Luke Shimp is gearing up to debut the Red Cow brand on the national stage. On the heels of announcing his sixth Red Cow location, the restaurateur this week is formally launching a line of ready-to-drink cocktails that could one day end up on shelves outside Minnesota.

The line consists of the nonalcoholic Red Cow Ginger Beer and the Red Cow Mule, Shimp’s take on the Moscow Mule. For now, they’re only being sold at Target Field and a few Twin Cities liquor stores, but Shimp is mulling plans to sell them in other markets in other states.

“Getting that Red Cow logo and brand in front of folks on a regular basis in other markets will be important from a branding standpoint,” says Shimp, president and owner of Red Cow parent company Double Black Diamond Hospitality.

Shimp says he quietly released the products in mid-March.

For the cocktails’ first run, Shimp partnered with a Michigan-based company to can the beverages.

Launching the beverage line in other markets could even lead to the launch of new Red Cow restaurants “when we’re ready to expand outside of the Minnesota marketplace,” he says. But Shimp isn’t getting ahead of himself; he says he plans to build the brand slowly. And he’s not interested in a franchise model, even though he’s been approached about it more than once. “I’ve looked into it, but I haven’t been excited,” he says of franchising. “We wouldn’t do franchising because I think that’s a whole different model where you give up a lot of control. We would continue to own [any new locations].”

There aren’t concrete plans to open new Red Cows outside of Minnesota quite yet, but, when the time comes, Shimp says he plans to focus on just one region at a time. That might involve opening five units in one area. For Shimp, that’s the sweet spot where the brand could “be successful without oversaturating.”

The new beverage line isn’t a small investment for Shimp. He says he’s spent over $200,000 on the first run of the two products thus far, and he doesn’t necessarily expect it to become profitable immediately. “It’s probably going to be a losing venture on the next couple runs …. but for me, it’s a long-term investment. I’m making the investment for the long haul.”

In fall, Shimp aims to add old fashioneds, espresso martinis, and strawberry margaritas to the line. That’s around the same time Shimp’s newest Red Cow location is set to open at The Promenade of Wayzata.

The beverage industry isn’t entirely new territory for Shimp. As a side project, he partnered with his friend Chris Foster in 2019 to release a line of wines under the brand name Moonshot. But the cocktail line will be the first consumer product bearing the Red Cow name.