PLUGGING PROFIT DRAINS

DON'T THROW GOOD money after bad. That’s essentially what happens if your bar operates without quality control procedures in place. Waste, spillage and customer dissatisfaction are certain to be high. If sustaining profitability is an ongoing challenge, perhaps you’re being nickled and dimed into submission.

Examples behind the bar abound. Consider a bartender that fails to check the freshness of whipped cream, proceeds to add a dollop on top of a specialty cocktail only to have the drink returned as bad. The same outcome is to be expected when a bartender pours Baileys Irish Cream into a mug full of stale, overly acidic coffee. In both cases, inventory is wasted and customers leave with a bad taste in their mouth.

The financial impact of spoilage is steep and needs to be held in check. Fruit garnishes should be prepared on a daily basis and only just enough to meet that shift’s needs. Likewise, the staff should routinely taste-test the bar’s juices for freshness. Bars that don’t serve many juice-based drinks would likely benefit from purchasing 3-ounce cans of juice rather than the larger containers. Not only will the move improve drink quality, eliminating
losses due to waste and spillage is typically sufficient to offset the smaller container’s higher cost per ounce.

Drink mixes also need to be regularly checked to ensure they’re performance ready, meaning that the Bloody Mix is vibrant and fresh and the lemon sour mix hasn’t turned cloudy or bitter. The same holds true for verifying that the post-mix system’s brix levels and carbonation are routinely monitored. Regardless of the quality of the rum used, a Cuba Libre prepared with flat or overly sweet cola is going to be returned.

In a business where you’re only as good as the last drink you served, there’s little room for error.

 

 

REMOTE PROFIT CENTERS

ON BUSY NIGHTS you often wind up leaving money on the table in the form of lost sales. Despite how quickly your bartenders work, there comes a point where their sales capacity hits maximum. Even were they to stop talking to guests and strap skates to their shoes, there’s a limit to how many drinks a bartender can make.

Years ago that realization gave rise to on-premise operators creating remote profit centers. It’s a three-dollar term for beer tubs and portable bars set-up on patios or lightly trafficked areas in the front of the house to expand an operation’s sales capacity. Were they effective at driving sales? Absolutely.

So what happened? Why aren’t revenue-starved operators relying on this type of beverage outlet to boost their flagging sales? Well, what likely derailed the concept is remote venues invariably look tacky, ill conceived and clash with the existing decor and ambiance. Unless your nightclub has sawdust on the floor and a
mechanical bull by the bar, horse troughs filled with iced down beer bottles look a tad out of place. The same holds true for having bartenders make drinks behind folding tables or portable wood paneled bars. Other than in a banquet hall, it’s hard to imagine an interior design in which they’d look right at home.

Smart Space Products of New York City believes they’ve melded form with function and created a viable alternative. Smart Bars are sleek, attractive and designed for high-volume professional bartending. They’re easy to set-up and breakdown and constructed of unbreakable plexiglas and a durable, lightweight metal framework.

An ultra-cool feature of the Smart Bar is the built-in LED lighting with remote control color selection, just the thing to set the right mood and look for an event. The backlit plexiglas can be customized with logos, brand images or photographs. Depending on the options selected, Smart Bars range in cost from about $2000 to $4000.

SmartSpaceProducts.com.

KEEPING YOUR SUDS LIVELY

WE'RE A COUNTRY that takes draft beer seriously, which is why it’s one of the cornerstones of the on-premise industry. Draft beer is pure, fresh and unadulterated, barreled in its natural state exactly as the brew master intended. Although it’s typically sold at some of the highest margins in the house, actually realizing that profit is an on-going challenge.

One operational culprit is carbonation. If there’s too much carbonation in the feed line the beer will gush and turn foamy, which greatly reduces the yield per keg. Too little carbonation and the beer will be flat and taste lifeless.

NuCO2 of Stuart, Florida is the only national provider of certified beverage-grade carbon dioxide and draft-grade nitrogen gas solutions. The company’s new XactBev System is designed to optimize draft beer delivery systems through the use of on-site cryogenic storage tanks. The technology offers consistent quality, greater ease of operation and heightened efficiency.

Welcome the 21st century way of making bubbles. Learn more at NuCo2.com.

 

BLOODY GREAT MARYS

ALTHOUGH NOT YET a household name, America’s bartenders consider Demitri Pallis the King of the Bloody Mary. More than 20 years ago, he devised and bottled an all-natural blend of 14 herbs and spices capable of transforming plain tomato juice into an exuberant, altogether delicious Bloody Mary.

For an industry in which drink consistency is paramount, Demitri’s All Natural Bloody Mary Seasoning became the accepted alternative to building Marys from scratch. Fortunately for us, the inexhaustible Pallis is not one to leave well enough alone. He eventually decided to bottle two other all-world, all-natural seasonings — Demitri’s Extra Horseradish and Demitri’s Chilies and Peppers.

Wouldn’t you know it? The Bloody Mary King has done it again. His newest sensations are Demitri’s Chipotle-Habañero Bloody Mary Seasoning and RimShot Bacon-Flavored Rimming Salt.

If you’re looking to elevate your Bloody Marys into the spectacular range, venture to Demitris.com and the rest is a foregone conclusion.