With Handholder, entrepreneurial couple brings craft, care and community to every pour.
When Michael McCarty talks about bartending, it’s not really about the drink. It’s about the story that unfolds across the bar — the quiet exchange of trust, the laughter that bubbles up halfway through a cocktail, the way strangers become a little less so.
“I’ve always loved that connection,” McCarty says. “You’re not just making drinks — you’re part of someone’s night, their celebration, their memory.”
That sense of connection became the cornerstone of Handholder, the mobile bar service McCarty co-founded in 2024 with his partner, Amanda Findlay. Together, the couple has turned a simple idea — thoughtfully crafted drinks served
with genuine hospitality — into a business that brings warmth, personality and polish to events across Greater Lafayette.
Where craft meets community
Handholder began with a spark of possibility. McCarty has spent more than a decade devising drink recipes and developing bar programs for restaurants throughout Greater Lafayette. Known for his artistry with cocktails and his easy rapport with guests, he’d long imagined what it might look like to take that craft beyond brick and mortar.
“Over the years, people have asked me if I’ve ever considered starting my own business,” he says. “Conversations with
Amanda made what initially felt like an overwhelming dream become an actual possibility. Together, I knew we could build something that feels personal and special.”
Findlay, the executive director of MatchBOX Coworking Studio, was already immersed in Greater Lafayette’s entrepreneurial scene — coaching founders, marketing new ventures and building creative collaborations across the community.
“When you work with entrepreneurs every day, it’s easy to get caught up in their excitement,” Findlay says. “This is my first time co-founding a business, but in my decade at MatchBOX, I’ve learned a lot about what makes a small business thrive. With Handholder, Michael brings this incredible craft and hospitality experience and I bring the marketing and business strategy. It’s the perfect balance.”
Their first business experiment together came not as a grand opening but as a community fundraiser. In 2022, McCarty was invited to take part in Mental Health America’s inaugural Mocktail Monday event as a restaurant bartender. Findlay joined as a community representative. They served up a pineapple-shrub mocktail with flaming sage as a finishing touch — a creation that drew longer-than-expected lines and was named the event’s most creative mocktail. That experience working together led
to serious conversations about opening a liquid catering business.
What’s in a name
The pair were poring over lyrics by one of their favorite musical artists, Isaac Opatz, looking for inspiration for drink names when McCarty suggested “Handholder” might be a good moniker for a mocktail they were creating. Findlay replied it’d be a great name for a bar.
“We have a playlist that includes every song we’ve ever sent each other in the entirety of our relationship,” Findlay says. “It’s 67 hours and 46 minutes long, and ‘Handholder’ is one of the first songs Michael ever sent me.”
Not only does the name have significance for their relationship, it’s also a nod to the connection between bartender and guest — the simple, human act of reaching across a counter or a crowd to share something made with care.
“It’s about presence,” McCarty says. “Being there in that moment, paying attention to someone, making them feel seen. That’s what bartending is at its best.”
Pouring personality into every event
From intimate backyard weddings to downtown corporate mixers, Handholder has become a sought-after presence across the region. The pair’s reputation for professionalism and creative flair sets them apart, but it’s their warmth and personalization that keeps clients coming back.
“Every event is customized based on conversations with our client,” McCarty says. “We want to design a sensory experience that considers each client’s inspirations and influences to help them achieve their vision of the event.”
That approach shapes everything Handholder does, from the menus they design to the way they set up their custom-built bar. Every event is tailored — a signature cocktail that reflects the couple getting married, a locally sourced ingredient that ties into a company’s story or an inventive mocktail that makes every guest feel included.
For the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette’s Surrealist Costume Ball in 2024, McCarty and Findlay donated their supplies and services to contribute Handholder’s memorable signature touches for the event. Using the dreamlike and illogical imagery representative of surrealism as their inspiration point, the pair conceived the menu for Eggs Three Ways.
A Cynar sour, the only liquid item on the menu, featured a foamy egg white as part of a classic Italian amaro cocktail. A Negroni was presented as a Campari and sweet vermouth faux caviar — tediously made using an eyedropper — served with a juniper berry and orange zest crostini. Finally, a lemon drop that looked suspiciously like a deviled egg. A limoncello Jell-O shot molded to look like the boiled
egg white was topped with a lemon whipped créme filling and garnished with lemongrass.
Cocktails you can eat? That’s the kind of surreal challenge McCarty and Findlay enjoy concocting together. And attendees are still talking about the thought and creativity Handholder injected into the evening.
“We love when clients trust us to have fun with it,” McCarty says. “That’s when the magic happens.”
As the business grows, both founders are deliberate about keeping its soul intact.
“We’re not trying to scale so fast that we lose what makes it special,” Findlay says. “We’d rather focus on building something sustainable — something that stays rooted in the kind of experience we love to create.”
For McCarty, it always comes back to the small, human moments — the reason he started bartending in the first place.
“When you hand someone a drink, you’re giving them your time and attention,” he says. “It’s this little gesture that says, ‘I made this especially for you.’ That feeling of recognition, that’s what people remember.”
And that’s what Handholder is built on: the idea that a drink, done right, is never just a drink — it’s a shared moment, an act of connection, a story that lingers long after the glass is empty. ★
Try Your Hand
Looking to step up your cocktail game at home? McCarty and Findlay shared the recipe for a drink dubbed A Bushel & A Peck. The name was inspired by their grandmothers and the sweet saying from the classic song, “I love you, a bushel and a peck. A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.”
It contains a shrub, a mixture of fruit, sugar and vinegar that’s used to add complex flavors to both alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks, and a homemade cinnamon syrup. Crafting bespoke ingredients is one way Handholder develops its signature flavor profiles. “This drinks like a peach whiskey sour, and I think it’s so delightful,” Findlay says.
A Bushel & A Peck
• 2 oz. High West Bourbon
• ½ oz. pickled peach shrub*
• ½ oz. lemon juice
• ½ oz. cinnamon syrup**
• 1 egg white
1. Add all ingredients to an empty cocktail shaker.
2. Shake vigorously.
3. Add ice to the shaker and shake again until chilled.
4. Strain into a coupe glass.
5. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary. Cheers!
Cinnamon Syrup
• 2 cups water
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• ½ cups white sugar
1. Bring water and cinnamon to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Strain out the cinnamon. Add sugar. Stir until dissolved.
3. Refrigerate in an airtight container.
Yields approximately 3 cups.
Pickled Peach Shrub
• 2 cups Turbinado sugar
• 2 cups water
• 4 cups fresh or frozen peaches
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 cloves
• ¼ tsp. black peppercorns
• ¼ tsp. allspice
• ¼ tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
1. Combine water and sugar. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously. Reduce heat to a simmer.
2. Add peaches and spices. Return to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Add vinegar and refrigerate overnight.
4. After approximately 24 hours, strain out the solids while pressing the peaches with the back of a spoon to extract any remaining liquid.
5. Refrigerate in an airtight container.
Yields approximately 5 cups.
