THE BOOZE BIN
By Cassandra Bianco (@cnbianco)
Mixologists, or liquor sommeliers if you will, are the charming cocktail house folks who meticulously master libations for a living. Dream job? I think so. The world’s best continue to be plucked by major liquor companies and the brand ambassador campaigns integrate traditional and social media.
The current allure of cocktail bars is their “underground” positioning—usually physically hidden—like Brooklyn’s unmarked Hotel Delmano, and more famously, New York’s PDT that’s located underneath a hot dog shop. Mixologists have developed their own identities— take the clean-cut mustachioed bartenders at the Manhattan Inn in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. With the classic cocktail throwback, old school décor and baby grand piano jazz, my Warsaw Mermaid buzz quickly progressed to hallucinations of a Great Gatsby scene.
A great way to remain under the radar, but still well-known is Twitter. The social medium is a resource for mixologists who lack support from a team of PR pros.
Here are five reasons to raise the [Twitter] bar:
- Gain spirits world cred: Develop an online fan base, give shout outs to VIP guests, share press coverage and post video clips.
- Give live-time alerts: Mixologists showcase their concoctions and talents at the 42Below World Cup, Manhattan Classic, Tales of the Cocktail, Taste of the Nation and the StarChefs International Chefs Congress, among others. Fans would love to see event snippets and test out recipes. An impromptu promotion tweet could potentially completely transform Friday night turnout.
- Mystery appeal still concealed: Food trucks remain mysterious by only disclosing their geographic location via Twitter. Lady Gaga has +5.8 million followers, yet on Saturday nights, no one ever knows which Lower East Side bar she’s frequenting. If the fear is losing the bar’s secretive stature, opt out of Foursquare, like mixologist @JasonLittrell has done with his bar, The Randolph.
- Monitor booze buzz: here are some NYC top tweeters:
- @LiquorDotCom – Liquor.com delivers great daily juice (pun intended) recipes from the industry’s leaders
- @JennyHighLife – Jenny Miller, Eat Out Writer at Time Out New York
- @Joe Campanale – beverage director and owner of dell’anima, L’Artusi and Anfora restaurants. No.1 twitter fan? His mom @Dellanimom
- @chantytown – Chantal Martineau, food and spirits writer at Fork in the Road/The Village Voice
- @NYBarFly – James Mulcahy, Zagat writer, sips and shares only the best
5. Capitalize on the trend: Bottom line? It’s been proven that good tweeting equals financial success. Need I say more? Time for a drink.
The craft requires not just angostura bitters, but innovation to be the key ingredient. A step further is delving into molecular mixology, like Eben Freeman. He recently appeared on a Cooking Channel Drink Up episode showcasing a screwdriver that jiggled on a plate and took exact-shape, texture and coloring of a sunny-side up egg. Cheers to that.
Great post. Cocktail sommeliers (cocktailians, whatever) should know that they have lots of helpful Twitter apps to choose from. Twitpic of course is vital; easy to take a cocktail photo on your phone, then essentially email it to your twitter feed with a brief description in the subject line. Tweetdeck,Digsby and Twitterfeed are also worth looking into.