How to Create a Home Bar Menu

Make a home bar menu and you’ll never have to decide what to make again! Stock your home bar with just what you need for a few drinks and revisit the list each season. Whether you’re making cocktails for yourself on a Tuesday or for a party on the weekend, it’s the easiest way to keep your bar feeling fresh without the overwhelm.

The home bar menu and why you need one

Years ago, my friend Amanda shared a genius idea that I’ve since adopted: the House Pour. That’s what I call my “home bar menu” that I update seasonally. When friends come over, I always have a drink ready to go.

Here’s how it started: Amanda threw a 1960s-themed cocktail party inspired by Breakfast at Tiffany’s, set on creating her own interpretation of the legendary party scene (minus the smoking hat!). She asked a group of friends to rotate the bartending, mixing up Manhattans, Grasshoppers and Sloe Gin Fizzes from a set cocktail menu.

The menu was such a hit that Amanda took it a step further and developed a seasonal home bar menu of drinks to serve anytime. She wanted something that could be a go-to when a friend dropped by and also an easy reference.

A genius idea, right? Now you see why I adopted it! With a home bar menu, you don’t have to flip through recipes to figure out what to make based on the ingredients you have in the house. The house menu means you have already stocked everything you need, ready to go.

Amanda had also noticed that when she made a round of the same drink for a group, she’d find out too late that one of them didn’t like gin or whiskey —  with their glass still full at the end of the night. With a house cocktail menu, everyone has choices and can feel comfortable asking for something they’d like.

Set your goals first

There are a few things to keep in mind when planning your menu:

• Select a handful of favorite drinks that you love enough to drink regularly.
• Include at least one cocktail featuring each of the basic liquors: whiskey, gin, tequila, rum or vodka. (If you’re doing a shorter menu, pick three.)
• Use simple ingredients you could easily keep on-hand or prep every week or two.
• Pick drinks and ingredients that go with the season. For example, cozy or warm drinks in winter versus refreshing, floral drinks for springtime.

Tips for curating a home bar menu

The goal is to have just as much fun making the menu as you do drinking from it. Use this assignment as a way to get creative with the home bar you’ve been building for years. Here’s some of Amanda’s advice:

• Go beyond the piles of cocktail recipes you’ve already collected or created.
• Choose “house” liquor — your favorite alcohol brands that you always keep stocked (or will keep stocked for the duration of this menu!).
• Mix up new concoctions over a few weeks to “workshop” your ideas.
• Infuse liquors and syrups to bring in new flavors.
• Prepare spice, sugar and salt blends for rimmers.
• Stockpile all forms of ice, including crushed and infused.
• Juice things you never thought you’d juice. (Freeze for later if needed!)

“Both our spring and summer menus have been huge hits with our friends and have even inspired some of them to make their own menus. Really, what’s cooler than having your own cocktail bar right in your kitchen?!” — Amanda Fisher

Start with a syrup

Simple syrups are a great place to start to mix up your home bar menu. Many classic drinks, from the whiskey sour to the margarita, use simple syrup to sweeten the drink and balance the alcohol and tart citrus.

Made from a simple mix of sugar and water, they are easy to infuse with flavors, making it easy to riff on your favorite cocktails. You can swap the liquid for juice or coffee, or infuse fresh herbs, spices and florals. For example, a honey lemon whiskey sour made with honey syrup or a blackberry margarita with blackberry syrup.

Choosing cocktails for your home bar menu

To craft your own house cocktail menu, use our goals above to guide you and pick at least three things to offer from the drink categories below.

The Classics

The old-fashioned, dark and stormy, gimlet and mint julep are classics for a reason. Some people like to keep it simple, and some of your guests will appreciate something they know and trust. That’s not to say you can’t put your own spin on things, though.

For an old-fashioned, change out the type of bitters and the sweetener. (Amanda’s favorite: a maple old-fashioned with coffee pecan bitters). For gin and tonics, muddle in a little fruit or an herb, or add a dash of bitters (Amanda loves cucumber-lavender).

Your Own Creations

Use the things you already like as a springboard for making your own creations. For example, one summer, Amanda got into tiki, so she included a Bitter Mai Tai on the menu. Amanda co-authored The Great NC Beer Map, so beer has also shown up all over her menus, from a hopped sugar rim to a Melon Baller cocktail made with a hops-infused vodka.

Bar Favorites

When you experience an amazing drink at a bar or restaurant, try to recreate it at home. Amanda loves to do this and recommends it, especially if the drink is something she had while traveling that she can’t get again.

“For our spring menu, I recreated a delicious gin-based cocktail I had in Brooklyn that was super fresh and springy with muddled sugar snap peas and a lemongrass syrup. Even though you don’t have the drink recipe, you have the list of ingredients, so you can tinker a few times until you get it right… or at least come close,” she said.

Seasonal drink ideas

Here are the kinds of drinks I’d think about for each season:

Tips & tricks

Make things easy! There’s no shame in skipping the home cocktail experiments altogether and including drinks from your favorite sources — blogs, books and magazines. I keep a folder on my phone where I stash photos of cocktail menus from restaurants and bars, and that’s a great source of inspiration for my menu.

Offer something for everyone. To accommodate the guests who don’t like liquor, include a local beer or wine, or even some non-alcoholic options. Maybe even feature something you picked up on your recent travels, which would be a great conversation starter. A coffee bar is also a nice idea to add into the mix.

Think outside the bar. Amanda inspired some coffee-loving, home-brewing friends to create their own home bar menu, and they included a home-brewed imperial chocolate stout, a nitro cold brew and espresso with beans aged in cognac barrels. It’s all about the choices, not just the cocktails.

Offer snacks, too. Your home bar menu can be more than just drinks. Maybe you serve some house bar snacks like Chex mix or candied nuts you can make up ahead of time, or prepare an appetizer like Amanda’s “Southern charcuterie” with deviled eggs, fried pickles and cured meats.

Give everything a fun name. A spicy margarita is less exciting than one with a fun name like “Jalapeño Business” or “The Firecracker.” Amanda’s Southern Islander Shrub, which she named the “Barbecue Bill” for her menu, was inspired by the NC BBQ map.

The finishing touch: Your menu itself

Have fun with those final details, from the drink names to the paper it’s all printed on. There can be a personal story behind each of the names — what inspired the drink, a tie-in to an ingredient, a play on words.

Print it out on card stock, laminate it or simply write it out on a chalkboard or whiteboard. Or do like Amanda’s friend did and go all digital on your iPad.

For the design, Canva is a great tool and has a lot of templates you can start with. Choose fonts and colors that go with the season or with the theme you’ve created. Whatever you make, make it a reflection of you! It’s your home bar menu, after all.