This year, staffers poured drinks for guests in unexpected ways, and many events got in on the drinks-on-tap trend.

Chicago-based Redmoon Theater’s annual benefit in March had a performer topping off guests’ glasses with the company’s “Wine Bike,” which features a spinning chandelier of wine glasses and a series of gears that pour bottles of wine.
Photo: Christina Noël Photography

In July at Travel & Leisure’s annual World’s Best Awards in New York, sponsor Patrón displayed a sleek wall that housed five tanks of Patrón-based cocktails from which guests could pour their own drinks.
Photo: Diane Bondareef/Travel + Leisure

Beauty brand Fresh’s 21st anniversary party in New York included an interactive mixology bar by Shiraz Events with a wall of drink tanks filled with purées and infused juices. Guests filled their cups from the dispensers, then brought them to bartenders who added Belvedere vodka.
Photo: Jim Shi

The Los Angeles launch party for Zing vodka in July had a unique take on a shot bar: Gloved hands emerged from a rose-covered wall to offer guests glasses of the new spirit.
Photo: Sean Twomey/2me Studios

At Hendrick’s Gin’s “Voyages Into the Unusual” event in Chicago, a bar dubbed the Monster Box was manned by a server wearing a fuzzy “monster paw” who stood behind a curtain. When guests approached, the beastly hand poked through holding a drink—the particular concoction that each guest received was a surprise.
Photo: Jill Tiongco Photography