How to Choose an iPad Wine Menu Solution for Your Restaurant

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By now you’re hearing about iPad wine lists or iPad drink menus popping up at restaurants around the world.  There’s a large number of solutions out there to choose from and finding the right solution for your restaurant can be difficult.  Here I’ve broken down some of the top considerations for you to think about when evaluating tablet menus for your restaurant. Read more

5 Thanksgiving Cocktails to Sweeten Your Prix Fixe

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Thank goodness for Thanksgiving! This is the time of year when the weather starts trapping us inside for the winter months, so we clean the house obsessively, cook complex dishes for days on end, and get together with our families to yell at each other!

Hmmm. Wait. Scratch that. This is really the time of year that we decide to ditch time-consuming food efforts and go out to eat at your restaurant. (Thank goodness for you!)

In order to make us feel better about abandoning our families for the official start to the holiday season, how about you include some simple and affordable cocktails on your holiday menu. Here are five great Thanksgiving cocktails to sweeten up your prix fixe menu (and increase your margins) this year.  Read more

Make More Money by Giving Recipes Away

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Here’s a novel idea to make more money: Give things away. I know I’ve talked before about getting more customers with free samples of food, but now I’m going to suggest that you actually let go of your restaurant or bar’s life blood. I want you to give away your recipes. Read more to learn why holding tightly on to your recipes may be hurting your business.

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Deliciously Scary: Becoming a Haunted Restaurant or Bar

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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.

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Lager Loving Ladies and You

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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

Spring Cocktail Trends 2017

The Cocktail Menu Fight for Fundamentals (Part 2 of 2)

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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. 

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Pricing Cocktail Menu

The Cocktail Menu Argument for Avant Garde (Part 1 of 2)

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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.

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Stop Bottling It Up! 3 Reasons Why Beer Cans Are Better

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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.

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Restaurant Simplicity Part 3: Dangerous Decor

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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.

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3 Wine Tips to Keep Customers Coming Back

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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.

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