Cork & Carriage LLC · dry-hire field manual · Spring 2027
Sip Back in Time
A 1963 Yellowstone canned-ham bar, towed by a green 1950 Chevrolet 3600. Opens Spring 2027. Home yard in Middlesex. The circuit is the Middle Peninsula, the Northern Neck, and the counties around them. The bar arrives. The pour is yours.
Launch capital
$84,294
Year-1 revenue
$73,993
Owner profit
$52,473
Payback
20 mo
Break-even
9 events
Effective hourly
$112
01 — Overview
Cork & Carriage LLC is a Middlesex County equipment-rental company. The first service — the 1950 Chevrolet 3600 as a photo set — books now. 3600 Uncorked, the dry-hire Yellowstone bar, opens Spring 2027 and serves the Middle Peninsula, the Northern Neck, and surrounding areas. The product is a restored 1963 canned-ham trailer converted to a bar and delivered behind the 3600, to waterfront weddings, river houses, oyster-country parties, and nearby historic lawns. The client provides alcohol and bartenders. That is dry hire: high contribution margin, no liquor inventory, and a legal posture that is rental, not retail.
Full-service mobile bars quote $3,000–$5,000 once liquor and staff are in. Dry hire of this pair lands around $1,150–$1,950 for the same Saturday, which is why planners say yes. The vintage rig is the reason they say it with a photograph. Ancillary work — seasonal photo days with the 3600, festivals, the Chevy as a getaway car — keeps the calendar from going quiet between peak weekends.
A 1963 Yellowstone canned-ham travel trailer with a serving hatch, bar top, ice, and string lights — towed by a green 1950 Chevrolet 3600. The truck is not a prop in the driveway. It is how the bar gets there, and half of what people photograph.
Clients rent the bar dry. They buy the beer, wine, and spirits, and they staff the window. You deliver, level, power, and collect. No bottles on your books.
Yard in Middlesex County. The work is the Middle Peninsula, the Northern Neck, and surrounding counties — Gloucester, Mathews, Lancaster, Irvington, Williamsburg when it pays. BPOL at home. Combined sales tax 5.3% on most of the circuit. Antique tags stay off the 3600.
Saturdays are the engine. Weekdays are seasonal photo sessions with the 3600 — engagements, holiday cards, styled work — plus festival static, a getaway in the Chevy, glass and lighting add-ons. The pair earns when it is not pouring someone else’s whiskey.
02 — The model
Three ways to run a mobile bar. This plan commits to the first and treats the second as a later, lawyer-reviewed add-on — never a silent default. Extra revenue comes from the pair as a prop, not from a pour.
| Model | You provide | Client provides | ABC posture | Unit economics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry hire (this plan) | Yellowstone, 3600, delivery, setup, lighting, ice bins, glassware optional | Alcohol, mixers, bartenders, ABC banquet license, cups if not rented | None for you. Host’s banquet license at unlicensed venues. | Very high. Fuel, vintage wear, processing. |
| Staffed dry hire | The pair plus TIPS-certified bartenders who pour the client’s liquor | Alcohol and mixers; you may still avoid resale | Gray. Pouring can look like service. Confirm with VA ABC before offering. | High, but payroll and liquor-liability insurance appear. |
| Full service | Trailer, truck, staff, liquor, mixers, cups, menu | A check | ABC retail / caterer path. Slow, expensive, venue-by-venue. | Lower. Inventory, breakage, cash-bar risk, compliance load. |
A four- to eight-hour rental of the finished Yellowstone, delivery behind the 3600 within a stated radius, setup and strike. Add-ons: extra hour, lighting, glass crates, tap jockey boxes, the truck as a getaway.
Alcohol, mixers as a package, a cash bar, or “we’ll handle the ABC paperwork for a cut.” Those sentences turn a rental company into a retailer. The contract says so in plain type.
A vetted bartender referral list (independent contractors paid by the client) and, only after written ABC guidance, a staffed-pour add-on with liquor-liability coverage.
03 — Other checks
A canned ham and a green Advance Design Chevy are famous on a river lawn in June. They are idle in February unless you sell the photograph, the festival, and the getaway. None of these streams require you to touch a bottle.
Dogwoods and first-warm-dock engagements. Book March–May before Saturday inventory is gone. Truck-only on lawns that cannot take the Yellowstone.
Golden-hour river portraits and wedding-day 3600 send-offs. Shade, coolant, three hours. July heat is a constraint, not a slogan.
Oyster country and foliage. Urbanna week, harvest tables, yacht-club verandas. Highest weekday demand after peak Saturdays.
Holiday cards, wreaths on the grille, New Year’s docks. The calendar that pays January. Indoor adjacent only if the pair is already painted.
Glass crates, string lighting, a jockey box, extra hour, ice. Sold on the same contract as the Saturday. High margin, no extra tow.
The 3600 is the set. Weekday three-hour windows for engagements, bridal portraits, family and holiday cards, styled editorials, and small-brand work. Truck-only (unhitched) or the pair. No alcohol, no bartender. Photographers book the machine; we stage wreaths, pumpkins, or lights when the season asks.
Urbanna Oyster Festival, Deltaville Blessing of the Fleet, Saluda and Irvington markets, holiday installs at oyster houses. The Yellowstone parks. You are still dry hire — the host or the event holds the license.
After the reception, the couple leaves in the Chevy. Short add-on on a day the truck is already on site. Do not offer this on a day the trailer has a second booking — there is only one 3600.
Small: matchbooks, a print of the pair, a koozie. It will not pay the insurance. It makes the lookbook feel like a place.
Overnight stays in the Yellowstone, antique-plate hobby use, and any package that includes a pour. Short-term rental and ABC are different businesses. Stay a rental company.
Year-one revenue mix
Ancillary $18,440 of $73,993 total — tune it in the modeler.
04 — Market
The customer booked an unlicensed river lawn, a marina tent, or a farm wedding between the Rappahannock and the Potomac and does not want a hotel banquet bar — or a $4,500 open-bar invoice. The Yellowstone and the vintage Chevy 3600 are the photograph they already had in mind. Middlesex is where the pair sleeps. The Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck are where it earns.
The circuit
Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck — Middlesex, Gloucester, Mathews, Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond County, Westmoreland, Essex. The yard is in Middlesex. The calendar is the rivers.
Surrounding
Historic Triangle, New Kent, West Point, and farms that touch the circuit. Typical tow about an hour. Richmond and Hampton Roads by surcharge; I-95 is not the 3600’s job.
Nov
Urbanna Oyster Festival is a static-hire weekend that does not care about Saturday wedding inventory. Book it like a peak date.
Apr–Nov
Peak Saturdays from the Piankatank to the Potomac shore. July heat is hard on a 1950 cooling system. December–March are photo days, holiday installs, and yacht-club parties.
Middle Peninsula
Urbanna, Deltaville, Saluda, Hartfield, Gloucester, Mathews, West Point — Rappahannock and Piankatank river houses, marinas, private docks
Northern Neck
Irvington, Kilmarnock, White Stone, Reedville, Warsaw, Tides Inn-adjacent estates, Lancaster and Northumberland farms
Surrounding
Williamsburg plantations, James City lawns, York River, New Kent, Kingsmill-adjacent private events
By exception
Richmond and Goochland farms, Hampton Roads waterfront — mileage surcharge, cooling budget, one event a day
Primary: engaged couples 8–14 months out who picked a waterfront or historic site on the Middle Peninsula or Northern Neck. Secondary: oyster-roast hosts, yacht clubs, nonprofit galas, Williamsburg destination weekends, and photographers who need a period truck. The economic buyer is often the planner; the emotional buyer is the dock at dusk.
Horse-trailer bars, tap trucks, venue in-house bars, and a folding table. Almost nobody on the Middle Peninsula or Northern Neck is arriving in a matched 1950/1963 pair. That is the whole point of the capital outlay. Do not compete on a per-guest liquor package. Compete on the photograph and the dry-hire price.
05 — Virginia law
This section is a planning map, not advice. A Virginia attorney, Virginia ABC, a commercial-auto agent, and the Middlesex commissioner of the revenue will have the last word. The dry-hire thesis collapses if you casually start pouring — or if the 3600 is tagged as a parade piece.
Form a Virginia LLC with the State Corporation Commission. Articles of Organization are $100. Annual registration is $50, due the last day of the anniversary month. Get a free EIN from the IRS. Use a Middlesex registered agent and a definite place of business in the county.
Dry hire is not a liquor sale and not a pour. You should not need a Virginia ABC retail license. Do not advertise packages that include alcohol, do not run a cash bar, and do not take a cut of drink tickets. Confirm in writing with Virginia ABC before the first booking.
A banquet license ($40) is issued to the individual or group hosting a private event where alcohol is provided at no charge — weddings, reunions, company parties — at an unlicensed location. The host applies. Your contract requires proof when the venue is not already ABC-licensed.
Virginia taxes the lease or rental of tangible personal property. Register as a dealer with Virginia Tax and collect on gross rental proceeds (23VAC10-210-840). Middlesex combined rate is 5.3%. Hampton Roads bookings are 6.0%. Buy the trailer tax-exempt for rental if you qualify; your CPA confirms.
BPOL with the county: $30 if receipts are $2,000–$50,000; above that, repair/personal/business services at $0.20 per $100 (retail $0.17). If the yard is inside the Town of Urbanna, add the town license. Register the 3600 and the Yellowstone as regular vehicles — not antique plates. Antique tags in Middlesex are untaxed, and they are not for towing to paid events.
Middlesex 2026–27: autos, trucks, and trailers $2.60 per $100 assessed; business equipment $3.50 per $100 on 10% of original cost. GL $1–2M, inland marine on the Yellowstone, agreed-value on the 3600, commercial auto. Hobby/antique policies will not cover a working tow. Venues will want a COI naming them additional insured.
A paid session with the 3600 as set is commercial use. Hagerty-style collector policies exclude it. Virginia antique plates (Va. Code § 46.2-730) are for club events, parades, testing, and pleasure driving within 250 miles — not driving to a booked job. Keep regular tags and tell the commercial-auto agent the truck is a photography prop: people pose on running boards, it parks on third-party lawns, and it earns a fee. GL $1M/$2M with additional-insured COIs for venues and landowners. Photographer insurance covers the photographer, not your Chevy. Only scheduled drivers. No champagne in the contract. This is a map; the carrier and a Virginia agent write the policy.
Health departments generally care when you prepare food or handle open beverages as a vendor. Pure equipment rental with client-owned product is a different fact pattern — still call the county if you include ice from your machine or washed glassware. When in doubt, rent sealed ice and let the bartender’s employer own the warewash.
06 — Operations
Middlesex County — a barn or carport in Saluda, Hartfield, or Deltaville. Covered parking for both machines. Parts shelf for 3600 belts, points, hoses. A modern backup tow relationship (friend’s truck or a rental) written into the ops binder.
1963 canned ham, bumper-pull, electric brakes, spare, leveling jacks, 30A or generator, LED interior, lockable cage the client can use, water jug, handwash for the bartender. Site-visit gravel and dock-edge slope before you commit.
1950 Chevrolet ¾-ton Advance Design. 12-volt electrical, working brakes, radials, a cooling system that will idle in August. Highway speed is not the point; reliability is. Do not put antique plates on a working tow vehicle.
Owner-operator. One event is a ten-hour day because the Chevy is slower than a half-ton. Home circuit is the Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck — comfortably inside 90 minutes from a Middlesex yard. Surrounding counties by surcharge. Never double-book Saturdays. Never send the trailer with a different truck unless the client has signed off — the pair is the product.
Truck-only unless the photographer paid for the pair. No ABC, no ice run. Seasonal props (wreath, pumpkins, a crate of lights) live in the bed, not a separate trailer. The 3600 is on commercial auto that day, not a collector policy.
07 — Capital
Three restoration grades of the same pair. Shore is a working first rig. Tide is the recommended launch — cream-and-green two-tone, the look in the photograph. Harbor is for operators who already have Saturday demand. The truck is not optional — it is how the bar arrives, and half of what you are selling.
1963 Yellowstone (Tide) Professional Yellowstone restoration, cream-and-green two-tone, hardwood bar, serving hatch, string lights, tap-ready. | $28,000 |
1950 Chevrolet 3600 (Tide) Restored working 3600 in matching green: body and brightwork done, mechanicals sorted, still a tow vehicle first. | $36,000 |
Bar equipment & glass Ice bins, speed rails, vintage-look glassware, coolers, tap hardware, lighting, generator share. | $3,800 |
Livery, site & photography Period paint, domain, lookbook of the pair on the Rappahannock — the truck is half the ad. | $3,200 |
LLC, contracts, filings SCC Articles $100, operating agreement, dry-hire contract, Middlesex BPOL. | $900 |
Insurance (first year) GL $1–2M, inland marine on the Yellowstone, agreed-value on the 3600, commercial auto — not antique-hobby coverage. | $3,200 |
Booking stack HoneyBook or Dubsado, domain, site. | $450 |
Working capital Two months of fixed costs plus a parts float for Advance Design Chevy bits. | $2,500 |
Contingency (8%) | $6,244 |
| Total to launch | $84,294 |
Figures are 2026 planning estimates, not quotes. A running 3600 and a solid Yellowstone shell can be found for less; a frame-off pair will exceed Harbor. Budget mechanicals before paint.
08 — The modeler
Primary circuit: Middle Peninsula & Northern Neck
Home circuit: Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck from a Middlesex yard. Saluda, Urbanna, Deltaville, Gloucester, Mathews, Irvington, Kilmarnock, White Stone. The 3600 stays off I-95.
Revenue
$73,993
Ancillary
$18,440
Fixed costs
$10,099
Owner profit
$52,473
| Weekend events | 27 × $1,550 |
| Weekday events | 13 × $961 |
| Rental revenue | $54,343 |
| Delivery | $1,210 |
| Event add-ons | $4,840 |
| Photo / prop days | $5,500 |
| Festivals & static | $4,750 |
| 3600 getaway | $2,450 |
| Merch | $900 |
| Fuel, wear, cleaning | -$9,275 |
| Card processing (2.9%) | -$2,146 |
| Annual fixed | -$10,099 |
| Owner profit (pre-tax, pre-owner wage) | $52,473 |
471 owner hours — $112 effective. Middlesex personal property tax on the pair is about $679. Sales tax of $3,922 is collected and remitted. Break-even is 9 events; capital payback is 20 months at this run-rate.
09 — Forecast
Growth is more events on the same Yellowstone and the same 3600, not a second brand, until Saturdays are truly full. The modeler caps a single pair at 72 events — vintage cooling and a home circuit of the Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck are the constraint. Year two is 1.25×; year three is 1.45×.
Year 1
$52,473
40 events · $73,993 revenue
Cumulative owner profit $52,473
Year 2
$68,116
50 events · $92,491 revenue
Cumulative owner profit $120,589
Year 3
$80,631
58 events · $107,290 revenue
Cumulative owner profit $201,220
Revenue and owner profit
Year-one seasonality
10 — Marketing plan
3600 Uncorked does not out-shout a tap truck from Richmond. It arrives looking like 1950 and rents dry. The vintage Chevy 3600 and the Yellowstone are the campaign. Everything else — listings, festivals, photographers — is distribution for that photograph, on the Middle Peninsula, the Northern Neck, and the counties that touch them.
Positioning
Sip Back in Time
A dry-hire vintage mobile bar. Couples and hosts rent the finished Yellowstone, delivered behind the 3600. They buy the alcohol and hold the ABC banquet license. You own two photogenic machines and almost no inventory.
Not a bartender service. Not a liquor package. Not a statewide brand.
Engaged 8–14 months out, waterfront or historic site on the Middle Peninsula or Northern Neck. They already saved a green truck on Pinterest. You are the photograph, then the rental.
Local coordinators and a few Richmond/Williamsburg firms who book the rivers. They need a COI, a one-pager, and a dry-hire price they can defend. Preferred-vendor lists are short. Get on them.
Marinas, river houses, Irvington inns, plantation lawns, yacht clubs. Unlicensed sites need the host’s banquet license — your contract says so. The venue wants a bar that looks like it belongs on the dock.
Weekday photo days put the 3600 in front of clients you will never meet at a bridal show. Sell the truck as a seasonal set — holiday cards, fall foliage, spring engagements — and trade a simple rate for a usage license. Their grid is your catalog.
Styled photography of the pair sits in launch capital, not this line. Annual spend is distribution: listings, festivals, print, and the hours it takes to walk Irvington with a leave-behind.
The Knot and WeddingWire, festival vendor fees, photographer outreach, a small paid boost in peak booking months. Matches a 40-event year on the home circuit.
Modeler is set to 40 dry-hire events. Funnel implies 39. Funnel and calendar are in range for a single pair on this circuit.
Where the $2,400 goes
Jan–Mar
Listings live. Walk venues while they are empty. Yacht-club holiday recap, photographer emails, winter-card sessions with a wreath on the 3600. One indoor styled frame if the pair is painted. Book next fall.
Apr–Jun
Peak inquiry window for this year’s Saturdays and next year’s. Spring engagement sessions on the rivers. Answer in a day. Raise the weekend rate the week the fourth deposit clears. Content from real jobs, not stock.
Jul–Aug
Heat. Protect the 3600. Photo days in shade, midweek oyster roasts, wedding getaway portraits at dusk. Do not buy ads you cannot staff. Festival deposits for fall.
Sep–Dec
Oyster country and foliage sessions. Urbanna, Blessing of the Fleet, holiday installs, Christmas-card bookings. Collect emails, not drink tickets. January is already in the inbox.
8
Preferred-vendor lists on the circuit by month 12.
48h
Inquiry to a written quote. Faster than a tap truck from Richmond.
1
Styled shoot of the pair on the Rappahannock, reused for a year.
4
Festival or static days treated as open houses, not side gigs.
11 — Risks
The moment you mix a drink, you may be in ABC territory. Train yourself to refuse. Put it in the contract twice.
A 1950 cooling system on a July dock road is a real failure mode. Sorted radiator, electric fan if needed, a recovery tow, and a clause for mechanical delay.
Middlesex charges no personal property tax on antique-tagged vehicles. That is a trap. Commercial towing wants regular tags, commercial insurance, and the $2.60 rate.
If the 3600 is on a hobby policy and someone falls off the running board at a $550 session, the claim can be denied as undisclosed commercial use. Same file as towing: commercial auto, GL, COI. Disclose posing-on-vehicle to the agent.
Canned hams hate deep gravel and unlevel bulkheads. Site visits, a tow policy, jacks, boards, and a rain clause.
One pair cannot be in Irvington and Williamsburg. Raise peak rates until the calendar hurts. Photo days fill the week; they do not clone Saturday.
You are the driver, the closer, and the mechanic’s first call. A blown weekend in May is a blown year. Build a backup driver who can handle a 4-speed 3600 before you need one.
12 — First 90 days
01
LLC in Virginia, EIN, Middlesex BPOL, bank, insurance quotes on both machines, attorney on the rental contract, ABC confirmation email in the file.
02
Buy the Yellowstone and the 3600. Mechanical first: brakes, 12-volt, cooling, tires, lights. Conversion in progress. Domain, HoneyBook, COI template.
03
Paint, livery, photography of the pair on the water. The Knot and WeddingWire live. Ten venue and planner drop-ins from Deltaville to Irvington. One photo-day test.
04
Three paid bookings on the books, even if one is a weekday oyster roast. Festival deposit. Raise Saturday rate the day the fourth holds.
