The Cocktail Concierge

We highly recommend Cocktail Concierge for any event! We used them for our wedding in 2015. Chad provided us many options and was flexible with respect to all of our needs. He and his team were professional and provided incredible quality.

We used them for our wedding reception last Saturday and I couldn’t have asked for a more professional, friendly, and efficient crew. Definitely worth the money and I would absolutely use them again. Everything that we wanted they supplied and worked with us to have what we needed offered. It was so nice to not have to worry about the bar on a day where so many things could go wrong. Thank you to Chad for being so great and putting up with my constant follow-​ups leading up to the big day!

My husband and I recently got married in August and every vendor we used for our wedding was found from Unilocal.I’m so glad we did! We used this service for our wedding in our backyard. We had 100 guests including children and an open bar. Nick was very attentive and responsive when I emailed him with follow-​up questions before the wedding, even after we retained him. Unfortunately, we had a couple of incidents happen with our guests and the bartender Nick sent. 1) Guests told me the bartender seemed overwhelmed working by himself. 2) We had about 10 – 12 guests the last hour of the bartender’s service. A few people had too much to drink and the bartender decided to shut down the entire bar 45 minutes early. He told my husband and me that he didn’t feel comfortable still serving certain guests. When he cut them off, they became belligerent. We of course were completely humiliated and let him go. I didn’t like the way the whole thing went down, but I also thought a few of our guests were completely out of line. When I talked to Nick about the 2 incidents, he explained the bartender’s report from the event and told us that it was due to safety worries. He remedied the situation by crediting us back the last ½ hour of his service. If I had to do the whole thing over, I would 1) definitely have 2 bartenders working, and 2) not have the open bar available for so many hours. We had it scheduled from 6:30 — 1:00. Grown adults = responsible drinking? No way. I would use Nick again with the knowledge now how to avoid messes like the one at the end of my wedding. Thanks to Nick for his service and working with us after the wedding!

So they would’ve gotten 5 stars except for 2
things: 1) they were sometimes great at email replies, sometimes very slow. But more importantly 2) they cut off our bar a full 40 minutes early on our wedding night. When you are paying for 235 guests, a lost 40 minutes is a significant investment that you were expecting to receive and don’t and a significant amount of disappointed guests (not to mention we were disappointed ourselves). We showed them the contract and they said they were allowed to stop the bar at their discretion, but while we had a lively group, we didn’t know of any guest doing anything disrespectful, inappropriate, or being blatantly drunk or out of hand. They weren’t willing to work or compromise with us to extend it or even give us, the bride and groom, another drink. It was the one disappointing spot in an otherwise absolutely amazing night.

I’m currently working with Mike to cater my alcohol needs for my wedding that’s a few months away. We initiated planning about a year ago. At the time, we had a more extravagant celebration in mind, and requested a quote from Mike accordingly. I admit, the plan we set out for Mike was complicated: open bar from so and so hours set up at a particular location of the venue, reopen the bar at a different time, table wine service from so and so hours, creation of signature cocktails, etc. He accommodated all of our craziness AND gave us a VERY reasonable price. As my fiancé and I begin to hemorrhage money with this whole wedding, we came to realize we needed to start prioritizing if we have any desire to send our future children to college. We called Mike and he happily sent us a few quotes of different permutations of what we can do. He even suggested how we could cut down on a few items to save money, yet still have an elegant set up. How wonderful!
I’m writing this review early partly because I feel guilty for being so crazy initially, only to have Mike redirect us… HAPPILY redirect us I might add. Communication has been great so far, and we’re excited to see how Cocktail Concierge performs on our wedding day. And so… to be continued with a follow-​up review…

Customer service was impeccable. Big shout out to Nick Cormier for helping with that.

As a planner, you need to know who to trust when referring or hiring a bar service, particularly with off-​site events. I have worked with more than a dozen different bar services over the past decade of planning and The Cocktail Concierge stands out as one of the best. Here is why:
1. Fully Stocked & Supplied For Off-​Site Events — Many bar services don’t bring enough glassware and sometimes alcohol to meet the demand of the wedding or event. This has never been an issue with this company.
2. Fair Pricing — I can trust that my clients are being given a good price for the alcohol, rentals and service staff from The Cocktail Concierge.
3. Good Communication — They are in good communication with both myself and the caterer when determining who is bringing what (as it varies who is managing the rentals from event to event.)
4. Adequate Staff — They are aware of the correct bartender-​to-​guest ratio and bring enough staff to ensure there are not long bar lines. (This is huge and often something that is overlooked.)
5. They Are Good Team Players — The bar service often supports the caterer when serving alcohol at the dining tables. They coordinate with the caterer to insure they bring enough alcohol. They also clean up after themselves… which is HUGE.
6. Innovation — They are always looking for new bar trends and different ways to create and customize drinks for every event.
If you are in the market for hiring a bar service and looking at Cocktail Concierge as and option, trust me, this is a great company to work with.

I’ve worked with Chad of The Cocktail Concierge for over 5 years now. He simply said is one of the absolute best vendors my company has ever partnered with. He always goes above and beyond from working within tighter budgets to accommodating a challenging request from our clients to delivering top notch bar service for our events ranging from 25 to 4000 guests. I couldn’t ask for a better company to align with and so appreciate the love and care he puts into each and every job he does for us.
I would recommend The Cocktail Concierge without question, day in and day out for all your beverage catering needs. They also make the best Prickly Pear cocktail you will ever have!

We had a party at our home this weekend and The Cocktail Concierge did the bartending. We were so pleased with their service. The bartender was Todd, and he was great. He made a beautiful signature drink that everyone loved. He was on time and brought everything you would need! I will hire them again for sure!!! They made it so easy for me!

If I could give this company negative stars…
They provided the bar service for a wedding in which I was the coordinator at Serra Plaza on 5÷24÷14. Being that I was included in all the email correspondence, I witnessed the unprofessionalism of the representatives. The first quote was given for a certain price per person for which the bride and groom agreed upon. The sales person came back only to let them know that their manager said that they could not give them that pricing and it would be more than their original proposal. After discussion, they agreed upon a cost for 1 bar and 2 bartenders. Two weeks before the wedding, they emailed to let the couple know that with their guest count (originally 250, increased to 280) would require 2 bars and 4 bartenders and that it would be an additional cost. After MORE discussion, they agreed on a bar tab. Naturally, they were disappointed because they were not making the amount of money they had hoped — it showed the day of the wedding.
The day of the wedding, the owner of the company, Chad, came after his bartenders finished setting up… and decided to cause a large fuss (over nothing): His bartender, Mike, approached Ann (caterer from Seafood World Restaurant — who was incredible from start to finish!) and said that they (cocktail concierge) are the ones who had to serve the champagne because all liquors must be provided by them. Both companies have worked together at Serra Plaza previously on numerous occasions and the champagne pour has never been a problem until now because, in Mike’s words «the bar is usually hosted and the bride and groom are trying to cut corners by having a bar tab». He then called upon Chad who came to me 30 minutes before the reception to say «I hope you understand that we have to charge $ 100 for the 280 champagne glasses my bartender will pour (with the champagne provided by Seafood World)» OK, we will agree to that because we don’t want any further problems and if money solves the problem, so be it. It was decided: 1 of the 2 bartenders will pour 280 glasses. When the time came, the bartender asked Ann for her serve staff’s assistance in pouring… He did not pour one single glass of champagne, Seafood World Restaurant took care of all 280 (as it was originally planned!)
Chad also huff and puffed about the fact that he didn’t believe we would be satisfied with the bar service because of the large amount of guests we would have. I ensured him that the guests were not heavy drinkers so there would not be heavy bar activity. He did not instill faith in his bartenders. There was never more than 4 people in line for the bar the entire night.
The clients previously discussed with me that that they were willing to increase the bar tab doubly if guests we’re still drinking. Checked in with Mike 2 hours in and increased the amount. He checked in with me an hour later, we increased it again. At 9:50, he said the were closing the bar and the tab was at $ 2470. He ran the card on file for $ 2000. He came to ask me how we’d like to take care of remaining $ 500? Wait, you just told me it was $ 2470, so the balance is $ 470? Or $ 500? He stumbled for a reply. I asked him to give me a clear answer because rounding up seems dishonest, considering the less than perfect experience we’ve had up until this point. He said «you can pay $ 470 of that makes you feel more comfortable». Mike was missing the entire point here.
When I returned with his money, he said «you know, we bent over backwards to accommodate you guys, I didn’t even charge you the $ 100 to pour champagne, so I take offense to your dishonesty comment» OH, you’re bending over backwards for me by NOT charging the $ 100 to pour the champagne that you DID NOT pour?! And gave me grief about?!
They are NICKEL AND DIMERS. Is $ 30 or $ 100 worth it to give your small growing business a bad name? To the bride and groom, $ 130 is nothing compared to the $ 50k+ wedding. They must underestimate word of mouth referrals. I will never recommend this company. They are unpleasant, unprofessional and most importantly, untrustworthy.

The Cocktail Concierge came out and provided all the drinks and staff for my wedding last weekend! They were so amazing! Nick was so great and easy to work with! The staff came, setup, bar-​tended, bused tables, and cleaned up the entire event. They were so professional and kind. All the guests were so pleased with how friendly everyone was. The Cocktail Concierge made my wedding a success. THANK YOU!!!

My husband and I got married on January 6 and we were holding a Welcome Cocktail Party the night before. I don’t know how to tell you how hard it is to find a bartender that will also provide the liquor. We thought about just hiring a bartender and then providing our own liquor from Costco, but it’s not just the liquor — it’s all the ancillary items needed (like the mixers, lemons, ice, salt, etc.). We first were considering going with our caterer, but their premium package was in the low to mid 20s per person and the alcohol was what we would consider well (we considered their well liquor pretty much undrinkable and we’re definitely not alcohol snobs).
Fast forward and we find Mike Sheehan (he was originally at Pacific Coast Bar, but the company split as half wanted to run a restaurant and the other half spun into Cocktail Concierge which was pretty much what Pacific Coast Bar was as I understand it). His pricing was practically too good to be true to the point where I was really suspicious. I knew they were relatively new, but we basically had their Diamond package which is premium alcohol (Grey Goose, Johnnie Walker Black, Crown Royal, Tanqueray, Patron, etc) for $ 15.95 per person for four hours. That’s ridiculous. If you go drinking ANYWHERE, drinks with that kind of alcohol are $ 8 to $ 10 a pop. They even kindly gave us kid pricing at freaking $ 3.95. I go to restaurants where one soda could be more than that. Although I would probably say that I was at the low end given the timing of the event (early January) and I got them just as they were ramping up their business.
We met up to kinda do a tasting of the wines they offered (which I really appreciated because the pricing made me über suspicious that this was a scam). Mike was awesome — he’s really down to earth with a great sense of humor and he really just wants people to have a good time. Honestly, I was still suspicious as I left because it still felt too good to be true.
However, it wasn’t! Mike showed up at our event an hour early to set up ready to rock and roll and even helped us figure out how to best utilize our space. He was really friendly, personable, and professional. I’m just afraid that our crowd wasn’t really comprised of heavy drinkers so he may have been bored, but he definitely didn’t show it and was very generous with the pour. At the end of the night, my fiancé was planning on winding down with a few buddies and asked Mike if he could perhaps grab any bottle that was particularly low that they could drink with. Mike said no problem and not to worry — he’d make sure my fiancé was taken care of. Next thing we know, there’s this really generous care package.
If anyone is looking for a full-​service bartender package, I would definitely recommend these guys and ask for Mike! I’m sure their other bartenders are awesome, but Mike was phenomenal. If I ever host another party, we are definitely using Cocktail Concierge!