The Top Restaurant, Bar & Brewery Business Guides

Forbes called it.

While researching food industry trends for 2022, they forecasted that the pandemic would drive a revolution in digital and delivery services by changing how people purchased and received food like curbside pickup, online ordering, and delivery.

Now, it’s a sentiment shared across the industry. Boston Consulting Group reported in the article “The $100 Billion Digital Lifeline for Restaurants” that “Delivery’s market share jumped from 7% in 2019 to about 20% in 2020. Across the industry, digital ordering now represents 28% of all orders compared with 10% before the pandemic, with most brands showing increases.”

As customers continue to order their food online, it’s time for breweries, bars, and restaurants to consider food delivery services (if you haven’t already). Should you develop your own delivery system for your restaurant or lean into a third-party alternative?

We’re breaking down the advantages, disadvantages, and potential revenue streams that a food delivery app can provide to help you consider all your options.

As restaurant owners, we want to make sure that our customers have an enjoyable experience—this starts the moment they walk in the door to make a reservation. It’s our goal to get them seated and enjoying their meal as soon as possible.

Long Range Systems, one of the industry’s top providers of technology that improves the guest experience, was so curious about the amount of time hungry patrons spend waiting in line that they conducted a survey with 267 restaurant owners and managers.

The results indicated that nearly ninety-three percent of restaurants have at least some wait-time periods.

On average, the study found that people waited almost a half hour for a table, with restaurants recording waitlists of an average of 6.6 hours per week.

With those numbers in mind, and as businesses continue to lean into the digital age, a smart investment for restaurants could be leveraging a waitlist or wait-in-line app. These platforms can help you manage bookings, text patrons when their table becomes available, and, overall, make the experience of waiting for a table more convenient for your customers.

Here are our best recommendations for wait-in-line apps for restaurants that help you smoothly run your business while also creating an enjoyable experience for your customers.

“We eat with our eyes first.” – Apicius, first century Roman gourmand

As reported by The Guardian, experimental psychologist Charles Spence asserts that, “when the plating is artistic, people tend to enjoy the food more than if the same ingredients were just dumped on the plate.”

In reality, plating science is far more intricate than that.

Start by considering the ingredients, preparation technique, and flavors you can create when preparing the ideal dish.

Although the majority of us are aware that food on a plate should look appetizing, not everyone is aware of how much plating influences how food tastes.

By taking pride and practice in your restaurant’s plating techniques, the more likely it is that patrons will share their experience on social media, effectively driving more traffic to your business—while also demonstrating your restaurant’s culinary skills and style.

Put the “art” in culinary arts by taking plating and presentation seriously!

Here is a staggering fact: Over 726,936 bartenders currently work in the United States, according to demographic information from Zippia.

And that number is only going to get higher. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the employment of bartenders is projected to grow eighteen percent from 2021 to 2031, with about 105,300 openings for bartenders projected each year, on average, over the next decade.

Many of those positions are anticipated based on the need to replace workers who change careers or retire.

If your business is looking to hire a bartender who has the proper bartending licenses and skills, keep reading as we break down salaries and tipping expectations for bartenders.

With over 9 million registered users, Untappd can easily tap into the trends and insights of drinkers in your city, state, region, and beyond.

Untappd’s Analytics discovers beers Untappd drinkers are consuming the most in your area along with what styles are trending and which are taking a turn downwards. And so much more.

Tap into all the data of the world’s largest craft beer social networking platform to help you make business decisions about what beers to make, which to put on tap, or even which to stock on the shelf.

Get a sneak peek into what Untappd’s Analytics can show you as we take a look at the checked-in beers in San Diego, CA, over the last ninety days.

And if San Diego isn’t your city, we also have guides available for the following cities:

• London, England
• Chicago, IL
• Asheville, NC
• Portland, OR

On average, diners only look at a menu for 109 seconds, according to a Gallup poll cited in a Canva article on menu design hacks. Let that sink in. That’s about as long as it takes to pump a full tank of gas.

Since time is of the essence, it’s important that you thoughtfully consider the layout, standard menu size, dish titles, etc. After all, your menu is your biggest and most important sales pitch.

It’s a persuasive and useful tool that, if designed and built appropriately, will increase sales and keep your restaurant fully booked each day.

Let’s examine the foundations of restaurant menu design and how you can leverage a seemingly simple list of dishes and beers to boost your bottom line.

With Untappd’s analytics, you have a vast wealth of data on craft beer drinkers on the world’s largest social networking platform literally at your fingertips.

We can show you what beers Untappd drinkers are consuming the most in your area along with what styles are trending and which are taking a turn downwards.

With over 9 million registered users, Untappd can easily tap into the trends and insights of drinkers in your city, state, region, and beyond.

Analyzing these behaviors and purchasing habits will help you make crucial business decisions including, but not limited to, what beers to brew next, what styles to stock on your shelves, or what beers to put on tap.

Learn what craft beer consumers are drinking in your area. Give Untappd for Business a try without talking to anyone—no credit card required.

To show you the power of Untappd’s analytics, we’re breaking down the most checked-in beers in Asheville, NC, over the last ninety days.

Service industry employees like bartenders, wait staff, food runners, and bussers are the backbone of the service industry and your business. Your servers work hard every day to bring customers’ food and drinks to the right table (not to mention ensuring special birthday dinners go off without a hitch). And your bartenders work tirelessly to keep the drinks flowing for your patrons.

When it comes to taking care of your bartenders and servers, there are specific laws under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Internal Revenue Code that employers in the hospitality industry must follow. Accordingly, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides a Fact Sheet to help business owners understand the differences between tips and service charges, especially for tax reporting purposes.

In this article, we’ll use that Fact Sheet to help navigate the tricky territory between tips and service charges while showing you how to stay in compliance with reporting each to the IRS.

Whether you’re a high-end cocktail emporium, one of the best watering holes around the country, or a neighborhood bar, chances are your bartenders and servers are part of the beating heart of your team. Accordingly, you need to make sure that they have all the proper licenses or certificates required to legally serve alcoholic beverages. Does a bartender or server need a license to serve or sell alcohol?

The question might be a little bit more complicated than you think because the answer varies from state to state and sometimes even county to county or city to city.

So we dug into the details to help you understand what your bartenders and servers legally need in order to serve or sell alcohol across the country.