To say that the last few years have been a roller coaster ride for Jordan Catapano and Jocelyn Dunn would be an understatement. During this time, the two sisters went from bartenders to authors to owners of a bartending business, then became CPG brand owners with the launch of a line of cocktail mixers.

Then earlier this year they lost the bartending business to the Los Angeles wildfires, but during this same time they landed KeHE Distributors from a meeting at ECRM’s On & Off Premise Adult Beverage Session, which led to a deal with Total Wine & More. Most recently, they earned a Fast Pass at Walmart’s Open Call from a RangeMe submission.

Roller coaster ride, indeed.

Yet, despite these ups and downs, the sisters remain optimistic about their future, and are now focused completely on their CPG business, the name of which is one that's been with them all along the way: This Girl Walks Into a Bar.

This girl walks into a bar and writes a book

Many brands are born out of a founder's passion. In the case of Catapano and Dunn, that passion was bartending, with a little chaser of writing, to put it in bar terms.

"I was bartending in Los Angeles, trying to be a screenwriter, and wrote a horror movie that fell flat on its face," says Catapano. "I was sad about it, but decided to put my writing skills into a book about bartending, because when I was behind the bar, many women would ask me about how to get started in the business. So I wrote the book and had my sister design it because by trade, she is a graphic designer."

The book, titled This Girl Walks Into a Bar: A Women's Guide to Professional Bartending and Home Mixology, and its corresponding blog, came out just when the craft cocktail trend was spreading across the country, and started to get some traction. This led to Catapano and Dunn launching an all female bartending company named after the book. Consumers looking for bartenders to work a party or event would tap them to provide bartending staff, equipment and their cocktail expertise. They were very hands-on and were often asked to develop shopping lists and cocktail menus.  

The bartending business launched in 2016 initially focused on Pacific Palisades, and over the next few years expanded into four states serving about 450 events annually.

Launching a CPG brand

Working on so many events each year gave Catapano and Dunn great insights into consumers’ cocktail choices when entertaining guests. One thing became clear: It seems that no one was able to find a Margarita Mix that they liked. So the sisters created one, and their CPG business was born.

"Our bartending business customers kept asking for recommendations for a good margarita mix, and we couldn't find one," says Catapano. "So we made our own, and found that our customers continued to request deliveries of it even when they weren't having a party. So we launched a small production one of about 100 cases in 2022. We got into a few independent grocers around Los Angeles and in 2023 we did a larger run of about 1000 cases, got into Erewhon and a few more independent grocers. We decided to add two more flavors to the lineup."

The brand, also called This Girl Walks Into a Bar, is a line of cocktail mixers that use fresh, certified organic ingredients that are low in sugar and are developed to taste homemade. In addition to the Margarita Mix, last year the brand added a spicy Bloody Mary Mix and a Pineapple Mint Mojito Mix.

Cocktail mixers enable customization

One thing Catapano noticed is that consumers were gravitating toward mixers, so that they can customize the level of alcohol they use. They were also looking for products with clean ingredients that had low sugar and no corn syrup. Some even choose to forgo alcohol completely and just make a drink using the mixer and club soda for a nice mocktail.

Indeed, these clean ingredient mixes have come at the right time as consumers are more health conscious than ever and more younger people are sober curious. And for those who do drink alcohol, they like the convenience of mixers for serving cocktails at home when entertaining friends..

"A lot of people were making skinny margaritas because they couldn't find a mix they liked and they didn't want to squeeze 5,000 limes," says Catapano. "We're solving that problem for people who want a traditional margarita they can pour straight from the bottle. They love to make it easy for themselves at home when they are just hanging out with their friends."

Scaling up the brand and getting into KeHE Distributors

While it's natural for emerging brand owners to want to go big right away, that's not the way the world works. Most times, you have to start small, get your products into local independent stores, maybe some 3rd party e-com sites, and then use these wins to land a distributor to help start scaling up.

This is exactly what Jordan and Jocelyn did when they launched their line of mixers. Of course, they originally wanted distribution in all of the big California chains, but they quickly learned from their attempts that they needed a distributor to get into those retailers. “There are a lot of stores we had appointments with that required a distributor,” says Catapano. “And I get it – they don’t want separate deliveries from 75 different local brands. So we scaled back a little and were more selective, and found plenty of local stores that want to support a brand that’s based in Southern California. And we built great relationships with them. These independents are some of our best selling stores.”

Eventually, the sister's persistence, tenacity and track record with independent retailers paid off. This past September, they participated in ECRM's On & Off Premise Adult Beverage Session, and after pitching their products and highlighting their successes with the local retailers, they landed KeHE Distributors. 

"It was a dream situation for Type A people like us," says Capano. "When you are scrappy, you want to see your money stretch and be at a conference where you feel you're really getting a bang for your buck. ECRM definitely delivered on that. We met with KeHE reps that covered our category, they tasted our products, looked carefully at our ingredients and nutrition panels, and brought us on. We finished onboarding with them early this year."

Challenges from the Los Angeles wildfires

The KeHE deal couldn't have come at a better time because also at the beginning of the year were the Los Angeles wildfires, and unfortunately, Catapano’s house was in its path. She and her son had to flee on their e-bikes with just what they could carry.

The fire destroyed all of the assets of the bartending business, including uniforms, bar rental equipment, dozens of martini shakers and muddles. So they had to close it down. Adding to this loss was the fact that many of their cocktail mixer customers were people who they were connected to from that business.

But as they say, when one door closes another one opens. The sisters redoubled their focus on the CPG business and since they now had distribution with KeHE, they were able to land a deal with Total WIne & More for its California stores..

On top of that, they also just earned a Fast Pass for Walmart’s Open Call  event, which they submitted products to via RangeMe (they are premium subscribers). So their potential for even greater expansion has grown tremendously.

What's next?

Now poised to scale up even more, Catapano and Dunn are making the brand even more enticing to buyers with plans to add nine new flavors to the lineup over the next 18 months.

So yes, it has been quite the roller coaster ride for the sisters, but throughout it all, they learned a lesson that's valuable for any entrepreneur: "Never give up," says Catapano. "Stay hopeful, and with every opportunity that comes your way, take it, embrace it, and do everything you can to make it the best."

Watch the full video interview below, and to read This Girl Walks Into a Bar’s ECRM TrustPilot review, as well as reviews from other companies, click here.