Food and Beverage in Perfect Balance

Food & Beverage in Perfect Balance

            So many restaurateurs are experts regarding their cuisine and service style offered to their guests but at times may struggle when they approach the alcoholic beverage category on their menu.  No one operator can be an “expert” in all things hospitality but knowing that you need a beverage program that complements the quality of your cuisine is a great first step.

             If you are familiar with our approach you know we prefer to offer experiences from practical results instead of theoretical examples.  We offer the situation a client faced when they reached their “Aha” moment regarding their alcoholic beverage program. 

            One of our clients has a great food offering that recently landed them two (2) top five (5) rankings for their cuisine category and the category of their food.  While this news would be welcome for almost any food service operator they came to the realization that their alcoholic beverage program was lacking.  We suggested a multiple point approach that included the level of the cuisine, core clientele and current beverage trends.

            First, their cuisine focus is Mediterranean rim which allows them an abundance of flavor palettes from which to offer their core menu items and specials.  Second, their core clientele consists of local business professionals, local residents and college students from their mixed-use downtown business and high-rise residential district.  Third we conducted a local-area competitive analysis of like-type food service operations to better understand their immediate market area.  One additional challenge was before our client in that they only had a beer and wine license; however, it also allowed for off-premise alcoholic beverage purchases.

            Given the information before us, and after reviewing current adult beverage trends, we presented our case for a change from their current format of mass-market American style lagers and a few tired imports to a program shift that elevated the quality of their beverage options equal to the quality of their cuisine.  We developed a program that featured “Craft Beer” much of which was locally produced, a limited wine program predominantly by-the-glass to match established sales trends at their unit and the development of a “Wine-tail” program. 

Our client brought the craft beers online first as this was an easy switch featuring classic bottles, aluminum bottles and cans.  This step will be followed by the installation of a new bar and draught system that includes a glass conditioner that assists with a better (and more profitable) pour.  The bottle sales of wines will be phased out and replaced with a rotating menu of trending wines and a core of house favorites from which many of the wine-tails will be created.  We will continue to provide support for our client as they move forward with their new adult beverage program through the creation of the new wine drinks and the monitoring of adult beverage sales trends to provide them with trending information to keep their program moving forward.