Bulleit Frontier Whiskey and Mike's Hot Honey are taking their new brand partnership on a 22-event national roadshow spanning 15 cities, targeting bars, restaurants, and food festivals from Los Angeles to New York through early 2027. The collaboration centers on Bulleit Frontier Whiskey's newest expression, Bulleit '87 — a bourbon-rye blend priced at $29.99 for a 750mL bottle — and Mike's Hot Honey as a cocktail modifier and food complement, betting that the "swicy" flavor trend has legs on both spirits menus and dining tables.
The On-Premise Play
For bar and restaurant operators, the partnership delivers ready-made menu content. Two signature cocktails anchor the program: a Hot Honey Old Fashioned built with Bulleit Bourbon, Mike's Hot Honey, and bitters; and a Swicy Gold Rush combining Bulleit Rye, lemon juice, and Mike's Hot Honey. The flagship serve is Bulleit '87 poured neat or on the rocks with a Mike's Hot Honey rim — a low-complexity, high-margin format that requires no additional equipment. Operators in cities on the tour route can expect increased consumer awareness through the branded Bulleit Rider, a mobile bar traveling in Bulleit's signature orange that will appear at festivals, sports events, and cultural activations.
"As a brand built on backing bold ideas and doing things differently, we're thrilled to partner with Mike's Hot Honey to create the ultimate flavor pairing," said Frank Dudley, Brand Director of American Whiskey at Diageo. "We're all about pushing the boundaries of flavor exploration, and Mike's Hot Honey shares the same philosophy of quality and flavor, making for a pairing that tastes damn good."
Local Culinary Collabs
The roadshow is also designed to drive foot traffic for local restaurant partners. In Los Angeles, Ggiata Delicatessen created The Kentucky Hotshot — a limited-time sandwich featuring chicken marinated in Bulleit '87 BBQ sauce and finished with a Mike's Hot Honey drizzle, available for $18 across all Ggiata locations for a four-day window. In New Orleans, the partnership will extend to Cafe du Monde beignets. These hyper-local food collaborations reflect a broader trend in spirits brand activations at the restaurant level, where co-branded LTOs can generate earned media and consumer trial simultaneously.
Upcoming tour stops include Whiskey Washback Dallas on October 23, Detroit bar takeovers on October 24, WhiskyFest NY in November, and Miami South Beach Food & Wine in late February. Louisville Derby Week (April 28–30) and Tampa's Gasparilla Music Festival (April 9–11) are also on the calendar, giving on-premise accounts a long runway to build programming around the partnership.
Beyond activations, the collaboration will extend to spirits retail shelves and bar back displays nationwide, positioning Mike's Hot Honey as a recommended modifier alongside Bulleit SKUs at point of sale. For operators already stocking Bulleit Bourbon and Bulleit Rye, the partnership represents an easy upsell opportunity — adding a bottle of hot honey to the back bar unlocks three distinct menu-ready serves without increasing pour costs significantly. The "swicy" category, which blends sweet and spicy flavor profiles, continues to gain traction across beverage menu development, appearing in everything from craft cocktails to flavored spirits and RTD launches.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
