Bob Peters, one of the city’s most well-known mixologists, has launched an online cocktail class site. Since leaving his position as the opening mixologist at Grinning Mule off Commonwealth Avenue near Plaza Midwood, Peters has returned to restaurant consulting. He’s also been working on the new site, Cocktailclass.com, which currently hosts several free video demonstrations, as well as recipes from some of Peters’ favorite bartenders in Charlotte.

Coming out of the pandemic, folks learned new skills at home — including home bartending, many of them through our series of Virtual Happy Hours. Peters, for example, hosted a class on how to make punch.

“I think people are a little bit more comfortable making cocktails in their own home,” Peters says. “This also is something that people can look at to find really cool recipes and then the bartenders who made them.”

The featured launch partner is Fernet Branca, an amaro with serious bitter notes. Each of the three cocktails currently made on the site uses Fernet Branca, including a hanky panky cocktail. The videos are paired with information about the history of the cocktail, and Peters walks you through creating the drinks. Peters hopes to share new videos at least every month, with different featured spirits each time.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Peters led a popular monthly free cocktail class at Earl’s Grocery in Elizabeth. Now that the upscale marketplace has closed, Peters hopes the new site will be a virtual home for that style of event.

“I really loved Earl’s Grocery when that was around — and unfortunately, I just found out that they’re going to be closing, so I’m super sad about that,” he says. “But I want to continue the sort of the cocktail community feeling that gave me. So this is an opportunity to push out the walls a little bit beyond Charlotte and make it a little bit bigger, which is, I think, super cool.”

To help bring awareness to other Charlotte establishments, Peters asked other local bartenders to contribute recipes to the site, including Justin Hazelton of Leah & Louise and Stephanie Andrews of Billy Sunday.

Each of Peters’ video demonstrations are filmed from a home bar he built during the pandemic, fit with studio lighting. Check out the videos here.

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