA has seen sell-through nearly double when in-store activations were backed by an end cap display. Yet the teams booking tastings often don’t know where those displays are happening. PIÑATA helps surface those details across teams and agencies. We dig into: Why sampling ROI can be misleading: A tasting that helps win an opening order serves a different purpose from one supporting inventory already on the shelf. Measuring them the same way can lead to the wrong conclusions. What happens after a national account win: How to turn an authorization into actual placements, communicate expectations to distributors, and spot gaps in execution. How to measure trade relationships: Connecting bartender engagement and event guest lists to account performance over time. Where lean teams waste resources: From tastings at stores with no inventory to multiple people calling on the same accounts while others go unsupported. What emerging brands need to prove next: Working backward from a buyer or distributor meeting to capture the evidence that will help open doors. For anyone trying to make a limited commercial budget work harder, this conversation gets specific about where to start. For more information, visit www.gopinata.com For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!