Family behind Hudson restaurant Lager & Vine launches canned mixed drinks

For the Cravens family, their new business, North Shore Crafted Cocktails, was born of the pandemic.

Cliff and Katie Cravens, owners of Lager & Vine GastroPub & Wine Bar in Hudson since 2012, started selling the restaurant's fresh-made cocktails for takeout early in the pandemic in 2020, when the restaurant had to shift solely to takeout. That led their kids, college marketing students Alison and Steven, to ponder creating a business to sell some of the restaurant's most popular mixed drinks as canned beverages.

Their parents liked the idea and the family decided to make it happen. At the time, seltzers and canned cocktails were starting to explode.

Now, North Shore Crafted Cocktails' El Diablo Margatini and Pomegranate Martini are on the shelves at Acme Fresh Market in Hudson and will soon be offered at all 16 Acme grocery stores in Summit, Stark, Portage and Cuyahoga counties.

The small-batch, premium canned cocktail with top-shelf spirits also will soon be available for retail purchase at Lager & Vine.

Business venture for Cravens' college kids

Cliff Cravens said the business venture revolves around his kids, but he's spearheaded the project to get it up and running.

"My daughter Alison and Steven have been with me the whole time, with ideas. They sit in on every phone call, they sit in on every conference call. They're tasting the beverage with us," Cravens said of his kids, who own the new company's recipes.

"The actual cocktails themselves have been on our cocktail menu at the restaurant the last 10 years," he said. "You have some recipes that you know are tried and true, and you know people really love them. Now it was the experiment of trying to figure out, 'so how do we take that same quality that somebody sitting at our restaurant, our bar, is enjoying and put it in a can that somebody can enjoy at home?' "

The new brand of beverages just rolled out May 23 by distributor Private Reserve in Garfield Heights. Other restaurants that will carry North Shore Crafted Cocktails range from Fat Cats in Cleveland's Tremont area to some local pizza shops.

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Cravens, who has 35 years in the restaurant business and has worked as a bartender, collaborated with MetaBrand of New Jersey to find just the right recipe to mass produce the two popular drinks. The company's job was to take the Cravens' drink recipe, come up with the perfect combination of flavors and put it in a can for a shelf-stable drink.

Last summer, MetaBrand sent the Cravens family a sample of the developing cocktails every couple weeks. Cravens did blind taste tests with his restaurant staff, pouring a canned Pomegranate Martini side by side with a fresh one made at the bar.

"OK, tell me which one came from a can," he said. "When the staff couldn't tell us which one was which, that was when were like, 'OK, we got it.' "

The process took five to seven rounds of tweaking the recipes for each cocktail. The Aurora family's goal was to offer a canned drink that tastes just as fresh as their restaurant ones, with real vodka and tequila rather than malt beverages, 100% fresh juice and no preservatives.

What's in El Diablo and pomegranate drinks

The El Diablo Margatini is made with agave spirit, natural jalapeno, honey and lime juice. North Shore, which coined the word "Margatini," has trademarked it.

The Pomegranate Martini is made with pomegranate juice, fresh orange juice, orange vodka and a touch of orange wine. The orange wine, Cravens said, is a natural preservative and creates the acidity to balance the sweetness of the pomegranate.

The canned cocktails have no sugar added. And at 12% ABV, their shelf life is up to two years. Most canned cocktails have from 4% to 10% alcohol content, Cliff Cravens said.

North Shore Crafted Cocktails sell for $19.99 for a four-pack, with each 12-ounce can containing two 6-ounce servings. The drinks are recommended to be served over ice for two reasons: Cravens says that's more refreshing, and the cocktails pack a punch with 12% alcohol content.

The company is marketing to a more sophisticated customer.

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"A college kid would probably like this; they're probably not going to be able to afford it" compared to canned drinks such as Truly, which don't contain liquor, Cravens said.

Cravens came up with the cans' label designs for North Shore Crafted Cocktails, whose office is based in Aurora. Alison, a 21-year-old senior at Miami University's Farmer School of Business, focuses on the social media and marketing for the new business. (See @northshorecrafted on Instagram and TikTok.)

Steven, a 23-year-old senior at Kent State University, focuses on ordering ingredients and the process of making the drinks.

By midsummer, North Shore plans to introduce tequila and tonic with lime, which will be like a carbonated skinny margarita; and Sparkling Juniper Sunrise, which includes gin, black currant juice, lime juice and tonic.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Family behind Hudson restaurant Lager & Vine create canned cocktails