On the importance of drink menus
This study of beverage trends from the On the House blog of people who consume alcohol at chain restaurants states loudly and clearly what I try to tell owners of new restaurants. Drink menus are essential, influential, and should not be ignored.
Right now one of the biggest trends in all of bars, clubs, restaurants, and even retail space is to make use of their down-time. The club Temple serves dinner on the dancefloor before the club opens at night. Roe has launched and aggressive dinner programs. Art galleries like 111 Minna serve beer and wine and host club nights. Bars like Harlot are serving food or giving out free snacks to keep people from leaving to go to dinner. Restaurants are hiring DJs and staying open later to catch more customers. And a sure fire way to get them in before dinner time and after meal time is to create a kick-ass cocktail menu served at happy hour.
Anyway, I just want every food and booze venue to have a great cocktail menu. It's better for everybody.
The large majority of consumers (75%) said that they take the time to read drink menus and 25% of people identified drink menus as what most influences their purchasing decisions. Over 70% of consumers said that the drink descriptions are most influential, 47% were swayed by pictures of the drinks, while 41% were influenced by drinks listing brand names. These findings suggest that bar menus are a must, and that spirit branding, colorful pictures and well-written drink descriptions positive sales drivers.I often call up new restaurants to ask them who did their drink menu (as I'm not really interested in food). Too often they say, "Oh, it was a collaboration." Right- between you and Mr. Boston.
Industry wide beverage sales average around 25% of revenue, while at the same time account for over 50% of average gross profits.Luckily, many people do understand this (at least in San Francisco), which is why bartenders from Range and Bourbon & Branch are launching the cocktail programs all over the city. I am always happy to hear a name I recognize from another bar as the person who developed the cocktail menu for a new one.
Right now one of the biggest trends in all of bars, clubs, restaurants, and even retail space is to make use of their down-time. The club Temple serves dinner on the dancefloor before the club opens at night. Roe has launched and aggressive dinner programs. Art galleries like 111 Minna serve beer and wine and host club nights. Bars like Harlot are serving food or giving out free snacks to keep people from leaving to go to dinner. Restaurants are hiring DJs and staying open later to catch more customers. And a sure fire way to get them in before dinner time and after meal time is to create a kick-ass cocktail menu served at happy hour.
Anyway, I just want every food and booze venue to have a great cocktail menu. It's better for everybody.
posted by camper at 11:59 AM
8 Comments:
It's one thing to hire a consultant to create an appealing drink menu.
It's another to be committed to running a successful and profitable cocktail program.
Too often, with restaurants especially, the items on the cocktail menu seem appealing but they fall down on execution.
We're lucky in San Francisco to have restaurants like Range, Nopa, Presidio Social Club, and Slanted Door, with well conceived and well run drink programs. Not to mention bars like Alembic, with tasty, if somewhat expensive, food options.
But, there are plenty of upscale and well regarded restaurants in the city where it is better to stick with the beer than to chance a cocktail.
True that! Usually you can tell which ones they are because they still have cosmopolitans and mojitos on the menu.
When fine dining restaurants hire cocktail consultants they often hire them to develop the menu, to do the initial staff training, then to come back for quality assurance for a specified amount of time. That should be the standard package rather than just developing a menu.
As I also live in San Francisco, I'm curious as to which restaurants have drink menus designed by which bars. Though my foggy memory is telling me you might have already gone over this, so maybe you can just point me in that direction.
Let's see- the new restaurant at 9th and Irving will be done by 3 guys from Range/Bourbon and Branch, Carlos Yturria did Grand Pu Bah, He and Domenic Venegas did the relaunch at Bacar, Camber Lay (Range) did Laiola though she's no longer there, Thomas Waugh(Range) moved over to Alembic. Neyah White (NOPA) I think was at B&B for a little while. Those are just a few off the top of my head.
Jordan MmmKay did a nice write-up of this in 7X7:
http://www.7x7sf.com/eat_drink/featured_drinks/8610367.html
Might you have more info on the resturaunt opening on 9th and Irving? I'm in the hood a fair bit and haven't seen any indications of a new place opening, and the idea of a place opening with cocktails from Range/B&B folks is sending my booze glands into overdrive.
I think you're referring to the new Pacific Catch location at 9th and Lincoln. Oh, hey, it looks like it is open already. I don't know much about the bar program aside from what I've read on Tablehopper. I think Marcia G. had mentioned a star studded bar staff were going to be responsible.
Further...
Uh, uck, it appears they don't currently have a full bar license. All the cocktails are made with Soju:
Drink Menu
Sorry to post again. It appears that Pacific Catch may not be open yet. I think the menus on the website are just placeholders cut and pasted from the Corte Madeira location. The restaurant in that location before had a full bar menu, so I'll assume that the new Pacific Catch location should have one as well, when it opens.
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