Take a look at the bottom third of the menu at Bar Colette in Dallas’ West Village, and you’ll see an earmark of a growing trend.
Tiny cocktails — mixed drinks shrunken down to a fraction of the size of a standard cocktail — are taking hold in bars around the country. Some are served as palate-cleansing shots or companions to small bites, but others are bona fide cocktails that hold their own on drink lists next to the highballs. These petite libations are a rare find in Dallas, but Bar Colette has been serving them since it opened last November.
The tiny cocktails section of Bar Colette’s menu is the creative playground for bar director Ruben Rolon. Rolon, who was plucked by Dallas restaurateurs Brandon and Henry Cohanim, was formerly head bartender at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Miami, where he won Michelin Guide’s 2022 Florida Exceptional Cocktails Award.
A minimal alcohol drinker himself, Rolon wanted to dedicate a portion of the menu to what he describes as “enjoyment without the commitment.”
“When I go out for dinner, I want to order all the appetizers to try,” he said, sitting in one of the pocket-sized bar’s velvet banquettes. “I wanted to offer the same experience with drinks.”
Each drink on Rolon’s frequently changing tiny cocktail list, which has anywhere from three to six options at any given time, contains 1 ounce of alcohol and is served in small glassware he picks specifically for each one. Currently on deck are three variations of a martini, which can be ordered individually or as a flight. Each tiny cocktail is about a third of the size of a regular cocktail and a little more than a third of the price, which makes ordering three at once a reasonable undertaking.
Rolon’s creations are sometimes familiar but always unexpected, like a ranch water made with coconut-washed dark rum and papaya; mezcal mixed with al pastor seasoning and pineapple; and bourbon accompanied by roasted red bell pepper distillate and pomegranate balsamic shrub. The tiny cocktails, specifically, are the testing ground for much of his experimentation.
“I find it more fun,” he said of creating tiny drinks. “I feel I have more freedom with them.”
The tiny drinks that find a fervent fan base often get bumped up to Bar Colette’s signature cocktail list, like the Wimbledon — London dry gin, bubbles, strawberries and cream. Others, regardless of how popular they are, have a short shelf life dictated by seasonality. Rolon said people regularly request the Fresh Quince of Bel-Air, a tequila-based cocktail with espelette pepper and quince that was on the menu some months ago. Quince, though, is a late fall and early winter fruit, so it won’t make an appearance on the menu again until later this year.
As much as Rolon likes to experiment, the framework in which he builds flavors is rather restrained. His concoctions, both tiny and not, rarely introduce any more than three components.
“I‘m a minimalist, and my drinks follow that,” he said.
Since Rolon moved to Dallas in 2023, he’s been studying Texan tastebuds and adjusting his menu accordingly. What he’s learned so far, he said, is “the Texas palate is dry” and “tequila is king.”
And while everything is bigger in Texas, he’s found there is a segment of its drinkers who, like him, prefer their drinks tiny. About 20% of Bar Colette’s sales come from the tiny cocktail menu, he said, and he thinks that number will rise.
Nationwide interest in no-alcohol and low-alcohol drinks is increasing, and it’s expected to grow in the coming years, according to 2023 data from IWSR, which conducts regular analysis on the global drinks market. Nearly one-fifth of all no-alcohol consumers in 2023 were new to the category, the data found.
“There is a trend of mocktail sales increasing and alcohol sales decreasing, and I think we need to get with the times,” Rolon said of the bar industry.
Along with tiny cocktails, Bar Colette also has a small mocktail menu. Combine the two categories, and they account for almost half of the bar’s current drink list.
Tiny cocktails, Rolon said, bridge the gap between full-strength drinks and non-alcoholic drinks. They give people the option to consume just a little bit of alcohol, or to try more drinks than they probably would if they were ordering regular-sized cocktails. On a personal level, they also keep Rolon on his toes.
“I would get bored if I was just making the same thing all the time,” he said. “Right now I’m thinking about incorporating peaches, lychees from Florida, plums from Chile, and fig leaves. I’m always thinking ahead to what’s next.”
Bar Colette is located in Dallas’ West Village neighborhood at 3699 McKinney Ave., Suite 306. It’s open six days a week starting at 5 p.m.; closed Mondays.
