August 2014 Bar Business by Bar Business Magazine

The Interval in San Francisco, clever and creative conversation. Drink & Think: Atcocktails The How-To Publication

BAR BUSINE$$ August 2014

M A G A Z I N E

CHOOSE WISELY

PICKING POWERFUL POS OPTIONS

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BAR BUSINE$$

On Tap AUGUST 2014

CONTENTS

BACK 30 IN TIMEâ&#x20AC;Ś

HOW TO

WORKING WITH WIFI

CALLING ALL AUDITS

THE POS POSSIBILITIES

In the age of smart phones, tablets, and 24-hour Internet access, WiFi on-premise is a must-have.

Inventory control in your bar is all about the audit, and there are several types to choose from to be effective.

The opportunity to keep upfront costs down when investing in POS should be a no-brainer on-premise.

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August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

On Tap

BAR BUSINE$$

CONTENTS

Features

30 BACK IN TIME

Departments

36 AIRING IT OUT

A good bar can take you to different places and somtimes to different times, so we look at a few venues that do that better than most.

4 BAR ROOM DRAWL

46 INVENTORY

6 BOOZE NEWS

48 HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS

Perlick adds a new control faucet for beverage dispensing; Bar owners working with PR; Dining with Jägermeister in New Orleans; Buzztime hits 5 million players.

10 LIQUID ASSETS There is a certain animalistic appeal to the more exotic spirits in the marketplace today — sometimes in a very literal way.

40 BIG SIX Get ready to put your thinking cap on as we visit The Interval in San Francisco, a new venue centered around interesting cocktails and intelligent conversation.

50 SUPPLY SPOTLIGHT

There’s just something about drinking in the open air, and bar owners know outdoor space is great for business. We’ll show you some top flight ways to make it happen.

ON THE COVER

Harbortouch POS systems allow bars to invest in the technology without breaking the bank. See pg. 27 for more.

“Bar Business Magazine” (ISSN 1944-7531 [print], ISSN 2161-5071 [digital]) (USPS# 000-342) is published February, April, June, August, October, & December for $45.00 per year and January, March, May, July, September, & November will only be offered in a digital format at no charge by Simmons-Boardman, 55 Broad St 26th Fl., New York, NY 10004. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices. Copyright © 2013 Simmons-Boardman. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. No part of the magazine may be reproduced in any fashion without the expressed written consent of Simmons-Boardman. Qualified U.S. bar owners may request a free subscription. Non-qualified U.S. subscriptions printed or digital version: 1 year US $45.00; Canada $90.00; foreign $189.00; foreign, air mail $289.00. 2 years US 75.00; Canada $120.00; foreign $300.00; foreign, air mail $500.00. BOTH Print and Digital Versions: 1 year US 68.00; Canada $135.00; foreign $284.00; foreign, air mail $384.00. 2 years US $113.00; Canada $180.00; foreign $450.00; foreign, air mail $650.00. Single Copies are $10.00 each. Subscriptions must be paid for in U.S. funds only. For subscriptions, address changes, and adjustments, write to: Bar Business Magazine, PO Box 1172, Skokie, IL 60076-8172. Instructional information in this magazine should only be performed by skilled crafts people with the proper equipment. The publisher and authors of information provided herein advise all reader to exercise care when engaging in any of the how-to activities published in the magazine. Further, the publisher and authors assume no liability for damages or injuries resulting from projects contained herein. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Bar Business Magazine, PO Box 1172, Skokie, IL 60076-8172.

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

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Welcome to the all-new QuickBooks

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Bar Room Drawl By CHRIS YTUARTE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Here's a Tip For You "People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.” — Mikhail Bakunin The above quote, while glorifying the appeal of the bar, is interesting more so because of its author and his connection to what I wanted to talk about in this month’s column. According to Wikipedia, Mikhail Bakunin was one of the founders of the ‘social anarchist’ tradition, which sees individual freedom as being "dependent upon mutual aid... community and social equality.” It's quite a coincidence that I would stumble upon this Bakunin quote the very same month in which I planned to discuss a disturbing policy change proposed in the state of New York, one that may have national nightlife implications should it pass. The words of a man who championed “independent freedom being dependent on mutual aid” will surely resonate here. According to a recent article in the New York Post by Michael Saltsman, Research Director at the Employment Policies Institute, New York State legislators are proposing a nearly 80 percent increase to the minimum wage for tipped employees such as waiters and bartenders. While this may seem like a good thing for such workers, many are against it, and rightly so. In the state of New York, a business owner is required to fill in any monetary gap that a tipped employee might find between his or her actual earnings and the state’s minimum wage. 4

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

So, if a bartender’s base salary + tips doesn't = minimum wage ($8.00 an hour in New York), the employer must make up the difference. Though this likely doesn't happen often — as Saltsman points out, “Census Bureau data indicates servers and bartenders average $13 an hour nationwide, with top earners collecting $25 an hour or more” — imagine that $8.00 minimum wage is increased by the proposed 80 percent. The gap between actual earnings and the minimum required will likely expand, leaving bar owners on the hook for greater out-of-pocket expenses to make their tipped employees whole in the eyes of the government, hence, a decrease in profits. Now what? Well, short of boosting prices across the board on the food and booze being sold to customers (never a great approach, if avoidable), many bar owners will simply cut back on staff to save money. Saltsman cites the state of Washington as an example: With the nation’s highest minimum wage ($9.32 an hour), in 2011 Seattle Weekly reported that “many restaurants had stopped hiring bus boys and started keeping fewer servers on the floor per shift.” In essence, a policy that is portrayed as a benefit to the tipped employee has the potential to greatly hinder his or her chances of ever getting that job in the first place. In fact, bars might be more inclined to hire undocumented immigrants for all-cash pay who won't declare their income at all; bad news for honest tipped employees. Keep an eye on this in New York and in your state, and let's keep those tips coming.

BAR BUSINE$$ MAGAZINE

August 2014 Vol. 7, No. 8 Bar Business Magazine (ISSN 1944-7531) is published by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation 55 Broad St 26th Fl., New York, NY 10004 EXECUTIVE OFFICES

President Arthur J. McGinnis, Jr. Publisher Arthur J. Sutley 212-620-7200; fax: 212-633-1863 asutley@sbpub.com EDITORIAL

Editor-in-Chief Chris Ytuarte 212-620-7223; fax: 212-633-1863 cytuarte@sbpub.com ART

Creative Director Wendy Williams wwilliams@sbpub.com Art Director Sarah Vogwill svogwill@sbpub.com PRODUCTION

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Art Sutley 212-620-7247; fax: 212-633-1863 asutley@sbpub.com CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT

800-895-4389 Bar Business Magazine is published monthly. All rights reserved. Nothing herein may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher. To Purchase PDF files of covers, layouts or hard copy reprints, please call Art Sutley at 212-620-7247 or email asutley@sbpub.com.

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Booze News

PERLICK ADDS NEW CONTROL FAUCET TO ITS REVOLUTIONARY LINE OF FORWARD SEALING BEVERAGE DISPENSING FAUCETS

erlick, a leader in total package bar equipment and beverage dispensing systems, has announced the addition of the patented 650SS Flow Control Faucet to its new line of forward sealing faucets. Along with the unmatched features of Perlick’s forward sealing line of beverage dispensing faucets, Perlick’s newest faucet also includes at-the-faucet flow control. Minimizing foam while saving time and money, Perlick’s unique, patented flow control feature allows for simple adjustments that solve a variety of pour challenges from filling growlers and samplers to dispensing a variety of craft beers. “Perlick’s new line of forward sealing faucets provides operators with the world’s most sanitary options that also complement industry trends, increase their businesses’ profitability and save time,” states Vice President of Sales for Perlick’s commercial products, Jim Koelbl. “Perlick’s newest addition, the 650SS Flow Control Faucet, is the perfect solution to operators’ beverage dispensing needs because its flow control feature allows servers to fine tune pours at the faucet. With craft beer experiencing an 18 percent rise in volume over the past year, the flow control feature makes it easier than ever before to adjust pours to properly fill growlers and samplers while catering to the style of beer being dispensed.” Like Perlick’s 630SS Forward Sealing Beer and Wine Faucet, the new 650SS Flow Control Faucet features an innovative ball and floating O-ring design. This unique

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

design eliminates the Perlick's new need for a valve shaft; faucet can be thus, ensuring cleaned in place, beverages are never saving plenty of exposed to air, the time and money. handle lever does not stick, and that the buildup of mold and bacteria in the faucet body is eliminated. Additional features of Perlick’s new, patented 650SS Flow Control Faucet include: • Allows for at-the-faucet fine-tuning to solve difficult to pour challenges – making it simple to fill growlers and complement a variety of craft beers being dispensed. • Every part that comes in contact with beverages is made from 304 sanitary stainless steel, protecting the fragile flavors of craft beer. • The faucet can be cleaned in place – saving time and money. • Can be combined with an optional Perlick growler filler tube (GT600) to create a cost effective option for filling growlers with minimal pour off waste. • A Floating Front Seat features a contoured profile to provide enhanced surface contact for a positive seal. • Fewer internal parts for better reliability and fewer service calls. • Fits all standard North American shanks. To learn more about Perlick’s 650SS Flow Control Faucet, visit perlick.com. www.barbizmag.com

Pete Wentz and the Jäger mixologists in The NOLA House of Blues Foundation Room.

Jägermeister’s Summer of Music Spirited Dinner a Tasty Treat at Tales of the Cocktail The legend of Jägermeister is deeply rooted in music with more than two decades of history, and the iconic brand created a new Tale with the Summer of Music Spirited Dinner at the 2014 Tales of the Cocktail. Inside the Foundation Room at the New Orleans House of Blues, Pete Wentz, bassist and lyricist for multi-platinum

selling rock band Fall Out Boy, was DJ for the evening as top bartenders Willy Shine, Sean Kenyon, Ivy Mix, and Sean Hoard mixed up liquid creations using the complex German liqueur. While space was limited to 56 guests — one for each of the 56 premium ingredients in Jägermeister’s secret recipe — Bar Business Magazine was lucky enough to attend.

TOP: BRANDON CUMMINS

What Can PR Do for You? ACCORDING TO THE OLD ADAGE, there’s no such thing as bad press. But, let’s be honest, you’d prefer good press, and sometimes the right mention in the right media outlet can be just the thing your bar needs to kick business into high gear. But how can you orchestrate such a promotion? Consider, perhaps, working with the good folks at a public relations agency. “PR is all about relationships and how we can move the needle in the clients favor,” says James Monahan, CEO of Monahan Public Relations in New York City. “For bar owners, when it comes to the spirits, wine and beer industry, we hold the keys to the territory these brands are chasing. The marriage between the brand and bar owner comes down to creativity and loyalty.” According to Monahan, a good PR person focuses on three keys to finding a mutual level of success for bar owners and brand reps: www.barbizmag.com

1 Featuring brands in a cocktail and on a cocktail menu that your customers will enjoy, that is creative and matches your bar. “I will offer it up to the press as a ‘Cocktail of the Week’ feature,” says Monahan. “The press wants something they can point to, like a cocktail menu, that makes it easier for the customer, as opposed to having to remember the entire cocktail recipe.” 2 Maximize your behind-the-bar talent for press interviews. “Sitting with the owner of the bar for print interviews and blogs, and more specifically using the bartender for TV and radio opportunities to bring your cocktails and brand to life, is what I do,” Monahan explains. 3 Your bottom line is our bottom line. “A great PR person knows the on-premise accounts and which brands fit and which brands do not,” says Monahan. “A good PR person should be selective, smart and cool, and should understand that all bar owners have heard it all before!” August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

Liquid Assets

Often uncategorized, sometimes misunderstood, and occasionally misused, there are exotic spirits on the market that have quite a wild side, not to mention their very literal animalistic appeal. By John Pomeroy, www.omnibibulous.com

EXOTIC SPIRITS Walk on the Wild Side

ay the word “exotic” and different visions pop up for different cultures. We see it used as an adjective: “originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country” and as a noun: “an exotic plant or animal.” All spirits are connected to plants in some way, and several are connected to animals. While most would say that there’s nothing exotic about a cow, few would argue that a vodka 10

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

made from milk sugar (lactose) is. Vermont White Vodka, for example, is made from whey… exotic, indeed. Many alcoholic beverages around the world originated when humans observed animals getting drunk after ingesting fermenting produce, so a look at exotic animals and plants shows some interesting parallels. When talking about agave (maguey), most people immediately think of tequila. The vast majority

don’t realize there are about 200 different species of agave (all under the family Asparagaceae) and most of the plants in that family are processed into various spirits, including mescal, bacanora, raicilla and sotol. Tequila is one type of mescal, in much the same way that Cognac is one type of brandy and bourbon, one type of whiskey. Regional differentiations in soil type, plant species, fermentation/ www.barbizmag.com

distillation procedures and many other variables contribute greatly to the variations between brands. While common misperceptions abound, not all mescals are smoky, just like not all gins are piney. The mythology of the 400 rabbits, found in the Aztec historical record, is a great story about how people learned from animals, quantifying intoxication by the tale of rabbits and fermenting agave plants. After witnessing the intoxicating effects the agave had on the rabbits, curiosity did the rest. The history of pulque (made by fermenting the sap of certain types of maguey plants) goes all the way back to the Mesoamerican period, and its origin is steeped in mythology like the story of the 400 rabbits. Suerte Tequila, then, has quite the iconic logo: a rabbit with symbolic “tattoos.” Two mescals also warrant mention here: Pierde Almas and Ilegal, each for different reasons. Pierde Almas Conejo (“rabbit” in Spanish) costs around $200 for a 750ml bottle, so you’re not likely to find too many cocktails made with it, but why would you want to?! The following is from the company’s website: “Every year, in the month of November, Pierde Almas produces an extremely limited offering of mescal abocado (flavored mescal). We adhere strictly to the ancestral recipe handed down by village elders, only we have substituted the saddle of a wild cottontail rabbit for the chicken breast called for in the original recipe. Our double-distilled Mescal Espadín undergoes a third distillation — laden with an assortment of 100% wild and heirloom fruit — over a very low flame (the process takes eighteen hours to produce only about 340 bottles per year). The rabbit flesh is hung inside the bell of a traditional 250-liter copper pot alembic, where the steam from the heated mescal collects before passing into the serpentine condensation tube, taking with it the essence of the animal. The result is an elixir of bewitching complexity and beauty. The bouquet is laced with the abundant aromas of the wild fruit macerated in the final www.barbizmag.com

distillation. On the palate, these same essences conjure a virtual salad of wild apples, pineapples, tecojote (a little, wild crab apple), almonds, pecans and anise — sprinkled throughout with the perfume of citric blossoms. One sip and you are chasing the ghost of a wild rabbit down sundappled alleyways in between the trees of an ancient apple grove.” While a $200 bottle of liquor containing the spirit of an animal may be too much for some people, perhaps a rabbit-themed cocktail would be more desirable. Look no further than Ilegal, who regularly reference the rabbit mythology in both their marketing and in their cocktails. El Conejo de la Suerte (the lucky rabbit) is one such cocktail, further referencing the rabbit mythology with the carrot juice found within. While Ilegal has a very traditional lineup of joven, reposado and añejo mescals, rabbits are found all over their marketing and advertising. This nod to the 400 rabbit story can be seen all over the world of agave. Where mescals have their rabbits, Feni has its monkeys. Feni (sometimes spelt fenny or fenim) is a spirit produced exclusively in Goa, India. There are two types of Feni; cashew and coconut. The small batch distillation of feni has a fundamental effect on its final character, still retaining some of the delicate aromatics, congeners and flavor elements of the juice from which it was produced.

Pierdre Almas uses rabbit breast to create its unusual flavored mescal, produced once a year. Feni is classified as a “country liquor,” and traditionally, was not allowed to be sold outside the state of Goa. Thankfully, that rule has changed recently and we can now get our hands on this exotic beverage. As with the rabbits of mescal, the historical record indicates that animals were responsible for human awareness of the alcohol in the cashew and coconut when indigenous macaques became inebriated.

August 201 2014 Bar Business Magazine

Liquid Assets

Avuá Amburana Cachaça is aged exclusively in casks made from exotic Amazon rainforest wood. The word feni is derived from the Sanskrit word phena (“froth”) and this is thought to be because of the bubbles that form a light froth when the liquor is shaken in a bottle or poured into a glass. It is generally accepted that coconut feni was produced first and the same procedure was followed for distilling the exotic cashew fruit. Feeding that theory is the fact that coconut palms dot the coastline of Western India and Goa, whereas the cashew tree was an exotic species brought by the Portuguese to India. While there is ambiguity about when and who started distilling the fermented juice into a spirit, there is no question that the monkeys were hip to the intoxicating qualities well before humans. To this day, the effects of it are seen on several species of monkeys (and India’s only ape), which have been known to get drunk on the fermenting cashew and coconut. There’s the old saying: Monkey see, monkey do! 12

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

When it comes to exotics, the Amazon rainforests clearly qualify, as literally thousands of them occupy its lush, tropical ecosystem. Amburana, for example, is an exotic hardwood found exclusively in Central and South America, and Avuá Amburana Cachaça is aged exclusively in enormous casks made from its wood. Resting in this indigenous wood produces a stunning mix of warm and savory notes on the nose and palate that provide a truly unique taste experience for cocktail experimentation, or for sipping neat. Again, indigenous peoples witnessed animals consuming fermenting sugar cane and became intrigued by the qualities of the “magical” grass. From Germany, Bärenjager (“bear hunter” in German), is also steeped in animal lore, as is clearly indicated by the name. Ancient Bavarian hunters would place vessels containing honey in open fields to entice bears out of hiding. Over the course of days, airborne yeasts would collect in the honey and cause it to ferment. The hunters, witnessing the affects of the alcoholic mixture on the bears, realized that they had stumbled onto something good, as not only were the drunken bears easier to hunt, but after the kill, the hunters had some good honey hooch to enjoy with their bear meat. Thankfully, though, history is cyclical. While a return to the traditional, artisan ways is inevitable as people’s palettes and tastes evolve, in the interim, most of us are more like the animals gorging on fermenting fruit than we are the distinguishing connoisseurs that are distilling some of these amazing products. Through the efforts of these craftsmen, passion and knowledge are shared, products perfected, and myths dispelled. Education is quickly becoming the norm rather than the exception, and the ability to consume sustainably-produced, conscientious craft products, the new luxury. Gone are the days of getting drunk like the animals.

Recipes: Bären Bee Eater 1.75 oz Monkey 47 Gin ½ oz Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur ¾ oz fresh lemon juice Barspoon of simple syrup Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake well and double strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Pan Am 2 oz Avua Amburana ½ oz Combier Orange ½ oz Dry Vermouth Stir, strain, rocks, rocks glass. Garnish with orange twist.

El Conejo de la Suerte 1.5 oz Ilegal Joven 1 oz carrot juice ½ oz simple syrup ½ oz lime Angostura Bitters Add all ingredients to tin and shake. Double strain into a coupe glass rinsed with Angostura Bitters. Garnish with mint sprig.

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Two Angelic Cocktails “My mother took one sip of the concoction and said, ‘I’d be mad if that wasn’t so damn good. Put it on the menu.’ Admittedly, I did feel a little bad that I used her plant, so I named the drink ‘Siri.’ Love you, mom!”

Siri Recipe: 2 oz house-infused Ginger Mekhong Thai Rum 1 oz fresh lime juice 1 oz “Secret” house-infused syrup Fresh ginger, lime wedge, Kaffir lime leaf.

ngel Yim is the mixologist and head bartender at New York City’s Andaman Thai Bistro. This summer she is working with Bar Business to showcase several of her venue’s top cocktails, perfect for the final days of warm weather and infused with some exciting and exotic spirits.

The Siri (pictured on page 10) “I came up with this cocktail right around the time the restaurant opened. I had two weeks to come up with a cocktail list, and the requirement was to incorporate Thai herbs and spices into the drinks. My mother, Siri Yim, grows her own herbs and spices (we never use any pesticides). Her only request was for me to not use the leaves from her Kaffir lime tree (her prize possession), since it’s very difficult grow in New York’s climate and is very expensive ( $60 - $70 per pound at the time). As a typically defiant daughter, I took a pair of scissors and clipped a couple of leaves from the tree. From the kitchen, I heard her shout, ‘What are you doing? What’s that in your hands?’ I just said, ‘Relax, this is going to be great.’ I’m sure if I have a daughter, she will be perfectly well behaved.”

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Muddle fresh ginger and Kaffir lime leaf with brown sugar in serving glass. Fill serving glass with crushed ice. Mix all ingredients in an ice filled shaker. Shake well and strain in to the serving glass. Garnish with lime wedge and fresh ginger slice.

The Angel “French 75 is my favorite drink — a perfect combination of gin and St. Germain with a little bit of Champagne. I wanted to give this beautiful cocktail a bit of Asian flair. As it turns out, adding just a bit of heat and sour flavor gives the drink a whole new and unique character. This drink is simultaneously sweet, spicy and tangy. It’s the perfect drink to start the weekend with a kick!”

Angel Recipe: 1 ½ oz Hendricks Gin ½ oz St-Germain Caramelized lemon peels Fresh ginger

Muddle fresh ginger add that to the Champagne flute. Mix all ingredients in an ice filled shaker. Shake well. Serve in Champagne flute, top with sparkling white wine (preferably Prosecco). Garnish with caramelized lemon peels. Get ready for more of Angel Yim’s cocktail concoctions next month in our Liquid Assets column, and check her out on Instagram and Twitter @angelyim or email her at angel@andamanbistro.com.

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August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

How To:

siness u B e v o r p Im With WiFi

Technically Speaking,

It's a WiFi World In the bar and restaurant business, being a “Hot Spot” takes more than just great food and drink. Robert Irvine, celebrity chef and TV host of Restaurant: Impossible, explains how modern technology like WiFi can make all the difference. By Robert Irvine

s a restaurateur, chef, and entrepreneur, I’m passionate about making the customer experience better so that restaurants can be more successful. And while the food and drink is always the number-one focus, believe it or not, technology isn’t far behind. I see it every day in my work helping struggling restaurants turn their businesses around. Many have failed to embrace technology and the critical role it plays in making the customer happy and improving their restaurant’s performance. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The effective use of technology can make your business faster, leaner, and

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ultimately, it can help you deliver an experience your customers will want to come back for again and again. One of the most important technologies you can incorporate into your business is WiFi – fast, wireless, accessible Internet service. Offering WiFi to restaurant and bar customers has become a necessity. This is true for all of my restaurants, and when I sat down recently with restaurant patrons and owners to discuss this, they overwhelmingly agreed. From the front of the house to the back of the house, WiFi creates a better experience for your customers and increases efficiency to help drive your restaurant’s success. Let’s take a closer look.

August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

How To: Front of the House It takes more than just great food and drink to attract and keep customers. Today, everyone is constantly using their smart phones and tablets, and they expect connectivity. In a restaurant or bar, guests want free access to a WiFi hot spot to connect to social media, check emails, and surf the Web right from their table. Taking “selfies” and sharing photos of a great dish or a bottle of wine is part of today’s dining experience that guests have come to expect and enjoy. And it serves your business as well — instant, positive reviews attract more customers. In fact, WiFi is so important that many customers won’t come back if a restaurant or bar doesn’t offer it — and I agree with them! This is especially important for business customers. Many of them have told me that whether they are considering holding a meeting or business event in a private room, or an informal breakfast or lunch with a few colleagues to share ideas, not having WiFi is a deal breaker. Offering WiFi also helps restaurants and bars increase covers because it keeps people at the venue longer, spending more money. It gives guests peace of mind; they can enjoy a meal and do work, so they’re never missing a beat. They don’t need to rush back to the office or home; if their customers, bosses, family, or friends are trying to contact them, they’re reachable. Even if they have poor or no cellular service in the building, they can count on WiFi. All of this is supported by a recent survey that found that nearly 80% of businesses offering WiFi say it helps keep customers happy while they wait, 65% report it has encouraged repeat business, and 55% say it has brought in new customers. (The Small Business Wi-Fi Survey, by Bredin Research, sponsored by Comcast Business: http://corporate. comcast.com/news-information/news-feed/smb-wifi-survey.)

On "Restaurant: Impossible" Robert Irvine takes $10,000 and 36 hours to save restaurants from impending failure — with a success rate over 78 percent. But it isn’t enough to just offer WiFi. It has to be fast and it has to be able to support a full house of customers connecting to the Internet at the same time — all downloading large amounts of content and data — without a hitch. For many guests, slow WiFi is no WiFi. The level of frustration a slow connection creates ends up backfiring and keeps them from returning.

Back of the House Successful restaurants and bars are also embracing WiFi as an important tool for their servers. The growing use of tablets and other tableside mobile devices is making servers more efficient and improving the customer experience. More restaurants and bars are realizing that by giving their servers mobile devices to take customer orders instead of paper and pen, they can instantly send orders to the kitchen. Servers can also have information about the menu, specials, and ingredients at their fingertips so that they can answer guests’ questions on the spot without ever leaving the table. Guests are happier, everything is moving faster, there aren’t many mistakes, and orders aren’t getting lost. And the server can move on to the next table.

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

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How To: When it comes time to pay the bill, these same devices can be used to accept credit cards right at the table. It’s more secure, since the server doesn’t have to leave the table with the customer’s credit card, which is a huge area of concern for patrons these days. It’s also faster, as guests don’t have to wait for servers to run back and forth to the payment system — it’s all done through WiFi.

Getting Started So where do you begin? Technology is moving fast, sometimes faster than we can keep up, so having an outside expert help get you on the right track can save you time and money and avoid costly mistakes. But here are a few tips that can help. The first step is to get fast, reliable Internet service. You need a high-speed network to support all of these connections and devices. Without the right network, everyone may not be able to connect simultaneously. Having separate private and public WiFi networks is also a good idea. That way you can have secure WiFi access for your staff for back-of-the-house transactions, while at the same time offering a separate public WiFi network for guests. Restaurant transactions remain secure and are processed quickly and efficiently, while your guests get the reliable,

fast Internet connectivity that they expect. There’s a strong connection between technology and a bar or restaurant’s success and it’s only going to continue with more people relying on mobile devices as part of their daily lives. If you own a restaurant or bar and you’re not already thinking about WiFi, you need to be! It’s an exciting time to be in the restaurant and bar business, but if you aren’t leveraging technology, you’re not really in business. Don’t get left behind. Make sure you’re up to speed on emerging technologies to give customers want they want and improve your bar’s performance.

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Bar Business Magazine August 2014

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How To: What is WiFi (and How Do I Get It)?

ccording to the all-knowing Wikipedia, the definition of WiFi is this: “A local area wireless technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data or connect to the Internet using…radio waves. The name is a trademark name, and is a play on the audiophile term Hi-Fi.” It can be an alien experience for some bar owners unfamiliar with the technology, and it’s only just begun. The Wi-Fi Alliance, a global non-profit industry association whose members are the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi, just last month reported that “the United States Department of Transportation has issued a Request for Applications (RFA) for the next stage of its connected vehicle certification program…to advance the United States towards wide-scale implementation of both vehicle-tovehicle and vehicled-TGf-prt-BarBusiness-Aug2014-halfpgAd-v1.pdf 1 6/18/14 to-infrastructure

capabilities aimed at improving traffic safety and efficiency.” Clearly, WiFi is the future of communications, on the roads and in bars. So where can you turn for expert advice and installtion options for the on-premise? Industry Retail Group, Inc. (IRG), is a Vector Security® company and Gartner-recognized, VISA PCI DDS validated provider of customized managed network services. IRG (www.industryretail.com) works with thousands of Fortune 1000 retailer sites, offering a comprehensive portfolio of broadband and broadband-enabled services through the design, provisioning, logistics and deployment of networks. IRG has provided communications systems built specifically for on-premise organizations like Macaroni Grill, America’s largest casual Mexican restaurant On the Border, Restaurants Unlimited, Inc., and Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill. If your bar or restaurant franchise or multi-unit operation is in need of WiFi and broadband 9:18 AM upgrades across the board, IRG is the place to turn.

CMY

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August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

How To:

of Get Control Your Inventory

How Liquid Are You? Keeping track of your most precious inventory — your beer and liquor — is essential to success in the bar business, so let’s look at ways to find out just how liquid you are on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. By Kevin Tam

iquor audits are a part of the dayto-day operations of successful bars and nightclubs. Auditing consists of taking a full inventory of all the liquor stock, making a comparison to sales, and uncovering the difference between the two. And while bar operators mainly use audits to minimize variance and to create and maintain a theft-free environment in their operation, they are certainly a tool that will help your bottom line. There are basically three kinds of audits that are used in nightclubs, bars and restaurants for liquor inventory: weekly, nightly, and monthly. All audits of liquor inventory will revolve around the following formula:

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Beginning Inventory + Incoming Inventory – Ending Inventory = Usage If you are serious about the nightclub and bar industry, then you need to know this formula like the back of your hand.

Weekly audits are the most ideal and practical solution for most average-sized bars. For about 90% of all bars, weekly audits are all you need to control your costs effectively. In a weekly audit, your liquor manager conducts a count of all

inventory in the building. This includes full liquor bottles, kegs, wine bottles, bottled beer, and energy drinks in every bar and storage room. For any inventory that is open and on the shelf — things like wine, kegs and liquor, these items are weighed on a scale to find out how much liquor is inside. When you get a full count of the entire sealed inventory, and a weight for all the open inventory, you add those numbers to get how much liquor is actually in the building. This will constitute your beginning inventory. The next step is to get your weekly liquor order invoice and add what is coming in to your beginning counts. This is your incoming inventory.

August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

How To: Seven days after your beginning counts, do another where you take a count of all the full bottles in the building, and then weigh all your open inventory again. This is your ending inventory for your audit period. When you apply the formula to your counts, you will be able to calculate your usage. For vodka for example, you may see numbers like: 3.2 (beginning) + 2 (purchased) – 3.1 (end) = 2.1 (usage) In this example, we have calculated 2.1 bottles of usage of vodka for this audit period. If each bottle is 26 oz, then we have to multiply 2.1 by 26 to calculate how many oz were used (in this example it is 54.6 oz). Let’s say 55 ounces were used, for simplicity’s sake. To audit your vodka usage, you have to go into your sales and look at how many drinks with vodka were sold for this audit period. If you have 50 drinks with 1 oz of vodka each sold this week, compare those 50 sales to your usage of 55 oz to calculate your variance. Your variance in this example is a shortage of 5 oz, or expressed as a percentage, 10% of sales. To find what you are actually missing on a dollar basis, calculate what you are out at retail potential and value at cost. Revenue potential is what you would have been paid if everything was rung in at full price. To calculate this number, you multiply each variance by the price you would normally charge a guest for it. In the above example where you were missing 5 oz, if your normal price for vodka is $5 per oz, revenue potential is $25. Cost is what you paid for the inventory. This is calculated by dividing volume of the bottle by its cost. Say a bottle has 26 oz in it and costs $30, your cost per ounce is $0.87. In the above example, your vodka shortage would be $4.35 at cost (5 oz multiplied by $0.87). In a full liquor inventory audit, this procedure is applied to every product in the building. When every individual variance has a revenue potential and a cost value attached

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

to it, you add them all together to calculate what your overall variance is worth in dollars. Whether you value your variance at cost or at retail depends on your perspective. Liberal owners of bars with flair bartenders, for example, may look at variances at cost, because breaks, spills and over-pouring are part of the show. Owners of pubs and restaurants will usually value variance at revenue potential, because these environments are much more controlled and less chaotic. In these businesses, everything is expected to be rung in properly and served to exact specifications. Whatever is not rung in is perceived as a lost sale, not a loss at cost.

Nightly Audits are for nightclubs where there are a significant amount of cash sales between bartenders and guests. Nightclubs use these audits to reconcile shortages that night by collecting for shortages at retail from the bartenders' tips. These collections are called paybacks. In a payback environment, even a small amount of over-pouring, done consistently over the course of the night, can absolutely ruin a bartender's shift. The main difference between the nightly audit and the weekly audit is that the nightly audit only looks at the usage of that station within the bar; it does not look

at the inventory in the stock room. Therefore, if your bar has four different stations, each bar has its own audit. The nightly audit works like this: All your liquor inventory behind the bar gets organized into categories according to price point. For example: your well products would be marked BLACK with a sticker or a colored heat seal, and each of the products would be priced the same. In this example let’s say they are sold for $5 an oz. Your premium products would be marked with a RED sticker, and each of the products would be priced the same at $7 an oz. Your top shelf products, things like high-end Scotch, tequila and vodka would be marked WHITE, and each of these products would be priced the same at $10 an oz. Your beer would be divided into similar categories and priced accordingly, say: domestic for $5, import for $6, and super for $7. For each of the liquor bottles, the color code helps keep things organized during the actual weighing process. This will also hasten the weighing process, as all the bartenders have to do at the end of the night is organize the bottles according to color — black with black, red with red, white with white. With this system, a large bar can be prepared to weigh in less than 15 minutes.

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How To: Once all your inventory is organized according to categories, your POS system must also be configured in similar fashion. All sales in your RED category for instance, must be grouped together so you can look at total RED sales to see how many ounces you’ve rung in for that category. The same

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

thing must be done with all other categories. All BLACK, WHITE, DOMESTIC, and IMPORT sales must be grouped together. Some nightclubs keep this very simple by just having literally four of five buttons on their POS, one for each category. I worked in one nightclub where our cash register only had five buttons: red, yellow, domestic, import and Red Bull. In some

places, where they have drinks with different drink recipes — 4 oz drinks with 1 oz from RED, 2 ½ ounces of BLACK, and ½ ounce of WHITE — programming the POS so all of these sales go into their corresponding category and are accounted for properly can become complicated. However, once it is organized, you want to be able to simply print out an itemized sales report from your POS and get total sales for each category. Going back to the formula: Beginning Inventory + Incoming Inventory – Ending Inventory = Usage You calculate usage by counting at the beginning of the shift before the bar is open to the public, keeping a record of any requisitions going to the bar from the stock room during the night, and by counting again at the end of the night. All of your inventory is organized by its category. For example, to audit your RED liquor, weigh in your RED bottles: 25 @ 1,054 (What that means is 25 bottles weighing in at 1,054 oz). 14 @ 675 Total: 39 @ 1729 You will have another column for your requisitions, or incoming inventory. This represents a requisition from the stock room, if the bar runs out of product and requires more stock: 2 @ 60 4 @ 144 Total 8 @ 204 Then you will have your ending inventory: 25 @ 947 22 @ 804 Total 47 @ 1,751 Now, use the liquor control formula to calculate usage in ounces: Beginning + Incoming – End = Usage 1729 + 204 – 1751 = 182 Your usage in this example for RED inventory is 182 oz. The next step is to make a comparison to sales. Say, arbitrarily, that total RED sales on your POS amounted to 180. Your variance would be negative 2 oz in this case. In the nightly audit, this process is done for all categories (In this example: BLACK, WHITE, RED, DOMESTIC,

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IMPORT), and all variances are collected for at retail value. When all paybacks have been collected, they are either kept as cash, or they are rung through the POS back into whatever category they were being collected for. Paybacks for those 2 oz of RED for example, would be rung into the RED category once they were collected from the bartenders. This is a broad explanation of the nightly weigh-out, and this is the method by which most nightclubs control their inventory. If there are multiple stations in the bar, this is done for every station in the building. The nightly audit is not perfect, and most nightclubs owners use nightly audits and weekly audits on top to make sure the nightly audits are being done properly.

Monthly Audits are conducted in the exact same fashion as the weekly audit, except as the name suggests, the process is drawn out over a month. You count at the beginning of the month, add all your incoming inventory, and count again at the end. Apply the liquor control formula to calculate usage, then make a comparison to sales for the same period. The process does not change. Most average sized bars can not use monthly audits effectively because audits are procedures that are designed to neutralize variance as it occurs. If you are doing significant sales and try to use a monthly audit, by the time you find out about it, the liquor inventory (along with the money) is gone. This kind of audit is only suitable for a business that does not do much in liquor sales and where the environment is extremely controlled. A small family run restaurant that only does about $200 a week in liquor sales for example, and only has one liquor order per month, would be a candidate for this. Clubhouses, American legion halls, convention centers, etc., also may be candidates, as they are not constantly doing liquor sales and their stock is small. That is a basic overview of the kinds of audits used by nightclub, bar and restaurant owners to control liquor variance. Variance is always a concern for bar owners, and audits are the best way www.barbizmag.com

owners can minimize their shrinkage. It’s not the most exciting job in the business; however, auditing is a necessary function when controlling costs is a high priority. Kevin Tam is a bar and nightclub consultant with over a decade of experience working with bars and nightclubs at all points of the spectrum, from family owned

single-bar businesses to million dollar enterprises with multiple locations. In 2011, he published his first book, Night Club Marketing Systems — How to Get Customers for Your Bar. He currently operates a liquor auditing practice that serves the needs of bar and nightclub owners in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Kevin's can be reached directly at kevintam@bevintel.com

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August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

How To:

ofit r P y l r e p o r P With POS

Keep inTouch With the POS market expanding, in both new hardware technology and the sheer number of options available, price point and power continue to dominate on-premise decisions when it comes time to pick a platform. By Chris Ytuarte

t first there were a few, then a few more, and now, they’re everywhere. In the on-premise environment, point of sale (POS) systems have become much more the norm than the rarity. So how does one company make its way amongst the many? And how does that benefit you? The key to the emergence of Harbortouch in the POS marketplace has been its innovative approach to

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reducing the sometimes-staggering upfront costs of investing in this technology, especially for smaller bar and restaurant owners wary of the initial price tag. In fact, the company offers its hardware for free. (To find out more, visit www.harbortouchcenter.com.) But there is more to it, these days. Harbortouch is a national supplier of POS systems, credit card processing equipment and merchant services. We

spoke with Harbortouch CEO Jared Isaacman about the growing POS marketplace, the necessity of this technology on-premise in 2014, and how his company is reacting to a new segment of similarly cost-efficient models available today. The bottom line is this: A bar without POS is like a boat without a paddle — you’re gonna float for a while, but you’re not likely to get very far.

August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

How To: BB: What has 2014 been like for POS? ISAACMAN: I think the industry as a whole is realizing that POS technology is the certainly the way businesses are going to conduct commerce on a large scale. It certainly no longer is just going to be your mega retail chains and your big restaurants; it’s going to be, at some point, universal. And low-cost POS systems are a big factor in that. Instead of them being $20,000- or $30,000-apop, they’ll be similar to our model. BB: How is the second half of 2014 shaping up for Harboutouch? ISAACMAN: We’re excited about the second half of the year because we’re unveiling two new products at our sales conference at the end of September. We just came back from a marketing meeting and from our perspective what we’re unveiling makes what everyone else is just coming out with now about five-years obsolete. BB: Can you go into any specifics about the new products? ISAACMAN: I will tell you that we’re an organization here that likes to take a lot of Apple influence into our design philosophy and our software philosophy, and it’s been two years since we released our Elite hardware, which from our perspective is still cutting edge. But I’d say that makes us about due for a new hardware release, maybe two new hardware types coming out, and certainly the latest versions of software and value-added services too.

may start to believe that. So I think the awareness factor has gone way up. Now, the number of unique and effective solutions really has not. BB: Is the low-cost investment in Harbortouch still the biggest draw for bar owners? ISAACMAN: : That’s an awesome question. Because there’s no doubt that was our strongest selling point when our competition was MICROS and Radiant, etc. When everybody else is $20,000 or $30,000 dollars with $500 equipment fees, and we’re $69, we don’t bother get into all of the ‘Our equipment is better than yours,’ or ‘Our software does more things than yours,’ because economics wins alone. Now, you have tablet solutions and $99-a-month POS solutions, like Clover, which can be $90-a-month. So yes, you have more choices and you have more options that are getting closer to our cost-of-ownership. So all that does is just open up the conversations we’ve been waiting to have for five years where we say, ‘Ok, but that’s a stripped-down ECR, ours is a full-featured POS, and they don’t give you Reservations, they don’t give you Tableside or remote online POS management like our Lighthouse

product.’ So we’re talking about more things now than just price, which is what we were doing for a while, but that’s o.k. Our value proposition is still awesome. BB: Can a bar owner today truly maximize a venue’s potential without a POS system? ISAACMAN: No. There’s no way. I understood that economics were a barrier of entry for a long time, but wind back the clock even ten years ago, when your only option might have been a $25,000 MICROS-type system. The business had a much better chance by having it. Costs aside, your operational efficiency and table turnover is going to be dramatically higher with POS; you’re costing your business money every single day by not having one. Regardless of economics, there is value, especially in the hospitality segment. Retail can maybe get away with it by doing old-school inventory methods. But now, with customer loyalty progeams and such, it’s getting harder for retail to not have POS. But definitely, bar and restaurant hospitality venues have to have POS, and the fact that it’s more affordable now takes away all the excuses. It’s a must.

BB: Is the growing number of POS companies entering the marketplace driving down system costs overall? ISAACMAN: I think what it’s doing is raising awareness, first and foremost. As consumers an even business owners, we react to what we hear everyday. We listen to the walls talking around us. And when you have nine different sales people walk into your restaurant saying, ‘Why don’t you have POS?’ and ‘Why don’t you have a tablet?’ and ‘You’re falling behind the times,’ eventually you

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

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avid Madochick, Co-owner of Rivals Sports Bar & Restaurant in Easton, Pennsylvania, is well versed in the importance of POS. With 17 TV screens, the venue draws big crowds for sporting events, especially between local teams, and Madochick knows his POS keeps him afloat. “For a basic, hole-in-wall bar, it might be a little easier to not use POS, but we’re very high-volume and we sell a lot of food here,” he says. “So for us it would be nearly impossible to do that.” Currently operating four Harbortouch POS units at Rivals, Madochick gave Harbortouch the homefield advantage before realizing the deeper appeal. “I found out they are from Allentown, which is my hometown, so I contacted them, and then the draw was obviously that it was free,” says Madochick. “It was an easy decision because, getting started, you don’t know what unexpected costs you’re going to have. To erase the burden of $15,000 for a POS system, you can use that money for a lot of other things.” Beyond the upfront cost benefits, Madochick also found the ease-of-use and the software options a step above his previous POS experiences. “With Harbortouch you can go into Lighthouse from any computer and change any of your prices and program different things," he says. "If you want to offer some kind of special, it immediately updates, whereas I’ve had systems in the past where you had to restart the whole thing, which is a problem when you’re in the middle of a busy night.”

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Dear Irving

Somewhere in Time…

The next big thing in bars and lounges is yesterday’s news, from retro décor to cocktail recipes and even staff uniforms. By Elyse Glickman

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

www.barbizmag.com

Dear Irving

ontrary to popular belief, time machines exist. With your iPod playlist or Pandora app, you can go back to your college halcyon days…or your parents or grandparents! The same goes for your television’s remote control, thanks to television series like Mad Men (60s), The Goldbergs (80s). When it comes to offering “time travel” in an experiential, three-dimensional way, bars are tuning in to the sounds, sights and flavors of decades gone by. This is not a new trend, as the classic cocktail movement a decade ago prompted mixologists and bar owners to rediscover the lighter side of the Prohibition years. However, there’s more ground to cover, and all kinds of creative ways to do it.

Image is Everything At press time, the newly opened Dear Irving, based on Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris was causing a stir. At this New York City cocktail parlor, conceptualized by Belgian designer Delphine Mauroit and enlivened by mixologist Meaghan Dorman, guests walk into a JFK Post-War 50’s-inspired room adorned with Marilyn Monroe-themed zebra wallpaper, black leather chairs and the ubiquitous wooden paneling. Another doorway leads to the 1920’s-themed F. Scott Fitzgerald Room, outfitted with velvet banquets, beaded curtains, rich color palettes and geometric design elements. 1880s gothic elegance is brought to life in the Queen Victoria Room, while the late 18th century is personified in the Marie-Antoinette Room. Uptown, The Harlem Shake stands as a nod to African-American history and pop culture spanning the 1940s through the 1980s. To make the idea classy www.barbizmag.com

rather than kitschy, owner Jelena Pasic explains that she and her interior designer, Dennis Decker, put much thought and consideration into how they would go about restoring the building at the corner of Lenox Ave. & W. 124th. “You really need to do your research so you don’t end up being Disney-esqe,” cautions Pasic. “Once your concept is in place, you should then edit out any item so the final look will be authentic rather than overdone. (There are many) places overflowing with tchotchkes from various eras that ultimately don’t serve a function. I spent time pouring through public archive photos, and reading about Harlem businesses that existed between the 40s through the 80s. When Dennis and I put together restaurant necessities from different eras, the hand dryers and ceiling fans had to work.” Partially-restored “original” features include a tobacco and water leak-stained tin ceiling and a nonglazed hexagonal tiled floor. These are juxtaposed with Formica-striped wainscoting, chrome, ribbed glass and deep green vinyl covered booths. Even the restrooms are part of the fun. Above the tiled area, walls are papered with original JET magazine covers from the 1950’s through today. “While the beverage program isn’t necessarily retro because of what products are available, we stay true to our theme by sourcing beers, wines and sodas locally or from independent producers,” says Pasic. Griffin Farro, mixologist at The Bramble and Hare in Boulder, CO, notes that while the ambiance of his venue mirrors a rustic inn of the 1930s and 40s, the overall concept requires a sense of timelessness. “When you walked into a bar in 1938, there wouldn’t August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

The Harlem Shake

be advertisements from that era on the wall,” Farro points out. “We lean heavily on (bartending) techniques that were in play when people couldn’t easily get ingredients shipped out to them. While doing classic cocktails is cool, we intend to keep innovating and trying new things. Cocktails in history are as American as apple pie, and all bartenders should study as much of each era so they can reference and make perfect drinks for their customers,” he says.

Lights, Camera, Cocktails! Just south of Los Angeles’ fabled Sunset Boulevard, The Next Door Lounge stands as one of the more successful bars recalling the “speakeasy” of the roaring 20s. The ambiance incorporates period musical performances, a Dapper Doorman requesting the bar’s “password,” and a modern food menu that complements the flavor profiles of era-inspired cocktails developed by Joseph Brooke, winner of NBC’s On the Rocks: The Search of America’s Top Bartender. Today, barman Zachary Henry carries the vision behind the bar forward. 32

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

“Today’s bar-goers, especially in major cities, are very savvy, know what they want, and have a discriminating palate,” observes Ferris Wehbe, owner of Next Door Lounge. “Distinctiveness is key in a marketplace like Los Angeles, which is filled with so many innovative establishments. To stay competitive, it is very important to stay true to our theme and our brand, so patrons remember who we are.” Next Door Lounge’s interior and exterior design translates the popular speakeasy setting the way it specifically existed in Hollywood. The outside is graced with a neon-lit key with the word “Lounge.” This strategy begets a “secret club” without having to enforce the typical velvet-rope policy enforced by other Hollywood clubs. “That curiosity generated a steady flow of patrons since we first opened three years ago,” Wehbe continues. “We still have people discovering Next Door Lounge for the very first time who express an ‘a ha!’ moment!” A left turn on Third Street from Highland Avenue takes you from Hollywood to Beverly Hills’ eastern border, and forward in time from the 1920s to the 1950s and 1960s at Riviera 31, anchoring the Sofitel Beverly Hills. Jake Saady, partner at parent firm Xperiment USA notes that photos from the archieves of noted celebrity photographer Edward Quinn set the tone, while the cocktails and live enetertainment elements complete the picture, figuratively and literally. “What we’re capturing has a lot to do with the way celebrities celebrated life in that time and place… how they dressed, ate and drank with a formality and grace,” explains Saady. “We parallel that experience through our cocktail menu, food and service in the lounge.” While Quinn’s large, framed photos of Bridgett Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, Sophia Loren and Grace Kelly on the Riviera capture the era’s “Dolce Vita,” the indoor space’s custom-made black and white striped drapes put the customers into the picture. Music performances, staged six nights a week, revolve around French and Italian pop, jazz, be-bop and other time-appropriate music. Cocktails are named for spots celebrities made their home-away-from-Hollywood. “ When looking to create the feeling of a certain time and place, stay true to your programming and customer service,” says Saady. “Our menu retains the integrity of the period by using liqueurs and ingredients that you would have found on menus at those Riviera hotels back in the 50s and 60s.” www.barbizmag.com

While taking care to not be too theme-y, The Warwick in Hollywood changes its ambiance every season along with its drinks. When it first opened earlier in 2014, Partner Sylvain Bitton noted the ambiance captured the feel of late 1960s London. This summer, he and is partners set sail for the late 1950s. Cocktail attendants were dressed in glamorous vintage-style swimsuits designed by Pinup Girl, while male bartenders were attired in striped tees and white chinos. Even with the swell setting, however, Beverage Directors Jason Bran and Damian Windsor insist on keeping their original and traditional cocktails fresh and modern with seasonal fixings prepared nightly in the bar’s adjacent “Warwick Workshop.” “Our ultimate goal is to make the guest feel like he or she is somewhere other than L.A.,” says Bitton. “For the summer, we wanted guests to feel like they were on vacation, and design the indoor space so it would ‘feel’ like it was outside, through light colors, awning stripes, beach art, seasonal cocktails and uniforms.” A drive down Ventura Boulevard in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, meanwhile, brings a visitor a “greatest hits” of mid-to-late 20th century popular culture, especially with a colorful assortment of neon signs and buildings that span the decades. In keeping with that spirit, The Tunnel Bar and The One Up are adding to the area’s character. Under the exacting auspices of creator/restaurateur Richard DiSisto, The Tunnel Bar brings together the grit of pre-Mayor Giuliani 1970s New York City, the cauldron of rock music talent brewing at Max’s Kansas City and the earthy elements of bridges, tunnels and subway corridors. Though quality cocktails are important to DiSisto, what’s more important to his vision is the authenticity of the experience he and his team built from the ground up. “It is not necessary that every 26- or 35 year-old customer recognizes Johnny Thunders after he left the New York Dolls,” says DiSisto, pointing out the imposing portraits of Thunders, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, and Johnny Ramone that accent the walls. “What is important is that everything comes together to create an experience where feeling the ambiance is more important than knowing it. You cannot cut and paste vintage and retro together.” DiSisto elaborates that by returning to the cocktails of that era, he is creating a way to make drinks that are more approachable than craft cocktails at some other spots. “We will take you back to that time and place, but do it in a way that makes that Alabama Slammer the best you’ve tried,” he says. Murphy Michaels, who founded newly opened Sherman Oaks establishment The One Up, describes his venture as a “Bizarre Love Triangle” between a cool www.barbizmag.com

neighborhood bar, a swanky lounge and a time machine. The big attraction is fifteen rooms packed with free fun and games, including Pac-Man, Centipede and Donkey Kong, and other 80s and 90s titles. “If you talk to people about the 1980s, many see it as the last decade that’s identifiable with its specific trends and pop cultural touchstones. While people my age like revisiting their youth, the notion of a 1980s experience is old school cool for people in their 20s.” The Grant Grill, at San Diego landmark U.S. Grant Hotel, puts their spin on twisted time travel through a menu of “Super Throwbacks,” 70s and 80s inspiredcocktails updated with ingredients reflecting the health concerns of 21st century customers. Head mixologist Jeff Josenhans suggests the bar’s team literally has to be in the moment. “A retro bar completely dedicated to one time era has to be completely dedicated bringing that era to life,” he says. “The staff needs to act it, feel it and love what they do. The graphics, glasses, food, uniforms and so on need to be in line with the concept, and there should be a minimal amount of blending with other eras.” While some clubs suggest certain eras, others put guests into the middle of a specific time and place. However, a common thread that runs through these evocative spaces is that owners are careful to keep customers rooted in the present day by addressing modern palates and sensibilities no matter how far they take their vision. They reason that if the trip is good, they’ll want to take the ride more than once.

The Tunnel

August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

Time Machine Recipes

All that Razz

From the Next Door Lounge, Los Angeles, CA All that Razz 1½ oz St George Terroir Gin ½ oz Lillet Rose ¾ oz lemon juice ½ oz simple syrup 5 raspberries Muddle four raspberries. Shake and strain in a coupette and garnish with a raspberry. Madhattan 1½ oz Makers 46 ¼ oz Carpano Antica ¼ oz Cynar Splash Benedictine 4 dash of Wild Flower Bitters Add ice to mixing glass and stir served in double rocks glass with large ice cube. Garnish Ruby Red Grapefruit twist Updated recipe by Daniel Zacharczuk, The Tunnel, Sherman Oaks, CA Alabama Slammer 1 oz Lazzaroni Amaretto 1 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin 1 oz Plantation 3 Stars Silver Rum 3 oz fresh orange juice ½ oz Fresh lime juice

La Pina Colada Gigante Damian Windsor and Jason Bran, The Warwick, Hollywood, CA La Pina Colada Gigante 4 oz or more good quality white rum* 5 oz fresh squeezed pineapple juice 4 oz fresh creamed coconut 15 oz crushed ice Shake and dump into a cored pineapple and serve with straws to cheers, and a pat on the back. Drink and repeat. * Cana Brava or Banks 5 recommended ** Coco Real or Coco Lopez will also work 34

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

From The Riviera 31 at Sofitel Los Angeles Beverly Hills, CA La Voile Rouge By the Riviera 31 Mixology Team 8 oz Patron Silver Tequila 4 oz Patron Citronage 4 Slices fresh watermelon 8 oz Lime juice agave Mix all ingredients in punch bowl, serve over ice. (Makes 4) Matthew Biancaniello, Riviera 31 Juan Les Pines 2 oz Nolet Gin 1 oz grapefruit juice ½ oz blood orange Juice 1 oz honey syrup Cardamom and sugar rim Mix all ingredients into shaker, sugar and cardamom rim and pour into a shaker. From Jeff Josenhans at The Grant Grill, San Diego, CA Raw Pina Colada 1½ oz Banana Peel Rum ¾ oz Parrot Bay ¾ oz Camu Camu Infused Agave ¾ oz fresh key lime 1 egg white Shake hard and strain into coupe. Garnish with pineapple leaf and Camu Camu Sprinkle Big Island Iced Tea 1 oz Strawberry Infused Vodka 1 oz Mt. Gay Black Barrel Rum ½ oz oz St George Terroir Gin ½ oz Dickel White Whiskey 2 oz Hibiscus Tea 1 oz fresh juiced strawberries ½ oz Miracle Fruit infused cane sugar Build and stir drink in large goblet over ice. Garnish with small hibiscus flower. Golden Tequila Sunrise 2 oz Don Julio Blanco 2 oz fresh juiced mango ½ oz fresh pressed key lime ¾ oz housemade beet grenadine, sanding sugar mixed with golden berry powder Pre-rim highball glass with golden berry powder/sugar rim, add grenadine to glass, add ice to glass, shake rest of ingredients and pour over rocks. Garnish with mango slice.

From Meaghan Dorman, Dear Irving, New York, NY Whiskey Business 1 dash angostura bitters ½ oz fresh lemon juice ½ oz cinnamon syrup 1 oz Bulliet Rye 1 oz Ancho Reyes Liqueur Shake with ice, strain into rocks glass over one big cube. Float lemon wheel on cube and sprinkle a dash of ancho chile powder on lemon wheel. Vice Versa ¾ oz fresh grapefruit ½ oz Luxardo Bitters ½ oz Giffard Pamplemousse 1 oz Dorothy Parker Gin 2 oz Raventos rose cava Shake with ice and strain into large coupe. Top with rose cava.

Alabama Slammer

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utdoors The Great

A review of some best practices for building your outdoor bar, for this season or next.

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

By Deborah Harris

www.barbizmag.com

he average American spends 95% of their day indoors. It is sad but true. Combine our hours spent slumbering, working and commuting and it is clear how little time is spent outside of four walls. For a species free to roam it seems we are rather cooped up. Contact with nature is mucho important, according to Harvard Health. Ok, they didn’t actually say mucho, but they did say time outdoors elevates vitamin D levels, makes you happier, improves your concentration and may help you heal faster. Yet we sit in cubicles, offices and homes separated from the outdoors by a brick wall and a pane of glass. Depressing as that is, there is hope. A spectacular problem makes for a grand opportunity. If your location has access to outdoor space, take advantage of it — happy clients, additional patrons, increased revenue opportunities. Take the plunge and expand your usable space by stepping into the great outdoors. Here’s how.

WEATHER THE WEATHER Whether in Seattle, Phoenix, New Orleans or San Diego, Mother Nature calls the shots when it comes to the success or failure of an outdoor experience. And this moody lady can make or break an investment if she is not handled correctly. “Keeping clients comfortable is always a top priority for us,” state Kristin Ott and Megan Lovelady of Speakeasy in Austin, Texas. Yet keeping people comfortable outdoors has different requirements than keeping them content indoors. Seating and service are the common denominators, but temperature is the variable. Wind, rain, night chill, humidity, and the elements are not always our friends. Understand your climate. Do your research. Then create an outdoor space that can be maximized for revenue. “We have found that unless you have a lot of them, overhead heaters are not great once the weather changes in Minnesota. The very cold winter comes pretty quick,” imparts Shane Higgins, owner of Brit’s Pub in Minneapolis, MN. This popular pub boasts three outdoor spaces that can accommodate nine hundred people. Two or three very cold months per year?…do what Shane does, skip investing in overhead heating systems and instead close your outdoor space during these colder darker days.

Innovative Solutions

These days, outdoor furniture can be functional, stylish, and weather resistant all in one. www.barbizmag.com

The most critical aspect to creating a popular outdoor space is comfort. No matter the city, chilly air and blinding sun affect everyone. Conquer these elements and you are on a path to success. Creatively address these issues and you have just jumped ahead of your competition, creating a space that has cache and draw. Solar panel canopies, heated furniture and soft shade structures are both functional and buzz worthy. These outside-of-the-box concepts may be on the higher end of the cost continuum but their efficiency, comfort and aesthetic appeal offset the initial investment in spades. August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

Sometimes a little bit of Zen can make an outdoor area inviting. Warm and Toasty Heated furniture is a new to market concept led by Galanter Jones, an innovator in the outdoor furniture space. Think car-seat warmers, but with cocktail service and alcohol. How nice! “I was surprised to see there weren’t any heated furniture options,” states Aaron Jones, owner of Galanter Jones. “I created a oneoff piece for a project I was working on and recognized the very unique opportunity in the space.” Focusing solely on solving a widespread dilemma of keeping patrons warm on chilly nights, Aaron developed cutting-edge technology that allows for an internal heating element to warm an entire seating area with temperatures not exceeding 120 degrees. “Sitting on these pieces is similar to immersing yourself in a hot tub. They are also very energy efficient,” communicates Aaron. “More efficient than propane overhead heaters because you are making direct contact with the heated surface. The heat doesn’t have to warm the air and then the air the person.” Galanter Jones has stand-alone pieces that are fabricated upon request. They, as well, create custom seating for individual spaces. The furniture is made of cast stone so storage is not necessary; pieces weather the elements and look better with age. A heated banquette system is currently in production.

Made in the Shade Shade structures are also key to creating an outdoor space that can be utilized day and night. Awnings and umbrellas get the job done, but why stop at sufficient? 38

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

Create a space that is useful and buzz-worthy. Block the sun with high style, step outside of the norm and purchase soft shade or solar panel canopies. Shade sails and soft shade structures have the ability to span large distances and can be fully customized and uniquely designed. They block UV rays with an almost sculptural aesthetic. Be sure to purchase a shade constructed with high-strength, waterproof material. There are many less expensive items on the market that will not stand the test of time or fully protect your space from Mother Nature. On the opposite end of the spectrum, solar panel canopies are highly innovative solutions that provide protection from the sun while harnessing these same eye-squinting rays into useful energy to help power your space. Eyesores no more, this energizing technology has been refined for an aesthetically pleasing presentation. And solar panel solutions come with federal tax rebates of 30% with certain states and utilities offering credits as well. Not to mention the extra boost of power you will receive to help run your POS, sound system, projectors and overhead fans among other things. While considering the cost, don’t forget, these innovative solutions do double duty. Heated furniture provides temperature control and seating, solar panel canopies offer shade while supplying energy, and soft shade structures create a unique aesthetic while protecting patrons from the elements.

SET YOURSELF APART Get Your Lounge On

Comfort goes hand-in-hand with relaxation. Now that you’ve got your climate under control, how else can you tempt the working crowd to enter your lair and stay for a while? Open door — insert bed! No, not a Sealy Perfect Sleeper, a lounging bed…or any lounging area for that matter…the more comfortable the better. Set up sections with intimate seating arrangements. Quiet nooks for an evening tête-à-tête can be quickly converted to VIP seating primetime. Speakeasy in Austin does just this. Their rooftop bar is complete with lounging beds, a dance floor, a fully stocked bar and an amazing view, earning Speakeasy’s Terrace59 accolades as one of the best rooftop bars in Austin. It is increasingly important to appeal to an overworked demographic… be the place to unwind and you will be busy all of the time.

Be a Sport You don’t have to be a math major to know Sports + Beer = Revenue. Become THE place to watch sporting events by installing projection screens in your outdoor spaces. “Bigger screens, bigger impact and a bigger appeal,” communicate the folks at Casio regarding their LampFree projectors. These maintenance-free projectors offer life-sized action without the headaches. No bulbs or filters to replace, Casio LampFree projectors can run 23 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. www.barbizmag.com

Theme Party Outdoor spaces are simply and easily transformed through decorative elements, furniture choices, music, specialty cocktails and bar food selections. Don’t get stuck at “Bar.” Go speakeasy, Russian vodka room, surf club, ski lodge or zen lounge. Create an identity that clients (and press) can hang their hats on. The Hudson Hotel brought the slopes to NYC in 2012 with their ski-themed Hudson Lodge. Reclaimed wood accents, faux fur throws, lanterns and authentic taxidermy complimented warm spiked cocktails, and s’mores grilled cheeses. Theme your space with sophistication and conviction; a unique, fun and hip atmosphere attracts crowds.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS Store It Right

Indoor or covered storage space is a necessity when it comes to maintaining your outdoor bar. Since the importance of purchasing quality items has already been established it should go without saying the maintenance of these items is paramount. When conceptualizing your outdoor bar, do so with storage availability in mind. Whether stowing nightly or in the off-season, most locations will need an accommodating space. Don’t buy more furniture than you have room to store. Or, purchase items that can stand up to adverse conditions. And make the most of your storage area by mounting hooks on the walls and hanging shelves with baskets for cushions, umbrellas

and other decorative items. Keep valuable pieces off the floor and designate specific locations for everything. Paint or tape out a floor plan and label each area. Leave the guesswork out of it and save yourself time and money in the long run.

Check the weather report. You can’t predict Mother Nature, but it’s good to have an idea of what’s in store for the day. Staff It Right When opening an outdoor bar, hiring seasonal help will likely be in the cards. Expanding your footprint and increasing capacity will go all wrong without the staff to handle it. Brit’s Pub’s staff jumps from 100 to 170 employees in the summertime. With an additional exterior capacity of 900 people it goes without saying they need a lot more hands on deck when the sun is shining. Employ barbacks that can bartend and bartenders that can serve. This will allow you to repurpose staff on slower days and support key positions when you are flooded with happy drinkers. Lastly, check the weather report regularly. “We use the weather radar a hell of a lot,” says Shane Higgins. You can’t predict Mother Nature but it’s good to have an idea of what’s in store!

The Soleil line of outdoor pieces from Modern Line Furniture can be fitted with Sunbrella fabric, which comes with a 10-year warranty in protecting against harsh weather and the elements. www.barbizmag.com

August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

Big

SAN FRANCISCO BOSTON CHICAGO LAS VEGAS

MIAMI NEW YORK

The Interval in San Francisco is a new venue that takes a fresh approach to modern nightlife by embracing some rather antiquated notions: cultivated conversation and contemplative carousing over a cocktail or two.

A MOMENT IN TIME By Chris Ytuarte 40

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

www.barbizmag.com

LEFT: BECAUSE WE CAN; TOP: MICHAEL DAVID ROSE

ost bars are filled with moments. For customers, it’s that period of relaxation between quitting time at the office and dinner time back home, or maybe those minutes of anticipation between a blind date’s arrival and their first words; for the staff, it can be the few seconds between meeting a guest and finding out what kind of drink they want, or it might be those long hours that drag on between last call and finally turning off the lights. At a good bar, the great experiences are often found in between all of those little moments — in the intervals. Now, in San Francisco, we find The Interval, a newly opened bar within Fort Mason Center that aims to foster and host such moments. Founded by The Long Now Foundation, a collective that hopes to “provide a counterpoint to today’s accelerating culture and

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The unique furniture at The Interval, from the large communal table to the curated book collection, is all meant to stimulate discussion. help make long-term thinking more common,” The Interval is a throwback to the old ways of the original public houses, in that its entire design was aimed at encouraging conversation, yet, at the same time, is one of the most forward-thinking, high-brow watering holes you’ll ever step foot in. “The tag line for the project as we designed it was, ‘A Place for Conversation,’” explains Alexander Rose, Executive Director of The Long Now Foundation. “We think that has been very much lost in traditional bar and club design, where you end up shouting over each other and they keep raising the level of the music. You

go out with your friends, shout into a few ears and no one ever hears each other. That was not the kind of place we wanted to design.” Described as equal parts library, bar, museum, and café, The Interval is ambitious in its design, its goals, and its purpose. The two-story site, dating back to the 1930s, maintains much of the original foundation from its days as a forge and machine shop. The industrial feel fits well with The Long Now Foundation, which itself was created in 1996 to build a 10,000-year all-mechanical clock at monument scale. “We’ve built several prototypes that are in museums around the world, August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

Big

SAN FRANCISCO BOSTON CHICAGO LAS VEGAS

MIAMI NEW YORK

and some of those prototypes are here now at The Interval,” says Rose, who adds that the full scale clock is currently underway in West Texas, funded by Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Several other projects are on the slate at The Long Now Foundation, including The Rosetta Project, through which the organization is trying to preserve a small amount of every language in the world. But it was the group’s long-running monthly seminar series hosted in the unnamed Fort Mason Center venue, where authors and scientists talked about various issues, that led to the idea for turning the location into what is now The Interval. “We had been in this space since 2006,” says Rose “We made it a little museum and a bookstore with offices upstairs. It was not very active during the day, and it closed at night, except for one night a month when we held receptions after our seminar series. We’d have 400 people get out of the seminar and about 100 of them would walk into the space and stand there with a glass of wine continuing the discussion that was started by the talk they just heard. In looking at what we could do to make the space more active and to achieve the goals of the Foundation, we realized we needed to make that one-night-a-month the rule instead of the exception.” As the group began to consider its approach in creating a fulltime venue, the physical location became an asset: being on federal property made it easier to sell liquor outside of the typically stringent state-based laws 42

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

governing such commerce; plus, there were no other bars within a mile of them because of the configuration of the state park in which they reside. “So it was filling both a commercial need as well as serving the Foundation’s goals, and it also provided us a small event space for more impromptu and conversational events that we don’t have with our larger venues, which range from 500 to 1,000 people,” says Rose. At a modest 1,800 square feet, the space housing The Interval, along with the goal of fostering conversation, created an interesting challenge when it came to acoustics. “For instance,” says Rose, “we installed a highly distributed sound system that uses a lot of small speakers and hidden subwoofers so that you can play music at a low level and still be heard in conversation because the music is coming from so many sources that it just seems like it’s ambient around you. Even how and where we placed appliances — not putting hand driers in the bathroom, so when a door opens you don’t suddenly hear this loud noise — all of those things were considered

The Orrey displays all the planets visible from Earth without a telescope. to make a space quiet enough to have a nice conversation over a drink. Even the library books were designed, partly, as sound absorbers.” Those library books, of course, are carefully chosen to reflect the www.barbizmag.com

BOTTOM: PATRICIA CHANG; TOP: BECAUSE WE CAN

The Interval is “filling both a commercial need as well as serving the Foundation’s goals.”

Big

SAN FRANCISCO BOSTON CHICAGO LAS VEGAS

MIAMI NEW YORK

Meeting the insurance needs of all types of businesses with a specialty in restaurants, bars, nightclubs, adult businesses and billiard halls. Coverages include: general liability, liquor liability, professional liability, business income, workers comp, assault battery, property, signs, wind, hail, builder’s risk & more.

CALL TODAY!! Phone 813-855-0600 Toll Free 866-599-9940

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www.ctocinsurance.com 44

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

philosophies of the Long Now Foundation — “from floor to ceiling, thousands of books selected for their value in sustaining or rebuilding civilization, including great works of literature and references for building infrastructure, making steel, space travel, gardening, math, midwifery, and, the Manual for Civilization.” This is not your average bar décor. “We did a lot of research into the early coffee and tea houses of London and Paris and Holland to really make a place that could be used for great conversations that you don’t normally have,” says Rose. “The big table is a prototype from the clock project, and if you sit at that table, you can’t help but have a slightly different conversation than you would sitting at a slab of wood.” Part of the plan at The Interval is a different experience. One of The Long Now Foundation’s founders is legendary musician and producer Brian Eno, who helped build the audio environment; Rose is an industrial design expert who has

created award-winning combat robots and even robotic bartenders; and all profits from the bar go to a non-profit organization. Even the Foundation’s seven basic guidelines seem to fly directly against most standard nightlife business practices: Serve the long view, foster responsibility, reward patience, mind mythic depth, ally with competition, take no sides, leverage longevity. In a world where clubs open, make their money, and close within months, The Interval is after a different kind of moment in time. “An interval is a measure of time or the space between. An intervening period, a pause within time that is also time-less. All times intersect at The Interval: a place for discussing the future, enjoying the present, and celebrating the past.” “Interval is really a nice term because it’s both an amount of time but also the space between two events,” says Rose. “So it’s the time in between, which I think has a nice ambiguity — and it sounded good.” www.barbizmag.com

BECAUSE WE CAN

The round-bottom glass bottles that hang from suspended racks on the ceiling are numbered and allocated to customers who have donated to The Interval’s start-up costs. They can be filled with gin or whiskey crafted by local distiller St. George Spirits.

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12/16/13 10:55 PM

Inventory Beachwood Brewing Releases Coffee Chocolate Porter Take note beer fans: On July 29th Beachwood Brewing released the award winning Mocha Machine Imperial Coffee Chocolate Porter! Mocha Machine is a well-engineered endeavor in massive aromatics and rich flavors. The porter—which took home the 2014 World Beer Cup Bronze Medal in the Coffee Beer category—is brewed with an array of British and German malts and infused with masterfully roasted coffee from Costa Mesa California’s Portola Coffee Lab. Then aged in cacao nibs from Ecuador, this burly brew finishes with a dimension of fudge awesomeness. Mocha Machine will be available on draft and sold in 22 oz. bottles at both Beachwood locations: Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach and Beachwood BBQ & Brewing in Long Beach starting at 5pm on July 29, 2014. Bottles will also be available at finer craft beer retailers across Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties shortly thereafter. To find out more, visit www.beachwoodbbq.com.

Introducing Café de Paris® Just in time for summer entertaining, Pernod Ricard USA is launching a new line of sparkling wines, Café de Paris. A success story of French wine-making expertise, Café de Paris is the #1 French sparkling wine, made in Saint-André de Cubzac, in the region of Bordeaux. The brand was established in 1967 and has built expertise in making sparkling wines now exported in many countries around the world. With 10% alcohol content and a slightly sweet taste, Café de Paris taps into the emerging category of fruit-flavored sparkling wine. Its sophisticated “Parisian” personality is directly targeted to the millennial female consumer looking for a more premium option within this category. Café de Paris wines will be available in both pear and pomegranate flavors nationally as of July 2014 at a suggested retail price of $12.99. Café de Paris Pomegranate: Pale red in color with a delicate, complex nose of red fruits. To find out more visit www.cafedeparis.cn.

Loft & Bear Vodka Roars into the Market

Narragansett Beer Town Beach Imperial IPA

Emerging small-batch distillery Young State America (YSA) introduces Loft & Bear, an award-winning, craft, ultra-premium vodka, in California. Handcrafted in Downtown Los Angeles and distributed by Park Street, a leading industry importer and distributor, the brand represents the finest in artisanal vodka during a time of resurgence for the spirit. Loft & Bear is the creation of Master Distiller Paul Ryan Elliott, who at 28 years old is one of the youngest distillery owners in the country. Armed with a love for the spirit and ambitions to learn the art of distilling, Ryan acquired a loft in Downtown Los Angeles’ up-and-coming Arts District and embarked on a goal of creating a superior vodka completely unique in taste and feel. As it receives increasing industry recognition, Loft & Bear continues to be distilled and bottled exclusively in Paul’s Downtown commercial loft space. Loft & Bear was created in 2013 and honored with the silver medal at the 2013 New York International Spirits Competition. For more information visit www.LoftandBear.com.

New England’s Narragansett Beer continues to celebrate the summer season with the introduction of its all-new Town Beach Imperial IPA, the fifth installment of the Narragansett Private Stock series of 22-ounce limited edition craft offerings. With a base of pale malt and German Pilsner, ‘Gansett’s Town Beach Imperial IPA is a citrusy brew, accentuated by blonde malt and bittered with Nugget and Chinook hops. With Northern Brewer and Hallertau hops, this beer’s German and American ingredients are a nod to the six German-Americans who founded Narragansett in 1890. The evenlybalanced IPA has notes of citrus flavors rounded out with light carbonation for a flavorful yet supremely drinkable Imperial IPA at 8.1 percent Alcohol By Volume. Brewed by award-winning Brewmaster Sean Larkin at Buzzard’s Bay Brewing Co. in Westport, Mass., the beer features a label reminiscent of early 20th century packaging in homage to Narragansett’s 124-year history. For further information visit www.narragansettbeer.com.

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

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SW4 is For You

American-made Single Malt Whiskey

SW4 London Dry Gin is a new small batch and handcrafted gin distilled and bottled in Clapham North, South London. It features a proprietary 12 botanical recipe and is distilled 5 times to create a big, complex and smooth gin uniquely suited for mixing in both classic and contemporary cocktails. SW4 was created by Charles Maxwell, a local craft distiller whose family has been making gin there for 300 years and is one of only a handful of spirits producers still working on site in London. SW4 is truly an authentic London Dry Gin. While the herbaceous spirit is great year-round, summer provides many opportunities to break out the gin and give one of SW4 London Dry Gin’s exclusive recipes a whirl. Visit www.sw4gin.com.

This 4th of July, Seattle, WA’s Westland Distillery and San Francisco’s Anchor Distilling Company introduced a single malt whiskey to the nation – made with all-American ingredients and matured in true American style on U.S. soil. Opened in 2010, Westland Distillery evokes the traditions of Scottish whisky produced with ingredients exclusively from the Pacific Northwest. With a base of pale barley malt grown in Washington State, Westland American Single Malt Whiskey is produced from a grain bill comprised of five different roasted and kilned malts. Inspired by the craft-brewing culture of the region, specialty malts are then added to impart notes of chocolate, nuts, cookies, pastries, mocha, caramel and raisins. A Belgian brewer’s yeast further enhances flavor development – creating fruity esters during fermentation. Finally, the whiskey is matured in the finest new American oak casks to round out the flavor profile with hints of vanilla, caramel and coconut. The initial nose is awash in cherry cake and graham cracker. A rich creaminess emerges with creme brûlée and chocolate custard. For more information, visit www.AnchorDistilling.com.

New 70 Proof VEEV® 2.0

Wyborowa Wódka (Wybo) in the U.S.

VEEV® Spirits, one of the fastest growing independent spirits brands founded by the Reum brothers in 2007, announced today the launch of VEEV 2.0, a full brand repositioning that includes a reformulated 70 proof liquid, a redesigned package and a strategic focus on the Vodka category. Accompanied with a multi-million dollar ad campaign, the new VEEV will position itself as What Vodka Should Be™. Like its original 60 proof liqueur, VEEV 2.0 is already receiving trade awards and accolades, including 93pts from The Tasting Panel’s Anthony Dias Blue, as well as the highest Platinum award at The SIP Awards, the largest consumer tasting competition. VEEV, now designated as a Neutral Spirit, is similar to a vodka but crafted to be a more versatile and mixable spirit that reinforces VEEV as A Better Way To Drink™. The new liquid is complemented by a redesigned bottle with a bigger, striking new logo. For more information, visit www.veevlife.com.

The Wyborowa Company, a business unit within the Pernod Ricard Group, in collaboration with Crillon Importers Ltd., is pleased to announce the launch of Wyborowa Wódka, the #1 Polish vodka in Poland, in the U.S. Available in July in select markets, and coined “Wybo” in the states, the vodka is produced with pure rye grain exclusively from Poland, earning the esteemed Polish Vodka Seal. Wybo, created in 1927, is currently sold in more than 80 countries worldwide, and touts more than 20 international awards in addition to winning a Gold Medal in the 2014 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Wyborowa was the 3rd fastest growing premium vodka brand in the world in 2013. Available in a long neck bottle and a newly designed “ripped paper” label in navy blue and silver, Wybo is craft distilled in 40 small-scale agricultural distilleries in Western Poland and is run through a continuous distillation process giving the vodka its exceptional smoothness. Wybo will be distributed in the U.S. by Crillon Importers Ltd., headquartered in Paramus, N.J., an importer and owner of a variety of international spirits, and priced around $15.99 for 750 ml. For more information on Wyborowa, visit www.pernod-ricard.com.

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August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

Holiday Happenings

September 2014

Sept 3: Skyscraper Day. Challenge your customers to honor this day by creating their own bartop skyscraper of empty shot glasses stacked on top of each other following consumption.

Sept 4: NFL Opening Night The 2014 NFL season kicks off tonight with the Packers vs Seahawks, and nothing gets a bar crowded like guys salivating for football to finally arrive and the defending champs ready to roll.

Sept 8: First Monday Night Football Game. The real NFL season gets going with the first Monday Night Football event featuring the resurgent New York Giants vs. Detroit. GO BIG BLUE!

Sept 13: Defy Superstition Day. Have your guests celebrate this holiday by changing up tradition a bit and spilling the salt instead of licking it before a tequila shot. Bad luck be damned!

Sept 15: International Day of Democracy. On this day of democracy, show customers what this country is all about by having your bouncers vote on who gets in and who doesn’t. USA! USA! USA!

Sept 18: National Cheeseburger Day. Everyone loves a good cheeseburger. Heck, most people love a decent cheeseburger. I’ll take a totally mediocre cheeseburger any day of the week. So get the grill going today and serve your guests some beef.

Sept 21: Wife Appreciation Day. What better way to appreciate a wife than to host her husband in your bar on this night and get him out of the house. The ladies will love you for this, I promise.

Sept 22: National Centenarian’s Day. Look, if someone on this day walks into your bar with valid ID proving them to be 100 years old or above, it’s free drinks for life, no questions asked.

Sept 28: National Good Neighbor Day. Turn down the music, clean up those cigarette butts outside the door, and close up on time. Be a good neighbor today.

Sept 16: American Legion Day. The American Legion currently has over 3 million member veterans who gather to drink at some 14,000 posts worldwide. That’s a lot of business you’re not getting at your bar. (Just kidding – thanks for all your service, American veterans!)

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

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NFL IMAGE: 360B / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / GIANTS IMAGE: KEN DURDEN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / AMERICAN LEGION: TXKING / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Index of Advertisers COMPANY

WEB SITE ADDRESS

PAGE #

Agave Loco LLC (RumChata)

www.RumChata.com

Barzz.net

www.Barzz.net

Bob Johnson

www.BobTheBarGuy.com

Cabaret Design Group

www.CabaretDesigners.com

Coast to Coast Insurance

www.CtoCinsurance

Custom Earpiece

www.CustomEarpiece.com

G&G Closed Circuit Event LLC

www.GGboxing.com

Global Billiard Mfg

www.GlobalBilliard.com

Harbortouch Corp

www.harbortouch.com

Harbortouch CA

www.iharbortouch.com

Heineken USA

www.HeinekenUSA.com

Innova Products

www.strahlbeverageware.com

Intuit

www.quickbooks.com

McCormick Distilling Co Inc

www.PlatteValleyMoonshine.com

McCormick Distilling Co Inc

www.Vodka360.com

Modern Line Furniture

www.ModernlineFurniture.com

Perlick USA

www.perlick.com

Plug in & Pour

www.PlugInandPour.com

Royal Penn Products LLC

www.ez-squeeze.com

Shiftgig.com

www.Shiftgig.com

TouchTunes

www.TouchTunes.com

Western Spirits

www.20GRANDVODKA.COM

Wristband Specialty

www.wristbandsupply.com

Inventory Companies Anchor Distilling

www.AnchorDistilling.com

Beachwood Brewing

www.BeachwoodBBQ.com

Caf茅 de Paris

www.CafedeParis.cn

Loft & Bear Vodka

www.LoftandBear.com

Narragansett Beer

www.NarragansettBeer.com

SW4 London Dry Gin

www.SW4Gin.com

VEEV Spirits

www.VeevLife.com

Wyborowa W贸dka

www.Pernod-Ricard.com

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August 2014 Bar Business Magazine

Supply Side Spotlight

THE EXPERT IS IN By Chris Ytuarte

s a journalist, television personality, and cookbook author, David Rosengarten (www.drosengarten.com) has covered great food products, restaurants, wines, gastronomic travel destinations, and related subjects for over 25 years. He has written hundreds of articles and contributed hundreds of original recipes to publications such as Gourmet (where he was Restaurant Critic from 1996 to 2000), The New York Times, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Harperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bazaar, Departures, The Wine Spectator and Newsday, and is perhaps best known for his work as the host of Taste, the award-winning Food Network television show devoted to the principles of good taste in food and wine. Lately, David has been delving into importing and consulting for several local New York City restaurants and bars, helping them select great wines and ingredients from around the world to improve their business. So how can he help you? The expert is in. BB: How can bar and restaurant owners benefit most from working with someone like you to import and offer their customers top-flight ingredients, wines and spirits? DR: Because I get it. I know they want to offer their customers a unique dining experience that is unlike their competition. I bring them exquisite, reasonably priced, food-loving wines from across the world that are not currently represented in the U.S. market. So I fulfill their three needs of offering their customers something new, at a great price, that pairs beautifully with their food. BB: How has your past experience in the food and beverage industry given you an advantage in acting as an importer or consultant for on-premise establishments? DR: My chief experience has been as wine writer and cookbook author â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a coupling that has profoundly influenced my view that wine is for food! It sounds counter-intuitive for on-premise people: stock and sell those wines that go with food! Does that mean there should be less emphasis on wines that people drink without food? Yes! The payback is that the wine-withfood principle gets MORE people to order MORE wine with their food! No gastronomic Frenchman would go to a restaurant without ordering at least a bottle of good, simple wine with dinner. We have to get more Americans feeling natural doing that, every time. Having preached this gospel for decades, I am in the field picking wines to fuel this trend. BB: What are some of the most common missteps youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re seeing venue owners make these days, in terms of sourcing food and beverage? DR: I find that they tend to function within a realm of comfort that does not allow for experimentation. They stay the course when it comes to their wine lists instead of changing things up and going outside their usual comfort zone. They are also extremely sensitive to what price their customers will pay for their wine. If you offer them an undiscovered gem that is uncommon and memorable they will pay a little more for this exciting experience.

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

David Rosengarten knows more than you about wine and food, so listen up.

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Supply Side Spotlight

"Let's all strive for high ideals...but let's accept real quality in any form it comes."

BB: Talk about some of the rising trends in food and beverage that smart bar and restaurant owners should be aware of in 2014. DR: When consumers read the labels and menus, they are looking for the words 'organic,' 'locally sourced,' 'farm-to-table,' 'hand-picked' and 'fresh,' to name a few. Another rising trend in the food and beverage industry is the surge of pop-up restaurants in trucks and vans offering less expensive dining experiences that make eating convenient and easy. BB: Having worked in food and beverage for decades, what is your take on the current surge in consumer interest in the industry — specifically the fresh ingredients, farm-to-table, and authentic culinary and drinking experiences you just described? DR: It is an amazing revolution in America. I believe it is good for food and wine in almost every way. My only caution is this: Americans should not be doctrinaire about these things. Ultimately, the only really important criterion for food and wine is quality. If 'locavore' helps us get there, wonderful. But if Cesar Ramirez at Brooklyn Fare serves me an obscure Hokkaido fish that he flew in from Japan that day, I won’t complain. Let’s all strive for high ideals, because it refines our food consciousness…but let’s accept real quality in any form it comes. BB: How should bar and restaurant owners balance the wants of their customers with the recommendations of their suppliers/importers? DR: They should focus on the styles of wine versus origin and varietal. A consumer who prefers their Chardonnays unoaked should have the option of choosing one from Chablis, Napa and Casablanca. Or better yet, suggest a Pinot Gris!

Bar Business Magazine August 2014

BB: What simple food and wine pairings would you suggest any good bar or restaurant owner be able to deliver? DR: So much depends on the type of restaurant, of course. One of my favorite crazy-good, appetite-tickling ways to start any meal with Italian or Mediterranean overtones is salumi. Meat slicers on the bar, ready to thinly shave prosciutto, soppressata, etc., is an awesome thing. And big, frothy, purple glasses of dry Lambrusco — the every-meal practice throughout Italy’s greatest gastronomic region, Emilia-Romagna — should be a great inspiration. If the restaurant is more northern, as in 'French,' thin slices of raw fish with delicious accompaniments — forms of ceviche, Carpaccio, etc. — are also mouthwatering starters, and eye-opening good with zesty, electric dry Riesling, principally from Germany. BB: What do you suggest bar owners work on in order to specifically increase wine sales on-premise? DR: The most effective way to increase wine sales that does not call for an investment or change in the way the restaurant functions is to train their wait staff to be knowledgeable of the wines on the list. They have the undivided attention of their tables and can suggest wines that will pair perfectly with each course. In some states, they can also trade them up from glasses to bottles by pointing out that whatever is left in the bottle can be taken home. Another easy way to increase wine sales across the menu is to list the wines next to the corresponding meals. Essentially, the chef can “promote” every wine in his cellar by pairing them with the menu. No longer will wines be limited to a name on a list but will become the perfect partner to a sizzling steak, poached halibut or chicken Marsala.