Quintessential Concoctions

Signature cocktail mixes brand bar operations

By Brendan McNulty, Special to R&I -- Restaurants & Institutions, 12/1/2003

A restaurant can earn a stellar reputation by consistently serving lip-smacking steaks or ambrosial lobster bisque. But how about carving out a niche by adding spices to Bloody Mary mix, or star-fruit juice and blueberries to a martini?

In the constantly evolving struggle to impress customers from the first smile at the host station to mints with the check, operators have learned that there’s gold in the creation of original cocktail mixes.

Signature mixes “really enhance our restaurant’s reputation as a fun, lively and spirited environment,” says Stacy Pritchett, senior director of brand licensing at Dallas-based T.G.I. Friday’s. “Our individualized beverages always have been important to the overall experience.”

The company has had so much success with its recipes for drinks such as mudslides and daiquiris, that it licensed a line of bottled spirit-based cocktails in 1993 and followed in 2001 with nonalcoholic mixes.

“Whether people are drinking them at the restaurant or at home, mixes add to the idea that Friday’s is about having a good time,” says Pritchett.

Other chains have followed a similar path. Irvine, Calif.-based Prandium licensed the name of its Chi-Chi’s Mexican chain for a line of bottled alcoholic cocktails that includes Caribbean Mudslide, Cosmopolitan, Long Island Iced Tea and several margarita varieties.

Friday’s, which also licenses its name for a line of frozen-food products, believes the presence of its brand on retail shelves provides extra marketing impact. “When people taste our brand of mixers in our restaurants or see them in grocery stores, it really supports our advertising efforts,” Pritchett says.

A bit of mystery doesn’t hurt
Some restaurants build businesses around signature cocktail mixes. For The Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant, opened in Fort Collins, Colo., in 1986 by two brothers and their childhood friend, the margarita recipe concocted just days before opening was the hit that put them on diners’ maps.

Since then, the Tex-Mex eatery has become known for its south-of-the-border drink specialty, garnering best-of accolades from magazines and newspapers throughout the mountain area. Andre and Stephen Mouton and Pat McGaughran have since opened four additional locations in northern Colorado. McGaughran recently bought out the Moutons and is now sole owner.

In the process, the chain has become the preeminent place for locals to indulge in the delicious spirit with friends. But there is a limit to how many drinks customers can enjoy. Servers cut off guests after the third.

“Sometimes people don’t use their best judgment after a few of these drinks,” says spokeswoman Christine Sullo. “So we help them out by limiting everyone to three.”

As far as what’s in the mix, some blurry-eyed customers have accused the owners of stiffening the concoction with grain alcohol, while others insist the cocktail gets its clarity, golden tint and fruity flavor from apple juice. The restaurant contends that neither of these theories is true but offers no explanation in their place.

“It’s an enigma,” Sullo says of the restaurant’s most closely guarded secret. “Management has even proposed electroshock therapy for those employees who leak the formula.”

What she will say is that every morning the ingredients are poured into several 5-gallon buckets and mixed together. They then are separated into containers for the three types of margaritas that the restaurant sells: on the rocks, frozen and frozen strawberry.

The day’s supply is parceled into 12-ounce glasses, where it is mixed with two shots of 80-proof tequila anejo and two shots of 45-proof orange liqueur. Bacchus would be proud. The drink sells for $5, and, for the less ambitious, The Rio Grande also offers a 6-ounce mini-margarita for $3.

Though the impact of “the recipe,” as it is called, cannot be overestimated, The Rio Grande also draws customers with the quality of its home-style fare. Tortillas, chips and salsas are made from scratch each day. The Tex-Mex style of cuisine is more than just coincidental; McGaughran and the Mouton brothers grew up in Houston and Austin.

The tequila drink is relevant as well. From their perches in the foothills of the Rockies, The Rio Grande restaurants are only a few hundred miles of desert and green-chili cheeseburger shacks away from the home of the blue agave plant in the Mexican state of Jalisco.

Think local
How do you make a drink your own? Start with something local, operators say. Mix in grape juice or grappa if grapes are grown locally. You’re more likely to make a mark with diners using familiar ingredients. Or get creative with a drink that already sells well.

“The original idea for making our own brand came from the mudslide,” says Friday’s Pritchett. “It was so popular and so many people associated it with the restaurant, it just seemed natural.”

Although the chain’s first cocktail recipes grew from more conceptual corners of the brain, the methodology and ingredients that go into its newest mixes come from extensive consumer research, she explains.

“We are adding a hard lemonade, piña colada and sweet-and-sour to our repertoire,” she says. “We follow what people are drinking. The hard lemonade is especially exciting since the idea just emerged in the last couple of years.”

Of course, a certain amount of arrogance is necessary for these unique cocktails to come to life. “If we didn’t believe that our drinks were the best-tasting on the market,” Pritchett declares, “we wouldn’t bother putting them out.”

Brendan McNulty is a Chicago freelance writer.