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Bespoke

A pixel art bar for the end of the day. You watch the drink being made, and then you get the real recipe to make it at home.

Track
built
Category
tool

Bespoke is an iPhone app about the calm of sitting at a good bar. You visit Ruth's late night bar in New York or Harada's jazz kissa in Tokyo. You watch the drink being made, and then you get the real recipe to make it at home. I designed and built it alone.

An iOS app, 2026.

Make a drink

The mixology engine

It's a rule based engine I wrote from scratch, and it gives the same answer every time. It knows 194 ingredients, 65 classic cocktails and hundreds of flavor pairings. Every drink goes through a balance solver that checks sweetness, acidity, dilution and strength, with a firm limit on alcohol per glass. It works from the bottles you own, creates new spins with their lineage attached, gives each one a name, and learns what you like without ruling anything out.

The bartenders

Each one has around 380 lines written by hand. A voice checker I built runs them as tests. It keeps sentences short and calm, and it blocks exclamation marks and therapy speak. Lines come between steps and never over the shake, and some pauses are left silent on purpose. The bartenders remember past visits, notice the weather in their city and keep a quiet tab of your history together.

The pixel art

Every room, bottle and character is drawn in code. The bartenders are live puppets with jointed arms that reach for the jigger, the tin and the glass. Their movement is sampled in steps so it reads like hand animated pixel art. Lighting runs on a real rig with warm fixtures and gentle flicker, and the rooms have small signs of life, like a spinning record or steam from a kettle.

The drink lab below is made for this page from the app's own code. Every glass, ice, foam and garnish in it is a sheet exported pixel for pixel from the app, and the lab puts them together by the app's rules: the ice that fits the glass, the liquid filling by volume, the spot each garnish lands on. Every sheet is drawn in grey. The colour comes in when the drink is made, the liquid from its ingredients and the garnish from the bar's own palette. The room's light is left out, so you see the sheets as drawn.

The drink lab is live and needs JavaScript. The captures above show the same drinks in the app.

Feel and sound

Haptics follow the craft: a thunk for each bottle, a tick for each dash, the shake in your palm and a tap when the glass arrives. The street outside responds to the tilt of your phone with layered parallax. Each bar has its own music, with vinyl crackle, and the music gets quieter when a bartender speaks.

The goal was a product that respects your attention. No streaks, no rewards, no noise. It's just a good drink and someone glad you came in.

It is in beta on TestFlight.

Screens

  1. The Tamarack Room, New York

    A pixel art street at night in New York. A brick apartment block with dark windows, a laundromat with two rows of round machine doors, a lamp post, and beside it a lit doorway at the foot of a short stair. The title reads The Tamarack Room, then Down the stairs, behind the laundromat, then Tap the door to go in. Wet paving reflects the light.
    A dark brick wall with a wooden door in the middle, lit warm from a small bulb over it. A tiny clock above the door reads 1:40.
    Inside, Ruth's head and shoulders show above a panel, in front of a brick wall lined with bottles under a pressed tin ceiling. The panel is headed Ruth, The Tamarack Room, and the line reads Quiet night. Best kind. Three questions follow as rows of choices. What are we building on tonight, with bourbon-style whiskey chosen. Brand new, or an old friend, with something new chosen over a spin on a classic. Tonight feels, with cozy and strong chosen. A quiet menu option sits beside them, and the button at the foot reads Make it, Ruth.
    Ruth behind the bar, one hand raised to the glasses and a bottle in the other, an empty coupe on the counter. A small inset on the wall shows a pixel hand pouring from a bottle into a glass. The panel below reads Ruth works, then Combine in the shaker: 42.5 mL bourbon-style whiskey, 20 mL honey syrup (3:1), 25 mL egg white, 2 dashes aromatic bitters.
    Ruth leans in with the tin held out over the coupe, and a thin stream of pale drink runs into it. The panel reads Ruth works, then Double-strain into the glass.
    The coupe is full, with a curl of orange on the foam, and Ruth's hand is just leaving it. The panel reads Ruth works, then Drop in the orange peel.
    Ruth pushes the finished coupe forward across the counter. The panel reads Ruth works, then Serve. Water on the side.
    The recipe card over the bar, headed Hive Nightcap, Tin Ceiling, then Flip and Rich, in a coupe, New York. Four ingredients: 42.5 mL bourbon-style whiskey, 20 mL honey syrup (3:1), 25 mL egg white with a note that aquafaba foams just the same, and 2 dashes aromatic bitters. Seven numbered steps, from chilling the coupe through a dry shake for the foam to serving with water on the side. Bars for boozy, sweet, sour and bitter, a row asking how did it land with Loved it, Good and Not for me, and two buttons, Surprise me differently and Back to the bar.

  2. Kissa Yorunami, Tokyo

    A dark blue tiled wall at night, with a sliding paper screen door lit warm from inside and a round paper lantern glowing beside it. A small clock above the door reads 11:20.
    Inside, Harada's head shows above the panel, in front of shelves full of records. The panel is headed Harada, Kissa Yorunami, and the line reads One taxi light in the alley. The blinds let it in. The same three questions follow, with dealer's choice, something new, refreshing and easy chosen, and the button reads Make it, Harada.
    Harada stands behind the bar, hands on the counter, a lamp and a small record player beside him. The panel below holds only an ellipsis.
    Harada holds the tin up at the shoulder with both hands, shaking. The panel reads Harada works, then Shake hard with cold ice, 12 seconds.
    Harada sets a rocks glass on the counter, pale drink over ice. The panel is headed Harada in amber, and the line reads A good day. The record for that is on.
    The recipe card, headed Winter Garden Smash, First Snow, then Smash, in a rocks, Tokyo, and under it in amber, cousin of a Gold Rush. Four ingredients: 45 mL bourbon-style whiskey, 22.5 mL lemon juice, 17.5 mL honey syrup (3:1) and 5 mL rosemary. Six steps, starting with gently muddling the rosemary in the shaker, press, don't pulverize. Bars for boozy, sweet and sour, and the same rating row and buttons.

  3. A sheet headed The shelf, with 20 on hand in the corner and a Done button. A line reads Tap what you have. I assume the pantry basics. Under Spirits a list runs from absinthe, aged rum and apple brandy down to cognac-style brandy, with bourbon-style whiskey ticked. A search field at the foot reads Find a bottle.
  4. A recipe card in Tokyo headed Whiskey Gimlet, then Shaken Sour, in a coupe, Tokyo, and in amber, a Gimlet, taken sideways, with gin (london dry) traded for bourbon-style whiskey. Three ingredients: 52.5 mL bourbon-style whiskey, 22.5 mL lime juice and 20 mL simple syrup. Six steps, then bars for boozy, sweet, sour, bitter, aromatic and refreshing, a line of figures beginning 14% ABV, and the rating row and buttons.
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