The Missing Middle: Is This Why Cocktail Culture Struggles to Scale?
A personal reflection based on some of my latest MAFFEO DRINKS episodes on the state of the Drinks & Hospitality Industry.
A personal reflection based on some of my latest MAFFEO DRINKS episodes
My father used to repeat this Latin quote: In Medio Stat Virtus. It means "virtue stands in the middle." He was right.
I see a big gap in most cities, limiting the number of people who can work in our industry. You have fancy cocktail bars where bartenders act like in a theater. You have corner bars where ordering anything beyond beer or a basic spritz feels weird. But there's almost nothing in between.
What? Yes. Let's be honest.
This matters because when cocktail culture stays locked in the extremes, we artificially limit the industry's growth potential. If spirits companies can't scale beyond prestige accounts, fewer people can make a living in this ecosystem.
However, this missing middle problem manifests differently depending on market structure. This gap is less pronounced in countries like the UK, with extensive managed on-trade chains, where large companies own thousands of venues. These chain operations often provide that crucial middle tier, serving modern classics alongside simple serves to mass audiences.
However, this missing middle creates a significant bottleneck for industry growth in markets dominated by independent bars, particularly across much of continental Europe and beyond.
Federico Riezzo and I discussed this on MAFFEO DRINKS Episode 105 & 106. He worked at famous London bars in the late '90s and early 2000s. Twenty years later, he sees the same problem I see: cocktail culture only talks to people who already understand it.
Chris Maffeo
Chris Maffeo
Watch what happens in most cocktail bars today. The menu reads like a science book. The bartender explains "citrus-forward profiles" and other fancy words. The customer nods politely, then orders a beer.
We speak a language that pushes away the people we want to reach.
Are we celebrating cocktail culture's growth while building walls around it? When spirits companies can't scale beyond elite accounts, there will be fewer distilleries, distributors, bartender jobs, and venues that can justify premium pricing. The ecosystem will shrink instead of growing.
The UK model shows what happens when the middle tier exists. Chain operations democratized cocktails like the Aperol Spritz and Gin & Tonics, creating household familiarity that opened doors for more adventurous drinking.
But in markets where independent bars dominate, this progression is missing. Federico sees this clearly. After watching customers for decades, he knows something we forget: people want to explore, but not if it means feeling stupid. The gap between cocktail bars and regular bars isn't about skill. It's about how we talk to people.
Think about restaurants. You have casual places, fancy places, and many options. But bars? You get cocktail destinations or basic drinking spots, with almost nothing for regular people.
In managed markets, chains can absorb the cost of educating customers across their portfolio. In independent markets, each venue must solve this problem alone.
Without mid-level bars, brands only get into top bars and bottom bars. In fancy bars, people often randomly choose a signature cocktail they don't understand and are afraid to make a choice not to look stupid in front of the teacher (yes, the bartender). In basic bars, people order simple drinks like gin & tonics and spritzes as staff don't make suggestions. That is, if they don't default to ordering a safe beer.
It takes a while to upgrade an average person from a spritz to a signature drink, and without middle-tier bars, it's virtually impossible. It's like wanting a child to go from crawling to running without mastering walking first.
The middle is where curious people try new things without pressure. Without that space, you just put bottles on shelves that collect dust. When bottles don't move, spirits companies can't justify the investment in bars, and the vicious circle starts: On-trade budgets get cut, and funds get redirected to Supermarket Promos that bring instant (value-eroding) volume.
In some markets you see a more successful integration of top-tier bars and a decent number of mid-tier venues serving mass audiences. Yet many other European cities still struggle with this gap.
Maybe the real question isn't how to fix the missing middle but why we created it and whether fixing it means changing who we think cocktail culture is for.
Brands cannot justify their existence only in top accounts so, pushed by big top-down sales targets, they try to reach targets by placing 1 bottle everywhere, in all possible bars where those bottles will often be the first and last ones they've bought.
In managed markets, brands can work with chain operators to place products across venue tiers systematically.
In independent markets, pushed by big top-down sales targets, brands try to reach targets by placing 1 bottle everywhere, in all possible bars, where those bottles will often be the first and last ones they've bought.
The missing middle isn't just about big cities. It's also about the forgotten bars in smaller towns that brands barely notice. While spirits companies focus their budgets on fancy accounts in major cities, they ignore the restaurant bars in places with 50,000 people. These venues have the same problems as mid-level bars in big cities, but with even less help.
A good bar in a small town might have curious customers and skilled staff, but they never see brand ambassadors or training programs. They get none of the support that flows to trendy city bars. But these are exactly the places where one passionate bartender can introduce an entire community to better drinking.
When brands ignore these smaller markets, they miss chances to build real loyalty in places where word travels fast and relationships matter. These venues often have lower costs and more committed staff, but they need the same education and support that brands give to city bars without thinking twice.
This challenge is amplified in independent bar markets where each venue operates in isolation, unlike chain operations where successful programs can be scaled across multiple locations.
If spirits companies struggle to grow beyond prestige accounts, we should ask ourselves where the issue lies. Are we limiting our own industry's potential? If people aren't ordering more cocktails is it really "because Gen-Z are not drinking" or is it because we are creating a divide between us (the drinks and hospitality industry) and them (drinkers).
This eternal top accounts to bottom accounts without much in the middle creates this short-circuit.
Does the missing middle exist because we designed it that way? Probably yes.
In markets dominated by independent bars, whenever we use industry words and assume customers want lessons over experiences, we choose who belongs in the industry.
But we're also choosing how big our ecosystem can become. Too often, our industry is about the usual known faces. If we don't get new faces in, the ecosystem struggles as it starts to be inbred.
I've noticed that the more skilled we become, the harder it is to remember what it's like not to know. Federico's approach, discussed in episodes 105 and 106, works because he remembers that most people don't want to learn about spirits like professionals do. They want to enjoy them.
Federico's method shows something important: people become more curious when the pressure to sound smart is removed.
When homework is no longer required, customers start exploring.
The middle market isn't less smart. They want different things. They're not looking to prove their knowledge. They want experiences that make their night better without feeling like school. We also discussed this in Episode 092 with Francois Monti
There's something worth thinking about here.
The best hospitality has always been about caring for people, not showing off. It's more like being a nurse than putting on a show. The connection happens in your heart before it reaches your taste buds.
Ask someone about their wish for their last dinner, and they will rarely describe fancy Michelin-restaurant food. They talk about their mom's lasagna or simple bread with butter. The emotional connection runs deeper than fancy techniques.
When we limit cocktail culture to extremes—particularly in independent bar markets—we limit the number of people who can work in this ecosystem. Fewer successful venues mean fewer bartender jobs. Struggling spirits companies mean fewer brand ambassador positions, fewer distributor opportunities, and fewer industry careers.
The missing middle exists because we've chosen being impressive over being welcoming. We've focused on showing skill instead of making real connections. We've chosen to make our cocktails instagrammable instead of approachable.
But is the gap about customer problems, or is it about our assumptions?
The managed chain model proves that middle-tier cocktail culture can work at scale. The question for independent bar markets isn't just how to serve the middle market. It's whether we're ready to build a cocktail culture that truly welcomes people who don't start with insider knowledge but might love it if given the chance.
Federico's experience shows that people naturally move toward better experiences when we remove the barriers. The missing middle isn't missing because customers don't want quality. It's missing because we've made quality require education instead of just offering invitation.
When we scale cocktail culture, we scale the entire spirits ecosystem. More venues succeeding with cocktails means more bartender careers, more distributor opportunities, more distillery jobs, more industry growth.
This isn't about making people drink more. It's about making people drink better, more consciously. When someone discovers they enjoy a well-made cocktail over a mass-produced beer, they make a more thoughtful choice about what they consume.
When people don't order cocktails, they probably don't get them and default to a beer or a spritz. So let's not judge those people as ignorant or boring. Let's welcome them to our industry.
Brands are built bottom-up.
This thinking about market structures and industry assumptions is central to our work at MAFFEO DRINKS. We don't start with industry rules about how things should work. We watch what's actually happening, ask why gaps exist, and explore whether they're real market limits or barriers we created with our own assumptions—recognizing that these barriers manifest differently across different market structures but ultimately limit growth potential wherever they exist.
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