How to Maximize Customer Satisfaction with Drink Sales
Whether you own a restaurant, a hotel, or a pub, you’re going to have to sell alcohol to make any real money. If you sell alcohol, it naturally follows that you’ll have a bar. Ergo, this means that at some point you’re going to have to invest in barware. When purchasing professional bar equipment, you should know that all the essentials fall into one of three categories.
- The Hardware - This encompasses the whole range of expensive things from your soda gun to your coolers to your beer tap system to your ice machine.
- The Bar Glasses – If you find serve beverages without glassware, you probably have the makings of a brilliant business in hand. Otherwise, you’re going to have to do it the same way everyone else does.
- The Barware – This is the broad and generic category for all those little tools. Today this is the category I want to talk about.
Barware is a generic term used to describe all the vital tools a bartender needs in order to serve drinks. The category we call barware includes everything cork screws to cocktail shakers to zesting tools to bottle openers. No matter how fine your spirits are or how adept your bartender is, you’re in jeopardy of serving low quality drinks if you don’t buy the best quality restaurant barware you can. It never really involves that heavy of an investment, so a few extra dollars here can go a long way towards making some improvements. Here’s a few things to consider before you go shopping.
- Try and find an insulated cocktail shaker because metal shakers only bruise your liquor. You also want to get a hawthorn strainer or two for the obvious reasons.
- A zesting tool is essential for cutting lemon twist garnishes, but a channel-style garnishing knife does a better job.
- Nothing is more unappealing than spooning bits of cork out of your wine, so purchase the best wine opener you can find. You don’t want your customers to think you don’t care.
- Buy a wall-mounted bottle opener if possible. Even the most inept employee can’t lose it if its screwed to the wall.
- Make sure you have a couple spirit measures or double jiggers around because portion management can make or break a restaurant.
