Styling Your Drinks Cart for Summer with Navy Hill
Summer is in full swing and entertaining small groups at home has become our social lifeline. While long afternoons in the garden have replaced evenings out on the town, ice-cold cocktails are still de rigueur. We tapped our friends Jenny Lucas and Katie Williams, founders of Richmond based soda + tonic company Navy Hill, for tips on styling your outdoor drinks cart and cooling craft cocktail recipes for your micro summer soirées!
Katie & Jenny's Tips For Styling Your Drinks Cart
- First, the essentials – liquor! Our bars are filled with local favorites such as Cirrus, Belle Isle, Square One, Reservoir, and Virago. We also love collecting bottles from on the road when we visit various liquor stores – one of the perks of being in our industry! We have discovered such special brands such as 21 Seeds Cucumber & Jalapeno Tequila, Koval Gin, and Organic One Tequila in our travels.
- And of course plenty of Navy Hill – we keep all the flavors out on our carts for guests to choose their favorite!
- We also love to mix up the glasses we use on the bar – from vintage family pieces to seagrass-wrapped highballs made by interior designer Amanda Lindroth – we like to change it up!
- A cocktail stirrer, bottle opener and a jigger for measuring liquor are key to making it easy for guests to mix up a drink themselves.
- Cocktail napkins are another fun way to mix up the bar. We incorporate happy paper ones from Vietri or Caspari, or use linen monogrammed ones from Leontine Linens.
- We love to set up small bowls of cut fruit for guests to self-serve as garnishes – grapefruit, oranges, cucumber, even blueberries – they make cocktails fresh and fun!
- We also often include fresh herbs, such as a sprig of thyme or rosemary, to accent the cocktail.
- Fill up your ice bucket, pull everything together on a lucite or silver tray, and your bar (cart) is set!
Jenny’s Favorite Summer Cocktail: The Navy Hill Paloma
What You’ll Need:
1 part tequila
1 part freshly squeezed lime juice
1 part fresh ruby red grapefruit juice
1 part Navy Hill Original Soda + Tonic or Navy Hill Club Soda
sprig of rosemary
What You’ll Do:
Mix all of the ingredients and serve over crushed ice with a fresh sprig of rosemary for a fun twist. Optional: add a salted rim!
Katie’s Favorite Summer Cocktail: The Navy Hill G&T
What You’ll Need:
1 part Gin
1 part Navy Hill Juniper Soda + Tonic
cucumber + basil leaves
What You’ll Do:
Muddle several basil leaves and cucumber slices in the bottom of your glass. Add crushed ice, gin, your favorite Navy Hill sonic and stir. Spear a few basil leaves and a cucumber slice for garnish!
