Chutin' Straight
Gay-Friendly Profit in Music City

Beverage news

Straddling the Border
Hard Numbers on Tequila Tastes

Super
DJ Barbella's Space Age Antics Liven Up Seattle Sundays

The Big Shuffle
Doc’s Clock Finds a Simple Point of Difference

The concept is simple: Push the puck to the end of the table without it falling off the board. But it’s all about having the right touch. Improving at the game becomes addictive for a number of patrons, and that spells repeat business. Table shuffleboard provides hours of fun for bar-goers, an increase in revenue for bar owners and brings out the competitiveness in everyone.

Raising Regulars
Famous Sam's Turns Occasional Diners into Loyal Guests

Loyalty programs are worth the time, work and effort they take.
   

Jon Taffer's 3-Step Revenue Growth Plan
Step 1: Maximizing Sales Per Guest

Well, here we are at the first installment of my guaranteed revenue growth program article series. If you have not read the introduction in last month’s issue, you should. It provides an important foundation for the important tactics and programs contained here.

Banking on a Buck
ATM Offerings to Keep Cash Flowing

Convenience remains among the consumer’s top priorities in all facets, including his or her on-premise visit. For as many customers who enjoy plunking down that quick and easy debit card to run a tab, there probably still are as many who would rather get some cash from an on-site ATM and pay by the drink — and have some cash ready for their next destination as well. Technology keeps improving. Here are a few products out there to consider.

Train of Opportunity
Patrick Henry Provides Unique Networking

Henry Creative Promotions Inc. in conjunction with Pernod Ricard, The Patron Spirits Co., Remy Cointreau USA, Trinchero Family Estates, Labatt, American Beverage Marketers, Fiji Water and the Cherry Marketing Institute, recently hosted two hospitality events during NRA in Chicago.

Tequila & Taste
Tres Agaves Is All About Good Times And Great Tequila

It’s a tall order, but you could say that San Francisco’s Tres Agaves Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Lounge is a restaurant and tequileria on a singular mission to stamp out bad tequila, bring back fun and excitement to a harried corner of the world and reinvent the whole concept of Mexican food and beverage in the bargain.

Sweet Sizzlers
The Caipirinha Is Brazil’s Best Kept Cocktail Secret No More

Twisted Mojitos
Havana’s Off Limits, So Head to New York

Transporting patrons in taste and ambiance, Retreat is just what the name implies.

Profitable Products
New Products to Watch

Spider-Man
    Stern Pinball Inc. is releasing its newest pinball machine, Spider-Man. Designed by Steve Ritchie, Lyman Sheats and the engineering staff at Stern Pinball, the pinball machine takes Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 and puts them all into one fast-paced pinball machine that will excite both operators and homeowners.

Vegging Out
Veggie Pizza Isn’t Just For Vegetarians Anymore

Back in the old days, the benchmark for veggie pizza was the infamous pepper, onion, mushroom and olive combo veggie supreme. It was a fixture on most pizzeria menus and it still is. The POM&O (pepper, onion, mushroom and olive combo) pizza has earned its ubiquitous status.

Sound Up, Lights Low
The Chelsea Hotel Has Been Home to the Famous, Including Its Latest Resident — Star Lounge

    Sid Vicious supposedly stabbed and killed Nancy Spungen there. Leonard Cohen named one his most recognizable songs after it, and Andy Warhol directed a film within its walls.

Club Drug Chaos
Dealing With A Perennial Problem

To borrow from hip-hop impresario L.L. Cool J: “Don’t call it a comeback.”

Light Beers Get a Heavy Sell On-Premise

Today, the extent to which beer drinkers have seen the light, so to speak, in their embrace of the light beer category is evident in overall consumption data placing sales of domestic light beer at 49 percent of the market.

Fat Chance
Checking In on the Movement Away from Trans Fats

As trends come and trends go, at least one thing is certain about today’s consumers: They’re attentive.

Beaming With Enthusiasm
Bobby G Creates a Stir for Beam Global

In May, Future Brands LLC, the U.S. sales and distribution operation for Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. and the Absolut Spirits Co. Inc., hired “Bobby G” as its master mixologist and manager of on-premise training. Gleason, now responsible for developing cocktail menus for key national accounts, exploring new uses for Future Brands’ products and facilitating sales training, now finds himself pulled every which way but loose.

Energy and Health-Oriented Drinks Hitting the Set 

The energy beverage market, like the consumers of the beverages themselves, never seems to slow. And the different slants on the energy element proliferate. Beyond just energizing drinks, vitamin-concepted brands, green tea-based libations and other beverages claiming health benefits are entering the fray.

Where Coastal Trends Converge
Blonde is Setting Trends and Turning Heads in Kansas City, Mo.

The Midwest suffers from an often unfair image as being a little less than hip. Certainly, a number of trends have started in major markets from New York to L.A., and from Miami to Scottsdale. It is in these cities that the extreme metropolitan trends are every-night occurrences.

Door to Door
Educating the Market Person to Person

Pam Aulisi, director of marketing for tequila and rum with Skyy Spirits, observes that whereas consumers understand the different tiers of price and quality within other spirit categories, most do not yet understand differences between rums.

Make The Shooter Most Wanted in Your Venue

Despite their teensy bar-glass footprint, shooters are a big cocktail category that can be adapted to suit almost any venue theme or clientele, from the casual college bar or club to the sophisticated lounge. Pour for pour, the liqueur component that is a common ingredient in most shooters represents the most profitable of all spirits behind the bar.

How to Execute a Killer Promotion With Far-Reaching Effects

If you are looking for a way to connect with your female customer base you may have considered a night of pampering for your ladies. But putting together a successful event like this can be a time-consuming and daunting task.

Part 1: Up-Selling for Higher Sales

When we teach servers and their managers about suggestive selling or up-selling, we’re often asked “How much of a difference does it really make?” Our answer is that it makes a big, big difference.

Creating Superstar Servers
5 Practical Tips To Improve Waitstaff

What owner or operator of any of the million-plus restaurants, bars, lounges and nightclubs doing business in the United States today does not want to improve on his or her waitstaff?

Slow Food, Lingering Libations
For Frank Stitt, Slowing Down Is Imperative to Preparing Alabama’s Best    

            Chef Frank Stitt began his illustrious career with the opening of Highlands Bar & Grill in 1982 in the Five Points area of downtown Birmingham, Ala. While Highlands’ more global approach to cuisine was rapidly successful, Chef Stitt ventured outwards within the same area of the city to open Bottega in 1988, Bottega Café in 1990 and Chez Fonfon in 2000.

Safety in the Cards
Finding Funding When the Bank says 'No'

The bar business is one unpredictable sea. Staying afloat and sailing straight requires the right amount of wind at the right times.