Get Your Drink On

It’s been more than a year since I posted a photo of my friends’ sweet wall-mounted mini bar created from random bits of shelving, so I thought it was time to revisit the topic of mini bars. Particularly good for those wine enthusiasts or liquor lovers living in small spaces, mini bars make it so you don’t have to stash your boozahol in the same cabinet where you keep your Cuisinart. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind. But there’s something really classy about offering someone a drink and, when they say yes, walking over to the mini bar instead of futzing around in different kitchen areas.

The Acacia mini bar masquerades as a chic and modern freestanding cabinet, ensuring that your parents and other relatives with a tendency to drop in unannounced don’t suspect you of being a daytime drunkard.

This mini bar from Alpina is made to withstand varying weather conditions, making it rather manly. In that vein, it holds a mini keg and a jug of wine that are ejected via its two dispensers.

US army ammunition boxes from the Vietnam war era become a surprisingly attractive wall mounted mini bar… which holds the sort of emergency rations we all need now and then.

Perhaps you’re seriously short on space? Try a folding mini bar (otherwise known as a portable bar). When closed, it takes up a surprisingly small amount of space, but it opens to reveal six shelves for storing glasses and bottles of your favorite elixirs.

Folding mini bars aren’t always tiny, however. This one is about the size of a freestanding cabinet or tallish end table, but it expands to become a rather nice full bar. You stand on one side doling out the drinkles, while your party attendees stand on the other, hopefully putting a tip or two into that empty glass there.