With so many quality bars around the country, it means a great deal to be labeled as “the best.” From the menu and cocktail quality to the atmosphere and bar teams, a lot goes into being recognized at the top of the industry. Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited Awards have become one of the most prestigious and coveted honors a bar can attain.

Eat. Drink. Shine. That's the way life is in Boulder, Colorado, where one of the most established groups in the local food and beverage industry has developed their latest legacy... potions.

On Tuesday, April 24th, Tobin Ellis participated in a Restaurant Development + Design webinar on Bar Evolution. Moderated by Joe Carbonara and attended by fellow panelist, Peter Vestinos, the event recapped important bar and beverage trends such as creating immersive experiences for guests, the balancing act of curating the right bar equipment packages, developing new bar and beverage concepts, and understanding what you want and what it takes to grow.

Whether you want to call it a sodium chloride infused libation, or a simple salted cocktail, the case for adding salt to your drinks is a pretty solid one. And we're not just talking about margaritas, either. Why would you add salt to a cocktail? Our palates can detect five flavors: sour, bitter, sweet, umami (glutamates), and...you guessed it, salt. Adding salt to a drink allows other flavors to more fully develop on the palate. And because we're talking about a very small dose of salt, salted cocktails won't actually have a salty flavor.

Do you ever wonder where your food and beverage equipment is made? Have you ever seen state-of-the-art manufacturing in action? Would you like to see first hand what sets one beer system apart from another? Take a few minutes minutes, and join us on a short but comprehensive guided tour of the Perlick facilities in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Instagram is a great place to get mixology inspiration from professionals and home experts alike, but there are a few cocktail bars we check in on often because of their beautiful imagery, creative recipes, and quality classics.

Bumped, bruised, scratched, and scraped. That should be the description of a prizefighter after twelve rounds, not a bartender after an eight hour shift. But bartending can be a demanding job that is both physically and mentally draining. Luckily, there are ways to reduce stress and injuries for bartenders, and one solution is through bar equipment design.

From sea to shining sea, the United States is filled with high quality cocktail bars as part of the great cocktail revolution. But at the recent Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, the Columbia Room in Washington, D.C. took the Spirited Awards honor as Best American Cocktail Bar. The award recognizes the American bar that set the highest standards in the industry and influenced national cocktail trends over the past year. Considerations for the award include menu, bar teams, atmosphere, and cocktail quality.

Whether it's in a hotel lobby, a new trendy restaurant, or a speakeasy, a cocktail bar is often the most profitable location in any food and beverage operation. Because it represents so much potential, it's even more important to consider best practices to help maximize the profitability of this space. Let's take a look at five essential tips for a profitable cocktail bar.

The modern rebirth of the speakeasy can be traced back to the 1990s, but it took the craft cocktail renaissance the last 15 years to really cement it into our everyday bar vernacular. Since then, more and more speakeasies have been established across the country, and in many cases, one of the signature features of those establishments has been the entrances.

Ben Franklin may not have been talking about cocktails when he came up with that proverbial saying, but nowhere does it ring more truly today than behind the bar. Every second is key for bartenders, and proper organization and bar setup saves them time for when they’ll need it most. The craft cocktail movement has led to more complex cocktail recipes, and consequently, warranted the need for bar setups to become more elaborate. That’s why the concept of mise en place has moved from the kitchen to the bar.

When you think of the Kentucky Derby, what comes to mind? Fancy hats? Singing “My Old Kentucky Home?” The Call to the Post? Or how about an ice cold mint julep? Hopefully the latter. No cocktail is so closely attached to a sporting event like the mint julep and the Kentucky Derby. You don’t need to be at Churchill Downs to enjoy a mint julep (although we highly recommend it). No matter if you’re in the racetrack infield, sitting on Millionaire’s Row, or throwing a Kentucky Derby party at your bar or restaurant, no Derby weekend is complete without this minty concoction.

The Tobin Ellis Signature Cocktail Station is one of Perlick's greatest innovations over our first 100 years as a company. With the rise of craft cocktails, bars needed an easy way to maintain quality while increasing quantity. And when you increase quantity, you obviously increase profits. The craft cocktail trend is no longer a trend. It's a movement that's here to stay. So let's take a look at what some of the country's most prominent bartenders, beverage managers, and operators are saying about the Tobin Ellis Cocktail Station from Perlick and how it's changing their business for the better.

Over the past several weeks, we've looked back at the last century to see how far we've come in the world of bar and beverage. From the 1917 wine vintages in Europe to cocktail trends through the decades, it's been fun reminiscing about what bars were serving 100 years ago. But now we'd like to take a look at why Perlick is here and the reasons we're still in business after all these years. Let's take a look back at 100 years of bar and beverage equipment innovations.

A lot has changed over the last 100 years. From bars to wine, the beverage world has evolved since 1917. Subsequently, so has the popularity and trendiness of certain mixed drinks and cocktails. Peek behind any bar and you’ll see what amounts to a museum of ingredients needed to create nearly every combination of cocktails from the past. Each decade, from Pre-Prohibition to the 21st century, has an iconic cocktail that reflects the culture and society of the era. Let’s take a look at some of the cocktail trends from the last 100 years.

The Tobin Ellis Signature Cocktail Station from Perlick is one of the only pieces of underbar equipment in the industry designed by a bartender for bartenders. Often referred to as the "Bartender's Cockpit," the Tobin Ellis Signature Cocktail Station features many thoughtfully designed and ergonomically created features that help eliminate typical bartender pain points.