Mike Spence has one of many extra enviable jobs within the hospitality world–shaping the beverage program at one of many quickest rising restaurant teams within the nation!
As Vice President of Beverage for Triple T Hospitality Group, the New Jersey-based powerhouse behind Tommy’s Tavern + Faucet and Tio Taco + Tequila Bar, Mike oversees a portfolio that now spans 17 places throughout 4 states (NJ, NY, PA & DE) and welcomes 5.7 million friends yearly!
Triple T was constructed on a basis of heat, integrity, and real hospitality, values that proceed to drive the model underneath a management workforce that features CEO Tim Selcov, CFO Chris Dietz, Chief Model + Idea Officer Christina Bonfiglio-Dietz, Chief Advertising Officer Andrea Bonfiglio-Dietz, and lots of extra.
We not too long ago sat down with Mike to get an inside take a look at his artistic course of, his method to traits, and what it means to craft a beverage program for a model the place household and group are on the core of beloved ideas.
Mike, the beverage applications at Tommy’s Tavern + Faucet and Tio Taco + Tequila Bar have developed a cult following.
What’s your general philosophy when creating a brand new cocktail menu?
We’re always rising and evolving, however we all the time hold the basics in place which can be a part of the Triple T Hospitality Group DNA. The purpose is all the time the identical. We give our friends what they need, whereas providing sufficient selection in order that, similar to our meals menu, there’s really one thing for everybody.
2025 was an enormous 12 months for innovation in cocktails. We’re now in 2026, so what taste profiles, spirits, or strategies do you suppose will outline the following wave of beverage traits?
The classics are making their approach again into the highlight and for good motive. Friends will all the time have their preferences, however my philosophy is straightforward: don’t overdo it. You don’t need to pile new flavors and garnishes onto one thing like an Espresso Martini simply to chase a development. We improve our drinks to mirror what’s present whereas nonetheless honoring the unique, basic type.
Triple T Hospitality Group is a deeply family-driven model, based by your late father-in-law, Tommy Bonfiglio, a beloved business determine whose affect remains to be felt throughout each restaurant. How does working alongside your loved ones form creativity, decision-making, and the general beverage imaginative and prescient in your venues, and in what methods do you proceed to honor Tommy’s legacy as the corporate evolves?
All of us share the identical purpose and we select to maintain shifting ahead the best way he would have needed, in our respective departments and as a complete. I used to be fortunate sufficient to have him as each a father-in-law and a boss, so I used to be always motivated by his imaginative and prescient for the beverage program.
High quality components, recipes that have been completely different and elevated, all whereas ensuring the bar employees might execute them effectively and get drinks to friends with out the lengthy wait that usually comes with ordering a posh cocktail.
You’ve been a part of Triple T Hospitality’s progress story from early on, beginning as a Mixologist within the New York location! What are some milestones in your private journey with the model which have formed your management fashion and method to beverage innovation right now?
I used to be a part of the opening of the model’s second location in Staten Island, New York. What began as a part-time job became such an enormous a part of my life. There’s something particular about working for Triple. Everybody feels it, no matter their position. I took a leap of religion, and it was the most effective determination I ever made. The primary summer time I got here on full time, I labored each bar, each night time, throughout all three places for your entire season.
I received to know the groups on a deeply private stage, perceive our friends and what they needed, and actually grasp the operations as a complete from a bar perspective. We constructed a beverage program in contrast to anything on the market and that’s really how Tommy did issues. He was the best chief and mentor I’ve ever had.
Tommy’s Tavern + Faucet is understood for its upscale lounge fare and spins on basic dishes, whereas Tio Taco + Tequila Bar pays homage to daring Mexican flavors. How do you design cocktails that not solely pair with, however elevate every model’s culinary id?
It’s loads of enjoyable to create these cocktail menus, primarily as a result of I’m surrounded by so many artistic minds that I get to collaborate with every single day. The culinary workforce and my bar workforce work hand in hand to verify every little thing is cohesive and is sensible as a unit. The purpose is all the time for one to enrich the opposite. They need to work properly collectively and inform a constant story.
Friends right now need drinks which can be each Instagram-worthy and craft-forward. How do you strike the stability between visible enchantment and technique-driven mixology?
We all the time try to seek out the mix between pace and high quality. The purpose is to by no means overcomplicate a cocktail however as a substitute hold its basis intact whereas producing one thing that isn’t going to be extremely time consuming for the bar employees. We would like each cocktail to satisfy our customary, and maintaining the extent of method in a manageable vary ensures that our workforce can provide each single drink the eye it deserves and have it come out good each time.
What does your artistic course of seem like when creating a brand new cocktail? Are you impressed first by an ingredient, a season, a dish on the menu, or one thing sudden?
The season performs a giant position within the artistic course of, however we really let our friends cleared the path. I’m always being attentive to what persons are gravitating towards and what they may get pleasure from subsequent. Giving your friends what they need is every little thing and that shifts with the seasons.
Tequila and agave spirits proceed to surge in reputation. How has that influenced what you construct at Tio Taco + Tequila Bar, in addition to Tommy’s Tavern + Faucet, and what are you enthusiastic about within the agave class proper now?
There’s no denying that tequila is having a serious second and it’s mirrored in our menus. The demand is there! It’s a spirit we will actually get artistic with and have enjoyable utilizing. It’s exhibiting up in cocktails it was by no means historically a part of, like tequila Outdated Fashioneds or Espresso Martinis, which makes it thrilling to push the boundaries on what tequila-based cocktails can seem like. We’re actually having fun with exploring that house.
Triple T Hospitality Group venues serve excessive quantity. What operational methods or improvements make it doable to execute elevated cocktails at scale with out compromising high quality?
Tommy was a agency believer in “elevated” with out the wait. We’re dedicated to high quality components and loads of made-from-scratch components, however we additionally maintain ourselves to making sure friends aren’t ready longer than they need to. An enormous a part of that comes all the way down to our unimaginable coaching applications and the procedures now we have in place. Setting our bar workforce up for fulfillment and ensuring they’re absolutely ready and assured is what permits us to execute on the stage we do, constantly, at scale.
Tommy’s Tavern + Faucet and Tio Taco + Tequila Bar have grow to be go-to spots in a number of markets and states. What regional variations have stunned or impressed you as you roll out beverage applications throughout states? As you develop much more over the following couple of years, would you ever wish to get into the ready-to-drink, bottled cocktail house? Every other plans within the pipeline you’ll be able to tease for us?
Ensuring you’re pleasing friends throughout all of your places with a cocktail checklist that resonates is a continuing studying curve. I feel it comes all the way down to maintaining native breweries and spirits within the combine and sustaining the classics in constant rotation. We give our bar managers the liberty to construct relationships with native suppliers, as a result of greater than something, we wish to be a staple in each group we enter. As for what’s forward, now we have quite a bit within the pipeline, and we’re simply getting began.
Wanting forward, what excites you most about the way forward for Triple T Hospitality Group’s beverage course, and what can friends anticipate to see from you and the workforce for the rest of this 12 months?
I’m genuinely excited for the challenges and the expansion forward such because the continued improvement of our manufacturers and our workforce, general. There’s quite a bit to stay up for and I can’t watch for our friends to expertise it.
The put up Extra Than a Menu: Mike Spence on Household, Taste, and the Way forward for Triple T Hospitality Group appeared first on Chilled Journal.
