39 minute read
Tuning Up: How Bars with Games Can Stay Compliant
HOW TO: TUNING UPTuning Up
HOW TO
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HOW BARS WITH GAMES CAN STAY COMPLIANT
Is your arcade bar getting the highest score on COVID-19 compliance?
BY ASHLEY BRAY
Bars/restaurants have many new guidelines and restrictions to keep in mind in the age of COVID-19, but bars with arcade games and other gaming equipment have even more to consider.
So where do you start when trying to implement policies and best practices for cleaning gaming equipment, ensuring patrons remain six feet apart, and instilling confidence in your guests about your new safety protocols?
“Betson will always recommend starting with your local, state, and CDC guidelines to identify any regional mandates,” says Jerry Battista, national parts sales manager for Betson Enterprises, a worldwide distributor of arcade and amusement equipment, parts, and service. “In addition, Betson recommends a combination of dividers along with cleaning regiments using different products designed for keeping customers and equipment safe.”
Keep your guests informed about your safety procedures.
Cleaning Practices Betson recommends cleaning with CDCrecommended products but warns owners to be sure the products are safe for use on games.
“There are many products on the market, but some can damage games on application because they are not designed for use on monitors, decals, or the various levels of plastic used on arcade equipment,” says Battista.
To help clients avoid unintentional damage to equipment, Betson has vetted a variety of products and stocks and recommends two: Biocide 100 and Wipex 70% isopropyl wipes.
Biocide 100 is a very strong disinfectant, germ, and virus killer that has demonstrated effectiveness against viruses similar to the 2019 novel coronavirus on hard, non-porous surfaces.
However, when used incorrectly, it has the potential to erode certain surfaces. “This is where Betson is more than a provider of product, we educate our customers on these best practices,” says Battista. “Biocide 100 should be used once in the morning and once at night on all gaming surfaces, focusing on high touch points like buttons, guns, and steering wheels. We also recommend intermittent cleaning with wipes [Wipex or another 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe] in between patron usage.”
When cleaning and disinfecting, the CDC recommends wearing a mask and disposable gloves. Be sure to clean your hands as soon as gloves are removed.
In addition to the high touch points mentioned above, touchscreens, joysticks, game balls and tokens, etc. should also be frequently cleaned. The CDC says to consider putting a wipeable cover on your electronics for easier cleaning.
Betson also recommends setting up hands-free hand sanitation stations throughout the building, which it stocks in standard models and models with customizable graphics.
Social Distancing Ensuring guests remain at least six feet apart is another important part of preventing the spread of COVID-19— especially in bars with games that people tend to crowd around. Fortunately, Betson has some suggestions for successful social distancing in your bar.
“We have provided a Safety Signage Kit, which the majority of our customers have taken advantage of. The kits consist of safety signs, directional arrows, social distancing floor stickers and best practices, along with signage letting customers know the diligence in cleaning and customer service standards,” explains Battista. “We have several kits designed for our customers ranging in size from smaller arcades and bars to large Family Entertainment Centers with the ability to buy individual or supplemental items.”
Betson also recommends placing social distancing floor stickers where necessary to indicate where customers are expected to line up.
Battista says signage is also a constant protocol reminder for staff and a great way to keep them informed. Frequent team meetings to educate employees on procedures and what is expected also go a long way in ensuring compliance.
Bars may also consider instituting time limits on game play to keep traffic flowing, but Battista says there is really no need for limitations such as these. “Patrons naturally evolve in and out of lines for particular games, and if in use, tend to play another game before returning,” explains Battista. “There is no need to limit customer gameplay.”
However, limiting entry points into the establishment is a tactic that will help your guests to maintain social distancing. Consider having one door for entry and another one for exiting.
Partitions Arcade bars can be packed with games as owners try to make the most of every square inch. Before you start rearranging or removing games entirely, consider using partitions.
“Betson also recommends and offers dividers for those close quarter areas where removing a game just doesn’t make sense,” says Battista. “Instead of losing out on potential revenue, many operators are allowed to have games directly next to each other as long as a divider is present, which varies from state to state.”
Get the Word Out In today’s world, things change rapidly, so be sure your customers know what
Many bars are considering bringing in new equipment to attract customers, such as the NGX Curve on Mobile Play jukebox from AMI Entertainment.
One of the best arcade games currently on the market for bars is the new Big Buck Hunter® Reloaded™ Mini online game. safety protocols you have in place.
“Advertise your cleaning procedures on your website, let the customers know what you are doing daily to keep them safe, and let it be visible by action,” suggests Battista.
Additional ways to keep customers informed are through social media, email newsletters, signage, and phone calls—especially for guests with group reservations.
For guests already in your bar, consider making announcements if you have a PA system, or display procedures on your TVs/digital signage.
Bringing Back Customers COVID-19 regulations and procedures likely aren’t the only thing on your mind—bringing back guests and boosting your profits are probably major concerns as well.
Consider bringing in new games/ equipment to attract customers.
For example, Battista says many bars are considering bringing in a new jukebox such as the NGX Curve on Mobile Play from AMI Entertainment. “With most states with indoor capacity restrictions, we have seen a significant increase in mobile jukebox play of 25% from outdoor dining with speakers outside,” he says, noting that some bars are even bringing their arcade games outdoors. “In some cases where the weather is moderate, locations are putting games outside to attract customers and abide by local restrictions.”
Battista says one of the best arcade games currently on the market for bars is the new Big Buck Hunter® Reloaded™ Mini online game.
“It’s such a great bar game because you can host tournaments, and the game is a great revenue earner,” explains Battista, who notes that the Big Buck World Championship brings the top players and fans together from all over. “Locations can tap into this network to bring awareness that they have the game.”
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TRANSFORMING the Dining EXPERIENCE
FOR TAFFER’S TAVERN, THE FUTURE IS NOW.
BY ASHLEY BRAY
Taffer’s Tavern, the new franchise from entrepreneur, hospitality expert, and Bar Rescue host Jon Taffer, officially opened its first location in Alpharetta, Georgia in November 2020. According to Taffer, despite a low-key, “very un-Taffer” grand opening due to COVID-19, the location has been popular and performing at almost twice budget. Taffer attributes the success to the one-two punch of the “kitchen of the future” and “Taffer’s Safe Dining System™.”
The opening came after a two-yearplus journey that began back in 2018 when Taffer asked himself, “Can I design the kitchen of the future?”
The catalyst for this question was the biggest problem facing the industry at the time—finding staff. “Unemployment was incredibly low. We were facing $15 minimum wages, which in some states, was a 600% raise. Many of the employees who were available were new Americans, so there were language barriers. As an industry we were in trouble,” says Taffer. “The casual dining model didn’t work anymore. So [I asked myself,] ‘Can I design the kitchen of the future? Can I actually create a restaurant concept that uses 60% less human resources in the kitchen infusing robotics, computer cooking systems, computer technologies, food technologies? Could I create a really high-quality restaurant in that fashion?’”
To answer these questions, Taffer spent two years testing products and working in Cuisine Solutions’ test kitchens, a manufacturer of premium sous vide products. He also partnered with top manufacturers and brands in the industry. On cooking technology, he worked with Middleby Corporation, a manufacturer of commercial kitchen equipment, which owns more than 75 brands (Perfect Fry, Turbochef, etc.). He partnered with stainless steel underbar equipment and backbar refrigeration manufacturer and supplier Krowne on bar technology. For the transactional technology, Taffer turned to Shift4 Payments, a leader in secure payment processing solutions. And for the accounting, workforce, and back office technology, Taffer chose all-in-one restaurant management software provider Compeat.
With his team assembled, Taffer ripped up the plans for a traditional kitchen and started building an all-new concept from the ground up. The result was what he dubs the “kitchen of the future,” which includes no hood, no stove, no raw protein, and sous-vide cooked food. The model operates with 40% less labor and at more than half the costs of a conventional kitchen.
“Everything is incredibly high technology out of commissary kitchens that is incredibly well prepared,” says Taffer. “Everything is systemized,
Taffer’s Tavern is designed to exude warmth.
controlled, practiced, monitored, and our quality really speaks for itself.”
Not only is the new kitchen model more efficient, it’s also safer, which has proven to be a vital component in the time of COVID-19. “We don’t have raw product, we have less counter space, there’s no contact with food. Our cooking time is four to six minutes. We realized this is the safest operation. We then said let’s take it to the next level and create the Taffer Safe Dining System™,” says Taffer. “Safety obviously is paramount to us. We weren’t comfortable proceeding until we knew we had a safety program that could protect everyone.”
The system includes a number of safeguards, including employee temperature checks throughout the day; no personal hats or clothes in the kitchen; and the use of mask, gloves, and other PPE by kitchen staff.
A large part of Taffer’s Safe Dining System™ focuses on creating a safer method of serving guests. It starts before the guest is even seated. An employee sanitizes the table and seats and then places a round disc featuring the Tavern’s logo on the table. The hostess isn’t allowed to seat guests unless that disc is there, indicating that the table has been sanitized.
From there, actions and transactions are compartmentalized into three categories. Servers sell the menu and take orders, interact with the table, and remove items from the table, but they do not bring anything to the table. “They’re focused on connecting with the guests,” says Taffer. “All of our interactive dynamics training and connective training is much more powerful because of that compartmentalization.”
Food runners only bring clean, sanitary plates, glasses, silverware, and food/drink, and they take nothing away.
Lastly, the guest completes transactions (payment, tipping, etc.) through technology or through another separate individual.
Technology plays a large role in Taffer’s Safe Dining System™. Taffer’s Tavern partnered with PathSpot Technologies to bring in its hand scanner, which uses light-based detection to provide real-time feedback on the quality and effectiveness of every hand wash for restaurant staff. The scanner delivers results in less than two seconds via a green or red light. A red light means harmful contaminants are detected, and team members must rewash their hands.
Working with Krowne, Taffer’s Tavern installed a nitrous system in the bar area, which is used to treat every piece of glassware before a cocktail is made. “It is slammed with nitrous brought down to such a cold temperature that any viral or bacterial contamination is completely destroyed,” says Taffer. “And that happens right in front of the customer—every glass, every time.”
Speaking of cocktails, Taffer turned to Phil Wills, master mixologist from Bar Rescue and co-founder of L.A. beverageconsulting company The Spirits in Motion, to shape the beverage program. The bar menu features a diverse selection of spirits, wines, and beers, many of local and regional provenance.
Where the menu really shines,
The Milk ‘N’ Cookies dessert is a 21+ take on a classic that features a warm cookie trio served with whipped bourbon vanilla bean milk for dipping.
A spread of starters. Cocktails feature visual effects, like the Bubble Squared, which is crowned by a bubble that pops.
Tropical Bliss cocktail.
however, is through its signature cocktails, many of which fans of Bar Rescue will recognize (i.e., The Resurrection). The program employs some of the most advanced mixology techniques to create cocktails with great visual presentation. Effects include smoking wood chips and a cocktail crowned by a bubble that pops when placed on the table. The flight, typically reserved for beer tastings, has been transferred to cocktails, with guests getting the chance to sample four of the most popular cocktails on the menu.
“Every cocktail has very high standards of quality, but very high standards of presentation as well. You’ll see no standard glasses, no standard anything. We really wanted to provide what we felt were social media cocktails,” says Taffer, who notes that most of the photos shared online about Taffer’s Tavern pertain to cocktails. “It shows the power of presentation not only for the guest but as a marketing vehicle today. Presentation isn’t in your four walls anymore. If you do a good job, it’s blasted everywhere.”
For the food menu, Taffer focuses on comforting, mainstream foods featuring staples like burgers, steak, pot roast, fish and chips, roasted chicken, etc. “By doing so, we have a broader demographic footprint,” says Taffer. “Every trend has an end. Classic doesn’t end.”
That ode to the classic also feeds into why Taffer chose to use the term “tavern” above all others. “Taverns have an image of warmth, taverns always have food, taverns always have this length of stay—you stay longer in a tavern,” explains Taffer. “We felt that the word ‘tavern’ best fit the experience that we were trying to create of great food, great drinks, and a very warm, cozy experience. I wanted Taffer’s Tavern to be part of the community.”
Duncan Miller Ullmann was tasked to design a look for the inaugural location that fit with the warmth Taffer’s Tavern wanted to exude. The location features warm colors, brick, masonry, woodwork, raftered ceilings, and metals without shine.
“We also infuse technology all over the place with tablets, a video wall. On one wall of the restaurant, the entire wall moves down to the floor and becomes a stage. But when the wall goes back in place, you’d never know there’s a stage there,” says Taffer, who explains they wanted the ability to make the stage appear only when they needed it on special nights like New Year’s Eve. “The worst thing a bar can ever have is a stage with nothing on it.”
More Taffer’s Taverns will soon open in Georgia, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Boston.
And while it’s unrealistic to think every bar/restaurant will be throwing out their stove in favor of a kitchen of the future model, Taffer says the main point to take away is a need for greater systems and procedures in the bar industry. “Sanitation is going to be more evident than it’s ever been before,” says Taffer. “If we don’t have systems to keep people and employees safe, and it hits social media, it’s a different world. There is an accountability online today that holds us all to the fire. The expectation of guests have gone up.”
TRACKING the Trends
Anew year may be upon us, but we haven’t left 2020 entirely behind. For one, our industry is still being affected by the pandemic.
According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2021 State of the Restaurant Industry Report, restaurant and foodservice industry sales fell by $240 billion in 2020 from an expected level of $899 billion. As of December 1, more than 110,000 eating and drinking places were closed temporarily, or for good.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, as the industry also learned some valuable lessons in 2020 that we’re going to want to bring into the New Year. Let’s look at some trends that will define the industry in 2021.
MIXING THE ON- AND OFF-PREMISE One of the major avenues of survival in pandemic times has been the focus on off-premise channels, including takeout, delivery, curbside pick-up, etc. “63% of restaurant traffic at the beginning of [2020] was off-premises,” says Hudson Riehle, senior vice president, Research, for the National Restaurant Association. “In the second to third quarter, that moved up to the 80-90% range.”
As vaccines hopefully help to slow and put an end to the pandemic, Riehle expects that off-premise traffic percentage to drop as the on-premise gains back share, but it will be a while before it reverts to a pre-pandemic 63%.
Part of the reason for this is that offpremise options were already continuing to grow. In the Association’s 2030 report, which took a look at the industry 10 years from now, the second-highest ranked trend was that off-premise opportunities would continue to drive industry growth.
The data supports this claim. The Association’s 2021 Report says 68% of
A LOOK AT WHAT WILL DEFINE THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN 2021.
BY ASHLEY BRAY
consumers are now more likely to purchase takeout from a restaurant than before the pandemic, and 53% of consumers say takeout and delivery is essential to the way they live.
One of the biggest boons of the offpremise model for bars/restaurants has been the ability to sell to-go alcohol and cocktails. “That obviously is one of the most major developments for the restaurant industry regarding alcohol probably since the Prohibition era,” says Riehle, noting that states continue to pass legislation extending or making to-go alcohol permanent.
THIRD-PARTY APPS A big part of navigating delivery and to-go for bars/restaurants has been setting up an ordering process, and bars/restaurants must focus on their ability to fulfill a need for convenience. This has led many establishments without their own online ordering system to turn to a third-party app like UberEats, DoorDash, etc.
The hospitality industry’s relationship with these apps has been mixed. For one, they offer exposure and a platform to reach more guests. On the other hand, the fees add up and can take away from the bottom line of an already struggling bar/restaurant.
In its 2030 report, the Association brought up concerns about third-party apps severing the direct connection between bars/restaurants and consumers. The Association recommends that bars/ restaurants use specialized, unique menu items to defend against brand disintermediation. It also says to consider food-delivery packaging, as it becomes an increasingly important touch point for brand interaction with consumers in delivery and takeout orders.
TECHNOLOGY & DATA As bars/restaurants aim to meet the changing demands of customers, data will become even more important. And as more and more tech-driven applications and equipment are implemented in bars/restaurants, more of this data will become available. “In the end, good business decisions are made on good data,” says Riehle.
Riehle sees technology implemented in three ways in bars/restaurants: in the front of the house; prep, kitchen, and management areas handled by the back of the house; and smartphone marketing and loyalty systems.
Fortunately, Riehle doesn’t see this advancement in automation and technology replacing the workforce. “In general, when you talk to restaurant operators, the increased usage of technology allows for a reallocation of labor in that operation or at that brickand-mortar location. It generally does not culminate in staff reductions. In the end, restaurants are a hospitality business, so it allows a greater focus on that staff as well as the management to enhancing that customer experience,” says Riehle. “When there’s an extremely labor-intensive industry, such as the restaurant industry, and when technology is applied toward that industry, it really does boost the productivity and efficiency, not only of the industry but of specific operations.”
PENT-UP DEMAND A silver lining to all of this is that most consumers are ready to return to bars/ restaurants when they feel safe enough to do so. According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2021 report, in late April 2020, 83% of adults said they were not eating on-premises as often as they’d like—a jump from the 45% reported in January 2020. Riehle believes it will be the missing socialization factor that helps to drive consumers back in, “In the end, the consumer likes the restaurant industry, wants to use the restaurant industry, so as incomes and employments pick up, they will definitely step up their re-patronage of the industry.”
EASYBAR AIMS TO AUTOMATE THE BAR
Ithink human beings have learned a lot from the pandemic,” says James Nicol, CEO of Easybar, a leader in commercial beverage and liquor dispensing equipment, including an advanced beverage dispensing cocktail machine. “I think a lot of lessons that have been learned throughout this last year are probably going to start to be implemented into new concepts so that restaurants can ensure they can continue to be productive and profitable should something drastic happen.”
One of the biggest lessons learned has been the need for technology—specifically automation—which Easybar is at the forefront of thanks to its Cocktail Service Station, which allows servers to pour the perfect cocktail in seconds with just one tap on a touchscreen.
The ultimate goal of Easybar, and most automation processes in the industry, is to improve the guest experience. “It’s about personalizing the experience to an even deeper level than is being done now. I think that’s what we’re looking at from a technological advancement as the next step for food service,” says Nicol. “And automation has the ability to be repeatable and make things perfect every time.”
Nicol points out that automation is already happening—especially on the food side. “You see companies perfecting the way a burger is made, perfecting the way a pizza is made. A lot of money is being invested in that side of food service at this time,” he says. “Over the next 5-10 years, we’re going to see a huge influx of automated restaurant concepts and automated delivery services for food. It’s the wave of the future.”
Easybar’s cocktail station aims to use automation to increase the speed of service from the service bar. The system can be implemented in any size establishment, but it was especially designed for large-format establishments like casino and stadium bars. “The speed to service is paramount because obviously when you can serve more drinks, you get more revenue,” says Nicol. “And if you can get drinks to customers faster, they’re more apt to order a second one.”
Servers simply input a guest’s order into Easybar by choosing the cocktail, and the system pours the drink in three to four seconds. The Cocktail Service Station ties into an establishment’s soda system as well as a large-format liquor well, which is the backroom pumping system—usually housed in the basement or a remote area. The system can pour up to five liquids at once and handle up to 64 brands. The system also connects with the POS system and rings up the drink. Users also have the option to control draft wine and draft beer through the system.
“It’s really a full-service outfit from soda to liquor to wine to beer, and it creates ease of use for the servers, speed to service, and accountability on the backend,” says Nicol. “There’s no overpouring, there’s no underpouring—the drink is perfect every single time.”
One of the most common criticisms of automation is that it eliminates jobs and replaces the human element, but Nicol disagrees. He says the majority of clients Easybar has worked with have simply moved employees to other areas of the bar or restaurant. “You have someone already trained in your systems, within your brand, and that’s a valuable employee regardless of what position they’re in,” he says, noting that these employees also have more time to focus on the guest experience. “We are now able to interact with the client more, which thus brings more revenue and probably creates a more loyal client in the long run. It’s not eliminating the human element—it’s just maximizing the time because time is everything.”
Criticisms or not, Nicol believes automation will continue to gain ground in the hospitality industry— especially in light of the way the pandemic has changed how guests interact with bars/ restaurants. “I think we’re going to see new avenues open up where this is going to be implemented especially with remote delivery of beverages or pick-up service or different things like that. It’s not someone going to watch a bartender,” he says. “It’s more immediate service, remote service, picking things up at counters, things like that. And this system has a great place for that.” —Ashley Bray
BAR TOURBAR TOUR
On-tap cocktail #7
DOUBLE CHICKEN PLEASE
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
A new bar deconstructs and redefines design, cocktails, and the chicken sandwich.
BY ASHLEY BRAY
GN Chan’s years-long dream of opening a brick-and-mortar location for his bar concept, Double Chicken Please, finally became a reality in November 2020.
It may be Chan and his co-founder and business partner Faye Chen’s first bar, but they are no strangers to the industry. Chan is a veteran of The World’s 50 Best Bars’ Mace and Angel’s Share and a Bacardi Legacy Global Champion. Chen is an alumna of The World’s 50 Best Bar’s Speak Low (Shanghai) and a Bacardi Legacy China Champion.
Chan says all of the accolades have only driven the duo to work harder and keep growing. They also gave them a stubborn determination to make the bar a reality. “Opening Double Chicken Please is a dream come true and the culmination of many years of hard work, experimentation, and persistence that even the pandemic couldn’t stop,” says Chan. “Faye and I are excited to share our liquid creations with thirsty New Yorkers and eventually, with travelers from near and far.”
Double Chicken Please (the name is a nod to Chan and his best friend’s “chickenish” Mandarin nicknames “Chicken Filet” and “Turkey”) started as a mobile pop-up bar when Chan’s original plans to open a brick-andmortar location fell through in 2018.
The pop-ups were hosted in a sunny yellow 1977 Volkswagen camper with a bar top made from a repurposed skateboard. The camper took Chan and Chen all around the country and enabled Chan to combine his love for travel and cocktails. In total, the mobile bar logged 10,000 miles across the U.S. and 1,200 cocktails before the concept found a permanent parking space at 115 Allen Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Chan and Chen revived the VW pop-ups (on a smaller scale thanks to COVID-19) at Patisserie Fouet in Greenwich Village and Hunky Dory in Brooklyn to create excitement ahead of the brick-and-mortar’s November
The bar has become known for its chicken sandwiches. GN Chan and Faye Chen, Co-Founders of Double Chicken Please
On-tap cocktail #5.
2020 grand opening.
It’s hard to open a new bar at any time, but especially during a worldwide pandemic, and Chan acknowledges the difficulties of the last few months. “To open during a pandemic is really challenging, but the team tries to focus on our opportunities not the problems we’re having right now,” he says. “We try to utilize this downtime to train people, to come up with new ideas, to do R&D, and to make sure we can constantly produce something new, something fun.”
Although the establishment offers takeout and delivery, the closure of indoor dining in New York City also exacerbated challenges.
As of press time, indoor dining is set to reopen in New York City in midFebruary, and when it does, the inside of Double Chicken Please will be big enough to easily seat groups far apart. Chan has also put up dividers to aid in social distancing and installed a ventilation system that meets state requirements. He has also installed industry equivalent air filters in all HVAC systems.
“We are taking this very seriously and doing whatever we can,” says Chan. “We are paying scrupulous attention to hygiene protocols and social distancing to ensure that our team and guests stay safe.”
In the midst of all of the COVID-19 regulations, Double Chicken Please is not losing sight of the importance of the guest experience and the environment they attempt to create within the bar.
“The spirit of Double Chicken Please
is making people laugh and making people happy,” says Chan. “Our hospitality should make people feel like they’re coming to visit us at our home. So everything we do is based on that.”
And that includes the design. Double Chicken Please is split into two rooms. The back room’s design gives the impression of walking into someone’s home for a visit. It includes a large kitchen counter and a semiopen kitchen and living room. There is no back bar and no bottles in view—only art, collectibles, and midcentury modern furniture and aesthetics, many of which were made in and shipped from Taiwan. Craft cocktails and pairings are the focus of the menu.
The front room is more casual and fast paced. All the drinks are on tap, and snacks and chicken sandwiches are offered up on the food menu.
The entire two-room concept pays tribute to a bubble tea shop from the Taiwan neighborhood where Chan grew up. The shop had a design studio in the back, and as a high schooler, Chan would stare into the studio with its colorful Macs and dream about becoming a designer.
Chan eventually studied industrial design in school and originally had plans to make Double Chicken Please a design studio before happening into the bar industry. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of design influences to be found on the menu and all around the bar.
In fact, one of the guiding principles of the bar is the concept of “hacking design,” where cocktails and food are deconstructed, redefined, and rebuilt in a new way.
For example, on the back room’s menu, Double Chicken Please deconstructs the idea of the pairing— typically reserved for wine and food— and expands it to cocktails and food.
“On the menu, you will see New York Beet Salad paired with a Clover Club,” says Chan. “One is a very popular dish in lots of restaurants in New York, and the other one is a very classic cocktail. When you order it and receive it, the drink is actually inspired by the salad, and the bites that come with the drink are inspired by Clover Club. So you are drinking your food and you are eating your drink.”
In the front room, Double Chicken Please offers seven on-tap cocktails identified by numbers and featuring unique, culinary-focused ingredients like seaweed, longan, makrut lime, sea buckthorn, and verjus.
“We do some R&D to make sure [the cocktail] fits in the tap system because to make tap drinks it’s a different logic than to make craft cocktails,” says Chan.
On-tap cocktail #5 is a twist on a whiskey highball and includes Kavalan Distillery Select Single Malt Taiwanese Whisky, Patrón Citrónge Pineapple Liqueur, oolong tea, honey, longan, and soda. #7 is an ode to a Negroni featuring Bombay Sapphire Gin, Martini Fiero, Martini Bitter, Cheery Heering Liqueur, red bell pepper, and cranberry.
Double Chicken Please keeps the cocktails very affordable for the Lower East Side at $12 to $14 thanks to the tap system. “It’s almost like a happy hour everyday,” says Chan.
Chef Mark Chou, a veteran of Eleven Madison Park, Le Bernardin, and Blue Hill, helms the culinary program. The menu in the front room includes Asian-inspired bar snacks like Sweet Potato Chips & Dip, which is a blend of crispy orange and purple sweet potatoes and Korean yams seasoned with five-spice & plum salt with an optional salted duck yolk purée sauce.
The establishment has become known for its chicken sandwiches that feature additions like hot honey, thai basil, and salted duck egg yolks. The original plan was to keep the sandwiches super casual, but Chef Chou’s fine dining background ultimately influenced the menu. “So now we actually do everything slightly more finer than we expected,” explains Chan.
Another popular item is the fun and unique dessert Le Big Mac Ice Cream Macaron Burger, a “cheeseburger” comprised of an almond macaron (“bun”), housemade chocolate ice cream with mochi (“patty”), sesame sponge cake (“cheese”), and strawberry jelly (“tomato”).
Chan says he hopes to continue to innovate and constantly create new things as Double Chicken Please evolves. Above all else, he encourages his team to keep guest service at the front of mind. “The coolest thing in the world is when we are making people happy while we are having fun,” he says.
GN Chan & Faye Chen
CO-FOUNDERS OF DOUBLE CHICKEN PLEASE
GN Chan is a 10-year veteran of the industry and winner of the Bacardi Legacy Global Cocktail Competition. He most recently tended bar at Mace, The World’s 50 Best Bars noted craft cocktail den in Manhattan’s East Village An industrial designer by training and a former street magician, the Taiwan native considers bartending the marriage of both. Faye Chen, a fellow Taiwan native, is a veteran of Shingo Gokan’s Speak Low in Shanghai of The World’s 50 Best Bars acclaim. She is also the winner of the Bacardi Legacy China Cocktail Competition.
INVENTORY
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Salcombe Distilling Co. launches New London Light (NLL) in the U.S. NLL is created specifically for health-conscious drinkers and those who are choosing to reduce or change their alcohol intake. NLL is crafted by distilling three botanicals; Macedonian juniper berries, ginger, and habanero capsicum. Fifteen additional botanicals are blended into the base liquid delivering complex layers with hints of citrus orange and sage. Free of sugar and allergens, the 0% ABV spirit is also low in calories and vegan-friendly. NLL is made with all-natural ingredients chosen for their flavor characteristics and complementary health benefits. Juniper, cardamom, ginger, habanero capsicum, orange, sage, cascarilla bark and lemongrass are all loaded with nutrients and bioactive compounds that have powerful benefits for your body and brain.
newlondonlight.com PHENOMENAL SPIRITS RELEASES NEW WHISKEY AGED IN VINTAGE RUM CASKS RY3 Whiskey
Phenomenal Spirits announces the release of RY3 Whiskey, the craft spirits company’s third ultrapremium spirit introduction in the US in 2020. RY3 is a distinct blend of 3 extraordinary whiskeys, 3 carefully handpicked mash-bills, and 3 distinctive aged statements, which are blended with artisanal distinction to create an unparalleled whiskey. The culmination of this whiskey is finished in vintage rum casks, resulting in a sipping experience of silky-smooth rye with layers of fruity and complex notes from the rum barrels. Phenomenal Spirits is on a steadfast mission to create exceptionally high-quality brands that fill untapped opportunities in the spirits category. To help guide this mission, Sudhir is partnering with Matt Witzig, master distiller and co-founder of Joseph Magnus Bourbon. Witzig is working in concert with Sudhir and his team to build a portfolio of unparalleled brands. Since August 2020, the Phenomenal team has launched Ron Izalco 10 Year and Ron Izalco 15 Year Cask Strength Rums and now, RY3 Whiskey.
ry3whiskey.com
CHEF GORDON RAMSAY GETS INTO THE SELTZER MARKET Hell’s Hard Seltzer
Award-winning chef and television personality Gordon Ramsay’s first line of hard seltzers, Hell’s Seltzer, has launched. Brew Pipeline was tapped to bring this beverage to life in partnership with Global Brews of London. Ramsay created four hard seltzers for the initial launch: Berry Inferno, peach, blueberry, raspberry; Knicker Twist, passionfruit, pineapple, orange; Mean Green, kiwi, lime, mint, pineapple; and That’s Forked, Key Lime, vanilla, graham. Hell’s Seltzer features bold flavors with premium drinkability, and each recipe is inspired by popular menu items from Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen restaurants across the U.S. Hell’s Seltzer is gluten-free and uses all-natural flavors. The 5.5% ABV hard seltzer will be sold in 12-pack variety packs, featuring three of each can.
drinkhells.com
HARPOON BREWERY AND WHISTLEPIG RYE WHISKEY COLLABORATE FOR A SECOND TIME The Bock Hog WOODFORD RESERVE REVEALS 15TH MASTER’S COLLECTION RELEASE Woodford Reserve Very Fine Rare Bourbon
Harpoon Brewery announced a second collaboration with WhistlePig Rye Whiskey with an elevated beer for sophisticated palates: The Bock Hog. Fans of both brands will immediately recognize the play on words, as Harpoon’s Doppelbock, a strong, flavorful, malty lager, is conditioned in Spanish Oak and South American Teakwood barrels that previously housed WhistlePig’s The Boss Hog VII: Magellan’s Atlantic, which was inspired by the first recorded circumnavigation of the globe. With the base notes of the Doppelbock including toasted rye, toffee, rum raisin, and cacao, the Spanish Oak and South American Teakwood barrels add complexity with top notes like holiday spice, roasted nuts, vanilla, and char. Brewed at 9% ABV, this lager will warm you on cold winter nights at home and whisk you away for an exploration of flavors.
harpoonbrewery.com Woodford Reserve releases its oldest bourbon yet, Woodford Reserve Very Fine Rare Bourbon, as part of the distillery’s 2020 Master’s Collection. Master Distiller Chris Morris and Assistant Master Distiller Elizabeth McCall used very rare barrels of Woodford Reserve to debut a new, modern bottle design. The bourbon includes liquid from barrels that are 17 years old and date to 2003, the year Morris was named Master Distiller.
woodfordreserve.com
Featured
PRODUCT
RON ABUELO INTRODUCES ITS NEWEST ADVENTURE IN RUM TO THE U.S. MARKET Ron Abuelo Two Oaks
Ron Abuelo announces that Ron Abuelo XII Años Two Oaks, Selección Especial, its newest aged rum from Panama, is now available in the U.S. market. This unique selection is crafted from a blend of aged (between eight and 40+ years old) rums averaging just over eleven years old. The benchmark rum was first matured in white oak bourbon barrels before being finished for an additional nine months in first fill extra-charred American oak barrels for exceptional smoothness, depth, and nuance. The resulting rum is dark mahogany with a bouquet of light smoke and toasted oak supported by vanilla and nuts. Lightly smoky and velvety in the mouth, Two Oaks has an intense taste of spice, caramel, and roasted coffee beans with hints of coconut that lead to a long and lingering finish.
ronabuelopanama.com
QA &QA
with HELLA COCKTAIL CO.
JOMAREE PINKARD, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO
Jomaree Pinkard, a native New Yorker, is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce and also earned his MBA from The Wharton School of Business. His career journey has taken him from helping to develop and implement The Salvation Army’s September 11 World Trade Center Recovery Program to consulting for the NFL. In 2011, he became the Co-Founder and CEO of a minority-owned craft cocktail company, Hella Cocktail Co. In almost a decade, Pinkard has helped transform the company into a nationwide tale of success with products now sold all over the country in retailers, bars, restaurants, hotels, and Delta Airlines. 1 Tell us more about Hella Cocktail. Hella’s all about discovery and sharing experimentation. We’re the kind of people who don’t take ourselves too seriously but take the quality of our products very seriously. We’re all about demystifying how to make a craft cocktail or a non-alc cocktail to your pleasure because it’s all about your own journey, your own experience. Everything we make has a connection to some root whether that’s a bitter root, or the root of our own story and how we came to make these drinks. Sharing is the ethos of our brand.
2How can your new Bitters & Soda product be used on-premise? For the on-premise, the best way to utilize it is as a substitute for tonic. We don’t want to go explicitly to war with tonic, but it’s definitely a tastier version of that. Tonic is bitter, it has quinine, but it’s not something you drink alone ever. You usually put it in a highball of some sort. The same thing goes for Bitters & Soda, but you can drink it alone if you want as well, and it’s more tastier and complex.
3Any recent trends you’ve observed? One of them is definitely the sober curious/non-alc/mocktail movement. But I don’t think it’s because people just don’t want to drink. I think it’s also because there are other occasions that are happening that are taking up space—like smoking and edibles. I think weed is a big occasion mover and puts you in a certain space. We only really had two occasion-based drinking times—one was breakfast, coffee, orange juice, tea, and then celebrations, cocktails, happy hours. All these products are coming out to solve for these other occasions now that THC has created a new moment. Everyone is trying to vie for their moment, and I think occasion-based imbibing is what’s taking place.
4How has COVID-19 affected Hella? It put us in a space where we had to figure out what we were going to do next. What we decided to do was dig in further and use this year as a research and accentuation year. One of the things we were already doing was preparing for the online consumer behavior shift….We were poising ourselves for that moment next year, and we jumped forward about a year to optimize all of the platforms from Amazon to our own website to different partnerships.
5What are you planning for 2021? 2021 for us is all about the nonalcoholic, sparkling aperitif moment and redefining what that looks like with small plates of food and really tying that into aperitif.
6Advice for bar owners in these turbulent times? What I’ve seen the best companies do is shrink their offerings into what they’re known for. They really have to get down to brass tacks about their value proposition—especially when there are five bars on a block in New York, or LA, or any big city. What are they known for—really hone into that idea and what their consumer expects out of them.
7Advice for other minority F&B business owners? I think a lot of times because our networks are not the traditional network of how you get from A to B in building a brand that people then don’t value their own experience. Valuing our own experience is what makes us unique and powerful in our journey. We don’t tap into it because we don’t think that other people value it. So number one, understanding that your experience to get to the moment you’re in is super valuable, and you should leverage that. My theme for 2021 is normalizing the narrative. My advice is to continue to normalize our narrative so it becomes regular, so it becomes palatable to people that are different than us and therefore becomes mainstream.
AD INDEX
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OLE SMOKY DISTILLERY
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TATER KEGS
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taterkegs.com
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INVENTORY COMPANIES
HARPOON BREWERY harpoonbrewery.com HELL’S SELTZER drinkhells.com
PHENOMENAL SPIRITS phenomenalspirits.com
RON ABUELO ronabuelopanama.com
SALCOMBE DISTILLING salcombegin.com
WOODFORD RESERVE woodfordreserve.com
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