Still leery about hitting the bars while the pandemic lingers?
Then have the bar come to you.
Pour Mobile Wine Bar, a new mobile bar service in Cincinnati, will bring a bartender and all the accessories to serve drinks at your next party. And they'll do it from a 1968 Santa Fe trailer.
Owner Zonieke Alston-Betts,51, hopes to capitalize on the food-truck boom and other pandemic-era dining and drinking trends by providing a flexible, open-air bar service for outdoor weddings, graduation parties and other events.
"There's a whole community out there that I'm proud to be part of providing opportunities for people to move around in wide open spaces and really have a great time,'' said Alston-Betts, who lives in College Hill."We can bring our mobile bar to your home, on the river or set up in the parking lot at a sporting event. The possibilities are limitless.''
Pour, which launched in April, doesn't supply alcohol.
Instead, it provides expert mixologists certified through the ServSafe Alcohol program for bartenders and all the necessary bartending equipment, including serving ware, ice, garnishes, and mixers for craft cocktails.
Pour specializes in creating bar menus based on each customer's event needs and preferences.
"We can customize the menu to provide pour service for beer and wine only or pour service for a couple of signature cocktails or pour service for both,'' Alston-Betts said. "We are really open to being creative and using the space for all event needs.’’
Prices start at about $450 for beer and wine pour service for two hours for up to 50 people, she said, noting she can customize packages to fit smaller group sizes and budgets.
Pour doesn't need a liquor license because it doesn't supply alcohol for events, according to Alston-Betts. However, Pour carries general and liquor liability insurance, which is included in the cost of the service, she said.
In addition to bartending services, Pour also offers wine tastings, cocktail making classes and classes on pairing bourbon and wine with cigars – even candle-making classes.
"I wanted to offer something different,'' the owner said. "We are really open to being creative and using the mobile bar for all event needs.’’
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Alston-Betts started her mobile bar journey in 2019 when she began working two full-time jobs to raise money for the vintage trailer that she bought last year for $4,000 from a dealer in Shelbyville, Ind.
She spent the next year restoring and customizing the trailer with the help of skilled craftsmen at Northside-based nonprofit art organization, PAR-Projects, where the trailer stays parked when not in use.
In addition to two walk-up wooden bar tops, Pour also comes with a 36-bottle wine fridge, a commercial Kegerator with two beer taps and a custom-made humidor that holds about 125 cigars.
Pour catered its first event at a Par-Project open house, where it served beer and wine.
Pour also served "mocktails'' at the family-friendly "Mobile Black Wall Street: Juneteenth Festival" held in June at Esoteric Brewing in Walnut Hills.
Coming up, Pour has been booked for a launch party for The Scout Guide Cincinnati online city guide and business publication. And inquiries are coming in daily, Alston-Betts said.
"It's still early, but we're growing and building partnerships and relationships in the community,'' she said.
Alston-Betts, who operated a dance studio in Denver and a convenience store in Chicago before launching Pour, said she did a lot of research into mobile bars and even networked with other mobile bar owners around the country before launching her latest business venture.
She thinks the demand for mobile bar services is here to stay, even as pandemic restrictions lift.
"People have gotten use to the idea of eating and drinking outside since the pandemic began and they like it, and that's where mobile bars have the edge,'' she said.
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Alston-Betts said her long-term goal is to add another camper to the business, and she has already purchased a 1968 Serro Scotty trailer that she plans to convert to a mobile bar.
In the meantime, she plans to upgrade the business with new uniforms and bar kits for the bartenders and an electric trailer dolly to move her trailer into specific positions or line it up with the trailer hitch on the truck she uses to tow it.
"We're moving the trailer around manually now, and that can be quite the task,'' she said.
Alston-Betts said the $2,500 she won for placing second in the inaugural Financial Fortitude Delta Pitch Small Business Grant competition will go a long way toward helping her finance future upgrades.
The competition was sponsored by the local chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority - a historically Black sorority founded on the principles of public service, particularly in Black society.
"The women of Delta Sigma Theta have been really active in the community, and I was really honored to be a finalist in the competition,'' Alston-Betts said. "I’m all about women connecting and pouring into each other and giving back to the community. That's how I came up with the name for my business. Pour into someone who will pour into you.''
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