Tips and Guides For Restuarant Owners and Operators

From drink and beverage guides to tips on how to boost guest loyalty and experiences, our guides can help build your restaurant's brand and impact your bottom line.
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The Advantages of Adding Mocktails to Your Menu

Posted by Tom Lyon, October 21, 2021

The latest buzz in craft beverages, whether beer, wine, or spirits, is the rapidly growing “better for you” category of drinks. Consumers want tasty choices when they go out for a drink. But that doesn’t always mean they are looking for the alcohol to go along with the flavor.

According to research done by FiorMarkets, non-alcoholic drinks are expected to grow at about eight percent per year, globally, through 2028. That means huge opportunity for non-alcoholic producers and plenty of room for exciting new brands to get in on the game.

Especially when it comes to cocktails, the health-conscious trend has led to lower-calorie and low- or no-alcohol refreshments.

Often dubbed “mocktails,” these alcohol-free drinks are simply cocktails without the alcohol. They can run the gamut from mimicking a classic cocktail like an Old Fashioned (minus the whiskey) or be a completely from-scratch recipe. Either way, the mocktail has opened new creative doors to bartenders all over the country and helped business owners boost their bottom lines.

In the past, non-alcoholic drinks have been an oft-maligned category, dismissed as flavorless, bland beverages. Drinking booze-free used to mean sacrificing flavor and enjoyment. But in the midst of the craft beverage revolution we find breweries and bars proving that notion entirely wrong. Today, bars, restaurants, and breweries across America have developed flavorful, inventive, and attractive mocktail menus that cater to everyone.

These sober drinks are something that you should consider adding to your menu to attract a variety of consumers.

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Which Beer Menu Type Is Right for Me?

Posted by Grace Lee-Weitz, October 6, 2021

As many breweries, bars, brewpubs, and restaurants reopen and business owners strategize around how to successfully run their companies in a pandemic climate, finding the best way to safely and efficiently display menus has become essential.

If you’re the person making a decision about menu displays for your organization, you’re probably asking yourself several questions. Should you start or continue using paperless QR codes? Go to a digital menu board? Or switch back to paper menus? The decision you make could have huge repercussions on whether or not you attract new customers, retain loyal ones, and boost your bottom line.

For the last three months, the CPG Restaurant Group has been leveraging Untappd for Business’ QR codes and digital menus to help organize and implement drink and food menus in a safe, contactless way across their two Cheesie’s Pub & Grub and Whiskey Business establishments in Chicago, IL. With over 45,000 menu views at Whiskey Business and both Cheesie’s Pub & Grub locations combined over three months, the CPG Restaurant Group reports that their experience with Untappd for Business has been overwhelmingly positive. For them, Untappd for Business QR codes have helped reduce printing costs and improve their bottom line, with whiskey sales for all of their locations increasing by a combined fifty percent.

But the PJW Restaurant Group, which operates twenty-six locations across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has gone a different direction, using Untappd for Business software to create custom digital and print menus. In the last year and a half, they’ve racked up 300,000 menu views, almost 15,000 check-ins, and just under 10,000 unique users. However, like the CPG Restaurant Group, PJW reports that their experience with Untappd for Business has been very beneficial for a majority of its businesses.

Because businesses are unique, each of them have different needs. Below, we take a look at all three menu options available for Untappd for Business partners, along with the pros and cons of each.

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The Advantages of Outdoor Spaces At Your Business

Posted by Liz Logan, September 21, 2021

Outdoor seating gives a distinct advantage to your brewery space. Even in pre-COVID times, brewery patios and beer gardens were uber popular. Often magazines and newspapers put together lists of the best places to eat and drink outdoors in their respective cities.

While there is a lot to be said for a well-crafted indoor space, outdoor spaces at your brewery or restaurant can add personality and artistry—as well as more customers. Plus, during the global pandemic, outdoor spaces have been crucial for breweries to safely reopen and once again welcome people into their establishment.

“People want to be outside now more than ever,” says Frank Scott Krueger, Co-Owner of Humble Sea Brewing in Santa Cruz, CA. Scott Krueger and his team just opened a new taproom in Pacifica, CA, and their outdoor beer garden has been incredibly important for their business.

So what are some things to think about when you’re looking to design the perfect outdoor space? We’ve got some ideas to get the ball rolling.

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The 5 Best Brewery and Bar Event Strategies

Posted by Pam Catoe, August 26, 2021

Updated: 5/20/2022

Hosting events at your brewery or craft beer bar is a great way to attract new customers and strengthen your brand. Breweries and craft beer bars have become increasingly popular choices for social gatherings among friends and family. And hosting and promoting events will help your business stand out in a crowded marketplace.

It can be as simple as including “plug-and-play” events in your monthly schedule, or as complex as customizing an event around a theme.Keeping events in line with your marketing strategy will help you decide the right mix that will appeal to your specific market and ultimately help you attract and retain new customers.

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The Comprehensive Guide to Pricing Liquor

Posted by Tom Lyon, August 24, 2021

Many bars and restaurants offer a wide selection of alcoholic drinks, including beer, cider, wine, and spirits. While we’ve written extensively on exactly how to price your craft beer selection, finding the right price for your liquor drinks is a different game. Liquor prices that are too high could turn customers away while prices set too low could affect your bottom line. Because of this, a business owner needs to find a sweet spot in order to retain guests while simultaneously making a profit.

Mastering the pricing calculations of liquor drinks is an art because many factors go into determining the price, including how you serve your drinks, drink pour size, the competitors in your market, and your customer demographics. However, there’s also a science to pricing liquor drinks, and that’s what we’ll cover in this article.

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The Top Strategies for Creating the Perfect Tap Wall

Posted by Pam Catoe, August 20, 2021

Whether you own a brewery or a craft beer bar, your tap wall selection drives repeat customers to your business. Crafting a well-thought-out selection strategy will ensure your tap wall is an asset to the core of your business.

Like a business plan, a tap wall selection strategy is intended to be a living document, updated as various market factors change.

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Top Tips for Designing Your Brewery or Restaurant

Posted by Liz Logan, August 6, 2021

There are many facets to running a restaurant. While hiring a chef and developing a cuisine is undoubtedly important, the most front-facing consumer experience is your restaurant design and concept. When conceptualizing your space, you’ll want the two—food and decor—to speak to one another, while staying on board with your brand and vision.

These, along with a handful of ideas we’ll cover when planning your space, will allow for a great jumping off point, whether you devise the space yourself or enlist the help of an interior designer.

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4 Reasons Why Self-Pour Technology Is a Great Addition

Posted by Tana Rulkova, July 9, 2021

This is a guest post from our friends at PourMyBeer, a next-generation self-pour beverage system with over 8,000 taps in 24 countries. Having installed the most taps out of any self-pour tech providers in 2019 and 2020, PourMyBeer helps us understand the direct benefits of this technology.

As beverage companies continue to return to business as usual, innovative self-pour beverage technology could be a unique solution to decrease labor and increase profits. For customers self-pour beverage walls allow guests the freedom to pour their own beer, wine, cocktails, cold brew, and kombucha whenever they want and pay by the ounce. For operators self-serve technology increases beverage sales, simplifies operations, boosts serving efficiency, and reduces waste.

Here at PourMyBeer, we have seen the rise in self-service technology across all industries. In fact, a market analysis report done on the self-serve technology market size found, “The global self-service technology market size was valued at USD 28.3 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.7% from 2020 to 2027.” Specifically, the restaurant industry has benefitted greatly from self-pour service. The reason why? This technology creates more efficient and simplified operations, saves operators money, and increases profits.

So, why should you consider self-pour beer? It just makes sense!

Let’s dive into four reasons why you should have a self-pour beer wall in your bar or brewery:

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What Are Cocktails On Tap & How Will They Make My Business More Money?

Posted by Grace Lee-Weitz, June 15, 2021

Last year, the global COVID-19 pandemic forced many bars, restaurants, taprooms, and breweries to shut down, changing the industry and drinking culture completely. As consumers were forced to drink at home, businesses turned to various strategies to keep the revenue flowing. One of these was serving batch cocktails to go.

According to a Bacardi Limited 2021 annual Cocktail Trends Report with external research commissioned by Nielsen CGA, ready-to-drink beverages such as canned cocktails grew 131 percent in the U.S. market.

Now, as people start safely returning to their barstools, they’re looking for more creative and experimental ways to consume their mixed drinks. Cocktails on tap are an innovative way to serve hard beverages — and they have a huge amount of benefits. From being more efficient than regular cocktails, to requiring fewer employees to serve, lowering operational costs, and increasing profits, cocktails on tap are a smart, viable strategy for any bar, restaurant, brewery, or taproom, especially as businesses across the country continue reopening.

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The Three Best Beer Tap Systems

Posted by Allison Hartje, June 3, 2021

Updated: 2/3/22

I’m sure I’m not alone in that when I’m out for a beer at a bar or brewery, I want something on draft. It’s a special experience to watch a beer poured with a perfect head then slid across the bar to my grasp. This feeling is why many people open bars and breweries in the first place — along with the love for the beer industry and craft beer.

In order to make the right decision for how to best serve up a frosty one at your venue, you have to know the pros and cons of different tap systems.

Whether you’re looking to install a totally new system, or upgrade your existing taps, there are a few options that range in monetary and spacial cost. The three systems we’ll be diving into are: the kegerator, direct draw, and long draw tap systems.

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