Unlock the secret formula to a cocktail list that not only captivates your patrons but also boosts your bar's profile! We go behind the scenes of the mixology world, revealing the art and science of curating a cocktail menu that resonates with your bar's unique ambiance and delights your clientele. From the perfect number of concoctions to feature, to the essential variety your selection must encompass, this episode serves up invaluable insights for any bar owner seeking to stir up success.
Strap in as we navigate the balance between seasonal specialties and timeless classics, ensuring your drink roster appeals across the board. We’ll dissect the importance of catering to your local demographic and the pivotal role of your bartending team's skill set. No detail is too small—from the visual appeal that beckons a share on social media to the operational flow that keeps your staff in high spirits. Whether you're a neighborhood watering hole or a swanky lounge, this episode pours out strategies to craft a cocktail list that's not just a menu, but a profitable, palate-pleasing experience. Cheers to raising the bar on your establishment's mixology mastery!
##### Welcome to the Bar Business Podcast, the ultimate resource for bar owners looking to elevate their businesses to the next level. Our podcast is packed with valuable insights, expert advice, and inspiring stories from successful bar owners and industry professionals. Tune in to learn everything from how to craft the perfect cocktail menu to how to manage your staff effectively. Our mission is to help you thrive in the competitive bar industry and achieve your business goals.
Special thank you to our benchmarking data partner Starfish. Starfish works with your bookkeeping software by using AI to help you make smart data-driven decisions and maximize your profits while giving you benchmarking data to understand how you compare to the industry at large.
Unlock the secret formula to a cocktail list that not only captivates your patrons but also boosts your bar's profile! We go behind the scenes of the mixology world, revealing the art and science of curating a cocktail menu that resonates with your bar's unique ambiance and delights your clientele. From the perfect number of concoctions to feature, to the essential variety your selection must encompass, this episode serves up invaluable insights for any bar owner seeking to stir up success.
Strap in as we navigate the balance between seasonal specialties and timeless classics, ensuring your drink roster appeals across the board. We’ll dissect the importance of catering to your local demographic and the pivotal role of your bartending team's skill set. No detail is too small—from the visual appeal that beckons a share on social media to the operational flow that keeps your staff in high spirits. Whether you're a neighborhood watering hole or a swanky lounge, this episode pours out strategies to craft a cocktail list that's not just a menu, but a profitable, palate-pleasing experience. Cheers to raising the bar on your establishment's mixology mastery!
##### Welcome to the Bar Business Podcast, the ultimate resource for bar owners looking to elevate their businesses to the next level. Our podcast is packed with valuable insights, expert advice, and inspiring stories from successful bar owners and industry professionals. Tune in to learn everything from how to craft the perfect cocktail menu to how to manage your staff effectively. Our mission is to help you thrive in the competitive bar industry and achieve your business goals.
Special thank you to our benchmarking data partner Starfish. Starfish works with your bookkeeping software by using AI to help you make smart data-driven decisions and maximize your profits while giving you benchmarking data to understand how you compare to the industry at large.
You're listening to the Bar Business Podcast where every week, your host, chris Schneider, brings you information, strategies and news on the bar industry, giving you the competitive edge you need to start working on your bar rather than in your bar.
Chris Schneider:
Welcome to this week's edition of the Bar Business Podcast, your ultimate resource for bar owners. I'm your host, chris Schneider. In today's episode, we'll be delving into building an amazing cocktail list. For those of you that remember, at the start of this year, we had an episode about five steps to pricing drinks, but we didn't really talk about what should be on your menu how to build an amazing cocktail list. Today is all about that. It really does not matter what type of bar you have.
Chris Schneider:
I think there's a misconception that neighborhood bars and dive bars what you might call lower end bars although by no means lower end businesses don't need a cocktail list. That could not be further from the truth. Every bar needs a cocktail list. The reason is that that allows you to highlight some drinks that A you know are great. B you know your staff is going to make fantastic. Every time the exact same way. C it should be drinks that you have a higher margin on. So a way to direct your guests to buy things that make you more money is by having a cocktail list. So, regardless of what type of bar you are, it's absolutely essential that you have a cocktail list. If you're a bar that has an existing cocktail list, then there's room to optimize your cocktail list. No list is ever perfect, even if you wrote it five years ago. When you review it every quarter and you use menu engineering as statistical analysis to determine what you need to do with your list, you need to improve it on a regular basis and if you are doing all those things, you know that because you're already improving it on a regular basis. Bottom line, every bar needs a list and everyone needs to work on their cocktail list.
Chris Schneider:
Hey there, bar owners, it's Chris Schneider, the bar business coach. Are you tired of the daily grind and ready to skyrocket your profits? I've got the solution. With my coaching and consulting services, we deep dive into menu management, team empowerment and business optimization Instead of slogging away in your business day in and day out, washing dishes, covering for employees and working 60 plus hours a week. Picture this a thriving business that runs like clockwork, whether you're there or not, letting you enjoy the successes that you've dreamed of. Let's make it happen. Visit barbusinesscoachcom to schedule your free 30 minute strategy session with me, or you can book a session just by clicking the link in the show notes below. Together, we will turn your business into a profit powerhouse, because at the bar business coach, our only goal is to help you spend less time working in your bar and more time working on your bar.
Chris Schneider:
So today is all about how to build out the perfect cocktail list. Not pricing, which again we covered a few weeks ago, but what to actually put on the list. And the first thing to consider is that your list needs to fit your concept. Now we talk a lot about concepts and the need for your concept to be cohesive. Everything needs to make sense to your guest. If your concept is an English pub or an Irish pub, they don't expect to see a bunch of tiki drinks right, dakarys would look odd on that cocktail list. Now, conversely, if you were somewhere warm say you had a bar in Southern California you're probably going to have more things that lean towards that light, effervescent, potentially sweet side than what you would find at a concept that was an English pub. So, whatever you do, you need to make sure it fits in with your concept. It's absolutely essential, otherwise you're going to confuse your guests and you're not going to sell cocktails. You're hurting the experience rather than making the experience better with that cocktail list. So make sure your cocktail list is absolutely 100% cohesive with everything else that you do.
Chris Schneider:
Another thing you need to do with your cocktail list is be creative. It's your bar. You have great employees, you have ideas, they have ideas. There should be a wonderful opportunity for creativity to come out on your list Original cocktails, twists on traditional cocktails All those things are great when it's on a list and it's even more wonderful when you can tell the story about how the drink was created, the process that you went through, the bartender that came up with it and how it was everyone played with it, and just the story of that cocktail, from the idea through the completed product that the guest is receiving. It's a great sales tool. Be creative, let your team have a story to sell and utilize everyone in that process. But one thing you always have to remember whenever you're being creative because I love creative ideas in bars but you have to remember your guests. If your idea is so cool, it's so different, it's so innovative that no one's gonna understand it, well then you probably don't wanna do it, but make sure that you are bringing your creativity to light while considering your guests, what they expect and what they actually want to purchase, because you can make up the craziest, most fun things in the world, but if nobody wants to buy it, it's a waste of real estate on your cocktail list, it's a waste of ingredients, it's a waste of your time.
Chris Schneider:
One of the things a lot of bar owners struggle with when it comes to creating a cocktail list is how long should the list be? And the thing is there's no real correct answer. It depends on your concept, it depends on your bartenders, it depends upon what you're doing. If you're a bar that's all about cocktails, maybe you need a list that is 50 or 100 different cocktails. But if you have that many cocktails, you need all the ingredients, you need all the garnishes, you need all the supplies to make all those cocktails and you have to train your team so that every single bartender behind your bar can make all 50 or 100 cocktails perfectly the same way every time. It's really hard to pull off if you have an extensive list, but if that's your concept, that's what you have to do.
Chris Schneider:
But for most of us, our concept is not high-end craft cocktails. We're not trying to be known for having this wide variety of cocktails on a list, so there's no reason ever to have a list that long. Now, on the flip side, if you don't have enough items on your list, there's no variety. You want people to come in and there to be not something for everyone, but you want a wide variety of options on that list. If you only have four or five cocktails, there's not much to choose from. Yes, those four or five cocktails will probably sell more, and four or five cocktails as a list is better than nothing, way better than nothing. But you really don't have the breadth of cocktails available to make sure that there is a signature cocktail on your cocktail list that will fit every guest's preference or every expected preference. So having variety is important.
Chris Schneider:
Now, the other thing that is true is that if we put too many things on our list or if our list is unorganized, as soon as you start getting into a list that's say, 12, 20, 30 items you have to consider menu anxiety. So that is something that is increasing among Gen Z. There's some studies that have shown that that have been all over in the past few weeks, and we need to consider that. Giving too many options can also be negative, because people can't just decide what they want. So we want enough options that they feel like they have a choice and there's something that fits them, but not so much it drives them crazy. And we definitely want to avoid unless it's ingrained in our concept having so many options available, so many cocktails, that it becomes very difficult to maintain the ingredients and to train our staff to be able to execute that cocktail list.
Chris Schneider:
The question then becomes what is the magic number? And I don't think there is a magic number. That is true across every bar in the world, but generally for most bars, that number is going to be between 12 and 14 cocktails. That gives you enough space to use variety in your base liquor to have a liquor forward and fruit forward drinks to have a variety of styles. That 12 to 24 range works really, really well and for most bars, frankly, I think 15 is a really good number Number. But again, it's your bar. It can be anything you want. Make sure it fits your concept and make sure that you can train your team on it. Make sure that you are giving your guests variety.
Chris Schneider:
Once we have an idea of how many cocktails we want on our cocktail list, then we need to figure out what are the different things on the list need to be. What are we actually going to put on them, and the place that I always like to start is with base spirits. So I think every good list has a variety of base spirits in the cocktails. In general, the base spirits you're going to use come down to five simple things Thaca, gin, rum, whiskey and tequila. Almost all cocktails that are popular that you see out there are going to be based on those five spirits. Now it's going to depend somewhat on where you are, because local tastes definitely play in. If you're in an area that has a big market for mezcal, then mezcal should be one of the base spirits you include on your list. If you're in, say, serbia or Croatia or Macedonia, maybe you base some cocktails off Šlívavica or other forms of Fadakia. If you're in the rest of the world, you may not even know what those things are. So regional spirits are going to play into your cocktail list. But in general, if we're just speaking in generalities, which is what we do here, vodka, gin, rum, tequila and whiskey are going to be the five base spirits you want to include on your list, and that's why I really like that 12 to 15 number, because that gives us enough space to include all of those in at least one cocktail.
Chris Schneider:
The other thing we want to make sure that we have space for on our list outside of those five base spirits is non-alcoholic drinks. We saw this year with dry January that that is a growing thing and it's not good for bars, bottom lines and you have more and more people too that just are not drinking in general. So you need to give options for those people. You need to include at least one or two non-alcoholic items in your cocktail list. So to give you an example of how this may all come together, let's say I was building a cocktail list for where I live in southern Indiana and based on regional preferences and what sells well here.
Chris Schneider:
If I was going to do a 50 item cocktail list, I'd probably look at something like four vodka cocktails, three or four whiskey cocktails, a couple rum cocktails, a couple tequila cocktails and one or two gin cocktails, and then add in two non-alcoholic cocktails at the end. So we're getting a variety across all those base spirits. We put a lot of it on vodka because vodka cocktails are what sell here. Martinis are hot right now, so that's a good place to kind of put more focus on the base liquor. We followed that up with whiskey, because southern Indiana I'm just north of Kentucky, and so there's a lot of bourbon Around here. There's a lot of people that enjoy drinking bourbon. There's also a history of moonshining here that might help people's like of whiskey, and whiskey and bourbon are a thing that you really need included on your cocktail list here.
Chris Schneider:
A couple rum cocktails, because we need something sweeter, we need something that's going to have a different flavor profile to it. A couple tequila cocktails, because even though, well, right now I doubt I could sell a rum or tequila cocktail because it's pretty cold outside, but when it's warm out, rum and tequila cocktails people like those flavors, especially in the heat of summer. And a couple gin cocktails just to, and maybe just one gin cocktail, but something to give the gin drinker something to drink. Gin is not by any means the most popular spirit around here, so one cocktail could do it, but a gin cocktail or two is going to help round that out and make sure that we've hit all of our base spirits. And then we've added in those two NA options just to make sure for our non-alcoholic drinkers, which is not as big of a movement here probably as it is some other places.
Chris Schneider:
So I don't need an extensive NA list, but I need something for those folks, the point being, think about your market, think about what sells where you are. Think about what people like to drink. If you need ideas on kind of what sells best, talk to your liquor reps. They should have all sorts of data they can provide you, whether it's hard data or anecdotal from the orders they get every week about what's moving and what's selling and what beverage categories are selling better than others in your specific area. The nice thing about using liquor reps too you can look online for kind of broad spectrum ideas of what's selling, get a decent idea of what's selling best in a state or a region. But your liquor reps generally have a small geographically focused area that they're serving, so they know hey, in this part of this city this is what's hot right now, which can be great information, because most of your guests are going to come within a few miles of you.
Chris Schneider:
Unless you're in a rural area, people are not driving that far to get to a bar and if you are out in the sticks, you still need to know what people in the sticks are drinking, and that's probably now a separate demographic that's a little bit different than the towns or cities that are around you, say 20, 30 minutes away. So talk to your liquor reps and lean on them for some information about what people in your area are buying to help you determine how to balance the base spirits you're using on your cocktail list. And once you've figured out base spirits and gotten an idea of the variety to include there because, mind you, we haven't come up with any cocktails yet We've just said, hey, I need some vodka, I need some rum, I want four vodka cocktails. That's all we've done Figured out how many and how many of each base spirit we're going to use. Now we need to look at flavors and techniques and, just like with base spirits, in our flavors and techniques we want variety.
Chris Schneider:
You don't want everything to be the same and taste the same. The only way that you're going to have a bar that doesn't have a variety of flavors and techniques is, let's say, that you were a tiki bar and you were focused solely on tiki type drinks and you're doing all rum and tequila forward based drinks that are very fruit forward. They're very sweet. It's really not about the booze in the drink, it's about the dessert that you've now made in a glass. Well then you don't need a variety of flavors and techniques on your cocktail list. But if you're anyone else, if you don't have a concept that very specifically points you in one direction, you need a variety. And I have to tell you one of the things that I see far too often, and it blows my mind, is that you'll go to a bar and they'll have a cocktail list and everything is either sweet or fruit forward or everything's liquor forward. There's these very you can tell that the bartender or the bar manager or the owner whoever wrote that list has a style of cocktail they like and they wrote the list for them. And, as we mentioned before, creativity is great. Coming up with things that you like is great. Putting things you like on the list is essential, but it's about your guests, so you need this variety.
Chris Schneider:
When it comes to a variety of flavors, I essentially break it into three categories, because we can break it into however many categories we want. There's tons of different ways to look at this, but I think three categories just simplifies it and makes life easy Lickered forward cocktails, fruit forward and sweet cocktails, and then cocktails that are herb forward or maybe cordial forward, where you're getting some different notes, maybe spices. By dividing everything up into those three categories, it kind of gives a very easy cut and dry way to view cocktail flavors and to make sure you have some balance Now within that. Generally you're gonna have way more liquor forward or fruit forward and sweet drinks than you are going to have spice forward or herb forward drinks. But there is a place for those. There's absolutely a place for those. Think about something like a gin basil smash, where the basil is really the star of the show.
Chris Schneider:
In addition to a variety of flavor, you need variety of technique, and part of the reason behind that is the show of what a bar is, and by show I mean we're providing entertainment for our guests. When people sit at a bar rail, they are watching bartenders make drinks, and if every drink that gets made is made the same way, it's just boring. It's not fun for your guests to watch. You're not putting on any kind of show for them. And it's also boring as a drinker because all the drinks are kind of the same. So have some drinks that are shaken, have some that are stirred, have some that you're doing as builds, or maybe even something that's layered, because that's gonna photograph really well. That's gonna look great when people wanna post their cocktail drinks on Instagram. So have a variety of techniques used, and one of the best part about techniques especially if you get into cocktails where you're using things like smokers or you're using those fun flavored bubble smoke things I forget what they're called they're pretty cool, but if you're using some cool tools, some cool equipment, you're doing some advanced, if you will, techniques. That's going to really create that show for your guests. That's going to give them an experience that is unique to your bar, unique to your cocktails, and it's really cool.
Chris Schneider:
The other thing that you wanna avoid, though, when we're talking about techniques of making cocktails. I remember back, probably about 15 years ago now. Mojitos became a huge thing. Everybody had all these mojitos, and I had a really good friend of mine that worked at a bar that was deep in the mojito business, and they had a list of mojitos that was as long as the list of the other cocktails they had, because mojitos were the thing that's on. Well, I'll tell you, we used to go and we would get a table because we were in college in Dix. We would get a table where he couldn't see us outside when he was bartending and we would order like two mojitos a piece for the table because it was funny and pissed him off Again. I was in college. Probably wouldn't do that nowadays because that's a total dick move.
Chris Schneider:
But you don't want a cocktail list that your bartenders hate making, because everything takes forever and everything has to be muddled and everything is difficult. Variety of technique helps with that, because, yeah, you'll probably have a cocktail or two that involves muddling, but you don't have 15 of them. You're not creating a situation where everything is difficult. Every cocktail takes two, three, four minutes for your bartender to produce, because A if they do take all three or four minutes for your bartender to produce, your bartender's production is gonna be very, very low. There's no way to optimize your business. That bartender cannot handle a rush and it's not the bartender's fault, it's your fault because of the list you made. So a variety of techniques helps avoid that issue.
Chris Schneider:
Another thing to think about when you're building your cocktail list is that it should be seasonal. Just like we talk about food menus and how seasonality can help sell things and people have different wants in summer, then in winter cocktails are no different. So you need to make sure that your cocktail list is seasonal. I would change it four times a year so that during the hot months your rum, tequila, fruit forward sweeter in general, or going effervescent, fizzy, citrus, sour, those kind of things when it's hot, and in the winter you're going liquor forward, darker things, espresso, martinis, maybe some chocolate martinis or something that's going to invoke warmth, like an Irish coffee or a hot toddy. Your cocktail list needs to fit the season you're in and there are some really cool benefits of doing that.
Chris Schneider:
One of the biggest ones is that if you have local fruit, if you're in an area that produces anything farming lyes, you may have an opportunity to work that into your cocktail. Now, if you're surrounded by a bunch of cornfields, I'm sure there's a way to make a cocktail with corn, but an easy one does not pop to mind. But if you're in an area that is known for growing specific herbs, you can work those in. If you grow specific fruits in your area, you can work those in. Maybe you're in Georgia, which is known for peaches and it's the middle of the peach harvest. So you want a cocktail that's going to utilize fresh peach juice or muddle a peach in it or in some way involve that local fruit that is in the middle of its harvest. That is a great thing to do and obviously, depending on where you are, that fruit, that herb, whatever it is that's local and fresh right now will be different.
Chris Schneider:
But when you're thinking seasonal and you can build that into your cocktail list, it's going to speak to your guests and it's going to encourage sales. You also need to think about what is the difference in the classic things people expect. So one thing I always encourage people to do when you're thinking about cocktail flavors, don't look at what bars are doing. Look at what Starbucks is doing, look at what Dunkin' Donuts is doing, look at what a lot of these places that are selling a huge number of five, six, seven, eight dollar drinks that don't even have booze in them are doing with their drinks. And that means, as much as I hate to admit it, if you're in the US in fall and your demographic drinks pumpkin spice lattes, you need a pumpkin spice something. I am not at all a fan of pumpkin spice, but in fall there is a whole culture here that we've built around pumpkin spice lattes. So, damn it, your bar should have pumpkin spice cocktails, something or another Another when we think of fall, another flavor that you see almost everywhere is mold cider. So what can you do with apple cider? That is going to make for a great cocktail that will fit that market Around.
Chris Schneider:
Christmas peppermint Everyone's running peppermint mochas, peppermint lattes, peppermint milkshakes. So can we work peppermint into a cocktail? The overall point here is when you have these giant companies and yes, they're not bars, they're not selling cocktails, but they're these giant companies that sell a lot of beverages for a high dollar, compared to going to a gas station and grabbing a drink or buying something at the grocery store. They're selling these drinks for a high dollar and they have done a huge amount of consumer research on what flavors people want. They know what works and what doesn't. They know the flavors that they need to hit each season to sell the most drinks. So look at what they're doing, because they kind of haven't figured out and their flavors can influence what you do, because you already know there's a demand for those flavors, especially when you can find a place like Starbucks.
Chris Schneider:
I have to keep using them as the example because they're the easiest example. If your demographic in Starbucks demographic is remotely the same and overlaps, then you already know they've done the research on what that demographic wants in that season. Now, conversely, let's say the demographic doesn't overlap. Okay, then don't use them for data. But anywhere where you have demographics that overlap and there are other people selling drinks for a lot of money and selling a lot of them, with national research on what should sell in a season, trust them. Look at what they're doing. Figure out ways to utilize that to have a seasonal menu that is really going to speak to your guests. If you do all of these things, it will give you a very nice, well-rounded cocktail menu. So you have to be creative. You have to involve your team in creating your cocktail list so that you have a variety of ideas. Make sure you have enough drinks on there, balance the base spirits you're using, make sure you're not playing to one flavor of technique and make what you're doing seasonal and, most of all, make sure it's cohesive with your concept. That will give you a great list.
Chris Schneider:
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Chris Schneider:
Now, quickly, here, before we go, we have to talk about. You can design the greatest list in the world, but you have to be able to execute it. An execution means you have to have the right equipment. You can't have a smoked cocktail if you don't have a way to smoke it. You have to have the right setup. Your team has to be able to have all the ingredients they need for all the different cocktails at their fingertips, so these don't increase your service times amazingly, which means if you don't want to have five cocktail trays sitting around your bartender, then you need to make sure that all your cocktails have similar garnishes. You don't want a different fruit that goes on each thing, let alone the cost in the setup and the difficulty that gives the bartender, you also have the problem of the fact that your garnishes are going to go bad. You're going to have food waste. It's just not smart. So make sure you have the right setup. Make sure that you're using the right ingredients, that your team has access to everything and that you've mitigated the chances of ingredients going bad. You also have to make sure you have the right team.
Chris Schneider:
When I say the right team, a lot of this is concept based at the end of the day, but I cannot take a 50 item, fantastic, killer, high end mixology cocktail list and put it in a neighborhood bar. And the reason I can't do that is because the folks that work in neighborhood bars are not high end mixologists. I mean, they might be, but in general they're not. So that team, no matter how much I trained them, no matter how much I beat it in their head, maybe after some months I could build up to something like that, but that team, if I just throw a 50 item cocktail list in front of them, will never be able to execute it. So make sure your list fits not only your concept but your team, because if you don't have the right team to execute what you're trying to do, you can beat your head against the wall all day long and it's not going to make a difference. It's not going to execute properly, period end of story.
Chris Schneider:
The other thing you need, even if you have the right team, is the right training. Nothing is going to work when it comes to a cocktail list unless you train your folks properly, and that means that every bartender makes every cocktail on the list the exact same way every time and doesn't need to spend time looking it up. It is absolute consistency across your product all day, every day, regardless of who's working. What is a training goal? Every time? We're talking about food or cocktails. So that means you need to put in place training for them. You need to put in place reference materials for them so that they can look up these cocktails when they need to. Hopefully, that's not a lot, but everyone forgets things sometimes. You're going to have to provide reference materials and you're going to have to train not once, probably not twice, probably three or more times, because you need to do this training not until they get it right once, not until they get it right five times, until they cannot get it wrong. Otherwise, you will not have a consistent product.
Chris Schneider:
So make sure you're training your team and we've talked about this before, but just very briefly, the training method I always like to use is tell, show, do, review. So tell them about the cocktail, tell them about the ingredients, tell them how it's made. Then show them how to do it, step by step, every little thing how your face should smile when you shake the shaker Every detail. Show it to them and have them do it. So have them do it, and not once again, have them do it multiple times so that that muscle memory starts to build, but have them make the cocktails themselves and then review, go over all the steps again, go into detail again, just like you told them the process at the beginning, review the process at the end and then follow that up a week later, two weeks later, with testing on cocktails, with making sure the cocktails are right when they pour, when they're starting to make these cocktails. Make sure that you're keeping an eye out, watching how they're building the cocktail so that you can correct any issues that exist, because our absolute goal on training when it comes to a cocktail list is that every cocktail that a guest gets, regardless of time of day, who's behind the bar or anything else, is 100% consistent.
Chris Schneider:
The last piece to think about when you're executing your menu is you have to present your menu to your guests. One thing I see a lot of bars do that I absolutely think is the wrong way to go is to include their cocktail list on the same document that is their food menu. The reason I don't like that is I don't want to have to reprint my food menu if I change a cocktail Now. If you're using some sort of menu sleeve or a board where you can switch out the piece of paper that is the cocktail list without having to switch out the food, that's perfect, but don't print it all on one paper that you're spending money to have the menus printed and if you have to change a cocktail now, you have to reprint all your food menus too. It will save you money in the long run rather than have one menu with everything, to have different menus that have different things.
Chris Schneider:
Let me give you a few final thoughts before we wrap up for today's episode. Everyone, every bar, needs a cocktail list. You need one that are going to drive people in the door, give them variety, give them things to take pictures of and post on the internet, but you also need a cocktail list that will drive people to purchase the items on your menu that have the best margin, so that you can profit and put the most money possible in your pocket, because that is the goal of owning a bar. That cocktail list needs variety. It needs to have enough items, it needs to have a variety of flavors, it needs to have a variety of techniques, it needs to be interesting to different people. And the last thought for today, one of the big key takeaways from this episode that I hope you got your list is only as good as your ability to execute. So make that list, have that variety, then absolutely make sure your team is executing it, and that sets you on a pathway for profitability and success. So that wraps us up for today.
Chris Schneider:
If you enjoyed today's insights, make sure to like, subscribe and leave a review. Really appreciate it when you guys do that. It warms my heart to see some of the good things that get said about this podcast. If you want to gain more insights, join our Bar Business Station Facebook group. It is a great community. You have conversations with me, other bar owners there are some great ones going on there. You can also schedule a free strategy session with me to explore how we can collaborate to optimize your success. You can find links for both the Bar Business Station Facebook group and a schedule a strategy session in the show notes below. Until next time, I hope you guys have a great day and we will talk again later.
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