Halloween is upon us, and not only are ghostly stories all around you, the bars and restaurants that profit off of those tales are everywhere too. Jealous of all the action that your haunted competitors have at this time of year? Here’s how you can leverage your own spooky history to become an acclaimed haunted place.
Last week, an event took place here in Chicago named “She’s Crafty: Women in Craft Beer” and while I couldn’t attend, the existence of such an event again points to the ongoing and increasing trend of women drinking and enjoying craft beer in the US. Any number of polls will show that beer-drinking is up across the board in the US, but what is less well-reported is how many of those drinkers are women.
So, what can restaurateurs and brewers do to take advantage of this trend? Read more
We recently talked about the current debate that’s been insidiously sweeping the cocktail world for a few years now. Namely: Should your cocktail menu be complex and creative…or tried and true? Our earlier post suggested tips to make your craft cocktail menu a success, but this article weighs in on the other side. Here are some tips to make your cocktails both simple and alluring.
Are you looking to upgrade your restaurant’s cocktail menu? Drinks menus these days must place themselves solidly on one side of today’s controversial quaffing question: Should your cocktails be complex and creative… or should they be tried and true? If you’re planning to join the mixologists by creating a cutting-edge cocktail menu, here are some tips that will help you get started.
The day has finally arrived when it’s cooler to serve beers in cans than in bottles. Hallelujah! Lots of popular new breweries are choosing to save money by canning their beers instead of bottling them, so now is the time to add beer cans to your menu. These days, you’ll have a lot more to offer than Pabst Blue Ribbon or Bud Light. If your restaurant is still serving only bottled or draft beers, these three reasons should convince you to add beer cans to your menu.
We’ve talked about restaurant simplicity for the past few weeks here on the Uncorkd blog. Having talked about your menu and your plating, we’re going to wrap up by discussing your decor. Today, we’re talking about how too much decor can be a bad thing. Read on to hear about why over-decorating makes your guests nervous, and to learn why you should reconsider those busy walls.
Tell me if you’ve experienced this scenario: You have a table that looks at the wine list and is clearly confused. When you ask them what they want to drink, they look flustered and they order a wine, but it seems their choice is random. When they taste the wine, they really seem to like it. They compliment the wine, say they’re excited to try more on the wine list… and never return. Here are three tips to get those wine-newbie guests to come back again and again.
After your guests have ordered their meals, their second impression of your restaurant will come from how their meal is served. We’ve talked a lot about customer service on this blog, but this isn’t about customer service, it’s about plating. Here’s why plating matters much more in your restaurant than you’ve previously suspected.
It is a fact that running a restaurant or bar has become too complex. In fact, it’s not just restaurants and bars, it’s everything. Work hours are longer for everyone, the cost of leisure activities are more expensive for everyone, the pile of obstacles that we face when trying to accomplish tasks just grows higher every single day—and every day of our lives, we have to prepare ourselves for a battle or a sacrifice. It’s time for all that stress to stop. This three-part series explores how you can make your restaurant or bar a calm oasis for your guests to escape the hectic difficulties of life. The first thing you should simplify is your menu—here’s how to do that. Read more
Ambiance is the defining feature of your restaurant, but it can also box your restaurant into a certain category in your customers’ minds. Are you a casual “beer with friends” restaurant? Are you an “anniversary celebration” restaurant? Not only do these restaurant ambiance classifications limit your customer base, they also cut down on your sales. There’s no reason you should purposefully hurt your restaurant revenues, so today’s post discusses how you can create a “one size fits all” ambiance to bring in every type of customer for every kind of occasion.