Suggestions for quality at high volume, casual atmosphere?

The bar I work at is finally making the plunge into craft cocktails. We’re a new(ish, 3 yr old), high volume independent bar/bowling alley, and have DJ’s on the weekends. So the atmosphere is more fun/casual and trendy. And, being a bowling alley, the vibe is a bit throwback. So, my thinking is that the drinks should lean away from sophistication (for instance, nothing deconstructed, since postmodernism doesn’t exactly jive with a bowling alley), and more towards straightforward classics with a) minor, easily approachable variations, b) everything possible sourced locally, and c) fresh and seasonal (for instance, I think our clientele would like it if their sweetener was from a local honey farm, or a beer drink using a local beer). I’d love your help and thoughts, and maybe start a broader discussion on quality in casual atmospheres, which seems, at least in my area, to be the latest demand; the democratization of quality. Here we go:

• Daily Punches. For high volume, they’d be cheap, quick (relative to how many they serve), fresh, rotating, and made for groups (which, at a bowling alley, makes up a ton of our clientele). We’d go to farms and farmers markets, make syrups from the fruits and veggies, tinctures from the herbs and spices, and switch them up when the batches run their course. The usual stuff for the seasons, nothing challenging (cucumber/lime/gin, rum punches, the like). Throw in some tiki, and some noggs and milk punches at the right time, and that could be really nice.

• Homemade sodas. It’s a throwback bowling alley! The nostalgia seems to go hand in hand with soda shops. Researching carbonation rigs has made me a bit nervous (thanks, Liquid Intelligence and homebrew.com forums), so we may just want to make soda syrups and add seltzer per order. But they’d be a mix of standards (root beer, cola, orange cream) and locals (local berries and other fruits). Moreover, the more I read about sodas, the more it becomes clear that soda syrups are little more than “complex simple syrups” anyways. What’s the big difference between and orange vanilla simple syrup and an orange cream soda syrup? I honestly don’t see any. If I can find a reasonable way to do so, I’d love to pre-bottle Carbonated cocktails (i looked at morgenthaler’s method), or maybe even have them tanked and delivered from the gun (a la Eben Freeman). But Liquid Intelligence’s carbonation section scared the shit out of me.

• flaunting the local angle: as much as possible, simples will be honey syrups from a local honey producer. The recommended gin will be from a local distillery (and tonic will be made in house, with a recipe that would hopefully be tailored to it). That kind of thing. The young hip crowd ought to dig a cocktail list that’s bespoke to the area.

• House white russian. Through a weird turn of events, we actually devote a whole keg to cold brew coffee, and it’s delicious. We’d make a coffee liqueur from it, maybe make a horchata (if that doesn’t work, then just cream with a dash of vanilla tincture?), and use a vanilla infused vodka. At bowling alleys, people love white Russians. If we can make the best one in town, that could put us on the local map.

And then a couple minor things, like a duckfat rye wash, since people love our duckfat fries. That could make some interesting bourbon classics.

In all, the concept behind this is that it’s prep-heavy, so that service can be expedited. Nothing Japanese about this at all. With tinctures, bitters and infusions at the ready, with horchata at the ready, with soda syrups at the ready, with punches on the menu (which means I’d also need orgeat and grenadine at the ready), customers wouldn’t need to reverently pay attention at all to the theater of it. They’d know that everything’s fresh, local, fast, and delicious. And then they can get back to bowling and dancing.

What do you think? Any suggestions, critiques, deletions, additions? Is the approach the proper one in the first place? Thanks in advance, gang.