Nice ice, baby
If your local watering hole slings cocktails with cloudy crushed ice, it’s time for an upgrade.
Entrepreneurial bartenders-turned-ice-makers are crafting crystal clear cubes for cocktail bars, and business is booming.
One former bartender, Richard Boccato, solidified his obsession with pristine cocktail ice into a multimillion-dollar business, per Business Insider.
The iceman carveth
Bartending at New York’s best bars and co-opening his own in 2009, Boccato realized one key ingredient missing from the cocktail revival: high-quality ice.
Like a diamond, the cut, clarity, and density are critical characteristics of cocktail ice, affecting drink dilution, temperature, taste, and appearance.
Boccato purchased clear blocks from an ice sculptor, but later invested in a Clinebell, the Cadillac of ice makers, and shaped cubes with chainsaws and irons.
Word spread of the first bar with an in-house ice program and Boccato co-launched Hundredweight Ice, eventually leaving behind bartending to become a full-time ice man.
With zero advertising, Hundredweight’s revenue grew around 37% yearly. But not without investment:
Ice-making machines: $5k-$7k
Bandsaws: $5k-$20k
Router for etching: $50k-$75k
Transport vans: $80k-$90k
Hundredweight now delivers to Michelin-starred restaurants and hundreds of clients, but hasn’t raised prices since 2017.
50-pack of 2-inch cubes: $30
Etched cubes: ~$100 per pack
15k 2-inch cubes cut each day
Over 3m pounds of ice made each year
The company’s projected revenue for 2026 is $3.5m. Meanwhile, the global ice market is worth ~$5B and is expected to grow to $8.9B by 2034.
Not bad for frozen water.
Gleaming the cube
Other libationists have since stepped out from behind the bar:
Not fancy enough? Some US bars import ice from Japan, and one company ships arctic ice from Greenland to Dubai.
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right?
Cost to spend the weekend reading with fellow bookworms at Page Break’s two-day retreat in Upstate New York, per The New York Times. If you have a pile of half-read books staring at you at home, this might be just the activity for you. The retreat, held at a remote mansion, condenses the traditional book club experience into 48 hours of group reading and discussion (plus fancy meals with wine pairings) to make sure you actually finish the next novel you read.
You’ll just have to be OK with taking turns reading aloud… Good news for people who like the sound of their own voice, bad news for those of us currently having flashbacks to high school English.
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