When I was young my parents would buy a bottle of sparkling cider on New Year’s Eve so that my brother and I could have a celebratory toast right along with the adults. As you might expect from a sparkling hostess, as an adult I still enjoy a little sparkle in my beverages. Something about dressing a drink up a bit brings a sense of occasion along with it. The benefit of a lovely beverage bar with anything from water to champagne is that it lets everyone feel a little fancy without leaving behind the fun.
Let’s start with the basics. Every host has water on hand for their guests. Its rarely treated as a central theme or a focal point, but it’s certainly a necessity. Rather than relying on a tub full of water bottles, you can make even still water sparkle by serving it at a beverage bar. Set up dispensers or jugs of ice water infused with a variety of different fruits and herbs. 
From the obvious lemons and limes to mint leaves and strawberries, you can be as creative as you wish. As an added bonus, many of the fruits and garnishes are going to make your guest’s water not just prettier and tastier, but healthier as well. You can modify this idea by serving bottles of different sparkling and mineral waters along with fruits and herbs for guests to add themselves.
Another refreshing way to please adults and child guests alike are lemonade and iced tea bars. Start with a few varieties of each beverage. Think lemonade, pink lemonade and blueberry lemonade or iced sweet tea, oolong tea and green tea. You can add herbs and fruit into the pitchers or leave them out for guests to choose themselves. Accompaniments to consider are honey, lemon, lime, berries and mint.
At a brunch or afternoon event Mimosa and Bloody Mary bars are popular options. For your mimosa bar you start, of course, with sparkling wine. Consider choosing a few different sweetness levels (i.e. brut, extra brut, dry). Display them along side a variety of mixers including juices and liqueurs. Orange juice, pomegranate juice, St. Germaine liqueur and Limoncello liqueur are some of my favorites. Finish off your presentation with a berries and fruit slices for garnish.
A Bloody Mary is a classic drink, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spice it up a bit with a bar. Choose a few different vodkas to start, considering something exotic like a hot pepper infused variety. Accompany your vodka options with pitchers of bloody mary mix, either purchased or homemade. Finish off your bar with fixings such as hot sauce, horseradish, olives, lemons, celery and even bacon. You can add dishes of salts or spices, Old Bay is a favorite of mine, for the rims of glasses. Don’t forget to include drink skewers for guests to attractively display their garnish.
For an evening twist, set up a martini bar or a martini/mimosa bar combo. Include gin, vodka, vermouth and liqueurs such as Chambord along with juices like cranberry and pineapple. 
Expand your mimosa bar garnishes to include different types of olives, cocktail onions, limes and cucumbers. For an extra touch offer guests individual cocktail shakers and display some simple drink recipes to guide them and encourage them to play mixologist.
For those cold winter nights and holiday parties you can warm up your dessert course with a hot chocolate bar. Engage your young guests by offering a variety of marshmallows, whipped cream, caramel, sprinkles and peppermint sticks. For the adults you can include peppermint schnapps and whipped cream vodka. This can easily be expanded into a coffee bar with flavored creamers and a variety of liqueurs.
Coffee and hot chocolate aren’t the only way to make your dessert course dazzling with a bar, so stay tuned for the next installment of Raising the Bar: Sweets. Until then remember that food and beverage bars are about engaging your guests and bringing a touch of whimsy to you event. Use your creativity, be adventurous in serving and flavor choices and remember…no matter what you do, always bring your sparkle.
Growing up, Christmas Eve consisted of friends who felt like family gathering in my parent’s home. Though there was ample seating throughout the house, everyone spent their fair share of time crowded in the kitchen. They congregated around a countertop teaming with appetizers and the stove which held a pot of my mother’s famous soup and a pot of acini di pepe (or ‘dots’ as we affectionately referred to the tiny pasta) which each guest mixed to their own specifications before topping it with grated parmesan. Perhaps it’s these fond memories of guests deciding what their personal ‘mix’ of the famed broth, meatballs and noodles would be which led to my general love of any type of a “build your own” bar at gatherings.
Not long ago, I discussed the art of the antipasto and how to turn an initial food offering into an appetizer display that will delight all your guests. However, there are other ways you can take the appetizer offering a step further. For instance, by including a delightful crudités bar. Consider arranging vegetable sticks in vases of different shapes and heights with cherry tomatoes in the bottom for a bright and vibrant display. Serve dips in hollowed out bell peppers of different colors.
You don’t have to leave the fun of a food bar behind after the appetizer course, there are a number of ways to turn your main course into a creative adventure for your guests. My favorite is a taco bar. There are so many ways to please guests with this classic “build your own” bar. I would suggest including two to three filling options such as seasoned ground beef, ground turkey, sliced chicken breast, sliced steak, or shredded chicken or pork. If you have vegetarian guests you can substitute one of your meat fillings with seasoned cauliflower rice, diced mushrooms, quinoa or tofu. The fun really begins with the toppings. I like to include a variety of shredded cheeses, thinly sliced red cabbage, diced tomato, black olives, lettuce, pico de gallo, salsa, guacamole and sour cream. Finally, offer a selection of ‘vessels’ for your tacos such as hard shells, flour and corn tortillas and tortilla chips. This type of bar can range from a simple table top spread to an elaborate display and can be modified to create the most basic tacos to something truly gourmet. You can also modify this theme to a burrito bowl bar and include rice, beans and corn.
Taco bars may be near and dear to me, but there are so many lunch and dinner food bar options you can experiment with. A simple approach to a food bar is a sandwich bar with a variety of meats, cheeses, breads and spreads. Include interesting vegetable options such as roasted peppers and pickled items along with more standard tomatoes, lettuce and onions. You can get as creative as you want with your meat and spread offerings by including anything from the simplest cold cuts with mayo to seared tuna or steak with chimichurri sauce. You can also dress this bar up or down with your bread selections offering anything from the basic hard roll and sliced bread to loaves of artisanal bakery bread. When I have a larger variety of offerings on my sandwich bar, I like to offer sliced French bread or crostini in the event guests want to have multiple smaller sandwiches.
A Sparkling Affair Events 