Not Every Food Establishment Should Offer Craft Cocktails

Not Every Food Establishment Should Offer Craft Cocktails

by | Aug 12, 2016 | IndiNews

The craft cocktail event horizon has long passed. The truth is that craft cocktails are no longer a new thing. We’ve reached a point where customers expect virtually every restaurant and bar to understand their obligation for offering the drinks, even if it isn’t their main selling point. And that’s a problem. Creating a craft cocktail list and keeping up with it night after night is far trickier than many people think.

Part of the issue lies in the fact that mixing a drink and doing it well is a complicated process. This especially rings true when the server is trying to throw together a dozen different concoctions in just a few minutes to keep bar goers happy. The number of bartenders who can juggle all that at once is blatantly insufficient for the demand.

The truth is that craft cocktails are no longer a new thing.

In addition, numerous establishments that have attempted to implement an ambitious cocktail menu in the past are ultimately forced to return to offering their regular drinks. It’s unrealistic to assume that every 20-something with a few months of hospitality experience can be taught how to make a proper craft cocktail.

More so than execution, however, what trips up restaurants and bars the most is the planning. Given the wide variety of craft cocktails that already exist, it stands to reason that there are literally billions of potential combinations for various ingredients. So it should come as no surprise that many of those cocktails taste quite terrible. Because of this, there are actually fewer combination possibilities that are worth exploring. To top it off, the majority of the great cocktails have already been created and named.

That doesn’t mean an establishment should not experiment and see what they can come up with. Just because most have been done, what’s to say the next great cocktail invention isn’t right around the corner? Restaurants and bars would have a far smaller drink lineup without that experimentation. At the same time, it also doesn’t mean that every business should be trying to create something patrons have never seen before.

The reality is that an increasing number of customers are demanding what used to be a novelty everywhere they go, and it doesn’t matter where they are.

Not all restaurants should attempt to reinvent the wheel when exploring its food options. The same holds true with bars and the drinks they offer.

Despite all of this, the reality is that an increasing number of customers are demanding what used to be a novelty everywhere they go, and it doesn’t matter where they are. Whiskey drinkers are no longer content to stick with a well-made Manhattan. Even diners at Asian restaurants are asking to see a craft cocktail menu, even if the establishment doesn’t have one.

That’s taking it a bit too far.

The unfair assumption that craft cocktails are served anywhere drinks are available damages everyone in the hospitality business. Restaurants and bars can’t please those customers who demand they comply with their unreasonable expectations. Patrons may not be able to guess whether or not a specialty cocktail will actually taste any good. And genuine craft cocktail bars are forced to watch their products become lost in the shuffle.

When someone wants to try something exotic, they will make it a point to find a bar that already has a creative drink on their menu.

Everyone loves to try a creative food or drink once in a while when they go out to eat. But most of us are reasonable enough not to expect every pizza place to have its own unique topping combination. Many people would balk if a restaurant tried something creative with fried chicken. So why should cocktails be any different?

Not all establishments should feel the need to give in to the pressure of coming up with something new – because truth be told, classic combinations are perfectly fine just as they are for the majority of the population most of the time. When someone wants to try something exotic, they will make it a point to find a bar that already has a creative drink on their menu. Let them have their moment, and they’ll return soon enough.

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20 Golden Rules for Bartenders

20 Golden Rules for Bartenders

by | Aug 10, 2016 | Career

It is hard to come up with a single, specific and detailed list of instructions for bartenders that teaches each how to be a good bartender. However, here are 21 golden rules for bartenders that can help advance your career. Find out what a good bartender does and does not do by following these tips:

  • Do all that you can to make your bar patrons and guests happy within the specified boundaries of your employer. This will increase the likelihood of happier customers and better tips.
  • Be mindful of the fact that this is not your bar, your party, nor your booze. Respect that someone else is paying for the supplies you use and do not waste anything.
  • Dress like a pro, because you are repeatedly seen by virtually every customer who walks into the party or restaurant. Present yourself as a well-groomed professional.
  • Understand the types of alcohol that you serve. Study up on the various brands and their qualities, because your customers will have questions about it from time to time.
  • Practice the small details associated with cocktail making. These are the details that can separate the amateurs from the professionals.
  • Keep your money neat. This demonstrates to your customers and employers that you are well-organized and on top of their cash.

Study up on the various brands and their qualities, because your customers will have questions about it from time to time.

  • Sometimes, you will receive a small tip. This is the nature of the business. Don’t sweat it.
  • If you allow clientele to run your establishment, you will never regain control. Be in charge with a friendly, yet authoritative tone. Your customers will respect you for it.
  • Learn why and how to give out comps, because these can be real problem solvers when other things don’t work. Your customers will love you for them.
  • Anticipate what the customer wants before he or she asks. Refilling a glass, replacing a coaster or emptying a full ashtray are the types of small touches that the customer appreciates.
  • Control the bar environment. Is the music too loud? How is the temperature? Your customers’ comfort is proportional to how they will rate their experiences in your bar.
  • Branch out. It is important for a bartender to work continually to gain additional bartender skills because it helps keep customers interested.

If you allow clientele to run your establishment, you will never regain control.

  • Learn some jokes. Read the papers to learn some banter. People tip for your service. Be amiable, because these are valuable skills that will set you apart from other bartenders.
  • Keep your bar spotless. Face bottles forward. Keep the bar top clean, because this leaves a lasting impression that will impress the customers and show them your dedication to the job.
  • Use both hands as you work, because this will help you pick up speed as you mix drinks. Bartenders learn to become ambidextrous.
  • Mise en place is a French phrase describing how one arranges tools and ingredients. Do the same thing each time you set up because it will help you stay organized.
  • Always be seen washing your hands. Do not touch your face or hair. Be cool. Don’t be untidy, because these are the types of things that drive customers away.
  • Converse with customers. Greet them when they enter the bar area, and good-bye when they depart.  Find out how they are doing. This is exactly what customers expect from a bartender and will result in more loyalty from the customers and better tips.

Arranges tools and ingredients each time you set up because it will help you stay organized.

  • Refrain from offering advice, and resist the urge to dominate conversations, because you are here to serve your customers. Everything should be about your customers and not about yourself.
  • People expect a lot from their bartenders. Be careful about which aspects of yourself you choose to present at a given moment and select your conversational material carefully. No customer wants to know about that mole you just had removed from your ear lobe. Keep the conversation light, interesting and friendly.

Looking for bartender positions? Check out Sirvo for great opportunities! 

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3 Reasons To Have Your Restaurant’s Water Tested

3 Reasons To Have Your Restaurant’s Water Tested

by | Aug 8, 2016 | Management

As a business owner, your to-do list never ends. You wear a lot of hats, you keep balls in the air and your plate is always full. From managing your team to ensuring your patrons and guests are always having a positive experience, the quality of your establishment’s water is probably the last thing on your mind. Yet the toxins and harmful substances found in public water might surprise you. Courtesy of Restaurant Hospitality, here are three reasons why it makes sense to test the water in your facilities.

Your building might contain old lead pipes

Many of us have been conditioned to believe lead is a thing of the past. Over the years, lead has been removed from substances like paint, but unfortunately, we still have to worry about it showing up in our water due to old lead pipes that weren’t regulated until after the 1980s. Unless you’re a plumber, you’ll never know whether or not your pipes have lead in them, which is why testing your water for lead is crucial.

We still have to worry about lead showing up in our water due to old lead pipes that weren’t regulated until after the 1980s.

Lead is one of the most harmful chemicals found in water, especially for children who might be drinking it. The only way to eliminate lead from water is to filter it out. While some people believe that boiling water is the best way to get rid of lead in water, this is actually a myth. Boiling water actually causes lead particles to “loosen up,” making the water even more contaminated than before.

 Your local utility company can only test so much

Lead is a problem local utility companies can’t solve, either. While local utility companies test for contaminants at their facility, there’s not much they can do once the water is flowing through your pipes. Because every plumbing system is different, testing for lead is a difficult thing to regulate and measure from a community- or city-wide perspective.

Most water contamination occurs in private plumbing systems or service lines supplying your facility.

While local utilities work hard to ensure the water leaving their facility is safe, your facility’s’ plumbing system is like the Wild West. Most water contamination occurs in private plumbing systems or service lines supplying your facility, meaning that even if you have cleaner-than-average city water, your personal water could still be at risk.

Your customers care about the water quality

According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans are increasingly worried about polluted drinking water. The percentage of concerned citizens grew from 55 percent in 2015, to 61 percent in 2016. Give your customers peace of mind by ensuring the water they drink from your tap, water fountain or kitchen is clean. That extends to your soda and ice machines.

Testing your water to keep it free of contaminants like lead and arsenic is an important step that will increase trust and build a better relationship between you and your customers.

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10 Steps To A Great Restaurant Newsletter

10 Steps To A Great Restaurant Newsletter

by | Aug 5, 2016 | Business Toolkit, Management

Not only does the food you prepare bring in the customers but the environment and atmosphere in which you offer it. Giving your customers a sense of what awaits them begins long before your restaurant newsletter arrives in their email. Your newsletter expresses who you are and what you have to offer. It builds on existing relationships to create new ones. To make sure you do everything right, here are 10 Steps to creating a great restaurant newsletter.

Offer Great Customer Service

Perhaps you have unlimited funds to create a beautiful environment — but even a small, casual restaurant can provide a wonderful experience. Service is key. Friendly, professional, hard-working staff who serve the correct items in an appropriate time-frame let customers know you care about them. Building relationships with customers through simple techniques like calling them by name is key.

Create Your List

Who will receive your newsletter? Your customers who love you! Provide a way for customers to join your email newsletter list. All serving staff should speak about the newsletter after a customer has enjoyed a delicious meal and good experience in the restaurant. Let them know its purpose: providing a weekly menu of specials? Offering coupons and other incentives?

Learn how to take beautiful photos of the foods you offer or find an employee who has a good eye.

Use Photos

Photos are the way to tantalize your customers with Food, Food, Food when you can’t lure them in with the sight and aroma of an actual dish. Learn how to take beautiful photos of the foods you offer or find an employee who has a good eye. Build a photo library of your own foods to use in newsletters.

Plan It Out

Invest planning time into your newsletter. Think about what is most important to communicate and how you can frame it. Create a visually appealing template. If you can’t afford a designer, there are lots of email services out there nowadays that offer help and templates (we use Mailchimp).

Customers want to know what delicious food you’re going to offer them when they visit in response to your newsletter reminder.

Be sure your plan is for something that is easy to digest (no pun intended) and keeps the focus on what’s most important. Also, keep it simple; you don’t have to put everything into this newsletter — save some for the next one. Last but not least, you want to be consistent in frequency, so when you’re planning, keep this in mind!

Be Present On Social Media

Connect your newsletter to your accounts on social media that your customers use – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and more. Provide links to these accounts in every newsletter. Post pictures and company updates to keep in touch with your customers and let them know if there’s anything coming up.

Listen To Your Clients

Be client-centered in your newsletter. What do your customers want to know? They want to know what delicious food you’re going to offer them when they visit in response to your newsletter reminder. Customers look for both familiarity and variety. Your regular, fixed menu offers them familiarity. Specials and Items of the Day offer them variety.

Make sure to share something new each time – a program, a new service or a new award – to make each newsletter unique.

You don’t need to repeat your whole fixed menu in each newsletter. You can summarize it, sometimes pick a dish to highlight. Be specific, though, about Specials and Items of the Day, and whenever possible, include mouth-watering photos.

Provide Boilerplate Information

Your address, phone number, website, email address, links to your social media accounts and hours – make sure they are there and are easy to find. Awards or special mentions? List them. Great Yelp reviews? Provide a link. Make it easy for people to find out more about you and to get in touch.

Make Each Newsletter Unique

Yes, the boilerplate information is important, but this is a “news” letter! If you said the same thing to a friend every time you connected with them, you probably wouldn’t be friends for long. Be sure you share something new each time — a program or special event, a new service or an upgrade, a thought about your food or an experience in the restaurant, a featured staff person or customer, a new award.

This is a “news” letter!

Provide A Call To Action

What do you want people to do in response to this newsletter? Share it with three other people? Bring a friend to dinner? Order lunch for an office? Come to the restaurant during a particular week or for an event? Be specific, and offer an incentive.

If your newsletter is honest, informative, attractive and easy to take in, if it reminds your customers how much they like your food and how much they enjoy visiting you, it will be a great success.

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Cost of Living and Restaurant Industry Wages in Metro Areas

Cost of Living and Restaurant Industry Wages in Metro Areas

by | Aug 3, 2016 | Career

Restaurant industry workers face a fundamental industry conundrum. The highest number of restaurant jobs, as well as the best-paying jobs, are in the main metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, these major metro areas are also the most expensive places to live, so the higher wages and better tips tend to be immediately offset by the cost of housing.

New York has long been the poster child for this conundrum. The greater metro area, which includes parts of New Jersey, employs the largest amount of chefs and head cooks in the country. The rate of industry employment is almost double that of the Los Angeles metro area, which is number two on the list.

The higher wages and better tips tend to be immediately offset by the cost of housing.

Of course, the problem here is that New York City is also one of the most expensive places to live in the world. Both entry-level and managerial workers enjoy a higher average salary than most of the rest of the country, but it’s largely offset by the cost of housing alone. Los Angeles faces a similar problem.

The traditional solution to this conundrum has been to commute, trading some extra time each work day for lower housing costs in a more remote suburban area. That isn’t always possible anymore, however. Take San Francisco as an example. The city recently edged out New York for the first time as the most expensive place to live in America.

The rapid growth of the tech and finance industries there has elevated the cost of living.

The San Francisco metro area is one of the top ten largest employers of restaurant industry workers in the country, and the traditional solution for lower to mid-level industry workers there was to live in Oakland or other East Bay cities with a reasonable commute time and a much lower cost of living.

The rapid growth of the tech and finance industries there has elevated the cost of living throughout the Bay Area as a whole to the point that there’s no relief to be found within about 50 miles in any direction from the city. The median wage for cooks and head chefs of $49,290 seems nice at first but quickly fades in appeal when average apartment rentals run in the range of $3,000 to $4,000 per month.

Metro areas away from the coasts still offer a desirable quality of life with good wages and a reasonable cost of living.

That doesn’t mean that every major metro area in the country functions this way, however. This is a phenomenon largely limited to the coastal cities, particularly the West Coast given the temperate weather all year. Metro areas away from the coasts still offer a desirable quality of life combined with good wages and a reasonable cost of living.

Las Vegas is perhaps the foremost example. Despite being geographically smaller than many metro areas, the region employs the third highest amount of restaurant workers in the country yet has a very moderate cost of living.

Despite being geographically smaller than many metro areas, Las Vegas employs the third highest amount of restaurant workers in the country.

Las Vegas cooks and head chefs also have a median annual wage of $52,330, which is significantly higher than much of the country. Other examples of good mean wages for chefs in cities with an affordable cost of living include Houston, Sacramento, Denver, Colorado Springs, Sioux City, Lincoln, Jackson, Lansing and Jacksonville.

Surprisingly high wages can also sometimes be found in more rural, non-metropolitan areas. Central Louisiana, East Arkansas, East Kentucky and both Northeast and Southwest Wyoming all have some of the country’s highest mean wages for restaurant industry workers, though naturally these jobs will not be as plentiful as they are in densely populated cities.

The greatest number of jobs are found in Washington D.C., Chicago, Boston and San Diego, all cities that have established issues with affordable housing.

The top ten cities that have the most jobs for restaurant workers do tend to be expensive places more often than not. In addition to the cities already mentioned, the greatest amount of jobs are found in Washington D.C., Chicago, Boston and San Diego, all cities that have established issues with affordable housing. Only Atlanta at #8 begins to approach the more affordable major metro areas of the country.

These are just the absolute biggest destinations, however. With an estimated 14.4 million jobs in the industry in the country as a whole, there’s definitely a place somewhere for everyone who wants to work. And, if you’re looking, Sirvo has great job opportunities available now!

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