Foodies love cookout season — except for the part where you’re crouched over, digging through multiple lidded coolers to pick your drink of choice. Rest assured, those days are over. Skip the digging and wow guests with an ice-filled wheelbarrow. The result is a wide-open, easily accessible ice bar for outdoor events all season long. (For indoor parties during the colder months, we also recommend using your bathtub to chill drinks in the same manner.)
Chances are your tactical wheelbarrow might be a tad dusty or dirty after its tenure in the toolshed. Give it a good spray with the hose and a thorough wipe-down with an antiseptic wipe before filling it with ice. To help the wheelbarrow lock in the cold temperatures, you can also line the inside of the wheelbarrow with a generous layer of tin foil. It’s an extra step that goes a long way.
Some beers, like Busch Light and Corona, are practically undrinkable if served tepid. To keep your bevs ultra-cold, just dump a few bags of ice into a wheelbarrow, then shove your bottled and canned beverages deep into the ice. At party time, position the wheelbarrow near the food table for easy access. If you can find a shady spot to park it, even better. Just be sure to keep that wheelbarrow out of direct sunlight, and away from an active grill if you’re hosting a barbecue. Any wafting heat will melt the ice more quickly.
Fill your wheelbarrow with ice and use it as a cooler at outdoor events
Few things are more disappointing than going to the trouble to make a homemade mango sorbet or this elevated mint and pear sorbet, only for it to melt on the cookout’s food table in a matter of minutes. Luckily, this tip isn’t just for drinks. You could use that ice-filled wheelbarrow as a functional display for any summer cookout side dishes that need to be kept chilled, like pasta salad or sliced fruit.
Pro tip: For an aesthetically impressive presentation, halve and hollow out the shells of larger fruits like watermelon or cantaloupe, and use those shells as serving bowls for the sliced up fruit. You could even serve a mixed fruit medley of blueberries, grapes, sliced strawberries, and sliced kiwi in a hollowed-out pineapple positioned atop the ice-filled wheelbarrow. Other organic decorative elements could include fresh flowers scattered across the wheelbarrow or a few bamboo stalks staked into the ice.
It’s worth mentioning that the ice in this open wheelbarrow is going to melt more quickly than ice packed in an enclosed lidded cooler designed for this purpose. It’s a good idea to keep a few extra bags of ice stashed in a chest freezer to top off the wheelbarrow every few hours. If you want to have a wheelbarrow for drinks and a wheelbarrow for chilled foods, borrow another wheelbarrow from one of your cookout guests (it can count as their “dish to share”).
