Jonah Livingston recently launched the mobile cocktail bar concept Aces High Bar Services, which offers a pop-up bar and bartending services. (Photos by Caroline Hubert/Black Coral)
Jonah Livingston is ready to take his bartending on the road.
The seasoned Richmond bartender recently launched Aces High Bar Services, which offers a mobile “cocktail lounge” as well as bartending services for weddings, corporate events, baby showers and other occasions.
With a custom-made, mid-century-style bar and hanging fixtures that give off diffused lighting, the concept is going for a different vibe from Livingston’s main gig at Gwarbar, the Jackson Ward restaurant owned by members of Richmond-based shock rock band Gwar.
“Just saying ‘mobile bar’ can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. I’m trying to create a cocktail lounge, that feeling or environment,” Livingston said.
Aces High launched earlier this month. Livingston said in an interview Wednesday that he already has received inquiries and is in the process of sending out quotes for his first gigs.
The concept can be set up indoors or outside and features chairs in addition to the bar. The whole ensemble is intended to occupy a 7-foot-by-7-foot area, but can be adapted to smaller settings. Livingston said he and a friend who’s a general contractor built the bar together. He estimated his entire pop-up bar setup cost less than $5,000.
In addition to cocktails, Aces High also offers beer, wine and nonalcoholic drinks.
Aces High Bar Services offers a pop-up cocktail lounge that features a bar, chairs and lighting.
The debut of Aces High has been a few years in the making. Livingston said he started to think about a mobile bar concept in earnest during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The idea took a major step forward after Livingston bought a Dodge Sprinter van for an improvised honeymoon a couple years ago, when he and his wife went on a cross-country trip after the pandemic snuffed out the original plan to celebrate their marriage with a visit to Japan.
He realized that the van could have a second act as a piece of his budding new business venture and hit on a way to differentiate his idea from similar companies by using it to transport a bar rather than be a bar on wheels.
“I was thinking I have this big van, but it seems like people are already doing that,” he said, referring to other mobile bars that are built into vehicles and trailers. “It’s more a plumbing truck than a cute Pinterest vehicle. I had this workhorse that could bring the ice, the cooler and the supplies for a bar,” he said.
Aces High relies on clients securing ABC permits for their events and also buying the alcohol, which Aces High then uses to make the cocktails. Livingston said he and the clients talk beforehand about what will be served and he essentially draws up a shopping list for them. The company provides supplies such as mixers and syrups for cocktails.
“We do a consultation and talk about how many people are coming in, what you think the preferences of the crowd are, and we can talk about, especially if it’s a wedding, what your story is. If a couple met in Georgia, maybe they want a peach bourbon cocktail,” he said.
A full-service package that includes the Aces High bar setup and bartenders starts at around $1,000, plus a per-guest fee that can vary based on the drinks being served.
That package cost is on the upper end of the company’s offerings. Aces High will also rent out just the bar to clients who may already have a catering company lined up, or provide bartenders to staff a client’s existing bar arrangement. Aces High operates within 60 miles of Richmond, and is willing to go beyond that range for an additional fee.
“It’s meant to be scalable. I want to work with people’s budgets,” Livingston said.
Livingston, who has more than a decade of experience bartending and event planning, said that while he intends to be behind the bar himself, he’s also leveraging his professional network to bring in bartenders from local restaurants as contracted help in a strategy to attract customers.
Livingston moved to Richmond from his native Boston 10 years ago. He is a manager and bartender at Gwarbar in Jackson Ward and has been there since it opened about eight years ago.
The Aces High branding is a reference both to old Las Vegas casinos and bars as well as to the Iron Maiden song of the same name. Livingston called it a fitting tribute to his main gig at Gwarbar.
“I felt like having a breadcrumb trail leading from this higher-end cocktail project back to my experience cracking open beers at a rock ‘n’ roll bar was funny and appropriate,” he said.
Jonah Livingston recently launched the mobile cocktail bar concept Aces High Bar Services, which offers a pop-up bar and bartending services. (Photos by Caroline Hubert/Black Coral)
Jonah Livingston is ready to take his bartending on the road.
The seasoned Richmond bartender recently launched Aces High Bar Services, which offers a mobile “cocktail lounge” as well as bartending services for weddings, corporate events, baby showers and other occasions.
With a custom-made, mid-century-style bar and hanging fixtures that give off diffused lighting, the concept is going for a different vibe from Livingston’s main gig at Gwarbar, the Jackson Ward restaurant owned by members of Richmond-based shock rock band Gwar.
“Just saying ‘mobile bar’ can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. I’m trying to create a cocktail lounge, that feeling or environment,” Livingston said.
Aces High launched earlier this month. Livingston said in an interview Wednesday that he already has received inquiries and is in the process of sending out quotes for his first gigs.
The concept can be set up indoors or outside and features chairs in addition to the bar. The whole ensemble is intended to occupy a 7-foot-by-7-foot area, but can be adapted to smaller settings. Livingston said he and a friend who’s a general contractor built the bar together. He estimated his entire pop-up bar setup cost less than $5,000.
In addition to cocktails, Aces High also offers beer, wine and nonalcoholic drinks.
Aces High Bar Services offers a pop-up cocktail lounge that features a bar, chairs and lighting.
The debut of Aces High has been a few years in the making. Livingston said he started to think about a mobile bar concept in earnest during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The idea took a major step forward after Livingston bought a Dodge Sprinter van for an improvised honeymoon a couple years ago, when he and his wife went on a cross-country trip after the pandemic snuffed out the original plan to celebrate their marriage with a visit to Japan.
He realized that the van could have a second act as a piece of his budding new business venture and hit on a way to differentiate his idea from similar companies by using it to transport a bar rather than be a bar on wheels.
“I was thinking I have this big van, but it seems like people are already doing that,” he said, referring to other mobile bars that are built into vehicles and trailers. “It’s more a plumbing truck than a cute Pinterest vehicle. I had this workhorse that could bring the ice, the cooler and the supplies for a bar,” he said.
Aces High relies on clients securing ABC permits for their events and also buying the alcohol, which Aces High then uses to make the cocktails. Livingston said he and the clients talk beforehand about what will be served and he essentially draws up a shopping list for them. The company provides supplies such as mixers and syrups for cocktails.
“We do a consultation and talk about how many people are coming in, what you think the preferences of the crowd are, and we can talk about, especially if it’s a wedding, what your story is. If a couple met in Georgia, maybe they want a peach bourbon cocktail,” he said.
A full-service package that includes the Aces High bar setup and bartenders starts at around $1,000, plus a per-guest fee that can vary based on the drinks being served.
That package cost is on the upper end of the company’s offerings. Aces High will also rent out just the bar to clients who may already have a catering company lined up, or provide bartenders to staff a client’s existing bar arrangement. Aces High operates within 60 miles of Richmond, and is willing to go beyond that range for an additional fee.
“It’s meant to be scalable. I want to work with people’s budgets,” Livingston said.
Livingston, who has more than a decade of experience bartending and event planning, said that while he intends to be behind the bar himself, he’s also leveraging his professional network to bring in bartenders from local restaurants as contracted help in a strategy to attract customers.
Livingston moved to Richmond from his native Boston 10 years ago. He is a manager and bartender at Gwarbar in Jackson Ward and has been there since it opened about eight years ago.
The Aces High branding is a reference both to old Las Vegas casinos and bars as well as to the Iron Maiden song of the same name. Livingston called it a fitting tribute to his main gig at Gwarbar.
“I felt like having a breadcrumb trail leading from this higher-end cocktail project back to my experience cracking open beers at a rock ‘n’ roll bar was funny and appropriate,” he said.