Planning a Virtual Happy Hour? Raise a Digital Toast With These To-Go Cocktails

As bars and restaurants shut down dine-in service due to the coronavirus pandemic, drink delivery is now being offered across the country. Here’s what’s on tap.

Michele Laufik

March 24, 2020

At Patent Pending, a New York speakeasy, customers can imbibe on the establishment’s signature cocktails such as Radio Waves and Made From Memory, which is made with gin, apple brandy, orange liqueur, Earl Grey tea, and cream ($14 each). Plus, the drinks are served with a bag of chips (so no laws are broken) and orders of $50 or more include a roll of toilet paper. The cocktails are available for takeout and delivery; large-format versions are also available in case you want to share with neighbors.Photo: Courtesy of Patent PendingAs much of the U.S. hunkers down during this pandemic, more and more states and cities including New York, Los Angeles, and Washington are enacting temporary changes to their liquor laws (now that dine-in service is suspended), allowing restaurants and bars to sell alcohol as part of their takeout and delivery offerings. The drinks must be accompanied by a food order though—but yes, fries do count.

Also, in order to adhere to social distancing guidelines, many folks are now taking their drinking digitally, hosting virtual happy hours with friends, coworkers, or total strangers.

“Everyone is looking for ways to stay connected while we're staying at home,” said Helena Price Hambrecht, co-founder of Sonoma County, California-based drink company Haus. “Since we all miss gathering with friends over food and drinks, we thought we might as well share a drink online together.”

Haus hosted its first virtual aperitivo hour on March 13 via Zoom.Photo: Courtesy of HausAbout 60 people attended the brand’s first virtual aperitivo hour, which took place March 13 via Zoom. Although alcohol isn’t required in order to join the parties, Haus has started offering same-day delivery of its beverages in San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as shipping across the country.

“While we're all isolated, there's something really important about coming together, even if it's just through a screen,” Hambrecht said. “Whatever sense of community we can cultivate right now makes things feel a little less strange and lonely.”

Planning to host your own virtual happy hour? Hambrecht suggests inviting new people, as well as people you know IRL. “Seeing some familiar faces makes it special. If you're gathering a lot of people on a virtual happy hour, it helps to have a loose agenda, even if the agenda is just an open Q&A or a co-host to chat with you.”

Need a drink? Here are some restaurants and bars across the U.S. that will bring booze to your door or allow you to order carry-out cocktails:

Stockpile running low? Pearl’s Social & Billy Club in Brooklyn includes a roll of toilet paper with every liter of pre-mixed margarita purchased ($25). Flavors include lime, prickly pear, blood orange, passionfruit, and guava. Other cocktails, such as Manhattans and mezcal Negronis, as well as beer and wine, are also available for delivery or pick-up.

Scroll through for a slew of restaurants across the U.S. also offering to-go cocktail kits—and then order one up for yourself or friends, because it's National Cocktail Day!

The Violet Hour in Chicago is selling cocktail kits for pick-up including a batched version of its Juliet & Romeo libation, which serves 16 and includes a bottle of Beefeater gin and a growler of the house-made Juliet & Romeo mix. The kits are $100 each.

Photo: Courtesy of @violethourchicago

Located in Washington’s Blagden Alley, Calico is serving up “adult juice boxes” via takeout or delivery from its sister restaurants Tiger Fork and Fainting Goat, which offers cocktails (margaritas, whiskey sours, and vodka-cranberries) and wines (red and white) for $8 each or $28 for a four-pack. Tiger Fork offers its 8 O’Clock Light Show ($12) with rum, yuzu, mandarin, and natural caffeine; Nathan Road ($10) with bourbon, plum wine, hibiscus, and bitters; and Bird Market ($10) with gin, alpine liquor, and citrus. These juice boxes are also available as four-packs for $40. Order through Caviar and UberEats.

Photo: Courtesy of @calico.dc

Thursday through Sunday, HighLife Productions in New York delivers a rotating menu of cocktails, available in two sizes: 32 ounces (about 12 cocktails) for $100 and 16 ounces (six cocktails) for $60. This week’s menu features a mezcal Negroni (pictured), a hickory-smoked Manhattan, and an Anejo old-fashioned. To place an order, email info@thehighlifeproductions or send a DM to the company via Instagram.

Photo: Courtesy of HighLife Productions

In Los Angeles, Employees Only’s D.I.Y. cocktail kits include all the necessary ingredients so customers can create the bar’s popular drinks at home such as its signature Old Fashioned (which includes bitters, orange, brown sugar, and bourbon), the Ginger Smash (with muddled cranberries, ginger, apple, lemon juice, and gin), and the Amelia (with blackberries, elderflower, lemon juice, mint, and vodka). Just add ice. All cocktails are $12 and available for pick-up or delivery.

Photo: Courtesy of @employeesonlyla

At Patent Pending, a New York speakeasy, customers can imbibe on the establishment’s signature cocktails such as Radio Waves and Made From Memory, which is made with gin, apple brandy, orange liqueur, Earl Grey tea, and cream ($14 each). Plus, the drinks are served with a bag of chips (so no laws are broken) and orders of $50 or more include a roll of toilet paper. The cocktails are available for takeout and delivery; large-format versions are also available in case you want to share with neighbors.

Photo: Courtesy of Patent Pending

The Royal in the LeDroit Park neighborhood of Washington serves batched cocktails such as Caribbean Milk Punch with dark rum, black tea, citrus, spices, and clarified milk, or the Oblinger (pictured) with vodka, white rum, house-made coconut mint cordial, and lime for $40 (serves five). The drink offerings are updated daily and are available for takeout.

Photo: Courtesy of @theroyal_dc

Located in the Astoria neighborhood of New York, Queens Comfort is currently delivering its frozen “Painkiller” (in packs of four) and six-packs of the “Nutcracker.” Drinks ($8 each) are also available for takeout in to-go cups.

Photo: Courtesy of @queenscomfort

The to-go cocktail kits from Jar in Los Angeles, which are available for pick-up and delivery, include the Serengeti ($56), made with rye whiskey and a house-made lemon-ginger mix (pictured), as well as a margarita ($60) and a “naughty” martini ($60) that comes with blue cheese-stuffed olives.

Photo: Daniel Schaefer

The Haus starter kit ($30) comes with bottles of Bitter Clove and Citrus Flower aperitifs and a branded tote bag; shipping is available to most of the U.S.

Photo: Courtesy of Haus