Contact Us
Contact Us

Behind the Bar: A Day at a Shake & Strain Event

People usually see the final result. The perfect cocktails, the stylish bar setup, the happy guests.
But behind every Shake & Strain Bar event, there’s a whole world of planning, organization, and teamwork happening quietly in the background.

We’re obsessed with details because we know that what looks effortless on the outside only happens when everything behind the bar runs like clockwork.

Great cocktails

Planning & Logistics - The Foundation of Every Event

The process begins days (sometimes weeks) before the event itself.

Every event begins with understanding what our client truly wants.
We don’t just show up with a bar and some drinks. We listen, plan, and build an experience around the vibe, the people, and the moment they want to create.

Each booking goes through a detailed briefing covering:

  • Event type: wedding, corporate function, private party, activation, etc.

  • Number of guests & duration

  • Venue requirements: access points, water, setup times

  • Theme & menu selection: tailored cocktails or packages (Signature, Negroni Collection, etc.)

We organize every single detail ahead of time – from equipment and glassware to ingredients and bar styling – so on the day, everything just flows.

This is also when logistics are locked in: transport routes, bump-in and bump-out schedules, and communication with venue managers, wedding planners or the responsible for the event.

Ingredient Preparation - Crafting Freshness

Quality starts with the ingredients.
A day or two before the event, our mixologists begin prep day:

  • Juicing fresh citrus

  • Making homemade syrups (vanilla, pistachio, coconut, ginger, etc.)

  • Infusing spirits with herbs, fruits, or spices

  • Organizing garnishes – dehydrated citrus, herbs, edible flowers

Each item is labeled, dated, and portioned for efficiency on-site.

This backstage prep is what ensures that every cocktail, even served at scale, tastes as perfect as one made at a luxury bar.

Fresh ingredients and mise en place

Building the Bar - It’s All About Flow

On site, the station comes together piece by piece: shakers, jiggers, strainers, mixing glass, garnish wells, ice, spirits and liqueurs. We lay it out so the team can reach, shake, stir and serve without breaking rhythm. That’s how we keep speed and consistency without ever rushing the craft.

Building the bar

Station layout essentials

  • Service roles defined (shaker | stir | build | barback)
  • Recipes staged by menu flow to reduce reach time
  • Back‑ups for ice, citrus and glassware to avoid stalls
  • Clean zone vs. wet zone to keep the bar photo‑ready

Service Time - Connection Over Everything

When guests arrive, it’s not just drinks. It’s conversation, suggestions and reading the room. We tailor on the spot, keep the line moving and make every serve feel personal.

Behind the scenes we’re restocking, resetting and polishing so the experience stays seamless.

Connection with curstomers

Wrapping Up – The Part No One Sees

When the lights dim and the music slows down, the work doesn’t stop.
We clean, organize, and pack everything with the same care we started with. 

Then, back at HQ, we do a full review. What went well, what we can make even smoother next time. That’s how we keep improving and growing with every single event.

Pack down

We bring the bar and the experience you want

For us, it’s never “just cocktails.”
It’s the energy, the planning, the precision, and the people that make the difference.

We go where you are, bringing not only the bar, but the entire experience you imagined.
Because behind the bar, there’s passion, preparation, and a team that genuinely cares about making your event unforgettable.

Plan Your Event With Shake & Strain Bar
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners.
Cookies settings
Accept
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookies list
Cookie name Active

Privacy Policy

What information do we collect?

We collect information from you when you register on our site or place an order. When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address or mailing address.

What do we use your information for?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways: To personalize your experience (your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs) To improve our website (we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you) To improve customer service (your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs) To process transactions Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested. To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature To send periodic emails The email address you provide for order processing, will only be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information. We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to?keep the information confidential. After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be kept on file for more than 60 days.

Do we use cookies?

Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information We use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart, understand and save your preferences for future visits, keep track of advertisements and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business. If you prefer, you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies via your browser settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still place orders by contacting customer service. Google Analytics We use Google Analytics on our sites for anonymous reporting of site usage and for advertising on the site. If you would like to opt-out of Google Analytics monitoring your behaviour on our sites please use this link (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/)

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Registration

The minimum information we need to register you is your name, email address and a password. We will ask you more questions for different services, including sales promotions. Unless we say otherwise, you have to answer all the registration questions. We may also ask some other, voluntary questions during registration for certain services (for example, professional networks) so we can gain a clearer understanding of who you are. This also allows us to personalise services for you. To assist us in our marketing, in addition to the data that you provide to us if you register, we may also obtain data from trusted third parties to help us understand what you might be interested in. This ‘profiling’ information is produced from a variety of sources, including publicly available data (such as the electoral roll) or from sources such as surveys and polls where you have given your permission for your data to be shared. You can choose not to have such data shared with the Guardian from these sources by logging into your account and changing the settings in the privacy section. After you have registered, and with your permission, we may send you emails we think may interest you. Newsletters may be personalised based on what you have been reading on theguardian.com. At any time you can decide not to receive these emails and will be able to ‘unsubscribe’. Logging in using social networking credentials If you log-in to our sites using a Facebook log-in, you are granting permission to Facebook to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth and location which will then be used to form a Guardian identity. You can also use your picture from Facebook as part of your profile. This will also allow us and Facebook to share your, networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Facebook account settings. If you remove the Guardian app from your Facebook settings, we will no longer have access to this information. If you log-in to our sites using a Google log-in, you grant permission to Google to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth, sex and location which we will then use to form a Guardian identity. You may use your picture from Google as part of your profile. This also allows us to share your networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Google account settings. If you remove the Guardian from your Google settings, we will no longer have access to this information. If you log-in to our sites using a twitter log-in, we receive your avatar (the small picture that appears next to your tweets) and twitter username.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.

Updating your personal information

We offer a ‘My details’ page (also known as Dashboard), where you can update your personal information at any time, and change your marketing preferences. You can get to this page from most pages on the site – simply click on the ‘My details’ link at the top of the screen when you are signed in.

Online Privacy Policy Only

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

Your Consent

By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.
Save settings