Bar Business June/July 2020

June/July 2020

THE HOW-TO PUBLICATION

BAR BUS NESS MAGAZINE

Plus

WHAT’S TRENDING IN

TEQUILA

RESETTING

the Industry Meeting changing customer perceptions in the age of COVID-19.

barbizmag.com

OUTWARD BOUND

BUILDING YOUR OUTDOOR DINING AREA.

POS SYSTEMS

CONTACTLESS ORDERING AND PAYMENT.

CONTENTS June/July

HOW TOS

16

Don’t Let Your Menu Go to the “Dogs”

How your menu design directly impacts your bottom line.

20

Contactless in the Age of COVID-19

Payment systems go mobile and touch-free.

24

High Turnover Doesn’t Mean Low Expectations Maintain a high level of service despite high staff turnover.

26

Tuning Up: A Tech-Forward Strategy

Three ways to use technology to operate your bar in a postCOVID-19 world.

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

4

From the Editor

6

On Tap

10 11 14

A letter from our Editor Ashley Bray.

Industry news and announcements.

Health & Hospitality Tips for staying well.

Behind The Bar

30

Outward Bound

34

Don’t Reopen, Reset

Embracing the great outdoors is a solid first step in economic recovery.

What changing customer perceptions mean for your bar in the age of COVID-19.

In-depth analysis of beer, wine, and spirits.

Happenings

Important dates for the month.

37

Bar Tour

40

Inventory

44

Q+A

Viridian brings produce-driven cocktails and desserts to uptown Oakland.

Featured product releases.

Darek Bell, Owner, Corsair Distillery

barbizmag.com

COVER PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK/ HEDGEHOG94.

CONTENTS PHOTO: MILAGRO TEQUILA.

June/July 2020

Bar Business Magazine

1

THE HOW-TO PUBLICATION

BAR BUS NESS MAGAZINE

JUNE/JULY 2020

VOL. 13

NO. 5

Bar Business Magazine (ISSN 1944-7531) is published

by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation 88 Pine St 23rd Fl., New York, NY 10005

SUBSCRIPTION DEPARTMENT 800-895-4389

EXECUTIVE OFFICES President Arthur J. McGinnis, Jr. Publisher Art Sutley 212-620-7247 asutley@sbpub.com

EDITORIAL

Editor Ashley Bray 212-620-7220 abray@sbpub.com Contributing Writers Emily Eckart, Jane Freeman, Elyse Glickman, Jason Hollis, Doug Radkey, Marybeth Sheppard

ART

Art Director Nicole D’Antona Graphic Designer Hillary Coleman

PRODUCTION

Corporate Production Director Mary Conyers mconyers@sbpub.com

CIRCULATION

Circulation Director Maureen Cooney mcooney@sbpub.com

ADVERTISING SALES Art Sutley 212-620-7247 asutley@sbpub.com

Bar Business Magazine (Print ISSN 1944-7531, Digital ISSN 2161-5071) (USPS#000-342) is published eight times a year. February, April/May, June/July, August/September, October/November, and December/ January are print issues and January and March are only offered in a digital format at no charge by Simmons-Boardman Publ. Corp, 88 Pine St. 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10005. Printed in the U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and Additional mailing offices. Pricing, Qualified U.S. Bar Owners may request a free subscription. Non-qualified 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 & 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 ea. Subscriptions must be paid for in U.S. funds only. COPYRIGHT © Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation 2020. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced without permission. For reprint information contact: Art Sutley, Phone (212) 6207247, or asutley@sbpub.com. For Subscriptions, & address changes, Please call (US Only) 1-800-553-8878 (CANADA/INTL) 1-319-364-6167, Fax 1-319-364-4278, e-mail barbusiness@stamats.com or write to: Bar Business Magazine, Simmons-Boardman Publ. Corp, PO Box 1407, Cedar Rapids, IA. 52406-1407. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Bar Business Magazine, PO Box 1407, Cedar Rapids, IA. 524061407. Instructional information in this magazine should only be performed by skilled craftspeople with the proper equipment. The publisher and authors of information provided herein advise all readers 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.

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June/July 2020

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GREAT OLE SMOKY TASTE FOR THEM

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@OLESMOKY

FROM THE EDITOR

FROM THE EDITOR

This is a very dark moment for restaurants, bars, and event spaces, but the celebration of life that’s going to come after this is going to be huge.

– Winston Fisher, CEO of AREA15

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I

n this month’s issue, we dedicate an entire article to the evolving customer perception of bars and restaurants, “Don’t Reopen, Reset,” on page 34.

Truthfully, we could have dedicated an entire issue to it, and in a way, every article touches upon it.

There were a few things I didn’t address in that article due to space, so I’d like to discuss them here. In the article, I quote an ongoing study about consumer perception during COVID-19 and how a whopping 90% of consumers want to know what businesses are doing to keep them safe. The study also found that 89% of consumers are interested in how businesses are protecting employees.

Brand strategist and Founder/CEO of Sol Marketing Deb Gabor says focusing on your employees is a recipe for success in the current environment. “The organizations that are focusing first on their employees and ensuring that their employees are well taken care of and are safe, they’re having a much better time with public sentiment,” she says, noting that many consumers won’t patronize a business that treats its employees bad. “[The thought is,] ‘If they treat their employees like this, how are they going to be able to maintain my safety and my health when I patronize their business?’”

Barmagic Prinicipal Tobin Ellis also noted the importance of taking care of employees—not just for the optics, but for the good of the entire hospitality system.

This includes finding ways to offer protections like healthcare. “We can’t go back to the old model. Not just individually on a micro level, but on a macro level,” he

says. “We’ve got to look at legislation and changes to protect the 12-15 million workers in America.”

For more on how you can build a healthier culture for your staff, check out our new wellness column on page 10.

Speaking of health and wellness, one of the biggest fears in the current environment is that one of your staff members or a customer will contract or be exposed to COVID-19 while in your bar. This has already happened in states like Florida and Texas, where bars reopened earlier than other states and have now been restricted or forced to close again statewide.

So what if, despite your best efforts, a COVID-19 outbreak happens in your bar?

Gabor says empathy is key. “Follow the rules of good crisis management, which are first show regard for humanity,” she says. “Take responsibility—the part of it that’s yours.”

She also recommends being transparent and honest. Hiding things will lead consumers to distrust your bar. “You have to communicate authentically and truthfully, and in some cases, vulnerably,” says Gabor.

“People can handle bad news if it’s communicated in the right context, and it’s always better to communicate and take responsibility than it is to hide things.”

ASHLEY BRAY, Editor

barbizmag.com

FROM ON TAP THE EDITOR

Enrich Your Customers’ Experience with a Photo Booth

ver the last few years, it’s become apparent that what truly separates one bar from another is the experience it provides to its patrons.

Even in the age of COVID-19, with new social distancing restrictions, customer experience will still be paramount.

If you’re looking for something unique to add to your bar that will keep the interest of your patrons, consider adding a photo booth. Photo booths have surged in popularity over the last five or so years, and they are a staple at many special events. But why not bring them into your bar? Your guests are already taking photos—this gives them another way to remember their experience at your bar.

“A photo booth that offers prints can dramatically change the guest experience at bars,” says Suzanne Seagle, director of Marketing at DNP Imagingcomm America Corp. “People love to go to bars to meet up with

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June/July 2020

friends, unwind from daily life, and have fun! Photo booths capture those moments and make those memories last far beyond their time at the bar. People at bars are already taking selfies, but a photo booth can easily print those memories and give guests a physical reminder of a fun night out.”

DNP is the industry leader in dyesublimation photo printers and are often the printers chosen by photo booth companies to include with their solutions. Unlike typical ink-jet printers, dye-sublimation printers use ribbon heating and cooling technology that produce high-resolution prints in seconds that don’t smudge or fade.

“DNP’s latest printer, the QW410, is the most compact, lightweight dyesublimation photo printer on the market, making it that much easier for restaurants and bars to set up permanent installations without taking up a lot of space,” says Seagle.

And in the digital age, when printed photos are a rarity, photo booth

printouts are a sought-after and popular novelty. “It’s not that the value of a memory, a time, or a place has changed with technology, it’s that printed photos have the ability to take us back even when we’re least expecting it,” explains Seagle. “Even with a camera in everyone’s pocket and social media at our fingertips, technology cannot replace the innate feeling of physically holding onto a memory.”

Photo booths also offer bars a unique form of marketing. “Many photo booth set-ups allow businesses to add their logo to each print, making the photo an easy way to increase brand awareness and advertise with customers,” says Seagle.

“Bars can also run contents and promotions or throw fun marketing events as a way to draw in more customers and add money to their bottom line.”

Just be sure you have cleaning protocols in place between each guest that uses the photo booth. dnpimagingcomm.com barbizmag.com

Photo: Shutterstock.com/ goodluz.

O

ON TAP

ON TAP Expand Your Capabilities with a Ghost Kitchen

C

hefReady will open the first “virtual” kitchen of its kind in the Platt Park neighborhood of Denver this summer, offering ten rentable, high-tech commercial kitchen stations under one roof for delivery-only concepts.

ChefReady will provide solutions to problems that have plagued the bar/ restaurant industry for years, by offering lower rent, lower overhead, and reduced equipment costs. It also offers personalized customer service and efficient and affordable labor services to its restaurateur partners, something that is urgently needed during these times.

Even before COVID-19, the food delivery industry was expected to grow from $43 billion in 2017 to $467 billion in 2025, according to Morgan Stanley.

The recent pandemic has seen unprecedented restaurant delivery sales, creating new habits that will likely continue. ChefReady offers a way for restaurants to maximize their delivery footprint. This delivery-only style of kitchen also decreases risk to restaurants

during financial crises. Following COVID-19, many venues won’t be able to open or reopen as brick-and-mortars or be unable to succeed at limited occupancy. Virtual kitchens can provide an affordable, stable avenue for bars/ restaurants to (re)establish themselves.

Ghost kitchens are also a way for bars without a kitchen or the means to build out a kitchen to make and serve food.

In addition, it’s a way for bars to meet local restrictions requiring food be served if they offer curbside pickup for alcohol. Bars could even use ghost kitchens to prep cocktails to-go. “In March, Colorado Governor Jared Polis allowed bars and restaurants to offer to-go alcohol. If he continues to extend this legislation, then our tenants should be able to offer alcohol to go as well,” said Nili Malach Poynter, who founded ChefReady with her husband Robert Poynter. “We would encourage our tenants to offer alcohol with their food, if possible. However, we are not looking to have tenants that strictly serve

alcohol. We would like booze to be an added bonus.”

The kitchens are “plug and play” and equipped with commercial hoods; sinks; back-up generators; AC; heat, electric, and gas hook ups; and pest control. The kitchens range in size from 200-250 square feet. ChefReady also gives tenants the ability to customize their kitchen’s layout with extra refrigeration, extra storage space, and deep-cleaning services, and they can have customized kitchens built out and ready to go in as little as two to four weeks.

They also provide delivery assistance, including software that aggregates thirdparty delivery programs and employs food runners to bring the food from stations to delivery drivers. In addition, ChefReady has a team of experts to help bars and restaurants succeed, including marketing, architectural, and permitting guidance.

In addition to ChefReady’s first location in the Platt Park neighborhood of Denver, the company is looking to open a few additional locations around Colorado and to possibly expand out from there.

“We decided to create a company that offers the convenience of a ghost kitchen, but with more of a ‘mom and pop’ personalized level of customer service, as well as greater efficiency, and a ‘greener’ footprint,” said Nili Malach Poynter. “We want to provide a more affordable avenue for restaurateurs to open their second ‘restaurant,’ experiment with a new concept with a low cost to entry, or give them extra space to fulfill delivery orders.”

ChefReady will be accepting applications for new tenants until all 10 stations are filled. chefready.com

Food Trucks Help Bar Owners Get Back in Business

Photo: ChefReady.

F

ood trucks have exploded in popularity over the last few years.

According to IBISWorld, there are 23,873 active food truck businesses in the US and the average industry growth from 2014–2019 was 6.8%. According to Food Truck Nation, food trucks are a $2 billion-plus industry. barbizmag.com

It only makes sense that as bars get back on their feet during the COVID19 pandemic, they should look to partner with this sector of the food industry. One way they’re doing so is to meet certain government requirements around the need to serve food.

Across the country, local governments are requiring that bars serve food if they offer curbside pickup for alcohol. Many bar owners do not yet have the resources to open kitchens, so they are tapping local food trucks to meet that requirement.

Roaming Hunger has over 18,000 June/July 2020

Bar Business Magazine

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FROM ON TAP THE EDITOR

food trucks across the country in its network and over 11 years experience booking trucks for private and public events. Now, they’re working with bars in need of food service by booking trucks at no cost to the owner.

Food trucks provide many unique advantages, including:

• Food from a controlled, limitedaccess kitchen, subject to the Health Department’s highest scrutiny.

• Quick and efficient food supply and distribution.

• Individually prepared meals served in accordance with social distancing protocols.

To get the process started, Roaming Hunger only needs a few details from bar owners about when and where they’d like the trwuck to show up. From there, interested food trucks that want to participate will apply through Roaming Hunger’s system. Owners then pick from the available food truck options to choose the best fit for their business and customers.

Owners can choose a food truck for one event or for every day of the week.

There’s also the option to set up an entire food truck program. Roaming Hunger can help bars build out a complete schedule and actively manage it to make sure the whole thing is a success.

Roaming Hunger even handles all of the paperwork (insurance, health permits, etc.) so that bar owners can focus on running their business. A dedicated account manager will also provide any needed support to ensure everything goes smoothly. https://bit.ly/2YjPW9t

I

t’s estimated that nearly 500 million straws are used in the United States daily, and bars and restaurants are a big contributor to that statistic.

Over the last year or so, there have been many plastic straw bans in cities across the country—especially in coastal communities where a five-year cleanup study estimated there are 7.5 million plastic straws on U.S. coastlines alone.

As a result, many bars and restaurants have made the switch from plastic to paper straws. However, finding high-quality paper straws that hold up can be difficult. Enter Greensmart Paper Co. The company offers paper straws that are strong enough to last under normal use conditions in hot or cold beverages for over 60 minutes, but gentle enough on the environment that they start to break down in just three days.

“They are multilayer and last a lot

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June/July 2020

longer than your conventional paper straw that’s on the market right now,” explains Mario Scavuzzo, Owner/ Operator of Greensmart Paper Co. “Our straws are biodegradable, recyclable, and cause zero harm to any marine and wild life.”

Greensmart Paper Co. straws won’t make fizzy drinks flat, and they also eliminate the soggy paper taste many customers complain about.

The straws are currently available in a range of diameters and in lengths of 5.75, 7.75, 8.5, and 10 inches.

They also come in various colors, including black and white paper straws, black paper cocktail straws, and paper straws in red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, pink, and black and white stripes. There are also limited-edition, special occasion designs available.

Another benefit is that the paper straws are individually wrapped for maximum hygiene and safety so that

bars can stay committed to preserving the environment while still also following recommended safety protocols during the uncertain times created by the pandemic.

“They are wrapped and disposable,” says Scavuzzo, “perfect for use during the COVID-19 pandemic.” greensmartpaperco.com

barbizmag.com

Photos (top to bottom): Shutterstock.com/ Josep Suria; Greensmart Paper Co.

A Company Gets “Smart” About Paper Straws

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HEALTH HEALTH & HOSPITALITY

& Hospitality

SELF-CARE BEHIND THE BAR In light of COVID-19, it’s more important than ever to hit the reset button.

S

BY DOUG RADKEY

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June/July 2020

hit the reset button. As a leader, you need to develop a workplace that is transparent, accommodating, engaged, and secure, which leads to positive self-care for everyone involved with your brand.

This should be followed by the development of a set of core values and a visible code of conduct placed throughout the bar. You need to create new standards, policies, communication channels, and “buy-in” from each staff member.

That’s the foundation of culture.

You need to then create positive life experiences for your staff (management included). Post-pandemic, it’s time to think outside the box and create team experiences such as developing a fitness or running club that meets after each shift as opposed to going out for drinks.

While a bump in employees’ paychecks would be a welcome sight, the mindset also needs to be that the job is more than a paycheck. The workplace is, after all, where most spend 24-36% of their life, which is more than what the average

person may see of their own family.

By showing empathy, helping those in need, and coming together as a team in a positive atmosphere, you can overcome these challenges starting now.

Remember, you don’t build a business.

You build people and those people build your business. No matter how large or small your budget, any bar can benefit from going above and beyond to take great care of their staff.

With the right culture and leadership, we as an industry can begin to eliminate the disturbing realities.

Doug Radkey is founder and president of KRG Hospitality Inc. and author of the book Bar Hacks. Radkey’s brand has proven success in a variety of markets within Canada, the U.S., and abroad by being a creative agency focused on planning, development, and support for independent restaurants and bars. Visit krghospitality. com or find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram @KRGHospitality. barbizmag.com

Photo: Shutterstock/ David Tadevosian.

ubstance abuse. Depression.

Insomnia. Harrassment.

Anxiety. Suicide.

These are the keywords often found within the bar industry, leading to a variety of mental and physical health issues among employees. Just how bad is it?

A recent study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration ranked this industry the highest for illicit drug use and the third highest for heavy alcohol consumption.

A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology revealed that tipped workers are at greater risk of depression, insomnia, and high levels of stress.

Where does the fault lie? It starts with developing a winning culture.

To this day, the industry is still plagued by harassment, unbalanced shifts, minimal pay, overworked employees, closed doors, and toxic environments.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no better time for this industry to

Let’s talk

BEHIND THE BAR: TEQUILA

TEQUILA

Photo: Milagro Tequila.

3 Raspados

New trends and old traditions keep tequila in the spotlight.

BY ASHLEY BRAY

barbizmag.com

T

equila is the fastest-growing spirit category in the US,” says Katherine Foley, brand manager for Los Arango®, a tequila from Infinium Spirits.

It’s easy to see why—it’s the marquee spirit in many classic cocktails, and it’s a big player in the wellness movement thanks to being gluten free, low in sugar and calories, and flavorful smooth.

Trending in Tequila That smoother taste also plays into the premiumization trend that’s sweeping across not only tequila, but the entire spirits market. “Ultra-premium spirits is the number-one category in the U.S. in

total dollar sales,” says Foley. “People are looking to sip top-shelf, premium, and luxury tequilas and are willing to pay the price for their favorite bottles. I think, in general, people care more about the ingredients and the quality of the liquid they are consuming, thus gravitating towards higher-end tequilas.”

Nayana Ferguson, COO/co-founder of Anteel Tequila, agrees. “We have seen more people sipping tequila rather than taking shots. A smooth blanco tequila and a splash of lime, pineapple, or mango is a big trend right now. That is exactly what we tried to capture with our Coconut Lime Blanco Tequila, and so far, it has worked extremely well,” she June/July 2020

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BEHIND THE BAR: TEQUILA

Strawberry Basil Paloma

Ferguson had the idea of possibly using whiskey barrels while drinking his favorite cocktail, the Old Fashioned. We worked diligently with our distillery to find the perfect barrels to provide the flavor profile that we wanted. The result is a fantastic sipping reposado tequila with a slight whiskey finish and subtle tones of the oak barrels it’s rested in.”

Rim your glass with smoked sea salt.

Combine all ingredients except soda in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake to chill and combine ingredients. Fine strain into a highball glass over fresh ice. Top with soda.

Courtesy of Los Arango Tequila Colibri Margarita

Colibri Margarita

1.75 oz Anteel Coconut Lime Blanco Tequila ¼ oz Mezcal 2 oz Fresh pineapple juice ½ oz Fresh lime juice ½ oz Yellow scotch bonnet & pineapple infused simple syrup Hot sauce Chipotle Lime Sea Salt Rim cocktail glass with chipotle lime sea salt. Shake, strain over ice in cocktail glass. Garnish with grilled pineapple slice marinated in Anteel Coconut Lime Blanco. Add pineapple leaf for decoration.

Courtesy of Anteel Tequila

3 Raspados

2 parts Milagro Silver Tequila 1 part Fresh lime juice 1 part Fruit juice (lime/mango/papaya) ½ part Agave Nectar Combine everything in a shaker with ice and shake until frosty. Using your method of choice, make your “snow” in a cone or rocks glass, and pour the mix over.

Courtesy of Milagro Tequila Brand Ambassador Jaime Salas

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June/July 2020

says, noting that Anteel’s Coconut Lime Tequila is a blanco tequila infused with natural flavors from the meat of the coconut and lime.

Another trend is barrel aging. Barrelaged tequilas tend to land in the premium sector as sipping spirits.

“The use of different types of barrels as well as traditionally used American white oak barrels previously used to age other spirits is something the tequila industry has adopted for a couple of decades now,” says Jaime Salas, brand ambassador for Milagro Tequila. “I do see more and more tequila releases happening in the future as producers experiment and innovate to bring our consumers innovative products.”

In addition to its regular silver (blanco), reposado, and añejo types, Milagro Tequila also offers all three in a Select Barrel Reserve variety, which are rested in both American and French oak barrels and meant to be sipped.

Anteel’s Reposado variety is aged eight months in second-generation Tennessee whiskey barrels. “This is definitely a trend in the agave sector.

We’ve seen other brands aging their tequilas in some very unique casks right now. We always wanted to do something different in the industry so when it came to resting our reposado, we knew it had to be in something special other than the typical American White Oak,” says Ferguson. “Co-founder Don

What’s Your Story?

Many tequilas come steeped in history and tradition, which can popularize the spirit, especially among millennials, as they relate to brands with a story.

“Also important to consumers is the authenticity of a brand,” says Foley, who notes Los Arango is named after José Doroteo Arango, a leader of the Mexican Revolution. “With a history rooted in the same Hacienda where it’s made today, Los Arango represents a real story, a real culture, and tequila crafted the traditional way.”

Authenticity is also important to Anteel Tequila, which rebranded from Teeq Tequila to establish a deeper connection with the ideology behind the brand and logo, the hummingbird.

The name Anteel is derived from a distinct species of the hummingbird and represents a bond the owners have for the bird, logo, and company vision.

Anteel is also one of the only tequila spirit brands in the U.S. to be led by a Black woman. “As a Black woman owner

Strawberry Basil Paloma barbizmag.com

Photos (top to bottom): Anteel Tequila; Los Arango.

2 oz Los Arango Reposado 1 oz Grapefruit juice ½ oz Agave syrup 2 Chopped strawberries 5 Basil leaves Soda Smoked sea salt

BEHIND THE BAR: TEQUILA in the spirits industry, I am extremely grateful to be able to create a path for others to follow, where we can create brands that speak to our ingenuity, culture, and vision,” says Ferguson.

“It is extremely important to me to make sure that I am helping to inspire women to create and execute whatever vision they have for their lives.”

Types of Tequila The many varieties of tequila make it a versatile spirit, but it may be confusing for a bartender to decide between a blanco or an añejo.

“We’ve encountered many situations where many bars and restaurants just don’t know enough about tequila, and the different expressions can be quite confusing to them,” says Ferguson. “The first step is to educate the staff about tequila and the different types. We like to sit down with the entire bar staff and explain the differences between blanco, reposado, añejo, etc. Once this is simplified, we begin the journey in the creation of unique cocktails that can be exclusive to an establishment. We’re seeing more establishments that have at least one signature tequila cocktail on the menu, besides the classic margarita. Palomas are becoming extremely popular as well as a tequila manhattan.”

Tequilas can also be chosen based on the personal preference of the customer or the needs of a recipe. An añejo is an aged tequila, and it can typically be used in recipes that call for a whiskey or aged rum. Añejos (and the further aged extra-añejos), along with reposados (which is only rested in barrels for less than a year), also make good sipping tequilas and appeal to those consumers who prefer whiskey.

“If they’re looking for a more agave-forward taste, or crafting an elevated, premium margarita, go with the blanco,” says Foley.

Ferguson says that blancos and reposados provide the most variety for mixing cocktails. “Our advice is to always push the limits and experiment,” she says. “Tequila is extremely versatile and provides a flavor profile that adds a depth to many cocktails.”

Try jumping off from the classics. “Experiment with updated riffs on classic cocktails typically made with other spirits, the inclusion of other complimentary Mexican spirits/liqueurs, and the use of fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables,” says Salas. “Focus on building your drinks kits by featuring ways to make the perfect fresh margarita, paloma, and other easy and delicious cocktails.”

Turning to the kitchen for inspiration is another way to narrow down your tequila choices. “I suggest approaching cocktails from a culinary standpoint and using a base tequila that contrasts or compliments the intended profile and end result the bartender chooses to achieve,” says Salas.

Tequila and food pairings are another option. “More inventive ways of using tequila in a bar are through food pairings, tequila flights, and/or crafting signature cocktails that are made with tequila and another spirit,” says Foley. “Other approaches given the current environment are to-go cocktail programs through delivery merchants or curbside pick-up.”

period for tequila, was largely affected with less on-premise sales. With social distancing put in place, off-premise sales were down as well,” says Salas. “As a brand, Milagro pivoted our programs to digital and social media opportunities. Online social cocktail demonstrations really jumped in popularity.”

Tequila brands also see their on-premise accounts pivoting to more online content. “Several accounts have created educational platforms for their customers with brand representatives coming online,” says Salas, noting others are trying virtual happy hours.

Foley has also seen plenty of online activity with Los Arango’s on-premise accounts. “[They’re] really utilizing their social media platforms to stay active and engaged with their consumers and the general market,” she says.

Brands are also harnessing the power of the web to help the industry at this time. Anteel Tequila has partnered with other brands to create at-home cocktails they then post to social media. They’re also creating events with signature Anteel cocktail specials once they’re on-premise accounts are reopened. Finally, they’ve also donated to charitable entities that assist employees in the hospitality industry.

Milagro Tequila recently partnered with Earn Your Booze and The Hospitality Group for an initiative that included workouts aired on IGTV, “earned” Milagro cocktails, and guest bartender tutorials and interviews. Milagro and the William Grant & Sons portfolio also created the “StandFast” initiative, which revolved around the idea of “Getting Bartenders Back to Work.”

Effects of COVID-19 Speaking of the current environment, COVID-19 has also had its effects on tequila. Most notably were changes to the tequilafueled Cinco de Mayo holiday. “Cinco de Mayo, a key purchasing barbizmag.com

June/July 2020

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HAPPENINGS August 2020

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AUGUST 19 NATIONAL POTATO DAY French fries, potato skins, and even vodka—it all applies today!

AUGUST 7 INTERNATIONAL BEER DAY Brew up a list of specials on customer-favorite craft beers.

21

AUGUST 21 SENIOR CITIZEN’S DAY It’s been an especially tough year for the older population. Consider hosting a 65-plus happy hour.

Turn to page 30 for our feature on outdoor dining to learn how to get your patio ready.

AUGUST 25 NATIONAL WHISKEY SOUR DAY A classic for a reason. Try using flavored whiskey to kick it up a notch.

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All Photos: Shutterstock.com.

AUGUST 31 NATIONAL EAT OUTSIDE DAY

HAPPENINGS

Upcoming EVENTS

AUGUST 28 RED WINE DAY Beer has its day early in the month, now it’s wine’s time to shine.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the following information is subject to change. Check trade show sites for the most up-to-date information. Visit bit.ly/2zHZ2UB for a full list of cancelled/rescheduled shows.

AUGUST 29 MORE HERBS, LESS SALT DAY Health is more important than ever.

Turn to our brand-new wellness column on page 10 to learn more about staying fit.

AUGUST BAR CONVENT BROOKLYN BCB has cancelled this year’s in-person event. It will be holding a virtual event later this year and will release details in the coming months. barconventbrooklyn.com

ECRM ON-PREMISES ADULT BEVERAGE PROGRAM August 26-27, 2020

AUGUST 10 LAZY DAY

10 AUGUST 26 NATIONAL DOG DAY Man (and woman’s) best friend. If you have an outdoor patio that welcomes dogs, offer a special menu for fido today (think hamburger patties and dog treats).

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It falls on a Monday this year and chances are most staff is off— even more reason to kick back!

ECRM has transitioned this year’s program event into a virtual event. ecrm.marketgate.com

SEPTEMBER TALES OF THE COCKTAIL September 21-24, 2020

Tales is switching to a completely virtual conference for this year. More details to come. talesofthecocktail.org

OCTOBER NIGHTCLUB & BAR SHOW October 19-21, 2020 Las Vegas, Nevada ncbshow.com

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HOW TO

HOW TO: PROFITABLE MENU

How your menu design directly impacts your bottom line.

DON’T LET YOUR MENU GO TO THE “DOGS” 16

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BY JASON HOLLIS

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D

id you know diners spend an average of only 109 seconds looking at your menu? That’s because, on average, 80% of a restaurants’ food sales come from only 20% of menu items. With the bar and restaurant industry navigating through the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, it is more critical now than ever before to understand which menu items are the most profitable and where to place them on your menu in order to positively impact your bottom line.

By understanding which of your dishes are actually working hardest, you’ll know where to place your energy, what dishes to push, what dishes to ensure are properly prepared for take-out and delivery, and what dishes you may need to remove from your menu altogether.

Photo: (lead photo) Shutterstock/ Jo karen, (right photo) Shutterstock/ Drazen Zigic

Defining Your Menu Items Below are the industry terms used to describe how popular and how profitable things are and an actionable plan to turn certain low-performing menu items into high-performing menu stars.

Dogs These are the poorest performers on your menu because they are neither profitable nor popular. Most often, dogs are the kid’s menu or special diet items, which simply can’t be eliminated.

Consider raising the prices of these items just enough so that you are at least not losing money. And, since the people who need them will find them anyway, try to de-emphasize these on your menu or even place them on a standalone menu available upon request. Dogs should be the first to be removed from your menu, if you choose to scale it back.

Workhorses Workhorse items are typically very popular but not very profitable. Luckily, there are a few things you can try to increase these items’ contribution margin without sacrificing their popularity and potentially bump them up into being “stars.”

For starters, try increasing the price barbizmag.com

HOW TO: PROFITABLE MENU slightly. Small, gradual price increases will help you gauge what your customers find as an acceptable price for these items without losing their trust.

Another option is to conduct “plate audits” in which your servers start monitoring what comes back when they clear the plate from the table. For example, if you find on a six-count taquito basket that one taquito is regularly being discarded by the customer, it would be wise to decrease the portion to five taquitos. Doing so will automatically increase that dish’s contribution margin.

Puzzles Puzzles are items that aren’t very popular, but they are very profitable.

Our goal is to make these profitable items more popular.

Renaming menu items can increase their popularity. Tap into your customers’ emotions to draw them into the dish. For example, instead of just “Chicken Fried Steak,” name it, “Grandma’s Southern Chicken Fried Steak with Cream Gravy.” Adding an element of nostalgia could help bump sales. In any case, a rebrand of that item probably won’t hurt if it’s already not selling, so, it’s worth a try.

Another way to get puzzled items noticed is to run them as a blackboard special or advertise them on table tents.

Perhaps even consider an in-house marketing campaign such as running a server contest on the highest sales of chicken fried steak to ensure that more servers are pointing it out to guests.

Stars Stars are the most popular and profitable items on your menu, so be sure they are located in a highly visible area of the menu.

Also, if you are heavily relying on delivery and takeout during these times, it is important to make sure these stars will travel well. Any dish that arrives on your customer’s doorstep cold and mushy will put you at risk of losing repeat business.

Increasing Menu Profitability When arranged correctly, your menu becomes a silent salesperson, doing most of the heavy lifting for you. Below are a few tips on how to boost the sales of your puzzles and stars to increase your bottom line.

The Power of Placement When looking at a standard two- or three-fold menu, our eyes typically start in the middle of a page, then move to the top right, then top left. This is called the Eye Gaze Path. If you look at this path, you will see that the majority of time is spent looking at the top portion of your menu, in a triangular

When arranged correctly, your menu becomes a silent salesperson.

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HOW TO: PROFITABLE MENU formation. This is also sometimes called the “Golden Triangle.” For this reason, you should consider placing highmargin dishes at the center and upperright corner of your menu.

The Magic of 7 Limit menus to seven items in each section. Too many options results in a Paradox of Choice and can lead to the guest feeling overwhelmed, making them default to an item they’ve had before or perhaps the least expensive option so that they feel safe.

The Impact of Negative Space If a menu is crammed with text, the eye will naturally be drawn to any open spaces. Creating a negative space around your most profitable items will automatically pull the eye of your customers—increasing the likelihood of profitable sales.

The Use of a Decoy Consider placing lower priced, higher

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profit options as a decoy right next to higher priced menu items.

For example, if you have your highend steak options boxed in, place the half-chicken entrée right above the box. Chicken is lower in price and

Menu engineering is a science based on human behavior.

likely has a higher price margin than the steaks next to it. The guest feels like they found a great deal while making a greater contribution to your profitability.

Menu engineering is a science that is

based on human behavior. While your menu is your best marketing tool for customers, it’s also important to train your staff to verbally recommend your “stars” to customers.

This knowledge will help them guide customers to more profitable dishes to improve customer experience while boosting your bottom line.

Jason Hollis is a training & implementation lead at Compeat (compeat.com), the leading provider of innovative accounting, back office, workforce, and business intelligence solutions designed specifically for restaurants. Compeat’s solutions are designed to maximize restaurant profitability and control prime cost through actionable business intelligence. Compeat serves over 1,500 restaurant customers with over 15,000 locations ranging from high-volume independents to large chains.

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HOW TO: POS

HOW TO Payment systems go mobile and touch-free.

CONTACTLESS IN THE AGE OF COVID-19 20

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BY EMILY ECKART

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HOW TO: POS

A

Photos (left to right): Shutterstock.com/Double P Stock Station; SkyTab.

s bars and restaurants reopen to a harsh reality, it’s time for owners to consider new ways to operate. Adjustments and enhancements to POS systems will be an unavoidable part of this process.

“Right now is the time to try something new,” says Joe De Pinto, co-founder of Barpay. “We know that technology can help us.”

Contactless Payments Customers are demanding a more sanitary experience from beginning to end, which means avoiding processes like passing a credit card back and forth. Contactless mobile payments are the future. De Pinto says, “The concept has gone from nice-to-have to more of a necessity.”

Michael Russo, chief technology officer at Shift4 Payments, emphasizes that the ability to take contactless payment will be an important feature for bars and restaurants going forward.

Handheld mobile devices prevent a server from needing to take a credit card back to the POS. Russo says, “You need mobile devices that are fast to use, responsive to use, and reliable.”

Shift4 Payments’ SkyTab is a mobile payment processing device with a 4G card, which allows it to be used even in areas without WiFi. The device also works for outdoor dining areas or even in the parking lot for takeout orders, where the customer can pay by tapping their phone or credit card while sitting in their car. If the customer does not have a credit card with tapping capability, they can still insert a chip card into the device’s slot without touching the device.

Barpay is an app that provides multiple services, including an ordering and payment platform. Customers download the app, and it stores their credit card payment information, similar to apps like Uber or Airbnb. They can browse venues with Barpay near them on a map and view the menu, hours, phone, and get directions.

Once the customer is within a certain geofence radius of the venue, they can open a tab and place an order. While placing the order, they request either table service, delivery, or pick up at the bar. Meanwhile, the bartender receives the order via a small Epson thermo-receipt printer that prints out a slip with the order summary. When the customer arrives, they can simply show their phone with the matching order number to the bartender and pick up their food and drink.

The Barpay system does not replace the traditional POS, but complements it. It’s ideal for allowing some percentage of customers to enter and pay for orders remotely, which can reduce the wait time for customers and the time spent by staff entering orders. It’s especially useful for a bar’s busy hours.

The only cost to the venue is the initial cost of the printer.

Barpay works with venues to match or beat their credit card processing fees. The app gets revenue from sponsored logo placement on its free digital menus. In addition, for crowded or busy venues, Barpay gives customers the option to pay more for a “Fast Lane” option. De Pinto explains, “It gives people who value their time more than their money the ability to purchase their way to the front of the line.” Barpay receives a percentage of the Fast Lane fee.

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SkyTab’s Takeout online ordering service.

QR Codes Another promising avenue for promoting the contactless experience is QR codes. Many smartphones now come with QR code readers, making this formerly clunky technology a newly easy way to pull up a website.

Shift4 Payments will soon release the ability for customers to pay with QR codes. Checks printed from the POS system will have a QR code at the bottom. Rather than offering up a

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How To: POS

credit card, the customer can scan the QR code with their phone and view the bill online. They can then pay using their credit card or another payment method, such as Apple or Google Pay. Russo says, “That’s completely touchless from the standpoint that the guest doesn’t touch anything.”

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Back to Basics Eric Elwell, CEO of 2TouchPOS, encourages bar and restaurant owners to reconsider the cost assumptions of running their businesses. In many states, indoor dining areas face reduced seating capacities due to restrictions aimed at facilitating social distancing. This requires a recalculation of how much revenue your business can bring in based on a lower number of customers, which can affect staffing and the variety of menu offerings.

According to Elwell, with fewer customers, the math is simple: “You have to charge more.” It’s ultimately a choice between raising prices or going out of business. And Elwell speculates that customers will understand the need to increase prices. Everyone is aware that businesses are struggling, and they’re in a state of mind to support their favorite places.

Bar owners should also look to reap the data from their POS systems and complementing apps, which can provide insights on customer behaviors and popular menu items.

From there, the data can be used to more accurately market to your customers.

Harnessing the power of geofencing can also be useful in attracting new guests. De Pinto gives the example of a bar getting a new IPA on tap. The bar can send a push notification or email targeting any Barpay users within a certain radius, informing them of the new offering with a $1 off coupon. This targeted marketing has the potential to attract Barpay users who haven’t been to your bar before.

Delivery With the potential decline of in-venue customers, delivery

June/July 2020 barbizmag.com

Photos (this spread): Barpay.

With Barpay, the bartender receives orders via a printer that prints out a slip with the order summary.

QR codes can also connect customers with an online ordering site. Shift4 Payments offers this functionality with its SkyTab Takeout online ordering service. This takes the concept of online ordering, which traditionally occurs from the customer’s home, and brings it in-venue. The venue can print a QR code onto a table tent, allowing customers to bring up the online ordering site at their table without ever touching a menu.

Barpay also offers the ability to convert a bar’s menu into a contactless, digital experience via QR code. Owners can create a free account at barpay.com/menus, upload a PDF of their menu, and a QR code linked to that PDF is automatically generated. Additionally, the website provides a formatted template for window displays and table tents, giving owners a fully functioning contactless digital menu ready for display in less than five minutes.

Shift4 Payments is making its mark not just through technology, but also direct financial support to local businesses affected by the pandemic. The Shift4 Cares program allows customers to visit cares.shift4.com to search for a restaurant and purchase gift cards. Shift4 will contribute an additional 5% to that restaurant. Shift4 has committed to contributing up to $10 million in total. The initiative has the potential to raise more than $200 million to put back into the business community.

HOW TO: POS has become an important avenue for sales. Services like GrubHub can take care of the delivery aspect, but it’s important to take into account that the fees can be hefty. For GrubHub, the fee is between 10-30% of the order.

Elwell recommends taking that into account when setting your GrubHub prices. For example, if you sell an entrée for $30 and it’s delivered through GrubHub, you may only get about $20. To make up for the lost revenue, the entrée should cost $40 on the GrubHub platform.

If delivery becomes a major sales channel for your establishment, it’s worth considering using a dedicated order entry and delivery package like the one offered by 2TouchPOS. “Delivery’s not hard when you use software to manage the process,” Elwell says.

For effective delivery management, you need to assign orders to a driver and keep track of which drivers have left and which have returned.

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Guests want touchless ordering and payment platforms to order and pick up food and drink.

In this new business landscape, bars and restaurants cannot depend upon a single sales channel.

Elwell says, “I think of it as a table.”

Different sales methods represent different legs, such as dining in, take

out, and delivery. A business’s table cannot stand upon a single leg. In a year where the only norm is change, the best strategy is to get creative to make sure your establishment stands solidly on multiple legs.

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HOW TO

HOW TO: STAFF TURNOVER

HIGH TURNOVER DOESN’T MEAN LOW EXPECTATIONS Maintain a high level of service despite high staff turnover.

I

BY JANE FREEMAN

Pro Tip It’s important to make sure all staff members are confident in every area, so that when someone leaves, everyone knows how to take on additional tasks as necessary.

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employees choose not to return to the same bars and restaurants or find themselves in new positions because their previous employer didn’t reopen.

Whatever the reason, high turnover is something most bars and restaurants have to contend with. So, the question remains, how can you maintain a high level of service when you have high staff turnover?

Good Communication There’s nothing like poor communication to decrease morale and enthusiasm in the workplace. When staff members leave, it’s likely that their colleagues will have questions and concerns of their own. If these aren’t addressed early on, doubts or curiosities can fester and cause pessimism, which can spread among other employees.

Abate any problems by being open and inviting discussion. Staff should feel free to ask questions and talk candidly when people leave. A great tool to help you achieve good communication in general is social media. Consider creating a

WhatsApp or Facebook group that everyone can access. Use this to make announcements and keep all staff members in the loop.

Adaptability It’s important to make your establishment as adaptable as possible so that staff can manage tasks well when someone leaves. Adaptability is also just an essential skill for your bar to have in today’s uncertain climate. There are a number of ways to improve adaptability in the workplace, including: • Train staff on as many processes as possible. Having only one person who knows how to fix a particular issue isn’t wise as that person could leave.

• Keep ‘how-to’ manuals for everything in a place that’s accessible to all staff.

• If applicable, keep a stock of uniforms on the premises in a range of different sizes. You may also want to consider having a stock of face masks. barbizmag.com

Photo: Shutterstock/ By IsabellaO

t’s no secret that businesses in the hospitality trade tend to have high staff turnover. Bars and restaurants all over the world lose and gain staff at a rapid rate for a variety of reasons. For example, this could happen because of student employees who move on when they finish their studies, or it could be due to seasonal changes. More recently, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the industry in multiple ways—just one being the effects on staff as many

HOW TO: STAFF TURNOVER • Consider having a small menu.

Offering fewer, high-quality drinks or dishes will be preferred by customers than a huge menu of subpar fare.

Smaller menus will also benefit you at this time when traffic is inevitably down due to capacity and social distancing restrictions.

Tools To achieve a high level of service, you must offer staff all the tools they need to do their job well. This includes easy-to-use equipment that is reliable and can perform well in high-pressure environments.

Also consider equipment to help your staff during busy times, such as high-speed dishwashers and alarmed equipment like refrigerators that beep when left open.

With additional cleaning protocols now in place that can add time to an employee’s workload, any tool that increases efficiency is valuable.

Thorough Training One of the best ways to help maintain a quality standard of service in spite of high turnover is to offer comprehensive training to all members of your staff.

While this might seem like a timeconsuming task to undertake, and of course it can be incredibly annoying when you fully train someone and they leave soon afterwards, the fact is training is essential for good service.

Make a list of every process that your employees need to know in order to deliver the level of service that you want them to provide. While day-to-day you may assign some staff members solely the task of bar duties, clean-up, or serving, it’s a good idea to swap these around every so often. It’s important to make sure all staff members are confident in every area, so that when someone leaves, everyone knows how to take on additional tasks as necessary.

Mentoring To make sure all team members are proficient in all areas of the job, assign new employees a mentor. From their first day, this means they will have someone they can turn to with questions and advice, or even to offer their own ideas when it comes to streamlining processes.

A mentoring system can also be a helpful way of aiding in communication barbizmag.com

and inviting discussion. As a manager or business owner, you may not always have the time to address all staff members’ concerns. Employee mentors can assist in delivering any necessary questions or doubts to you, as well as help make sure colleagues are in the know about updates.

Unfortunately, in the hospitality sector, high turnover is always likely to be a problem. It’s worth thinking about how

you can manage it. Avoid dips in your service standards by preparing your bar or restaurant and all those who work within it as much as possible.

Jane Freeman is a resourcing partner at Selecta (selecta.co.uk), the leading European vending machines supplier and coffee services company.

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Tuning Up

HOW TO

Three ways to use technology to operate your bar in a post-COVID-19 world.

TUNING UP: A TECH-FORWARD STRATEGY 26

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BY MARYBETH SHEPPARD

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Photo: Loop Media.

TUNE IN TO TV

A

Photos (left to right): Shutterstock.com/ weedezign; SevenRooms.

fter months of living under stay-at-home orders, it’s no secret that operators and guests alike have welcomed the reopening of businesses. Various organizations and governments have issued recommendations and guidelines on how to reopen safely. Though these guidelines include health and safety guardrails, cleaning standards, social distancing protocols, and more, few discuss the important role technology plays in the ability to execute on these guidelines. But make no mistake, technology should play a crucial role in your reopening strategy.

Here are three important things to consider when building out a postpandemic, tech-forward strategy for your bar or nightclub.

Creating New Operational Processes Across the country, restaurants and bars have needed to abide by some level of capacity rules upon re-opening. This coincides with social distancing guidelines requiring a minimum of six feet (and sometimes more) between bar seats, tables, and other public areas. For bars and nightlife venues, which historically have been primarily walk-in businesses, this presents a new challenge. In a postpandemic world, walk-ins, lines down the block, and crowded bars pose safety concerns for guests and staff alike. That’s where digital reservation platforms and virtual waitlists come into play.

Whether your business takes reservations for bar seats and high tops, or limits capacity by implementing virtual waitlists, there are a wide range of benefits that come with switching to this model, including the ability to: • Track who has been at your property for contact tracing purposes in the unfortunate event that a guest later tests positive for COVID-19 after their visit.

• Manage turn times to get more guests through your doors by offering timed reservations depending on party size, maximizing the number of guests per night.

• Minimize the number of customers who would previously line up outside your door or crowd around a host barbizmag.com

HOW TO: TUNING UP

Digital reservations and virtual waitlists are now part of the strategy at many bars.

stand, helping your business adhere to social distancing guidelines.

• Capture and leverage data on your guests for marketing and loyalty campaigns by collecting a guest’s name, email address, phone number, and more upon booking or adding to a waitlist.

• Communicate with your guests via SMS messaging about your waitlist and when tables become ready to help reduce crowds.

The businesses that are able to adapt their operations to this new model will create a new framework for success in a post-COVID-19 world.

Offering Contact-Free Solutions While digital reservations or a virtual waitlist are going to be an important part of your strategy moving forward, once the guest is at your property, you want to be able to ensure that they have the best— and safest—experience possible. By creating ‘contactless’ touch points across your venue, you keep your guests and employees safe, while helping ease operational challenges in the near term.

Upon reopening, owners are not only operating at reduced capacities in their venues, but also with reduced staff. By offering a safe, contact-free solution for these in-service experiences, you can not only help manage labor costs, but ensure the wellbeing of your employees.

According to a report on COVID-19 from Datassential, 38% of people are concerned about touching shared objects, so it’s important to offer guests the ability to view a menu, order food and drinks, and pay via a credit card or digital wallet—all via a mobile device.

The best part? This “bring your own device” mentality will be readily accepted by guests, who no longer want to touch a physical menu, jostle for a position at the bar to order a drink, or hand over their credit card to pay. According to data from SinglePlatform, 80% of consumers say it’s important to see menus before making a decision on which bar to visit, and 62% are less likely to choose a venue if they can’t read the menu on their mobile device.

With every guest in possession of a mobile phone, having a digital menu is a simple way to improve contactless browsing, ordering, and paying for guests.

Operationally, this helps ease any worries you may have around staff coming into close proximity with guests, instead helping you shift them into “runner” roles from the bar or kitchen to deliver food and drinks to the table. For the guests, this means faster, more accurate ordering with a contactless approach to service.

Leveraging Data To Improve Guest Experiences More so than ever before, bars have an opportunity to embrace the use of data to June/July 2020

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TUNING UP

Leverage data to show personalized menus to your guests based on previous orders.

personalize guest experiences. By leveraging the data collected throughout the guest journey—from booking a reservation or adding to the waitlist, to the in-service experience with contactless ordering and payments—bars will be able to reach their guests through highly targeted marketing. But what does that look like in a post-COVID-19 era?

Imagine this scenario: A guest adds themself to a virtual waitlist that shows an 18-minute wait before leaving their apartment. On their way to the bar, they receive a text that tells them they’re almost at the top of the list. When they arrive, they’re shown to their seats immediately, and using a QR code or URL, they’re able to view the bar’s menu, order drinks, and appetizers, and pay.

Since they’ve visited the bar before, they’re shown their favorite drinks and appetizers at the top of the digital menu,

including some suggestions for specials based on their usual order. A few minutes later, their drinks arrive, followed by appetizers, delivered by a server wearing a mask and gloves. A week after their evening out, they receive an automated marketing email from the bar inviting them to come back in for 50% off the drink they ordered on their last visit and a free appetizer. This is the power of connected data in providing above and beyond guest experiences.

Using guest data collected through these different touchpoints, operators can communicate effectively with guests— from sharing information on new protocols (e.g., temperature checks at the door) to what’s being done from a health and sanitation perspective on-premise, especially due to the high guest turnover rates at bars and clubs.

The data collection across the guest

journey also opens up endless marketing opportunities to guests outside of a free appetizer or drink specials at the bar. By collecting data on orders through a contactless ordering solution, an operator has all the information they need to personalize the marketing they send to a guest. For example, let’s say a handful of bar regulars always order Dogfish Head Brewery beers. If you decide to host a tasting event with a cicerone from the brewery, your first invites should be going to those regulars. Those guests are more likely to engage with this marketing, and you’ll be creating loyal advocates of your brand for years to come, all while driving more revenue despite reduced venue capacities.

It’s a new era of nightlife. Operators can change processes, update systems, and take advantage of a time when guests are tuned in more than ever to help reshape the relationship guests have with their bars and venues. Thinking thoughtfully about the types of experiences you want your guests to have, and how you can achieve those through technology and data, will help you set yourself up for much greater success.

Marybeth Sheppard is the SVP of marketing at SevenRooms (sevenrooms. com), where she leads marketing efforts across the customer lifecycle. Prior to joining SevenRooms, Marybeth was head of B2B Marketing at Grubhub-Seamless, where she was responsible for lead generation, product marketing, and retention programs.

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OUTDOOR DESIGN

EMBRACING THE GREAT OUTDOORS IS A SOLID FIRST STEP IN ECONOMIC RECOVERY.

Outward

BOUND A

s the country reopens, there will be an adjustment period for the new “business-as-usual” model, including an increased dependence on outdoor seating.

In other words, you’ll be venturing into a new frontier of hospitality. As with all treks, you’ll need some new gear for the journey, along with direction from establishments that have already blazed a trail into the brave new world of safe service with a smile.

With good weather nationwide, summer is the optimal time to navigate this new frontier. Bars with existing outdoor seating will have to reconfigure these spaces. Those without an outdoor area will have to figure out if it’s possible to take their indoor experience outside.

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SETTING UP BASE CAMP Although rethinking your venue’s layout can seem daunting, New York City-based hospitality designer Branko Poto nik, principal at the Interior Design Hall of Fame-winning firm CetraRuddy, believes making changes from the inside out (and vice versa) provides restaurant and bar owners an opportunity to develop better practices that will make them stronger.

“Over the next three to four months, some social distancing ideas you’ll adopt will also work well in your restaurant’s indoor areas. While I believe the original seating arrangements will eventually return, on the short term, everybody will be setting up fewer tables and increasing the required space per person,” says Poto nik. “Restaurant owners will also have greater incentive to rethink outdoor

and indoor spaces to help make cities greener, especially when their designers present them new plans to improve the way outdoor spaces are divided.”

Poto nik also stresses the need for oneway paths in and out of the kitchen, to and from the main bar, and in and out of the restroom to ensure staff and guests face the same direction. Spaces where food and drinks are prepared should be out of the customers’ view, and there should be no seating near kitchens or bars. Fresh ingredients used at the bar should be in closed containers, and management should also devise a contactfree way for guests to receive their bills and make payments. He also envisions serving stations, indoors and out, that are equipped with a washing or disinfecting section so staff can wash hands as needed barbizmag.com

Photo: Evan Sung, courtesy CetraRuddy Architecture

BY ELYSE GLICKMAN

Photos: Wipeout Bar & Grill at Pier 39, San Francisco, CA.

OUTDOOR DESIGN

and point-of-sale waiting stations with wipes to keep all surfaces clean.

“When people enter a space at one point and exit at another point on the opposing side, it lessens the possibility of physical contact between staff members and guests,” he says. “When management takes proper precautions, it will build customer confidence. I see an increased use of disposable antibacterial surface [coverings] on tables and seats. [For those reasons,] management should encourage guests to book seating in advance, as it will free staff up to properly prepare and sanitize tabletops and chairs.”

Kenneth Danko, Owner/Chef of the Devilicious Eatery and Apparition Room cocktail bar in Temecula, just outside of San Diego, has put many of these ideas into practice as has the management of barbizmag.com

the Tacolicious restaurant group in San Francisco. Danko says there is now six feet of table separation in the Devilicious patio area that was originally designed for a 40-guest capacity. Should Temecula’s city government allow street dining, he will take advantage of added sidewalk space and invest in some “inexpensive but sustainable partitioning made up of pallets or plants” so guests are not just sitting at a table on asphalt. The host station will be moved to be in view of the outdoor seating area, and extra staff will be added to guard customers’ credit cards until they settle their open tabs. The food truck part of the Devilicious business model, meanwhile, allows for positive collaborations with other local businesses to help them reopen in accordance with the governor’s guidelines.

“I think what helped us a lot is that [the city] allowed us to put some tables in the sidewalk,” says Lalo Durazo, who co-owns Bakan in Miami. “When we first built the restaurant, the city required us to make the sidewalk in front of it wider.

It worked out great for us because the wider sidewalk allowed us to add three large tables and a line of cacti to separate the seating area. While we removed some tables from our original covered terrace to make it more spacious, bringing those moved tables to the sidewalk helped us make all of our spaces flow together in a more visually

seamless way while still operating under COVID-19 guidelines mandating we maintain a 50% capacity or less.”

Tacolicious’ Director of People Korey Reynolds says existing limitations on in-store capacity prompted management’s decision to repurpose indoor dining room tables for outdoor seating in a given location’s patio, adjoining sidewalk, parking lot, or middle of the street-seating.

“We’re using plants to soften up the spatial divide between tables,” says Reynolds.

“We’re designating specific entry and exits, and having hosts guide guests through the restaurant and squirting hand sanitizer on everyone, or at least making it available for self-application.”

“Most of our properties offer outdoor seating,” says Corporate Beverage Director Andrea Cornwell for Ohio-based national restaurant group Cameron Mitchell, including the upscale Ocean Prime steakhouses. “Beyond that, we have studied floor plans, marked exact distances, and posted those floor plans for anyone to review. We have bought Plexiglass dividers where applicable.

Although we have always had high cleanliness standards, we sanitize the tables and chairs between each seating and keep cutlery off of the tables.”

According to Poto nik, a portable outdoor bar can be a good marketing tool as it is a conversation starter, can readily be customized and adapted for

Seating before COVID-19 restrictions.

Seating after COVID-19 restrictions.

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OUTDOOR DESIGN

Recovery depends on how well staff adapts to enhanced cleaning practices.

promotions, and instill guest confidence by eliminating eyesores such as stacks of dirty plates.

The Founder of Ultimate Bars Travis Crivaro enumerates on how those attributes helped win him an impressive roster of clients through the years, from Disneyland to Hilton Hotels to Princess Cruise Lines to Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium.

The shutdown prompted Crivaro to take his business in new, necessary directions. The Ultimate Bars range has since expanded to offer “Ultimate Shields” and “Bar Guards” as well

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A BRIEF FIELD GUIDE TO NEW RULES & REGULATIONS Keeping tabs on ever-changing local and regional government guidelines can go a long way.

Tacolicious’ Reynolds is doing just that. “San Francisco is attempting to work something out tantamount to the Slow Streets program already in effect elsewhere around the Bay Area (like Berkeley), but there’s no final action yet. The Valencia Corridor Merchants Association (or VCMA, serving San Francisco’s Mission District) is fielding interest in an attempt to sway city supervisors to light up the streets to make them more appealing to foot traffic, but those streets are not ready for that at the moment. In the L.A. area, Manhattan Beach is working on a program to close off parking spaces to allow for additional seating. We’ll have to wait to see if these are turned into public parklets or can be used as reserved seating for restaurants. So far, it is a game of, ‘wait and see what others do.’”

Reynolds also says that while the restrictions on the sale of to-go cocktails have been loosened, local law enforcement has been cracking down on open-container issues. “To prevent fines and the dreaded Department of Health shutdown, we’re policing the area directly in front of our restaurant to prevent crowds and impromptu block parties,” he says.

Alexa Sol, co-owner of Quinto Sol in Redwood City and several other Bay Area eateries, says there’s a lot involved in helping restaurants rebuild their businesses. “Cities need to figure out how to process business owners’ permits to operate outdoors in spaces adjoining their premises more quickly, and it would be good if the temporary outdoor space they may use can be rent-free or have a low-cost rent,” states Sol. “From my standpoint, successful recovery will ride on how well management coaches its staff to adapt to enhanced cleaning practices and the like. We have to enforce this in a way that reinforces habits to the point where they become second nature.”

As the City of San Francisco actually owns the land the Downtown Yerba Buena Gardens location of Samovar Tea Lounge stands on, Owner Jesse Jacobs says that the local government supported the placement of outdoor tables throughout the park and gardens to offer six-foot-plus spacing between tables to facilitate Samovar’s reopening.

“We have worked closely with the health department to implement their protocols and recommendations, including a super sanitation wipe down process,” says Jacobs. “They will be sending us specifics with procedures clearly mapped out.”

Although the Cameron Mitchell group has size and national barbizmag.com

Photo: BAKAN Miami.

as event cubes, movable bar tables, and displays, which add an extra layer of social distancing in settings where crowds typically form—especially around the bar area itself. Another advantage of Crivaro’s American-made mobile bars and shields is that they are made with acrylics and other materials that are easy to clean with common cleaning solutions and supplies.

“The great thing about portable and satellite bars and tables is that they will help reopening businesses set up outdoor areas that will prompt customers ordering drinks to keep the lines moving,” says Crivaro. “Anybody out there who needs to prevent bar crowding can buy a few of our portable bars and put one of each on the end of a patio.”

OUTDOOR DESIGN reach as advantages, some adaptations had to be considered more carefully given the differences in liquor laws and revised health codes from state to state and city to city. Cornwell has found that what her firm has done with the Columbus-area restaurants sets a good precedent for locations elsewhere.

“Although we have not shut down streets, restaurants in our shopping centers are allowed to provide to-go cocktails that patrons can enjoy in nearby parks,” shes says. “We also have a health and safety task force that stays at the forefront of any updated suggestions/ requirements from our health officials.

We update our training plans weekly.”

“Most of the staff we let go when we closed came back, and this helped a lot because they make up an incredible team and communicate well with one another,” says Bakan’s Durazo. “We spent many hours making sure that everybody knew what needed to be done by going through all 42 different points of the guidelines (the state, county, and city governments contributed) that related to staff training to enforce social distancing, keep supplies sanitary, and provide customers guidance on what they needed to do to adhere to the rules. After we determined the entire staff was fully prepared to meet those requirements, we reopened, and so far, everything has run smoothly.”

There are also other tools management can use. Hygiena prepares bespoke cleanliness protocols for restaurants.

Services include spot testing of high-touch points at a client’s restaurant to produce quantifiable data that can be applied to custom sanitation protocols for staff.

locales now allowing or working on legislation for cocktails to-go, she argues that “to-go” vessels may be the best way to serve beverages across the board.

“How often have you received a glass in a bar/restaurant that still had lipstick or food particles on it?” says Bole. “With plastic drinkware, the beverage is served in a single-serve vessel and disposed of after use or can go home with a ‘buy the

drink/take the glass’ arrangement. Plastic drinkware is not only safe from a sanitary point of view, but also is safer for use in outdoor seating areas. Dropping a glass beer mug will add danger and risk of injury. Drop a plastic beer mug and you simply have a mess to clean up.

Furthermore, several insurance companies offer discounts to their premiums when plastic is utilized.”

THE RIGHT GEAR The sustainability-versus-sanitary debate has intensified. While restaurateurs like Alexa Sol and Miami-based Bakan owner Lalo Durazo say it is best to further enhance existing industrial dishwasher usage rather than use disposable items, Devilicious has also implemented disposable glassware and paper-lined metal trays to be more sustainable.

Lisa Bole, director of Sales for plastic drinkware manufacturer Tooters, says that local governments across the country now have a recycling facility that will pick up at no charge to the venue. And, with many barbizmag.com

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OPERATIONS

DON’T REOPEN,

Reset

WHAT CHANGING CUSTOMER PERCEPTIONS MEAN FOR YOUR BAR IN THE AGE OF COVID-19.

I

n addition to profits and the bottom line, one of the ways COVID-19 has hit bars and restaurants especially hard is through the customer experience. With restricted occupancy limits, the need for masks and social distancing, and increased cleaning protocols, going out for a drink and a bite to eat looks vastly different.

“Everything’s changed about the 34

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experience,” says Deb Gabor, brand guru and founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consultancy. “What I see is this very sterile environment, something that is lacking energy, it has no soul, it has no feeling. I think that that’s really dangerous for an industry that relies on people having great experiences.”

And it seems that fears about health will be with us for a while. “Even as the virus

dissipates and lessens, people will still have germs and safety on their minds,” says Jon Taffer, industry expert, the host of Bar Rescue, and an entrepreneur with new ventures that include the opening of Taffer’s Tavern restaurant and the launch of Taffer’s Mixologist. “It’s just going to be the way we operate.”

As a result, many consumers are not ready to return to bars and restaurants.

According to an ongoing study by AMC barbizmag.com

Photo: Shutterstock.com/ Drazen Zigic.

BY ASHLEY BRAY

Photo: AREA15.

OPERATIONS Global and OpinionRoute on consumer preferences during COVID-19, for bars and restaurants with outdoor seating, 47% of respondents believe now is the right time to open in their state, and 38% believe it is too soon. For indoor seating, 29% believe now is the right time in their state, and 63% believe it is too soon for indoor dining.

How do you help alleviate these fears?

By making customers feel safe. According to another wave of the same ongoing study quoted above, 90% of consumers want to hear how companies are protecting them from COVID-19 exposure.

Barmagic Principal Tobin Ellis, who’s been in the hospitality industry for 30 years providing operational consulting and designing bars, says in order for guests to feel immersed in the hospitality experience once again, they must feel safe. “We need to continue to clearly and proactively message the high levels of sanitation, cleanliness, and safety that our industry has always subscribed to,” he says. “If we want people to come back and buy into these little worlds that we’ve built, then we need to realize that they’re not going to be able to feel relaxed and immersed without a lot of human interaction and hospitality that creates that. Whether it’s the safety messaging, the cleanliness, whether it’s a change to the dynamic of service or the menu, we have to understand that this is our responsibility to figure out where the intersection of compliance and safety in this COVID-19 age and hospitality lie.”

Taffer believes customers are going to return to bars in three waves. The first third are young, fearless consumers who will return right away.

The second third he dubs the “reserved third.” “They’re going to reserve their decision for a couple of weeks to see what happens with the first third,” says Taffer.

The last wave is the “certain third.”

“They’re not coming out until they’re certain they’re safe. They tend to be a little older demographic, and they tend to be ones with preexisting conditions so they’re more conservative. But here’s the kicker: They’re the ones with the disposable income,” says Taffer. “So when we take a look at the future, we have to reassess our value proposition. We really need to understand our customers now barbizmag.com

An aerial view of AREA15.

like never before.”

For Taffer, success in this new world depends on identifying and meeting new customer perceptions and expectations about safety. “The biggest issue we have is how do we control how people perceive the safety of our businesses?” he says. “Safety now comes before product quality.

Safety now comes before mixology.

“If we don’t master our perception of safety, and if we don’t match our assets, our music, our environment, our price points, and our products to the shifts that this post-pandemic world is going to create, we’re going to miss and we’re going to lose. And that’s why I call this a reset and not a reopening. Because none of us are reopening like we used to, and all of our customers are going to change.”

The first step is in recognizing how customers have changed in light of COVID-19—especially your bar’s specific demographic. “We need to make certain that we provide the environment that checks the first box on their list, and for the vast majority of the population, the first box on the list is: Is it safe?” says Taffer. “The second box on the list is: Do I connect to the environment?”

What makes an establishment “safe” will differ for each customer.

“The whole issue of the pandemic is very polarizing,” says Gabor, who explains that one camp feels it’s an

overblown distraction, while the other views it as a real health risk. “Be very thoughtful and deliberate about understanding what your customers are going to expect from you and then what are the risks and rewards.”

One of the most visible, polarizing arguments is in regards to the wearing of masks. Some states mandate the wearing of masks in public places, but in others, it’s only a suggestion. Is your bar going to require that masks be worn or not?

Taffer says whether a bar enforces mask wearing or not can impact a guest’s decision to patronize the establishment.

For example, if a patron believes wearing masks is the right thing to do and then sees a group of people at your bar without them, they are unlikely to patronize your establishment—no matter what other safety protocols you may have in place.

This is where it becomes extremely important to know your customer base.

Gabor says a bar owner should ask themselves a series of questions: “Who is your ideal customer? Who does your bar ultimately cater to? Who are you for? Who is this brand for? What is that person like?

What do you think their values and beliefs are? How do you think they would expect you to show up upon opening? And then use those answers to frame the decision.”

Once you have a clear picture of your target customer, Taffer says bars should approach the decision of masks or no masks like anything else in their bar: music, food, etc. “We make these June/July 2020

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OPERATIONS decisions as an industry every day,” he says. “Are you a country bar or a rock-and-roll bar? Today, are you a mask bar or a no-mask bar? The magnitude of the decision is no greater than the music decisions that we make and the other decisions that we make that not only target an audience, but chase one away.”

It can be easy to view all of this change as a bad thing, but Winston Fisher, CEO of AREA15 and partner at Fisher Brothers, challenges owners to change their perceptions.

“There’s time to innovate now. There’s time to think about better engagement—how would we do things different, what do we want, what are people looking for, how do we help them celebrate, how do we be more to them than just a restaurant but actually a place that has an emotional connection?” he says. “All this has done is given us time to focus more on how to improve and build better connections.”

First and foremost will be getting people back through the door. “Now that we have opened the channel for America to have our food and beverage menus delivered to the comfort of their homes, we really need to focus much more vigilantly than we ever have in any of our lifetimes on creating a compelling guest experience so that they will be inclined to come back inside of our four walls,” says Ellis.

Taffer recommends offering incentives for takeout and delivery customers to help ease the transition back to indoor dining. “If you have delivery services, I would be couponing everything for eating inside,” says Taffer. “I wouldn’t be giving

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June/July 2020

discounts for delivery, but every bag you got from me would have something in it to get you inside.”

Creating authentic, unique experiences will still be key.

“People who have good product are going to thrive. If you didn’t have good product, and you didn’t build strong customer relations, and you took people for granted, you might not do so well today,” says Fisher “But if you’re the place that’s selling a genuine, authentic cool thing and people need it, they’re going to flock to you in a heartbeat.”

At AREA15, a new, 200,000-square-foot entertainment-andexperience attraction opening in September, they were focused on creating a best-in-class experience prior to the pandemic. In one complex, AREA15 builds an immersive experience through art, technology, entertainment, food and beverage, and live events. Although COVID-19 pushed back its inaugural schedule of events, the facility is focused more than ever on providing an experience that transports the guest—safely—by following all of the recommended social distancing guidelines. “It was always a place that was going to take you out of yourself and bring you to a land of wonder,” says Fisher. “So I think the guest experience now more than ever is going to change by being needed more than ever because of what’s happening.”

Some innovations may not require as sprawling and large of a concept, but rather the opposite— smaller, more intimate experiences. “I’m curious about what bar owners are going to do to be able to create smaller experiences, or more intimate types of experiences,” says Gabor. “Are they going to reconfigure their physical space to have people gather in maybe smaller groups like dyads and triads? I think that maybe we’ll see more outdoor spaces or new configurations.

Now is the time for new business models.”

Ellis recently released a revival guide with strategy and tactics for moving forward. Above all, he advises bar owners to consider a business model that is flexible and future-proof as our current environment is defined by unpredictability and rapid change.

“Be agile and remember that consumer confidence is and will continue to be a moving target for some time,” says Ellis. “Before you go off and spend whatever amount of money permanently rebuilding your spaces for social distancing and Plexiglas barriers, realize that as medical science evolves on this and we learn more, that may not be the answer. And you may have just spent a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of effort sort of unraveling the immersion of your space hoping that it would bring back guests in droves, and all of a sudden it’s pointless.”

Ellis encourages owners to think bigger—to systemic changes. “Our industry was dismantled in about ten days,” he says. “The thinking that got us in this mess is not going to be the thinking that gets us out of it.”

Ellis says this isn’t a problem for “duct tape” or simple solutions. Instead, work needs to be done on the big issues like rent, financial literacy, health and wellness, and health insurance and other protections for workers. “You do the hard work of digging into the problems, you do a lot of listening, a lot of understanding, a lot of sharing of information and ideas,” he says, “and we start developing strategies and figuring out how to work our way out of this over time, moving the needle as we can to protect ourselves in the future.” barbizmag.com

BAR TOUR

BAR TOUR

BY ASHLEY BRAY

V

VIRIDIAN

All Photos: Jeremy Chiu.

OAKLAND, CA

A new bar brings produce-driven cocktails and desserts to uptown Oakland.

barbizmag.com

iridian is the fulfillment of Co-Owner and Bar Director William Tsui’s sixyear dream of ownership.

Together with his team of Co-Owners Raymond Gee and Jeremy Chiu and General Manager Alison Kwan, the bar officially opened in Uptown Oakland, California in February.

The three co-owners all hail from Oakland, so building a bar in the community was especially meaningful to them.

“Even in the past five years, that whole [Uptown Oakland] area has been redeveloped,” says Tsui. “Now there’s a lot of new and exciting things there, and we’re just very happy to be able to be a part of that and provide this concept that Oakland has never seen before.”

Viridian aims to provide outstanding hospitality in a relaxed atmosphere. “We want to have the same level of hospitality as fine dining but in a fun and unpretentious atmosphere,” says Tsui.

The bar’s design derives inspiration from a variety of places, including

Hong Kong, ’90s aesthetic (neon, the Miami Vice-esque script of the bar’s logo, and graphic elements borrowed from R&B record covers), and the ’90s films of Director Wong Kar-wai, which are characterized by atmospheric music and vivid cinematography with bold, saturated colors.

In fact, the name Viridian comes from an element of one of Kar-Wai’s films. “Originally, we wanted to name it Days of Being Wild after the Wong Karwai movie, but that’s a very long name for a bar, especially when someone’s been drinking,” jokes Tsui.

After rewatching the movie, they noticed the title screen at the start of the film features a lush, green-blue background—the color known as viridian. In addition, Viridian also has a connection to the game Pokémon, which thrilled the co-owners who are big Pokémon fans and even considered a Pokémon theme for the bar. “Viridian also refers to the second city in Pokémon from the first game, so it’s like we’re leaving our town and starting our adventure,” explains Tsui.

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BAR TOUR

(This Photo) Guava Island cocktail (Below) Rum Po Tat

Three neon installations bathe the bar in light, including this one in the foyer.

Finally, viridian is also a nod to the green-blue Earth and the bar’s sustainability efforts. “Coming from a background in fine dining, it was shocking the amount of waste that goes out of the kitchen,” says Tsui.

In an effort to reduce their footprint, the bar uses local produce, shares ingredients between the bar and the kitchen to reduce waste, and has even created a faux lime mix called “not lime” to cut down on its use of limes.

The bar was designed by husbandand-wife team Anna Lee and Brandon Jew of Soon and Soon Studio, who proposed three design ideas, including a neon-saturated concept the team ultimately chose.

San Francisco-based artist Laura 38

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Stevenson of Rite Guy Design was brought in to create the neon displays.

She’s studied both Hong Kong neon and the neon of Oakland, so she was a perfect fit for the project. She created three neon sculptures that fill up the space: one behind the bar, a chandelier in the foyer, and a six-piece installation above the lounge area.

According to a press release, “Stevenson’s inspiration evolved from imagining what the view might look like from high up in a Hong Kong tower building, overlooking the tremendously influential neon landscape of one of the world’s greatest cities. The series of sculptures for Viridian represents that abstract vision: The piece at the center of the bar

represents a ‘window’ in that tower room, which has been opened to invite colorful threads of electric city energy to drift in and illuminate the interior.”

All of the neon lighting succeeds in creating the atmosphere Viridian was hoping to establish. “It just fills the space up with such a mood, and it’s very Wong Kar-wai-esque, it has those oversaturated colors,” says Tsui. “The beautiful thing about neon is that it can emit so much light, but you can still look directly at it, and it doesn’t hurt your eyes.”

The mood is further set with a variety of playlists, including acoustic and pop rock sounds, hip-hop and R&B from all eras, electronic, jazz, and more.

In addition to the neon installations, barbizmag.com

BAR TOUR the bar includes black and yellow tiling from Heath Ceramics, lighting running underneath the length of the bar top and into the foyer area, glossy black varnished back bar shelving, and handmade acrylic felt sconces above each floating table.

Prior to COVID-19 spacing restrictions, the bar sat 70, with 16 seats at the bar, 10 seats in the lounge, and 10 additional seats at the bar-height, wall mounted semi-circle tables.

Speaking of COVID-19, Tsui says the pandemic has deeply affected the bar that was only open a few weeks before being forced to close. “COVID-19 has reduced our business by 80%,” says Tsui. “Shelter-in-place ordinances as well as low consumer confidence have really dealt a blow to our bar.”

In light of the pandemic, the bar pivoted its business model to Viridian Market, which offers snacks, wine, and bottled cocktails to-go as well as cookie dough and steam-your-own bao for those stuck at home looking for an activity.

Viridian’s normal mode of operation was to prep for a week out each morning so that they could focus on guest service each night. Because of this model, the bar was positioned especially well to pivot into a to-go format. “Our cocktails, for the most part, were already shelf stable and ready to be bottled into a smaller format. The challenge with to-go has always been how well things keep when they travel,” says Tsui. “Being no longer able to plate or present a dish or a cocktail in person, once you send it out in a to-go format, it is out of your control. We mitigate this through our packaging—making things easy to read but still staying true to our brand.

During these times, we have added new cocktails to our menu every week as we continue to look for ways to express hospitality to our guests.”

Viridian offers a variety of seasonal and technique-driven craft cocktails in its bar program created by Tsui and Kwan. To aid its sustainability efforts, the bar program highlights fresh, local ingredients in its produce-driven cocktails, and it often mixes drinks with spirit brands rooted in agriculture.

“These producers share such a close tie barbizmag.com

with the land that they’re producing on, and it really shows in the bottle,” says Tsui.

The bar doesn’t do frequent or large menu rotations. Instead, they focus on swapping out a cocktail once the ingredients go out of season. For guests dining in, presentation is also big.

“You eat first with your eyes, so we always try to incorporate something that’s a little surprising,” says Tsui, who uses the bar’s Golden Triangle cocktail as an example. The cocktail includes yellow beets, gin, Califonia poppy, bitter wine—and a little bit of pearl dust that makes the cocktail shimmer.

Viridian’s savory Tomato Beef cocktail is a popular offering, and it includes tequila, tomato water, foraged pink peppercorns, basil eau de vie, and the bar’s “not lime” mix. The cocktail is also available in a bottled format for takeout.

Viridian also offers an eclectic wine list curated by Master Sommelier Andrey Ivanov, which is designed to mirror Viridian’s ethos of being environmentally conscious, diverse, and approachable. Most of the wines are sourced from small producers who look to minimize the long-term effects of farming on their ecosystems.

In an effort to be a minimum-waste establishment, the bar program shares many ingredients with its food menu, which is composed of desserts, dim sum style sweets, and savory items inspired by the Asian-American experience and presented by Executive Chef Amanda Hoang.

“We work very closely with Chef Amanda to use all the products in-house,” explains Tsui. “So pairing cocktails with desserts is a lot easier since they share a lot of the same ingredients. Things that she uses that are then leftover as byproducts we in turn as a bar program can use, and vice versa.”

The dessert menu includes options like Thai Tea Tiramisu and Black Sesame Chocolate Cake. For its to-go menu, Viridian offers desserts that travel easily, like a variety of cookies: Black Sesame Dumpling Cookie, Chewy Flourless Chocolate Pistachio Cookie, and Strawberry Shortbread Cookie, in

addition to a variety of bake-your-own cookie dough selections. Pints of ice cream with toppings are also available for takeout.

“We also wanted to include a few savory bites for people who have that preference,” explains Hoang. Popular items include Rum Po Tat (egg custard tart, spiced rum, cinnamon, and lemon zest) and Cha Siu Bao (BBQ pork in steamed milk bun), which is also available in a steam-your-own takeout option.

“Since we share a lot of ingredients, there’s a lot of natural pairings that happen on the menu [between the bar and food program],” says Tsui. “And down the line, more and more of that will start to show as we get up and running and get our systems down for reusing each other’s waste.”

William Tsui CO-OWNER & BAR DIRECTOR, VIRIDIAN

G

rowing up in a Chinese immigrant household in Oakland, Will Tsui’s appreciation for food, beverage, and the love they can convey was forged early on. At Viridian, Tsui calls on his experiences leading bar programs at Hotel Nikko, Jasper’s Corner, Rich Table, Coin-Op, Bon Marche, True Laurel, and, most recently, Lazy Bear. Specifically, his time at Hotel Nikko instilled a deep sense of Japanese hospitality, or “suburashi omoede” service style, which centers on creating fantastic feelings that become cherished memories for his guests—a method he fuses with his natural tendency toward relaxed and approachable attention. Primarily self-taught, Tsui has always enjoyed diving into R&D at home using Oakland Chinatown produce for its affordability and throwing informal bar pop-ups that would eventually become known as “Tiger and Crane.”

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INVENTORY

LUXARDO INTRODUCES ITS FIRST CLEAR BASE SPIRIT TO THE U.S.

THIS TOOL CAN RAISE YOUR PROFITS AFTER REOPENING

Known most widely for its proprietary marasca cherry products, including Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur and Luxardo Original Maraschino Cherries, Luxardo now introduces its first clear base spirit to the United States market with the launch of Luxardo London Dry Gin, a juniper-forward expression that follows a family recipe going back two centuries. Imported by San Francisco’s Hotaling & Co., Luxardo London Dry Gin employs careful selection of nine botanicals, including juniper, coriander, iris, angelica, licorice, cinchona, cinnamon, cardamom, and bitter orange, which are infused for 24 hours in a traditional copper pot still prior to distillation. The distillate is refined for 19 days before being filtered, diluted to an ABV of 43%, and bottled. The resulting gin features a pronounced juniper, orange, violet, and black tea flavor, with gentle notes of spice and ginger and a somewhat citrusy aftertaste. The bottle’s artisanal label design references the Luxardo family’s heritage in Zara and Torreglia, Italy, paying homage to where the recipe was first conceptualized and later produced.

Craft cocktails are always evolving, but one aspect doesn’t change: the need for elegant, large format ice cubes. The Perlick® Ice Vault Large Format Ice Management System provides storage for large format ice and mixers, and is designed by Bar Magic Founder and Perlick Partner Tobin Ellis. The Perlick Ice Vault is the only product on the market that is NSF certified for the storage and preparation of craft ice, so bartenders are assured the large format ice they are serving is the freshest ice possible. The Ice Vault creates a bartending space that is ergonomic and efficient, so bartenders can work more quickly.

The vault’s rear freezer compartment stores up to 48 large format cubes within easy reach of the bartender, meaning no more running to the back freezer. All compartments are also designed to store juices, vermouths, champagne, and spirits.

The VariChill™ adjustable temperature damper allows bartenders to adjust the temperature in the front compartment for the storage of bottled ingredients.

Luxardo London Dry Gin

hotalingandco.com/brand/luxardo

Perlick® Ice Vault Large Format Ice Management System

perlick.com

NEW FROM HARPOON BREWERY TO SUPPORT COVID-19 RELIEF EFFORTS Harpoon For the Frontline

Harpoon Brewery’s new beer—Harpoon “For The Frontline”—supports frontline workers and hospitality professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Boston Resiliency Fund, Off Their Plate, and The Vermont Community Foundation’s VT COVID-19 Response Fund to help provide relief to those affected by the novel coronavirus. Harpoon “For The Frontline” is a re-release of the brewery’s original Harpoon Ale, which was first brewed in 1986 when three friends set out to open Massachusetts’s first brewery after decades of dormancy in the state. “We founded Harpoon with the goal of serving our community, and that mission is just as relevant now as it was in ‘86. We knew we had to do something big to help support those who have been impacted by COVID-19, and a new release of our Harpoon Ale felt like the perfect way to honor them and help raise vital funds,” said Dan Kenary, CEO and co-founder of Mass. Bay Brewing Company, maker of Harpoon. Harpoon “For the Frontline” is made with Harpoon’s proprietary yeast strain, resulting in a signature fruity aroma with light undertones of caramel malt. At 5% ABV, the beer is approachable with a smooth, medium body and crisp finish. harpoonbrewery.com

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INVENTORY

A SHIELD FOR SAFE SOCIAL DISTANCING

NEW BEER CAPTURES THE JOY OF MUSIC IN A CAN

Are you trying to install barriers at your bar or around your tables to help stop the spread of COVID-19? Then a new product that requires no tools—the Jordan Defense Shield™—may be the solution you’ve been looking for. The new, flexible plastic shield for safe social distancing can be installed and uninstalled in seconds and made to fit any space by simply unrolling the shield to the required length. The patent-pending Jordan Defense Shield from Maguire Products, Inc. ships as a compact roll with rods attached at either end of the plastic roll. Magnets and adhesive discs are provided for vertically mounting the rods, with no tools needed. Desk clamps are available as alternatives. The flexible plastic for the Jordan Defense Shield is made of PET polyester, which is recycled around the world. Discounts are available for bulk orders, and standard shipping is free in the contiguous U.S.

Rolling Stone and Elysian Brewing’s Elysian Rolling Stone Lager is inspired by live shows and long nights, marks a milestone in craft brewing, and is the first time Rolling Stone has co-created and licensed their iconic brand to a craft beer. The 4.8% ABV beer is crisp, smooth, and sweet, with tantalizing hints of caramel and orange marmalade. The high quality, all-malt lager is full of flavor, yet balanced. It boasts a clear gold color and a moderate hop profile from Cascade, Crystal and Mandarina Bavaria hops, giving the beer an orange zest and Manuka honey finish. It is available on tap nationwide.

Jordan Defense Shield

jordandefenseshield.com

Elysian Rolling Stone Lager

elysianbrewing.com

Featured

PRODUCT

A WHISKEY BLENDED TOGETHER, WHILE APART WhistlePig HomeStock Whiskey

WhistlePig HomeStock Whiskey is a limited-edition whiskey created via a virtual crowdblending experience in collaboration with Flaviar, a leading online spirits club. Hundreds of WhistlePig ‘Blend Your Own’ whiskey kits were dispatched participants, who were asked to experiment at home before submitting their preferred recipe. The at-home blending kits included samples of WhistlePig Rye, wheat and barley whiskeys, and blending tools and instructions. With the submissions received, Pete Lynch, WhistlePig’s Master Blender, analyzed the data and determined the three most popular styles submitted. The surprise winner, with 44.1% of the votes, was Blend Number 3, which was 45% rye, 30% wheat, and 25% barley.

HomeStock is the first variant from WhistlePig’s award-winning portfolio that stretches outside of the rye category. On the nose, HomeStock is sweet and fruity, with pipe tobacco, vanilla and orange vest. Upon tasting, there’s a big hit of baking spice with toffee, nutmeg, roasted nuts, ripe berries and a great mouthfeel. The finish is long and spicy. WhistlePig will donate 20% of online sales via Flaviar & Caskers from HomeStock to the U.S. Bartenders’ Guild (USBG) Foundation’s Emergency Assistance Program. whistlepigwhiskey.com

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June/July 2020

Bar Business Magazine

41

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AD INDEX

COMPANY 28 19 25 23 33 13

BISH CREATIVE COIT SPIRITS DONNA ITALIA USA INC F’REAL G&G CLOSED CIRCUIT

CONTACT

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GREENSMART PAPER CO

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HOSHIZAKI AMERICA

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OLE SMOKY DISTILLERY

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PARSE POS

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C4

RUMCHATA

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SAVAGE & COOKE

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C2

SHIFT4

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TATER KEGS

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36

TWISTED ALCHEMY

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WONKYWARE

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WORLD BUSINESS LENDERS

wbl.com

9

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INVENTORY COMPANIES ELYSIAN BREWING elysianbrewing.com HARPOON BREWERY harpoonbrewery.com JORDAN DEFENSE SHIELD jordandefenseshield.com

LUXARDO hotalingandco.com/brand/luxardo PERLICK perlick.com WHISTLEPIG whistlepigwhiskey.com

TO ADVERTISE IN BAR BUSINESS MAGAZINE, CONTACT ART SUTLEY 212-620-7247 ASUTLEY@SBPUB.COM

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43

Q&A with DAREK BELL

1

What craft spirits does Corsair Distillery offer?

We have historically played in almost every category. That’s really the root of the craft spirits boom—having the desire and speed to play mad scientist. However, as we have grown, we have been forced to focus a bit so we don’t overextend ourselves on the operations side. As of right now, we have our core four items (Triple Smoke American Single Malt Whiskey, Dark Rye American Rye Malt Whiskey, American Gin, and Barreled Gin). We also have a support line really catering to the on-premise channel that contains our Vanilla Bean Vodka, Spiced Rum, and Red Absinthe.

2 OWNER OF CORSAIR DISTILLERY

D

arek Bell is the owner of Corsair Distillery and Bell and Associates Construction, LP. Corsair’s innovative and adventurous spirits have won 107 medals at international spirits competitions. Bell was trained at the Siebel Brewing Institute and is a graduate of the Bruichladdich Distilling Academy in Islay, Scotland. When not distilling, Darek enjoys teaching and writing. He has written the book Alt Whiskeys, which captured the spirit of innovation in craft whiskey. His second book, Fire Water, will solidify his reputation for being one of craft distilling’s most creative distillers.

Coffee Old Fashioned 2 oz Ryemageddon ½ oz Coffee Demerara 1 Dash walnut bitters 1 Dash Angostura bitters 1 Dash Chocolate bitters Stir/strain in rocks glass.

Garnish with orange peel.

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What makes your whiskey stand out?

[Note: In making its whiskeys, Corsair Distillery uses alternate grains as well as grains, yeasts, and techniques typically used by brewers but not distillers.] It means a lot of R&D. We have tried everything from malted oatmeal, to quinoa, to tritacale. When I started distilling, I knew I couldn’t compete with the big guys making standard offerings so I thought how can I play with the ingredients, smokes, distillation process, aging techniques, etc. to come up with truly unique products? With some of those grains, you have to become much more efficient or patient because they don’t act like barley, but the end products are always interesting. By doing this, I think we are able to create flavor profiles that others can’t with a traditional process or grain bill.

3

What makes your other spirits different?

We make our whiskeys in-house so you know the liquid is different from 50% of the brands out there because we don’t source. Even in a really established category like gin, we purposely use the non-traditional vapor basket distillation process because we want a crisp, mixable end product. And we take liberty with the botanicals as well—like adding cucumber or chamomile. We also like to be a little more modern in our look; we’re not trying to be a heritage brand, we’re trying to be more forward thinking and innovative.

4

Have you noticed an increased demand for craft spirits?

Absolutely. Spirits offerings have exploded in the last 10 years. It’s great for consumers but creates a bit of pressure on accounts and distributors because their time and attention can be stretched.

5

What led to the decision to re-image the brand?

It has become more and more difficult to visually stand out, but the proliferation [of craft spirits] has also raised the quality of packaging across all craft brands. Customers expect quality packaging in addition to a good liquid. Our old pack was very time consuming to hand label, it was also very difficult to consistently hand label in a quality way - the new one is screen printed, which eliminates all of those inconsistencies and time waste we had.

6

Does Corsair have a footprint in the on-premise market?

We do, and we think the on-premise channel is key to the craft movement.

This is how many consumers try new things so it’s definitely a focus for us.

All of our products are created or at least heavily influenced by the on-premise channel. For Triple Smoke, we wanted a smoke that wasn’t overpowering but would stand up in a cocktail. With Dark Rye, we intentionally take out those green notes you get in a typical rye so that it is more mixable and the pepper would shine through. For our Vanilla Bean Vodka, we don’t add sugar because we know a good mixologist will want to control the sugar content of the final cocktail. We are distributed in about 35 states currently.

7

Any advice for using your spirits?

I would recommend they think laterally. Try spirits that haven’t traditionally been an ingredient in that cocktail—a great example is an old fashioned made with our Barreled Gin. The cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in the gin just brings it to a whole new level and the result is surprising. All that to say—play around, just like we do to find new and surprising flavor profiles. barbizmag.com

SPIRITS THAT STAND ABOVE THE REST. The Burning Chair Bourbon Whiskey

Lip Service Rye Whiskey

Second Glance American Whiskey

The Savage & Cooke distillery, owned by Napa Valley winemaker Dave Phinney, is located on historic Mare Island. Savage & Cooke distills, ages, finishes and bottles a range of brown spirits including Bourbon, Whiskey and Rye. All delivering complex flavors, concentration, balanced oak influence and lushness.

For a list of our national distributors please visit our website.

SAVAGEANDCOOKE.COM

Savage + Cooke An American Distillery

@savageandcooke

Introducing

RumChata Limón!

Caribbean Rum, Real Dairy Cream, Rich Vanilla, and Sunny Lemon!

Available March 1st! Order now!

RumChata Limón™. Caribbean Rum with Real Dairy Cream, Natural & Artificial Flavors, 14% alc/vol. Agave Loco Brands, Pewaukee, WI. Please Enjoy Responsibly. RUMCHATA, RUMCHATA LIMÓN, and CHATA are trademarks of Agave Loco, LLC