Dancing & Dessert
Brûlée and 32 Degrees In Atlantic City Offer a Double Experience After Dark

For those in Atlantic City out for a truly decadent experience, Libre Management has brought the masses a hybrid venue that has caters to luscious extremes –– whether they be chocolate or choice Champagne. Brûlée is a dessert-only restaurant when the evening begins, but it swiftly morphs into 32 Degrees, a club that brings such a fevered dance pitch, those sugared morsels previously consumed have no fighting chance of hitting the hips. From petitfours to spirits, Brûlée/32 Degrees is one room with hundreds of possibilities for revenue.

Spring Inspiration
DJ Robert Oleysyck: A Master   of Life’s Music 

DJ Robert Oleysyck is like a fine wine — he simply improves over time.
    For more than 17 years this dynamic mix-master has surpassed many fellow DJs to emerge as one of the most prominent and perpetual personalities in the business. From Electronic Dance to Rock, Oleysyck has conquered many musical genres, won countless awards and honors and mesmerized some of the most intimidating crowds in nightlife.

Buy Low, Sell High
Drink Prices Reflect the Market of The House With The Drink Exchange 

The struggle to conduct promotions that truly differentiate one bar from another is one of the most challenging aspects of long-term operation. One developer spent two years listening to operators and created one of the most unique, captivating, interactive tools in recent memory — allowing drink prices to rise and fall throughout the night, based on patron demand.

Couple's
The Spring/Summer is Prime Time for Double Marketing

This month’s Buzztime Report is all about coupling. Sure, at first glance, you are thinking it is all about spring and summer, but on closer inspection, it indicates there is potential revenue waiting for those who combine a few solid concepts. When reading these results, it is important to view the top voted answers together.

You Bet Your Glass 
The Right Glass Rounds Out The Right Experience for the Guest 

Sure, what’s actually in the glass is probably the most important commodity in the bar realm — that special concoction that keeps them coming back for more.  

Warm and Comfortable
One Designer's Approach to Lighting

Opened in late 2006, Mélange, a bistro and wine bar in Ann Arbor, Mich., features deep, dark colors. The colors team with the strategically warm lighting to achieve the desired affect, says John Janviriya, co-owner, interior architect and designer. Janviriya also was behind the design of Reserve Chicago and the soon-to-open Crescendo.

The Joystick Jones
Interactive Games Can Be Destination Attractions 

It's a long held principal among bar owners that gaming machines turn an easy, low maintenance profit. They can help the bottom line and create extra cash here and there. 

Sting or Be Stung
Strategies for Reducing Employee Theft

Recently, a nightclub owner called me and asked for help to catch one of his bartenders who was stealing from the cash register and possibly stealing stock from the liquor room. Among many other questions, I asked what he was prepared to do to the bartender if we did catch him stealing.

Big Apple Bytes
Learning from New York Nightlife Trends

Plenty of evidence is showing that 2007 will be a special year, including the opening of several new mid-size and huge live music venues (many thought were gone forever); the open air trend, which has been fueling city dweller demand for dining and dancing in lush rooftop settings with extraordinary views; innovative ideas; sexy unique promotions; offbeat neighborhoods as prime targets for glamorous makeovers; and much more.

Aint That a Kick in the Head
Joe Hand and Ultimate Fighting Championship Pack Sports Bars

When pay-per-view television came into being back in the 1990s, Joe Hand Jr., the son of two Philadelphia police officers and the holder of a degree in criminal justice himself, could see the end in sight for the arena-distributed, sports-viewing business known as Joe Hand Promotions, that his father began back in the 1980s to mass telecast the fights of Philadelphia native and boxing great Joe Frazier.

Cocktails in the Rye
Raising the Bar for Guest Palates And Expectations On-Premise

When Dushan Zaric makes one of his classic cocktails for a guest at his Employees Only (EO) bar and restaurant in New York City’s West Village, it’s a safe bet that whatever it is in the glass, it’s a spirited salute to a time when a bartender was a bartender and a libation was a libation in the true and uniquely American tradition of the trade.

Standing Out By Blending In
Consumers are Ripe for Better Blended Cocktails

Blended cocktails often suffer from a classic case of typecasting.

Air Essentials
Marketing Your Nightclub on the Radio

Luckily for us, our customers are trained to consider their favorite radio station as a good source of entertainment information. And why shouldn’t they? Radio is free and easy to listen to and is less hassle than opening a newspaper or logging onto the Internet.

Coverage
Question Your Liability Coverage

Liquor liability protection for your operation is not complex once you understand what to ask when purchasing the coverage. 

Low Profit
The State of Low-Carb Beer

The low-carb “craze” has all but subsided. However, beer suppliers who keep their products in the 95-110 calorie range still see solid sales as the demand for these lighter products does continue, diminished or not. Although the overall low-carb beer market is not faring as well now as many proponents and enthusiasts postulated several years ago, the brews are an offering many operators say is necessary stock.

The Temperate Zone of Libations Provides Profit Opportunities Aplenty

Summer cocktails have come a long way since the frozen Daiquiri and the Margarita.
Along with other July classics such as the Mojito and the Cosmo, these hot-selling sensations still take the sizzle out of summer by the tens of millions of sales they generate for venues far and wide. And they do so by fulfilling a seasonal formula for sales success that has withstood the test of time.

Happy Hour is the 0-to-60 of a Bar’s Profits Race 

It's the golden window for operators when draft beer typically pours the same color and they seek the metaphorical gold of having pleased patrons pack the house. It’s a time when there is much money to be made — or lost. By not hosting a proper Happy Hour for guests or by not having one at all, there’s potential for damage to be done, too — in dollars or in clientele demographics.

The Uptown Up Sell
Trading Vodka Drinkers Up Is Becoming Much Easier

Up-selling spirits used to be about in-house marketing. It involved a one-on-one repartee between purveyor and patron, often a risky proposition in that there was always the chance the patron might be turned off by it, or else cocktail presentation.

There Is Gold and Silver As Never Before In Mexico’s Native Spirit

As the familiar adage goes, there are three things to keep in mind about maximizing profits these days. The on-going popularity of super-premium vodka aside, tequila continues to boom.

The 12 Top Spirit Companies in the World

The wine and spirits industry was global long before global was the overwhelming trend in commerce. To be successful at the level of the world’s top 12 spirits and wine houses requires single malts from Scotland; French Champagne and Cognac; American whiskeys; German, English and Mexican beer; Swedish and Russian and Polish vodka; and more. 

The Method to the Menu
Strategies for a Successful Cocktail Menu

A well-conceived beverage program can be told by its cocktail list. The drink menu helps define the bar’s image. It’s like a brochure or Web page — an extremely important marketing tool. As human beings, we evaluate our bar experience visually and emotionally, and the menu plays an important role, becoming a very valuable detail to the overall guest experience.

Coping With Post-Smoking-Ban Business 

Most reading this have by now witnessed the effects of a smoking ban on even the most prosperous nightclub. But the industry always has been one to adapt and move forward in the face of obstacles that, at the time, seemed insurmountable. Still, the effects are significant.

Checking In on Energy Cocktails

Fads and even trends come and go, but energy cocktails boast one trait that might very well give them security on bar menus for a long time. At least at late-night clubs, patrons want to stay up and not miss a thing. A dash — or a few ounces — of energy drink in cocktails continues to be the fuel they seek toward this end, or this non-end of the party as the case may be.

The Midnight Rodeo/Wild West Venues Are
Heating Up the Texas Night

The country music market is alive and well in America,  prospering and inspiring patriotism in a time when it seems as though every kid’s toy has foreign ancestry
and every American car manufacturer is in a virtual battle against Japan and Germany. The fans of country music are loyal, and it manifests into more than a few tickets stubs and souvenir T-shirt. The genre, much like Hip Hop, has influenced the fashion, consumer buying decisions and, yes, even the spirit consumption of its devoted. Set to open its 11th location soon, the Midnight Rodeo and the affiliated/similar Wild West venues are spread like tumbleweeds across the flat expanse of Texas –– but they are far from idly tumbling along. With locations including but not limited to Austin, San Antonio, Lubbock and Houston, the company has been profiting from the urban cowboy since way back in 1981.

Enhancement Inside & Out
The New Look: Boru Goes Beyond a Mere Makeover

Where some brands might put on a pretty face by redesigning their labels, Boru Vodka has improved not only the image of its packaging but the vodka inside it. The form, says Claes Fick, the new chief commercial and marketing officer at Castle Brands Spirits Co. Ltd., follows the function.

The Underground: 'Never Heard of It'
One Chicago Nightlife Group Turns Marketing on Its Head

With such an effect on consumer circles, the industry has become like a Venn diagram –-expanding to encircle every aspect of life where leisure is concerned. People are buying based on buzz words, the premium brands from cigars to spirits, the fashion-istas, the celebrity tabloids, MTV, your SUV — there is no stone unturned for those looking to keep up with what is slapped with a label of “hot” or “now.”

Sweet Obivia
Margarita Recipes from Soho

For the March Margarita recipe page, Nightclub & Bar turned to one of New York City’s freshest Soho hotspots, Obivia.
    With astonishingly creative architecture by the firm Giants in the Dirt and a drink list to die for, Obivia captures all that it means to offer guests innovation. Touted as an elegant lounge with the ambiance of an old friend’s living room, the space provides exotic liquors, a sampling of light dining options, constantly revolving B movies on the flat screens and an optimal environment for brushing off the worries of the world.
    Co-owner Michael Matzo was more than willing to share his Margarita recipes. On the rocks and up, these recipes provide respite from the blender on those days when the mercury and your patron attendance begin to rise.