From his role as former bar director at James Beard Award-winning Maison Premiere, to chief brand officer at The Liquor Cabinet, Maxwell Britten has spent over 15 years as a leader in the hospitality industry. Currently, Britten is the product manager for Café 11, a Web3 based social club co-owned by Friends With Benefits DAO and LVMH. Britten co-authored his first cocktail book, Can I Mix You a Drink? in 2021 with “Buy U A Drank” singer T-Pain, whose lyrics are frequently punctuated by libations. His new book, Trap Kitchen: The Art of Street Cocktails, which releases this month, features cocktails created with the chef duo that grew from a Compton pop-up to multiple food trucks and a brick-and-mortar store with celebrity clientele.
We talked with Britten about how he approaches innovation, where he sees the future of technology and spirits, and what makes him want to collaborate with new partners. Answers have been edited for clarity and length.
What was your approach to working with Trap Kitchen and defining street cocktails?
There are so many really serious, almost academic-level industry cocktail books and it seems like almost every bar has published their own version. So when I got the opportunity for my first book with T-Pain, it aligned with my goal to do something original that’s not the same cocktail manual that seems to be repeated over and over again. So I told T-Pain, I will make a recipe for every single request that you give me throughout your entire musical catalog, and I’m going to take up the challenge of following those recipes. So I had already painted this style of cocktail book that is very unique, and I had a similar approach when I started working with the Trap Kitchen team. I took it into my process to value who these people are as chefs and tried to elevate their work as much as I can with my understanding of what they’re looking for.
The book puts a unique spin on drinks on-the-go, which is interesting timing with the rise of ready-to-drink cocktails following a wider interest in at-home mixology. From your point of view, how has the pandemic changed the way people drink?
I think it has changed in the same way that people cook now, where people got to spend a little bit more time reading about things that maybe they didn’t always have time to learn about, but have always had an interest in. Similarly to cooking, people got into quality drinking. So we built up a huge value for being able to enjoy a restaurant or bar or a hotel in ways that nobody had really ever appreciated before, because it wasn’t something that we have ever thought would be taken away. That understanding accelerated the industry. Five years ago you would’ve never seen a cocktail competition on Netflix, right? If the pandemic didn’t happen, I don’t know that we would be seeing a greater appreciation for those things or seeing a place for it in the media like we do now.
What are some of the trends or developments in cocktails, spirits or hospitality you’re most excited about right now?
I feel like the industry took three steps forward, two steps back. So many talented people have left the industry and there’s been so many closures of amazing places. It’s not necessarily a trend, but what I’m looking forward to is new leadership in the next generation of hospitality professionals. Anytime I see people who are younger and entering the field and are innovative and really are passionate, I think that’s really important.
You’re also product manager for Cafe 11, a partnership between Friends With Benefits DAO and Hennessy, how did that project bring the spirits world into Web3?
I’m absolutely in love with this intersection of technology and community, and being able to add my professional and industry experience to create a really unique environment for people. As a contractor I’ve gotten to collaborate with a lot of people in the tech space and have a huge interest in Web3. But it seemed like Joey Rubin and I were some of the only two people in the hospitality industry that had a really in-depth understanding of what Web3 is and what kind of opportunities there are for us. So we set out to create stuff with our crazy ideas using blockchain technology. Cafe 11 is a decentralized roaming salon and nightclub. It’s sort of like a members only club, you have to own the NFT to access the experiences we’re doing. We pop up in different cities around the world, next is Lisbon. By day we do talks with artists and entrepreneurs over food, drinks, coffee and in the evening we switch to a fast pace, with nightclub music and live performances.
You seem like someone who is constantly innovating, are there factors in the spirits and hospitality industry that stall innovation, and on the flip side, are there areas where the hospitality or alcohol industries are more innovative than others?
There’s huge innovation that is constantly happening all the time behind the bar, but I see a lot of opportunity in Web3. Now you have to think beyond the bar, beyond the four walls. And that adoption will come over time, the same way that we have learned to use all kinds of other technology platforms to run our businesses, and Web3 is definitely going to be the next element to that. But what’s stalling that innovation is that I don’t think a lot of people in the industry are recognizing the opportunity and all the utility that it has to offer.
But overall, I think from behind the bar people are constantly pushing the envelope. Sometimes I think it might be going a little too far in that direction, some people seem to forget that ultimately what we’re here to do is to show people a really good time and I think sometimes that gets misinterpreted as “people can only have a good time if we show them a really crazy drink,” and that’s not one of the first principles of bartending.
The spirits industry is saturated now more than ever. As someone who has been in this industry for a long time, what makes you want to work or collaborate with a spirit brand?
As a buyer for many years, I would say there are a variety of factors I have to think through. There’s definitely a very important economic point there that I need to know, in terms of the type of revenue that I need to be pulling down and the way I need to operate the business. That also means that I need to make sure that I have good quality stuff, and whatever I’m putting into my inventory is really diverse. But I think ultimately, as somebody who has dealt with many reps and suppliers, just being a really nice person goes a very long way.