Located in downtown Suttons Bay, the “Hive Social Club’’ gives people an opportunity to socialize with others, try unique, non-alcoholic drinks, all the while learning about honey bee conservation efforts.
Hive Coffee Co., which opened just last fall, launched its first official social club event and honey bee fundraiser in March. From 6 to 8 p.m., the casual gettogether made time for getting to know others, tasting different drinks, and playing a bit of educational trivia. The person who guessed the closest answer to the trivia question even won a $20 Hive gift card to take home.
The event series aligns with Hive owners Landon and Nicole McDaids’ mission as a business, which is to not only ensure that every guest feels welcome and at home in their space, but also to create ways to give back locally and globally.
“It went really well, we had quite a bit of people show up, mostly friends and then a couple of new faces,” Landon said. “If we do this more often, it’ll kind of grow and catch on… I’m not too concerned about the numbers other than part of the proceeds go to a honey bee organization (Michigan Beekeepers Association).”
Hive barista Meg Jean attended the social club event and although she was focused on handling the music, she said her big takeaway from the night was that you don’t need alcohol to have a fun time.
“We just had fun and were laughing the whole time,” Jean said. “And it’s really nice for someone like me because I’m sober so it’s nice to socialize without pressure.”
The pop-up cocktail maker and good friend of the McDaid’s, DJ Friedman, said he also enjoyed creating the drinks and the socialization aspect of the event.
“It was a very nice sense of community, especially bartending and kind of talking to everybody,” Friedman said.
The social club concept also gives Hive a chance to break away from the drinking culture prevalent in the community and gives people a time where they can focus on mental, physical and emotional health. All of the zero-proof cocktails on the menu during a social club event are meant to nourish the body and are made using mixes from companies like Audacia Elixirs, another business based in Traverse City that has similar aligning goals for its locally made non-alcoholic spirits.
“We just felt like there’s not a lot of offerings that are for nondrinkers… the socialization is such an integral part of who we are as Hive, but also who we are as people. We wanted a space for people to come and not feel pressured to drink… It’s kind of an umbrella gathering, socializing without alcohol, but under each of the social club events, we’d like to do themes. March 16 was honey bees, and that is one of our missions to support global honey bees alongside local mental health.”
Three drinks were offered on the March 16 menu, all utilizing different elixir combinations and natural ingredients. Zeroproof cocktails like “nourishing mind,” which was made from Audacia’s floral berry elixir and paired with housemade raspberry syrup and Alchemy & Co’s Nourish herbal tea, were popular picks among attendees.
“Naomi (of Audacia Elixirs) gave me the inspiration behind what she did with hers, and said it goes really good with a tart fruit like a cherry,” he said. “Next time, I think we might change it up a bit… We might pick one of the drinks and do it again, but I think having some fun new options every time would be pretty nice.”
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Michigan Beekeepers Association, but before they send in monies from the last event, McDaid said they’re hoping to hold another one in the near future to have a bigger total amount to give back.
“We might do it every other month based on availability, it was kind of a labor of love,” he said. “We’ll have to really sit down and figure that part out.”
Landon said he hopes those that attend social club events know that they can step out of their comfort zones to try new things, like the non-alcoholic drinks, and not feel pressured to drink (alcohol) in any way.
“And that (people) kind of take away that it can be rejuvenating to just focus on conversations and drinking good ingredients,” he said. “All of the elixirs we have had amazing ingredients that are really good for you — the Audacia one is an antioxidant blend of all organic local ingredients. There are no reservations and anybody that is interested can pop in for 10 minutes and have a quick conversation, take a look at the menu, maybe try a nice drink or something. It’s very fluid and very open.”
