Michigan set a record for liquor sales in 2015, fueled in part by growth in Detroit as an entertainment destination while the craft cocktail movement takes hold in the state.

Detroit is home to 28 of the top 100 wholesale liquor buyers in Michigan, double the city's total on the list in 2010. Four of the top 5 in Michigan are located in Detroit, while the fifth - the Pantheon Club, a topless bar in Dearborn, ranked number 4 - is located on the city's western border.

Number one across the state among wholesale liquor buyers was a Detroit food and beverage establishment that opened in late 2014: Punch Bowl Social.

The bar-restaurant at 1331 Broadway in Dan Gilbert's Z Building opened in December 2014, and it rocketed to the top of the list of liquor buyers. It purchased $515,840 in spirits from the state for resale in 2015.

Punch Bowl Social is a place where its CEO describes its locally sourced culinary program and popular entertainment - like bowling and ping pong. But it's also a bar, and patrons there to eat or play also tend to drink, said Robert Thompson, its CEO and founder.

Those beverages can be beer, but the cocktails are a focus. They help elevate alcohol to 50 percent of Punch Bowl Social's revenue. The most popular is "You must bring us.. .A shrubbery," a name that plays off Monty Python and a drink that includes Skyy moscato vodka, watermelon shrub, and lemon juice. The price: $8 for one, $32 if four people want to share.

"We keep our craft beverage program on an edge," Thompson said. "We always try to stay focused on what's current and never get stale."

Due to a state law on the books since 1933, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission sells spirits to the 15,000 bars and restaurants licensed to sell liquor by-the-glass.

From 2010 to 2015, wholesale liquor sales grew 16.6 percent, according to data from the MLCC. Some of that includes annual price increases, estimated at about 1 percent per year.

The top 100 wholesale buyers during that time bought proportionately more: The most active licenses in the state accounts for 18.74 percent growth over the last five year. They reached $23.34 million in purchases by 2015.

The numbers only show establishments licensed for on-premise consumption. Not on this list are any of the state's casinos or most hotels, which operate under another type of license. Also not a part of these numbers: Beer and wine sales, which are sold to bars and restaurants through private distributors and not via the state.

These numbers also offer no information on how many drinks were sold and the revenue or profit margin on those drinks.

However, as an indicator of where the top buyers are located and how much they are spending, the state's records can be extrapolated to presume the busiest bars for sprits in the state - given that all of this liquor was purchased to be sold by the glass.

Among Detroit's other top liquor buyers: The Coliseum (No. 2 in the state); The Penthouse Club (3) and Comerica Park (5). Others on the list include The Old Shillelagh (30) and Golden Fleece (45) in Greektown, The Sugar House in Corktown (42) and Ford Field (47).

Beyond Detroit, a glimpse into the top wholesale liquor buyers in Michigan maps the communities with reputations as entertainment destinations:

10 are found in Ann Arbor, which has two establishments in the top 25: Good Time Charleys (16) and the Last Word (21).

10 also are found in Royal Oak, which also has two in the top 25: Fifth Avenue (10) and O'Tooles Tavern (20).

7 are located in Grand Rapids. Two are in the top 25: The B.O.B. (6) and Stella's Lounge (23).

Two communities each host three of the top 100 liquor buyers: Birmingham has Market North End (37), 220 Merrill (68) and Churchill's Bistro/Cigar Bar (93); East Lansing has Harpers (17), Rick's Cafe (45) and Dublin Square (49).

Topless bars in Metro Detroit are well-represented, coming in at number 2, 3, and 4 statewide; four more are in the top 50.

Use this database to search for information on the top 100 buyers of wholesale liquor in Michigan in 2010 and 2015:

The state's top chain restaurant ranked by liquor purchases is TGI Friday's in Southfield. Bar Louie in Novi also makes the list at number 39.

Like those chains, Punch Bowl Social also has other locations: The Denver-based company operates 10 locations in multiple states. It also will open in Indianapolis, Minneapolis and a second establishment in Denver this year, Thompson said.

However, he said the competition tends to be independent-type gastro pubs, due to the menu for both craft cocktails and the kitchen that sells "elevated comfort food," Thompson said. He said his team started looking for a location to open in the city three years ago.

"It ranks pretty high for us across the company," Thompson said. "We focused on it early on. ... (It's) a culturally relevant city that w want to identify with. Detroit is one of the most unique and well-know cultures in America."

Woodward Imperial in Ferndale is number 14 on the list. It reached that level, in part, due to the 30,000 margaritas it sold in 2015.

"We have been busy for a year straight," said manager Nikki Pajakowski.

The bar has been located on Woodward Avenue for about 4 years, Pajakowski said. It sells bar food that she describes as "so cheap," and runs monthly specials.

Like most bars, it sells beer, but that's not what it wants to be known for.

"We're trying not to turn this into a craft beer bar," she said. "I try to steer away from that niche."

Besides the margaritas, priced from $7-9, tops sellers include some liquor infusions stored behind the bar. A revamped cocktail menu is planned this summer.

Not all of the top wholesale liquor buyers are open to the public: Shenandoah Country Club is typically in the top 20 statewide - and it came in number 9 in Michigan in 2015, with purchases of $359,051.

The driver of that is weddings, said Angela Keina, catering and events manager for the 1,500-member Chaldean country club in West Bloomfield.

"We do over 100 weddings a year with minimum guest counts of 400-450 guests," she said. "Last year ... was probably our record-breaking year for all of the years we've been in business."

About half of the club members upgraded to premium spirits - like Grey Goose, flavored Ciroq and Hennesy cognac. All of that would affect the wholesale purchasing total, Keina said.

So did the size of the weddings. Many went hundreds above the minimum, going up to 700 guests.

"When you get into those numbers, you have a lot of drinkers," Keina said.

Private events also drive up the numbers for Punch Bowl Social, Thompson said.

Craft cocktails are the top trend of the year at bars, said Adrian De Ceuninck of the Michigan Restaurant Association. Only some of that shows up in these rankings: some crafts spirits are sold by the state, while others are sold at small distillery operations, the MLCC said.

The data from wholesale purchases of spirits in Michigan offers a glimpse into a major business sector in this state. Some data from the Michigan Restaurant Industry:

Michigan had 15,958 places that served food and alcohol in 2014.

The state's restaurants project sales of $15.4 billion in 2016.

The restaurant industry's 421,500 jobs this year represent 11 percent of employment in Michigan.

Nationally, it's a $783 billion industry that employs 10 percent of the U.S. workforce.

Industry data also shows that as Michigan's spirits industry grows, so does the nation's. Data from the Distilled Spirits Council reported a 4 percent increase in US spirits supplier revenue in 2014, followed by a 4.1 percent increase in 2015. Overall retail sales for distilled spirits last year topped $72 million.

While craft beer is an economic driver in Michigan, the DSC reports that the market share of spirits grew in 2014 to 35.2 percent, up from 34.7 percent a year earlier. Yet beer lost market share for six straight years through 2015, according to the DSC. The market share for wine remained 17 percent.

Meanwhile, in 2015 when the state collected $175.4 million in liquor sales, about 19 percent of that went to the state's general fund. The rest of the money went to the cost of acquiring the liquor (73 percent), distributing it (6 percent) and operating the MLCC (2 percent).

Paula Gardner covers Michigan business for Mlive.com. Contact her by email or follow her on Twitter.