Thomas Henry Strenk
Articles by
Thomas Henry Strenk
Page 4Some like it hot
A lot of places don’t bother with hot drinks because they can be difficult to execute, but it’s something we embrace,” says Bob McCoy, beverage programs liaison at Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks in Boston. “Not only do we offer five or six hot specialty drinks seasonally, but we are ready to prepare anything a guest might call for.”
Raising spirits
"There’s a certain audacity to offering Chartreuse on tap,” says Mike Ryan, head bartender at Sable Kitchen & Bar in Chicago, because no other bar in town offers the esoteric French liqueur on draft.
The big trend in soft drinks is do it-yourself—an offshoot of prolific mixology programs. With a spritz of seltzer, housemade infusions and syrups do double duty in sodas as well as cocktails, commanding a markup. Even Starbucks is testing artisan sodas as the coffee giant tries to diversify its beverage offerings.
It wasn’t that long ago that Americans were still pronouncing the final T in Cabernet and didn’t realize it was the major grape in Left Bank Bordeaux. Well, maybe they still don’t know a lot about Bordeaux but they can order a Cab (and Merlot) without stumbling. The chart below offers help on other tongue-twisting varietals.
Vodka bars, tequilarias, whiskey bars and ronerias are all making their appearance in the marketplace, tying their destinies to the rising stars of these trendy liquors. Such identities are strong points of differentiation. But building a reputation as an expert, purchasing and growing a worthy collection of bottles and managing all that inventory can be challenging.
That’s one Gin Rickey coming right up, and I’ll wrap up the spotted dick to go.” For some forward-thinking operators, selling specialty groceries is a unique way to boost the bar tab and make themselves a retail destination as well. But it takes more than just tacking up a few shelves of merchandise to grab those take-away retail sales. How do you make it work?