Progress & Profit 20-Year Reflections and Insights On a Booming Industry and How It Got Here Twenty years ago, the on-premise industry, in comparison to the present, was a completely different universe, in which monumental changes were taking place.  Indeed, the climate for opening a bar looked dismal at best.

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Lighting and Sound Do's and Don'ts Manufacturer Tips for Supreme Success Why take advice from amateurs when you can get words of wisdom straight from the pros? Whether operations, promotions, marketing — or in this case, sound and lighting — sage suggestions ultimately lead to increased success, right?

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Controversy Uncorked Supreme Court’s Ruling on Direct Wine Sales Forces States to Ship In or Shut Out The recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld a state’s right to regulate the sale and distribution of alcohol within its own borders but said states must also treat in-state and out-of-state alcohol producers the same has raised numerous issues, not only within the wine industry, but the spirits and beer industry as well.

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The Buzz Increases Today’s Energy Drink Options are Profitably Uplifting The trends — and numbers — are encouraging. Energy drinks continue to increase their buzz in today's on-premise environments, and as patrons continue to ask for them straight or mixed in a cocktail or shot, nightclub and bar proprietors continue to profit.

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Cutting-Edge Cash Registers Time Saving and Theft Prevention Have Never Been Better With today’s cutting-edge systems with their multitudes of capabilities, cash registers are continuing to raise eyebrows as operators raise revenues.

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Club Drug Consequences Anti-Drug Proliferation Act Targets Clubs and Other Entertainment Venues The so-called war on drugs has a new semi-secret weapon that it is designed specifically to hold club and bar owners and site or event managers responsible for the drug activity occurring on their premises.

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Crises & Communications A Fire ... An Explosion ... A Shooting ... Racial Discrimination ... It Could Happen To You ... and Then What Do You Do? These are just five headlines among thousands that resulted from a Yahoo.com search using the key words “nightclub fires,” “nightclub explosions” and “bar shootings.”  What they indicate is how random acts of violence, accidents and undercover operations can affect just about anyone in any nightclub or bar anywhere, any format, any size.

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Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Fried Equipment Advancements and Old Habits Ensure Continued Profitability of Fried Foods Hold on to your spatulas. If the latest commercial fryer equipment advances are any indication, customers likely will be ordering fried chicken tenders and popcorn shrimp at least until Super Bowl LXXXIII and probably well beyond.

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Prepare to Print and Profit What Should You Come to Expect From Your Printer? "I think quality is the biggest thing. I mean, you get what you pay for,” says Charice Keener, sales and marketing manager for the Shout! House in San Diego. Keener isn’t talking about the bar service or the menu, however –– she’s talking about printing.

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Managing Your Environment Part 1: Managing Labor to Create Sales Today, if you’re serious about improving service, you have to look beyond lip service.

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Profits Cubed Frozen Cocktail Recipes Bring In Warm Receptions from Guests If you’ve ever seen the broad grin on a kid’s face when he or she comes away from their purchase at an ice cream truck, you know true happiness — at least until the cold treat is finished or melts away into a pleasant memory. Well, take a close look at a patron after they take the first sip of a frozen cocktail at the bar, and the reaction is much the same: delight.

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Who Are These People? Loyalty Programs are the Answer to Assets for Owners Whether it’s making them club members in South Carolina or staff members in South Dakota, people respond to being included.

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The New Age of Bar Food Menu Considerations for Meeting Patron Expectations of Variety and Quality in Bar Food American bar-going consumers are losing patience with unsurprising bar food menus that not only offer few choices but deliver marginal quality at best in their few items.

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Suggestive Sales Upselling Spirits is An Asset and An Art The term upselling has been taught to bartenders and servers in millions of bars around the globe. When a guest asks for a vodka tonic, many servers are instructed to ask if the guest has a vodka preference such as Stoli or Absolut, for example, with an accompanying nod. This accompanying nod is called the Sullivan nod, apparently after the first person to have ever nodded and suddenly realized that his actions were contagious. The apparent result is a higher-priced brand sold. And evidently to most operators, the unapparent result with this technique is that most people already either have a brand in their head, if any preference at all. Guests who have no preference in liquor feel somewhat pushed with the upselling technique on their first order. This isn’t the kind of practice any operator should suggest their staff to utilize in an equation for success.

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Pie 4 Profit For Pizza Revenues, Some Bars Are Going Beyond the Slice Whether an operation sells pizza at the bar just by the slice or by the whole pie, it’s still baking whole pizzas. In an age where consumers have grown to expect more than just the standard Pepperoni and Cheese slices, many operators are discovering straight-from-the-oven profits from whole pizzas with a variety of toppings and sauces.

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'The Show' Hits Atlantic City 30 AC Seminars Raise the Bar on the F & B House that Education Built The Nightclub & Bar Convention & Trade Show is set to raise that proud tradition in an all-new, East-Coast setting when “The Show” comes to Atlantic City (AC 2005) Oct. 10-12.

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Malternatives in Motion Today’s Variety Offers Up Tasty Traffic People have their preferences. It’s important to offer people alternatives. Specifically, many bar owners and managers think it’s important to offer their customers malternatives.

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Tastes of the Tropics Readying Your Backbar for the Rum Renaissance More than 50 years ago, Trader Vic wrote that rum was the most versatile and underappreciated spirit behind the bar. Across the country and around the world, rum’s reputation is being elevated from the bottom shelf as consumers discover the virtues of the most versatile distilled spirit. In the past decade, the number of rums imported to the United States from the world’s rum barrel, also known as the Caribbean basin, has grown from a few to a several dozen. And as more and better rums become available, the demand for the Caribbean spirit continues to grow.

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The New Success of Sake Is It Embracing Trends, or Are Trends Embracing It? They are the scene-setting citizens of their communities, and they can be found gracing the chic environments of bars, lounges and nightclubs across the country, validating trends and — in some cases — creating new ones. At this very moment these preeminent patrons can be found mingling — cool cocktails in hand. What they’re holding, however, might surprise you.

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The Tequila Revolution From High-End To Low, Trade in Tequila Never Has Been More Profitable On-Premise Unlike the stock market, which has witnessed numerous ups and downs in the past two decades, the domestic trade in tequila can be charted by an indicator arrow pointing almost straight up in the 20-plus years since premium and super-premium brands began arriving in U.S. bars and clubs from Mexico.

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