For most people choosing to go to West Point, it means a lengthy career in the military followed by a climb up the corporate ladder. Owen Meyer was slated for that path but was forced out of the military early due to injury, while his climb up the corporate ladder was derailed by an entrepreneurial itch to impact an industry.
During his time working at Beam Suntory, one of the worlds largest spirits companies, Owen recognized the trend toward experiential events and education. This trend was not a secret, since many other industries have seen positive change with respect to this element. In fact, investment and growth in experiential businesses are growing exponentially every day. Just look at brands like Top Golf, SoulCycle, and Escape Room, that are leading the charge in creating scalable business models that provide unique experiences for guests and grow a ROI for their investors.
In early 2015 Owen took off the suit, turned in the computer, and got to work on pilot testing a new way for consumers to experience cocktails. In a nutshell, Liquor Lab is essentially a cooking class for cocktails with a social element added between cocktail instruction. After a one year pilot in Chicago, Liquor Lab took up it’s first official headquarters in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood, and became one of the newest experiential companies touted by all who love to imbibe.
Liquor Lab is bringing together the highly engaging business of booze to the fast growing experience economy through hands-on, interactive cocktail making classes, combined with a social element. This, for Owen, is creating a solution to what he calls the booze triangle. On one point you have highly innovative bartenders creating cocktails and using techniques that only they can fully understand and appreciate. On another point you have the spirits companies spending millions of dollars each year to hand out free sample shots, T-shirts, and hopefully collect your e-mail address, so they can fill your inbox with content you’ll never open.
On the last point of the triangle, you have the customer. This customer is the the focal point for Liquor Lab. They, for the most part, are confused by the noise from all the brands and the difficulty understanding what ingredients are on the cocktail menu. They default to ordering a vodka soda or a gin and tonic. Here is where Liquor Lab comes into the fold. Owen has positioned Liquor Lab in the center of this triangle, putting brands and bartenders in front of consumers in a more meaningful, and less intimidating, way. In this class, the bartender comes down to the consumer level and brings them up alongside each other one shake, stir, and sip, at a time. The events have an underlying element of dry humor focusing on making cocktails fun and approachable.
Liquor Lab, on it’s surface, is one of the most unique and fun experiences that you could ask for on a fun night out. But, behind the curtain, Owen has bigger plans for Liquor Lab. And a recent confirmation on a Series A round of funding, from one of the leading VC firms in the experience space (West River Group), has him in line to make it all a reality. Owen and his team are expanding to 10 cities in the following year, and continuously adding locations as they scale. Liquor Lab as a brand is and will continue to become the trusted middle man between the consumer and the cocktail, with everything from classes and events to a retail store in each location that sells affordable and functional tools for the home entertainer.
In addition to having all the things people need to throw a great cocktail party, Liquor Lab locations will also be outfitted with things like laser engravers for walk-in bottle and flask engravings, making it a gift givers paradise. There are several other categories the Liquor Lab brand will add to their repertoire in the coming months as well. Currently, Owen has enlisted the help of not only his CCO (Chief Cocktail Officer) Freddy Sarkis, but several world class bartenders who will head up a formal training curriculum for novice-mid level bartenders and industry folks. This formal training program will be held every Monday and Tuesday at Liquor Lab locations, and seek to offer the entry level industry employees a fast track into building their skillsets and knowledge bases thereby advancing the trade.
It has been a seemingly endless road for Owen, who began in Chicago teaching his own classes and washing his own dishes. But, in the span of almost 3 years, he has turned his vision into a reality that is now on the edge of scaling into a space that he, and his team, have put their own unique touch on that sits a level above anything that existed in the space before.
