Since forming Bittercube artisanal bitters in 2009, owners Ira Koplowitz and Nicholas Kosevich have become rock stars of the craft cocktail scene in Milwaukee and beyond. The duo has been featured in national food and beverage magazines, and through the consulting arm of Bittercube, they help bars and restaurants from California to South Carolina develop unique craft-cocktail programs. Formerly a long-time tenant at Lincoln Warehouse, Bittercube now has a spacious 9,000-square foot space at 4828 W. Lisbon Ave., in the Uptown Crossing business district on Milwaukee’s northwest side.
Bittercube’s new space allows plenty of room for production, as well as offices and the Bittercube Bar & Bazaar, a bar/tasting room that serves cocktails showcasing their bitters and elixirs. An on-site liquor store sells bitters, spices, vintage cocktail books and cocktail equipment—a one-stop shop for craft cocktail enthusiasts.
Koplowitz and Kosevich have backgrounds as bartenders at cocktail bars in Chicago and Minneapolis. They eventually met and moved to Milwaukee to offer bitters making and consulting. They initially did a six-month residency at Bacchus to help develop their cocktail program, and during that time Koplowitz and Kosevich developed their first six varieties of bitters. Today, Bittercube offers eight flavors: Cherry Bark Vanilla; Bolivar, with cinnamon, chamomile and jasmine; Orange; Trinity, featuring citrus, dried fruits and vanilla; Jamaican No.1, with black pepper, allspice and ginger; Jamaican No. 2, with grapefruit, hibiscus and island spice; Blackstrap, with cinnamon, kola nut and nutmeg; and Corazón, with cocoa, coffee and hot pepper.
Today’s popularity of craft cocktails is a natural progression of society’s desire to return to true, natural foods and flavors, said Koplowitz. “There’s been an explosion of craft breweries, with people demanding great products in their beer, and then you see this movement toward restaurants that are chef-driven and doing farm-to-table food. That really led the charge for the craft cocktail movement as well, but what I’ve seen over the last decade is that there’s a lot of staying power with cocktails,” he said. “This isn’t a new thing; this idea of craft cocktails was really around before Prohibition, and we’re just seeing the renaissance of it.”
Koplowitz also noted that the home consumer that loved to cook and tinker has driven the craft cocktail movement as much as bartenders. Bittercube’s flagship, Cherry Bark Vanilla, helped put the company on the national map, Koplowitz said, but each flavor has a unique use. Despite rapid growth—this year, they produced over 1,000 gallons of bitters each month—Bittercube bitters are still all natural and artisan produced. “We still peel oranges by hand and do not use any extracts or oils. We’re proud to use botanicals in their natural state, so the bitters are really flavorful. As we’ve grown, we’ve been able to produce more high-quality bitters because we can now source ingredients closer to origin and get unique ingredients.”
While bitters are still the lion’s share of Bittercube’s production, they’ve started producing cocktail elixirs, which are the non-alcoholic ingredients in a cocktail (think the lime component of a margarita). Koplowitz said those are ideal for high volume restaurants that don’t necessarily have the time or the volume to produce their own, but still want to do craft cocktails at a fast clip.
For more information, visit bittercube.com.
