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Saving Time in One Part of Drink-Making Without Sacrificing Quality
In an age in which proper drink-making and attention to mixology
rightly have returned the fore, patrons are enjoying, and expecting, a
higher grade of cocktail experience on premise. But one challenge for
bartenders and management is to find ways to speed the process without
sacrificing quality.
Muddling mint leaves for Mojitos takes time. But for anyone
insistent on making or drinking one, it’s not an area where skimping is
allowed. However, especially in establishments where the Mojito or
another cocktail is a high-volume signature, batching the other
ingredients is a compromise that often works.
Another area in which lots of product can be prepped very quickly
for drinks is in cutting, slicing and wedging fruit and vegetables.
Whether for garnishes or for use in the drink itself, in the past,
cutting fresh fruit within a relatively short time frame before serving
the drink has consumed many cumulative man hours — and hacked quite a
few fingers in the process. Thankfully, someone’s always intent on
building a better mousetrap. In the case of fruit and vegetable
preparation at the bar, bar staff, during a venue’s busiest, most
high-volume hours, nowadays can meet the demand with the freshest
product possible. Storing large quantities of pre-sliced fruit that is
soggy and undesirable by the time the drink is served is no longer
necessary.
Here are a couple products that are finding appreciation behind bars.
Sunkist Sectionizer
If your employee first aid kit is running low on bandages because
of knife cuts to fingertips, Sunkist’s Sectionizer should be attractive.
Nominated by the Nightclub & Bar Top 100 bars, clubs and
restaurants in America for a 2007 Market Maker Award, the Sunkist
Sectionizer makes quick work of slicing, halving, and wedging a variety
of fruits and vegetables. In addition to sectionizing citrus fruit,
staff can use this machine to core and wedge apples and pears. It also
will slice firm tomatoes and mushrooms for sandwiches and pizzas, or
wedge them for salads. Slicing is done with the pull of a handle,
eliminating the danger involved in cutting fruit and veggies with a
knife.
The Sectionizer makes the job of cutting lemon and lime slices, for
example, pretty simple. After rinsing with cool tap water, just place a
lemon, lime or orange in the flexible cup cover and press down the
handle. With little effort or skill, staff can produce six slices or
four, six or eight wedges ready for garnishing your signature cocktail.
Expect to section 10 to 12 cartons of citrus per hour.
For more information, visit www.sunkistfs.com/equipment.
WedgE
Another finger-saver — and another 2007 Market Maker Award nominee
— is the WedgE from Preston Marketing. In addition to saving
bartenders’ precious digits, the WedgE’s designed to save time and
money. In fact, it’s makers challenge bar staff to try the “2-minute
drill” to compare a conventional knife and cutting board to a WedgE.
Preston says that when staffers see how many lemons or limes they can
cut in 2 minutes with the respective tools (cutting each lemon or lime
into 8 equal wedges), they’ll find they can cut only about 8-10 lemons
or limes with a knife compared to 34 with the WedgE.
The WedgE also promises management savings of 33-50 percent in
product costs from using too many fruits, potatoes, pickles, onions,
etc.
For more information, visit www.wedgeonline.com.
Efficiency and safety, not to mention uniformity of slices, are easy ways to make bartenders smile. NCB
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