Publisher disclosure: Jason Littrell publishes this guide and offers beverage services. His business is included below. Entries are unranked; placement is not a claim that one provider is better than another. Confirm each provider’s current scope, availability, and references directly.
NYC cocktail consultants: a bar program or an event?
A cocktail program consultant helps build a menu and a repeatable way to serve it inside a venue. A beverage production team develops the drinks and service plan around a particular event. Start by deciding which responsibility you are hiring someone to own. For an outdoor event, see how festival cocktail menu development connects the drinks to the audience, sponsor brief, and service conditions.
For a bar, restaurant, or hotel, bring the menu goals, available equipment, staffing model, and opening timeline. For a festival, pop-up, or brand activation, bring the event date, location, guest count, and the roles already covered by your venue, caterer, and producer.
If your brief is an event, explore festival cocktails and beverage production, experiential beverage activations, or awards and VIP beverage production. The beverage-team buyer’s guide explains how to compare scopes.
For a documented example, read the Made in America case study. Jason worked as Tim McTee’s assistant on the beverage team, not as producer of the whole festival.
Jason Littrell / JL Cocktail Co
Jason Littrell develops cocktail programs, menus, and team training, with costing and service flow considered alongside the drinks. His experience spans ten years behind the bar and another ten in consulting, event production, and related hospitality work. For a venue, agree the menu, documentation, training, and follow-through in the scope. For an event, Jason offers creative beverage production, with personal involvement and team responsibilities agreed for the assignment. New York City is his base; international commissions are considered by agreement.
Death & Co Consulting
Death & Co Consulting is the consulting arm of Death & Co, the New York City cocktail bar that has set the standard for the modern craft cocktail bar for nearly two decades. The team has opened and operated award-winning bars in New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Washington DC, Atlanta, Nashville, and Savannah, and authored the James Beard Award-winning Cocktail Codex. Engagements include menu and recipe development, prep systems and specs, bar training to the Death & Co method, and opening or relaunch support. Death & Co fits hotels, developers, restaurant groups, and private clubs building a defining cocktail program with committed ownership and real timelines. deathandcompany.com/consulting
Handle Bars NYC (Frank Caiafa)
Handle Bars NYC is the beverage consulting practice of Frank Caiafa, longtime head of the Peacock Alley bar at the Waldorf-Astoria and author of The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book. The firm covers beverage operations end to end: on-site management, third-party operations, brand representation, menu and recipe development, staffing, education, inventory and controls, and pre-opening. Handle Bars fits hotels, larger hospitality groups, and operators who want a senior partner with deep classic-cocktail knowledge and hotel-caliber discipline. handlebarsnyc.com
Mixtress Consulting (Julie Reiner)
Mixtress Consulting is Julie Reiner's beverage consultancy. Julie opened Flatiron Lounge in 2003 and helped shape modern New York cocktail culture; she has since built or advised bar programs at resorts, restaurants, and for spirits companies over the last twenty years. The firm develops beverage programs and signature cocktails and works with brands on trade and education. Mixtress fits ambitious independent operators and hospitality groups who want a founder with real venue-building experience, and spirits brands looking for credible NYC bar-side authorship. beveragealcoholresource.com/associate-partners
Alchemy Consulting
Alchemy Consulting is a New York City food and beverage consultancy focused on profitability through innovative program design. Engagements include beverage program development, recipe and procedure documentation, and staff training. The stated posture is to listen to and work with each client's ideas rather than force a house style. Alchemy fits independent operators and small groups who want a full food-and-beverage partner in one relationship and value written recipe and procedure documentation post-launch. alchemyconsultingnyc.com
Behind the Wood
Behind the Wood is a beverage consulting firm based in Astoria, Queens with over thirty combined years across the team. Specializations include cocktail menu development, house-made syrups, and fresh juice programs, and the team also handles staff training, bar operations, and pre-opening support. Behind the Wood fits neighborhood bars, restaurants, and nightclubs in the outer boroughs who want a hands-on partner with a house-made ingredient point of view. behindthewood.nyc
The Cocktail Guru (Jonathan Pogash)
The Cocktail Guru is the New York City consultancy founded by Jonathan Pogash in 2006. The firm works with bars, restaurants, hotels, and resorts across the country on specialty and signature cocktail menus, classic cocktail programs, staff training, beer and wine programs, non-alcoholic and mocktail selections, bar design and layout, and operational efficiency. The firm explicitly notes it is not influenced by distributor relationships or brand deals. The Cocktail Guru fits operators who want a long-tenured NYC-based partner and a program that is not shaped by supplier incentives. thecocktailguru.com/offerings-solutions/bar-restaurant-consulting
Cocktail program consulting vs cocktail event production
One question worth naming, because operators mix these up: cocktail program consulting is the work of designing and installing a repeatable bar program inside a venue, from menu to costs to training to service standards. Cocktail event production is a separate discipline, focused on designing and running a single beverage moment at scale, whether that is a gala, a brand activation, or a family office evening. Some of the firms on this list do both. Some do only one. If the brief is a specific event rather than a full program, see the sibling list at best NYC cocktail event producers 2026 and the pillar page at large-scale cocktail production NYC.
How to use this list
Cocktail program consulting engagements fail in one of three ways: menu that doesn't cost out, program that the on-shift team can't execute at speed, and no ownership after the consultant leaves. Before hiring any firm on this list, write down your target average check, target cocktail cost percentage, and target speed of service. Then ask each finalist for two things: a named client running a program at that price and speed you can call, and a written scope with named deliverables, cost targets, and a named owner for the first ninety days post-launch. Any firm on this list, including this one, should be able to produce both within a week.
If you want a shortcut, answer four questions on the intake page and you'll get a specific recommendation for your situation, whether that's engaging JLCC directly or being pointed at another firm on this list that's a better fit.
About the list
This list is published on jlittrell.com, a New York City hospitality consulting property. The list is refreshed annually. If you run a NYC cocktail program consulting practice and want to be considered for the 2027 edition, email jason@jlittrell.com with your firm name, website, and a two-sentence description of what you do best.
Plan the event details
Taking a cocktail menu into an event? Use the free Cocktail BEO Builder to enter planned servings, combine shared ingredient orders, and prepare client or crew sheets. The event-batching guide explains batch and finish decisions.
Talk through your beverage brief
Call Jason at 917-553-5409 or text the event date, location, and beverage brief. We can identify the right scope before asking you to complete a proposal process.
