Road Bars

Hive

When an event calls for libations, Hive hits the road (literally) to get your gathering – well – buzzed. Co-founders and Jamaica Plainers Lance Davis and Graham McKissock saved their 1983 aluminum RV from a life of rust, instead converting it into a full-service mobile bar and lounge for catered events. Since their launch in 2012, the pair has added a second Hive to the streets – this one a 1974 model – expanding their moveable, boozy offerings. The renovated Airsteams can roll right to your front yard with on-tap beer, wine and creative cocktails, tailored to the occasion, and a team of professional bartenders serving from the one-of-a-kind portable barrooms.

hiveDavis, with a background in wholesale wine, first turned his thoughts from camping to cocktails when he witnessed the booming Boston food truck scene. Already in the process of renovating an Airsteam, “I thought, I don’t really want to do a food truck, so let’s try a bar truck.” Getting a traveling bar on the road has its challenges—from liquor laws to the difficult curved design of the trailer itself. Davis and McKissock were among the first to undertake a mobile bar concept and, says Davis, “It was really about figuring out how do you do this legally, logistically, serving alcohol out of a mobile truck? In a lot of places you can’t really just pull up and start serving without a license, of course, so we had to do a lot of knocking on doors, picking up the phone and trying to talk to people about how does that get done. And through a lot of hard work – and lawyers – we’re at where we’re at now.”

hive-coupleToday, the refurbished trailers bring the bar and lounge experience wherever the road takes them—Hive was named 2016 Best Bar Service by Best of Boston Weddings for their watering-holes-on-wheels. In renovations, the duo retained the vintage appeal of the Airstreams, while doing away with the more-practical-than-polished 80s era furniture in favor of warm and inviting seating areas. Says Davis, “Since the outside is very metal, we wanted to make it not sterile. So you would walk into it and feel like you’re comfortable and sitting in a lounge or an event space or bar.” The Hives can hold 15-20 people in their retro interiors and the team can serve guests both inside and outside the caravans to keep thirsts quenched.

Davis and McKissock continue to sharpen their entertainment services with portable, pop-up amenities. Beyond the customized bar experience of the Hives, the business partners offer a “sort of high-end hotel room under canvas” with their glamping tents. The 10×10 tents can act as a secondary lounge or accommodations, “if you have an outdoor wedding and you wanted your bar to be close to your room.” From bar stool to bedding, personalized drink lists and outdoor elegance, Hive helps craft the event everyone will be buzzing about.

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