Cheers

Cheers

The Beverage Business Magazine for Full-Service Restaurants and Bars

  • Beverage Trends
    • Beer
    • Wine
    • Spirits
    • Wine Reviews
    • Marketing
    • Operations
  • Operators
    • What I’m Drinking Now
  • Recipes
    • Submit a Drink Recipe
  • Events & Awards
    • Cheers Beverage Summit
    • Growth Brands
    • BevX Awards
    • Supplier Awards
  • Podcasts
  • E-News
    • E-News Subscribe
  • Digital Issues
  • Cheers@Home

2013 BevEx Winner: Tippling Bros.

 

01/24/2013

by: The Staff

Beverage Industry Innovator of the Year


Few people have been more enmeshed in the food and beverage industry from birth than Tad Carducci and Paul Tanguay, the founders of the New York-based Tippling Brothers. Tanguay grew up in a restaurant family, and Carducci is half Italian-American and half Southern. “So food was always the focal point of every gathering of my life,” Carducci notes. He learned to taste wine with his grandfather at age 12 and went on to waiting and busing tables in his teens. 


“There is no better high than designing something to make people happy,” Carducci says about the food and beverage business. “The real pros all share a burning need to please people.” In the restaurant business, he notes, “you always have an audience,” while the bar business offers a whole other bag of tricks to make people happy.


Tanguay and Carducci met during the first year of the Beverage Alcohol Resource’s five-day program in 2006, when Tanguay was the corporate beverage director at New York’s Sushi Samba and Carducci was running the beverage program at the Pluckemin Inn in Bedminster, NJ. “We shared a common bond, were both intense about restaurants and wanted to cast a wider net,” Carducci says.


So they quit their day jobs and founded Tippling Brothers. The two have since worked with an estimated 50 operations and done brand consulting all over the world. They are also partners in the They are also partners in the Mercadito Hospitality Group of Mexico-and Spain-influenced restaurant concepts such as Mercadito, Barcito and Tavernita.


ROLL OUT THE BARREL


Tippling Brothers is reinventing cocktail service with a kegged cocktail system that has been part of the Mercadito Hospitality Group’s concepts from the get-go. Why kegged cocktails? They are “a way to serve great cocktails quickly,” notes Carducci.


Unlike barrel-aged drinks, these quaffs are fully created before they go into the keg, fresh juices and all. Keeping the drinks fresh and in balance requires selecting the right kegs and preservative gas. Carducci estimates that each location goes through two 50-liter batches per cocktail of the top drinks in a weekend.


Mercadito offers 10 different pre-kegged.cocktails, including sangrias, as well as 18 to 20 kegged wines.


The bar’s mixologists sell 23% to 24% more cocktails on a busy weekend night than they would be able to without the help of these kegged cocktails, Carducci says. That comes to an impressive 1,200 to 1,500 drinks on a busy evening.


He estimates that his three bartenders also earn close to 25% more with cocktails on tap; servers can sell more rounds as well, thanks to the kegged-drinks concept. It also allows each bar to operate with one less bartender on busy nights, although a bar manager is designated to oversee the kegging process.


What’s in store for Tippling Brothers in 2013? They just opened a Brasserie in Chicago called Little Market, which highlights charged cocktails featuring house-made carbonated mixers. Future plans include another dining concept that will be a “drinking garden,” a concept in Las Vegas, plus more new Mercadito openings.

Last modified: 01/24/2013

Previous Story:
Tequila Avion and Nat Sherman Cigar Pairing
Next Story:
2013 BevEx Winner: Carrabba’s Italian Grill

About the Author: The Staff

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

In The News

  • Yuengling Distribution Expands into Texas
  • Country-music Star Thomas Rhett Launches Dos Primos Tequila
  • Niche Import Changes Name to Marussia Beverages USA
  • Balcones Releases New American Single Malt, Lineage
  • TTB Approves New Sizes for Canned Wine
  • Luxco Launches Ezra Brooks 99 Bourbon
More News >>

Follow Us

Facebook
Twitter

Featured Drink

  • Oh, Sherry!
    Oh, Sherry! cocktail

Drink Recipes

  • Feel The Warmth Of Hot Cocktails
  • Oh, Sherry!
  • Glorious Beginnings
  • Reindeer Mule
  • 8 Sparkling Cocktails To Ring In 2021

Current Issue

Cheers Current Issue

Cheers Magazine

  • About Cheers
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • Market Research

Events & Awards

  • Beverage Excellence Awards
  • Cheers Beverage Summit
  • Growth Brands Awards

Magazines

  • Cheers
  • Beverage Dynamics
  • StateWays
  • Beverage Wholesaler
  • Beverage Handbooks (research)

E-Newsletters

  • Better Bartending
  • Cheers
  • Beverage Dynamics
  • StateWays
  • Beverage Wholesaler
  • Beverage Universe
  • Cannabis Regulator
  • About EPG Media
  • Send File
  • Privacy Policy
Powered by WordPress and Versal.