LAKE GENEVA — The Happy Ending vodka cocktail made the leap from a lakeside restaurant to your refrigerator. The people behind the product believe it can be Wisconsin's next great alcohol brand.
Bill Gage of Gage Marine and alcohol industry expert Eric Weber partnered to launch the Happy Ending canned cocktail line last March.
The grapefruit-flavored vodka drink is a specialty at Gage's restaurant Pier 290 in Williams Bay, but Gage said he first mixed the drink in 1982.
"I started making it in college," Gage said. "Afterwards, people would call me and ask me, 'How do I make your drink?'"
Weber met Gage by chance during a gathering at Pier 290. He said he was convinced to go into business with him after trying the Happy Ending at the event.
"I'm like, 'You mean to tell me you've had an original cocktail that you created in the 1980s that's your best seller at your restaurant?'" Weber said. "I looked around and everybody at the party was drinking it."
The two established their headquarters in downtown Lake Geneva and spent the past year marketing Happy Ending wherever they could. They also created two canned variants of the original recipe: the lime and mint-inspired Weekender and the Old Fashioned-adjacent Sundowner.
Weber said it was a challenge to break through into the alcohol market.
"Most distributors now a days are declining new brands, especially smaller new brands, and saying they aren't going to take them in," Weber said.
Happy Ending is now sold across Wisconsin and in Nashville, Tennessee. Weber and Gage are planning to work even harder to promote Happy Ending and its ties to Walworth County.
WATCH: Lake Geneva canned cocktail entrepreneurs spreading their drink across the state
"Last year, we did over 400 sampling events at bars, restaurants, and retail stores," Weber said. We hope to double that this year."
"It's deeply satisfying that we're able to create something that other people enjoy," Gage said. "Lake Geneva has been instrumental in creating the Happy Ending."
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