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Odds are not good that Minnesota will allow restaurants to do cocktail takeout. (It did take about 50 years for them to pass Sunday liquor sales, after all.) This is a bummer for restaurants that were hoping for an extra revenue stream: batching up cocktails and sending you home with a pint of Old Fashioneds.
That said, many spots are letting you buy a taste of their mixologists’ specialties. Many places are doing mixes that feature their house bitters, sours, or shrubs. If you’re near Hudson, Wisconsin, you can get full cocktails, including booze. And there’s one spot in Minnesota that has an off-sale license so you can get the whole deal, too.
Have a cocktail kit that should be on the list? Send me an email!
Full Cocktail Kits with Booze
Pub 819 (Hopkins)
The most unique cocktail kit at a restaurant is at Pub 819 in Hopkins. This restaurant also has an off-sale liquor store license, so you can get a full cocktail kit with your takeout dinner. They have a Craft & Crew Old Fashioned with their single-barrel Knob Creek, along with brown-sugar simple syrup and cherry-bark vanilla bitters, along with cherries, orange, and cocktail ice cubes. Twelve cocktails for $75. They also sell a DIY Big Ginger kit for two—with single-serve bottles of 2 Gingers Irish Whisky, ginger beer, lemon, and lime for $10. And a DIY Minnesota Mule with two single-serve bottles of Prairie Organic Vodka, ginger beer, and a lime for $10. Find them online for carry-out here.
Rock Elm Tavern (Maple Grove & Plymouth)
Here’s another spot where you can get a full cocktail kit, thanks to a partnership with St. Paul’s Studio Distilling. You get the mixers from Rock Elm, and you buy a certificate for the 375-milliliter bottle of bourbon from Studio Distilling. They’re on site, so it’s all legal. Get a kit for ingredients to make eight drinks for $45. Only available for pickup Wednesdays and Saturdays between 2 and 4 p.m. Order online.
Hodges Bend
Similar setup to Rock Elm with Studio Distilling—and these have been selling out quickly. Hodges Bend has done an Eastern Sour with almond, orange, and lemon, as well as Without A Key, with honey, grapefruit, cinnamon, and anise. They go live on the Hodges Bend website every Tuesday. Pickup is on Fridays between 4 and 6 p.m.
Manger Restaurant & Wine Bar (Bayport)
Another restaurant with an off-sale liquor license, Manger is offering a “Home By 10” cocktail kit that makes 16 Old Fashioned cocktails. A full bottle of J. Carver Runestone Rye Whiskey, and a bottle of Heirloom Alchermes Liquor plus roasted orange, trinity bitters from Bittercube, and two of my favorite Riedel lowball cocktail glasses (a $30 value themselves). $125, order online.
LoLo American Kitchen (Hudson)
In Hudson only, you can get a full cocktail kit, including the liquor. Wisconsin, am I right? The house Bloody comes with Tito’s ($40), the margarita comes with Blanco Tequila ($45). The G&T comes with 45th Parallel gin ($45), the Old Fashioned with bourbon ($40), the Cobra Verde with Tito’s ($50), the Ghostface Killah with cucumber vodka ($60). Call 715-808-8025 to order.
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Cocktail Mixer Kits
Hola Arepa
Three different cocktail mixers. You add the booze at home, and each bottle makes four drinks. Margarita with lime, orange cordial, and orange bitters; Locked Up Abroad with pineapple, toasted coconut falernum, lime, and bitters; and Mangonada with mango, pineapple, lime, tamarind chamoy, and bitters. All are $16 and available for takeout.
Hai Hai
Much like its sister restaurant Hola Arepa, Hai Hai is doing bottles of cocktail mixers. Get the Tour Bus Tales with ginger, lemongrass, vinegar, and Thai basil; or Best Life with grapefruit, guava, citrus, MSG, and pearls; or Hai of the Storm with passionfruit, Viet cinnamon grenadine, pineapple, and lime. All are $16, and you order online.
Centro
Make your own Prickly Pear Margarita or your own Morelos Sour with these cocktail kits. For $16, you can get the Prickly Pear’s mix, lime juice, and lime wheel or the Morelos Sour’s chipotle sour mix, worm salt, and lemon juice. You add the tequila and curaçao to the marg, and the bourbon to the Morelos. Beer drinkers? Get the Michelada Mix for $9, with clamato, Worcestershire, tomato, and chiles. Order online.
Red Cow
Get bartender Ian’s Moscow Mule with a quart of house ginger beer for $21. You add the vodka—or, make it a Dark N’ Stormy by adding rum. Or do the Old Fashioned with demerara, a house bitters blend, and an orange, plus the bourbon or rye, for $15. The strawberry fresno margarita would be cool, too, with a pint of mix, rimming salt, and a lime. You add the triple sec and tequila for just $18. Order online.
Pajarito
Get the ingredients to make The Pajarito at home, or the fabulous Habanero/Cilantro Margarita, plus the Pineapple Express. $14 for a pint (4-5 cocktails) or $20 for a quart (8-10 drinks), just add your booze at home. Order online. Call 651-340-9545 or email info@pajaritostp.com starting at 2pm Wed-Saturday.
Spoon and Stable
The Rum Old Fashioned kit makes 10 drinks for $30, with pineapple demerara syrup, bitters, and 10 pineapple kits (you add the rum). Or get their Spring Tonic kit for $25, with their housemade tonic, a lime, San Pellegrino, and assorted garnishes (you add the gin at home). Order online.
Freehouse
Blue Plate Bloody Mary mix in a 32 ounce can (makes 3 drinks) for $10, plus a bunch of Earl Giles mixers – margarita, Tom Collins, Gimlet, Daiquiri for just $10. Order online.
Bellecour (Wayzata)
Bellecour is offering a Dirty French Martini kit for $35 – serves 7 cocktails with filthy filtered olive brine, 7 skewers of cornichon stuffed olives and cocktail onions. And a $30 mint julep kit serving 6 with crushed ice, mint syrup, and mint garnish. Shop online for pickup.
LoLo American Kitchen (Stillwater)
In Stillwater, you can get mixers for $12: the LoLo Bloody with spices, Worcestershire, pickles, and olives; the margarita with lime sour mix; or the Old Fashioned with bitters, demerara, and cherries. Or upgrade to the Tonic Mix with lemon and lime for $20, or the Cobra Verde (Thai basil shrub, habanero, fresno, and lime) for $20. Call 651-342-2461 to order.
Acqua (White Bear Lake)
Three kits make eight cocktails, and you add the spirits at home. Fresh Ginger Jameson mix for $32, Black Cherry Collins (you add the gin) also for $32, and a margarita mix for $16 (you add the tequila and orange liqueur). Reserve a pickup time online.
Maynards (Excelsior)
An easy add-on to your Maynards takeout order: Get a quart of Bloody Mary mix for $7, margarita mix for $5, strawberry lemonade (just add vodka) for $5, and a pint of bootleg mix for $7. The list is online. Order by calling 952-470-1800.
6 Smith (Wayzata)
Order a quart of bloody mary mix with a pint of house pickles ($18) or the old fashioned kit with the demerara syrup, Griottine cherries and all the bitters you need to make 16 cocktails ($15). Click “order online” on their website.
Distilleries
Norseman Distillery
These staycation cocktail party packs come with 375-milliliter bottles of Norseman spirits, and they sell out quickly for Friday pickup, so get on it. Each comes with fresh juice mixers in a can, like blackberry-and-sumac Fizz, the Jalapeño Campfire Sour, and the Hazy Pineapple Sunset. Mix with gin, rum, vodka—and enjoy! From $44 online.
Lawless Distilling
Four cocktail kits come with the booze. Get the False Spring with pink gin liqeur. The Tropical Staycation includes Greenway Gin—the same gin that’s in the Cucumber Gun & Tonic. A Juniper Gin goes into the Blueberry Lavender Gimlet. You spend $45 for eight cocktails, and $7 per purchase goes toward Lawless’s staff support fund. Pick up on Saturday and Wednesday, and order these kits online
Twin Spirits Distillery
Six different kits right now, tips go to the 9 bar staff who are no longer working. The Veggie Pho cocktail kit is extremely popular, also an Azalea kit (the cocktail of the Masters) along with an Old Fashioned kit and a Tiger King cocktail! Kits are $30 or $35 and include a 375ml bottle of Twin Spirits booze. Order online.
Copperwing Distillery
The kit varies each weekend and pickup is Friday and Saturday online – this weekend it’s The Black and Bourbon which makes 6 cocktails and includes a mixer, citrus, ice, recipe and a 375ml bottle of bourbon. $38. Order online.
Dampfwerk Distilling
Dampfwerk has a couple kits rotating through the online store – right now it’s the 2nd Generation Pear Kit which makes 6 cocktails (ginger syrup, bitters, acid, salt plus a 375ml bottle of Pear Brandy). The kit also comes with 3 cheeses and accoutrements. $50 order online.
Flying Dutchman Spirits (Eden Prairie)
A huge selection of kits from this Eden Prairie distillery—a margarita kit, a Mexican Old Fashioned, a Pineapple Upside Down. Kits include premixed juice, a 375-milliliter bottle of spirit, a recipe card, and garnishes. You have to order online one day in advance for pickup on Friday or Saturday.
Liquor Store Kits
1010 Washington Wine & Spirits
Six cocktail kits based on the precise recipes your favorite bars use. PLUS, buy a cocktail kit from 1010 Washington, and $10 from your purchase will go back to the bar or restaurant in the form of a gift card purchase. The prices may look high, but each kit makes about 14 cocktails, so you get your money’s worth. Spend $80 on the Murray’s Sidecar, 1010 buys a $10 gift card from Murray’s, and then will raffle the gift cards off when they reach $100. The sidecar comes with a 375ml bottle of Courvoisier, a 750ml of Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur, simple syrup and OJ. Marvel Bar’s Oakenshield comes with Isle of Skye 8 year Scotch, Cynar Artichoke Liqueur, and Tocschi Nocello ($90). The Butcher & Boar Old Fashioned with a 750ml of Knob Creek single barrel. JD Hoyt’s Boulevardier with our Roses, Campari and Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth, also Meteor Bar’s Lift Bridge Root Beer flavored Aquavit drink Cloudless City ($50) or Stray Dog’s Ketel One/Strawberry Shrub Lemonade ($50). Call 612-339-4040 or email info@1010wws.com to order for pick-up or delivery.
South Lyndale Liquors
South Lyndale is doing partnerships with a bunch of local companies. This way, you get Pure & Clear Minnesota Ice, Earl Giles cocktail syrup, Bittercube bitters, and a bottle of spirits. The J. Carver Whiskey Sour kit is $65, the Jack Rudy Old Fashioned kit is $40. They are also doing a Facebook Live cocktail lesson every Friday with Earl Giles president Jesse Held.
