As the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit Australia, events across the country started to be cancelled or postponed, until eventually, the Government made gatherings unlawful.
And so with the forced closure of bars also came devastation to the events side of our industry, without weddings, engagements, birthday parties or corporate events to tend to.
For Stir & Shake, an event bartending and catering company based in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, these events were what drove business. Without them, Owner Paul Calleja told Bars and Clubs they were left with nothing.
“With the COVID situation we’re in now, we’ve lost everything,” Calleja said.
It was thanks to an idea from a workmate that Stir & Shake are back up and running now with a switched focus that is taking the bar experience on the road. Calleja describes it as a mobile takeaway service.
“You’ll call me up and say you want a few cocktails, I go to the residence and they’d order a cocktail, I’d make it fresh and they’d pay… then go back inside,” Calleja explained.
He’s found a way to provide the showmanship consumers love from a bar, in a way that meets current social distancing and health regulations.
Cocktails are made fresh from the street by Calleja, who works from a kit he’s set up in his car that also features music and lights. To complete the experience, he even wears a suit and bowtie. It’s all done from over 1.5m away, with customers watching from afar, paying through contactless methods, and receiving their drink in a takeaway cup before they go back inside to
Changed delivery regulations in NSW and a mobile licence helped spark the idea, and Calleja said: “It was actually a girl at work named Stacey, we were just talking and she said, ‘how about a Mr Whippy but for cocktails?’”
“I said really? And she said well, I’d love that. So we trialled it out and it seemed to work and the Illawarra adapted to it, and liked the idea.”
Stir & Shake have a signature and classic cocktail list for takeaway customers to choose from, and Calleja said the Espresso Martinis have been the most popular so far, which he brews his own coffee for.
This freshness is one of the biggest allures for customers across the Illawarra who are jumping on the idea and using the Stir & Shake mobile service to celebrate from home. For many staying home right now, they don’t have the chance to mark special occasions how they usually would, but this idea gives them the opportunity to get as close as possible to that ‘going out’ experience.
Such feedback is evident on Stir & Shake’s recent reviews, with one commenting: “A great way to celebrate the start of my holidays after a horrendous few weeks of virus affected work conditions.”
“It’s like going to a bar, but obviously they’re in isolation… so they get the drink and just go back inside,” Calleja said.
Customers can make orders by going to www.stirnshake.com.au.
