How Craft Cocktails is raising the bar

The brand was only ever supposed to be a sideline survival project for publican Dave Mulligan, but now it’s thriving and he’s on the expansion trail

Dave Mulligan, owner of Bar 1661 and Craft Cocktails: ‘We don’t employ a single salesperson – people come to us looking to stock the cocktails.’ Photo: Fergal Phillips

Dave Mulligan doesn’t hesitate when I ask him which of the nine varieties in his Craft Cocktails range is the biggest seller.

“The pornstar martini, all the way,” he replies within a nanosecond. “I couldn’t have them on the menu in the bar because I’d have no staff left. They’d be doing nothing but making pornstars all night long, and they’d get fed up pretty quickly.”

The bar in question is Bar 1661, which Mulligan ...