Making your cocktail menu: the answer key

Depending on where it found you—at the lake or at the bar—I hope the long weekend was a good one for you and your loved ones.

The newsletter is a little lighter this week on account of the holiday (we've still got a good interview cliip though ⬇️), but starting next week we'll be back to normal programming. Buckle in for a strategy-filled summer!

Cheers! 🍻

Since it’s Memorial Day week I figured I’d just send along a quick hit of advice for crafting a cocktail menu that's right for selling drinks at your bar.

Alicia Rogers, who you’ve heard from the last few weeks, follows one simple rule for how to build a cocktail menu: center your clientele and understand what they like, are interested in, and are looking for.

Obviously season and inventory help shape things as well, but if you’re not honing your menu to suit your clientele, you won’t even be able to sell a margarita on Cinco de Mayo.

Check out the short interview clip:

Why?

Because TV Menus:

• Automatically update in seconds
• Always look professional
• Are easy for guests to read
• Help guests order faster
• Aren't as expensive or difficult to setup as you might think (more on that below)

Put simply, TV Menus can save you/your team time and make it easy for customers to order.

Of course, they aren't right for everyone—if you've got a quaint, cozy Belgian beer bar you don't want to jam a TV Menu above the bar.

But if you already have a few TVs, it might be worth trying, just to see if they resonate with your customers. In the right situation TV Menus can lead to a meaningful increase in beer sales.

How can I do it?

You could do this manually. How you'd implement it depends on what works for your team, but it could look like this:

• Get a smart TV (i.e. one w/ an internet browser).
• Design a slideshow on Google Slides to serve as your menu. Make sure you tune the settings to rotate screens correctly, etc.
• Use your smart TV's browser to access the Google Slides file.
• Make sure all members of the team know how to edit the file.
• Anytime your beer selection changes, visit the file to delete the beer that's gone and add new beers.

It certainly takes some time and training, but doing it manually like this could be worth it if that's your only option.