cocktails: HOW TO PROFIT FROM THE POUR

EDITOR’S NOTE: Publisher Ed Avis used two books when researching this story: Trendy Bar & Nightclub Business Startup by Michael Sanders, and The Bar Shift by Dave Nitzel and Dave Domzalski.

let’s start there. The key when choosing the cocktails is to make sure they fit into your overall strategy. Do they enhance the food you serve and the vibe of your restaurant? Can your bartenders make them quickly, consistently, and with minimal waste? Do you have the ingredients on-hand, or will you need to special order them? Consider each of those factors as you create your cocktail menu.

BY ED AVIS ➤

Cocktails are fun! Customers love them, bartenders enjoy creating them, and restaurant owners like how they make the cash register ring. But success with a cocktail program is not automatic — a carefully executed strategy helps a cocktail program run smoothly and profitably.

“Having cocktails available for the customers is just incredibly important,” says Vidal Banuelos, owner of El Noa Noa, a Mexican restaurant in Denver’s Sante Fe Arts District. “You need to create an environment that the customer feels welcome in and likes, and obviously the cocktails are part of that. They are an incentive for them to come in and enjoy the experience.”

There’s much more to a successful cocktail strategy than choosing a few fun drinks, of course, but that’s essential, so

The majority of customers ordering cocktails in a Mexican restaurant start with a Margarita. But there are many ways to make that drink, and some are more successful than others.

For example, many of his customers at Cesar’s Killer Margaritas in Chicago welcome the opportunity to try higherlevel tequilas and mezcals in their cocktails these days, according to owner Israel Sanchez.

“We went to Mexico and purchased a barrel of tequila and brought it back and had dinners here, and I would have people come up to me and say, ‘Wow, this is more complex than I thought,’” Sanchez said during the el Restaurante webinar “Maximizing Happy Hour” on May 4. “There are many people who are tequila connoisseurs today. There’s a thirst for knowledge and trying different things.”

Tap into that thirst by offering at least some cocktails made with premium tequilas and mezcal. You can charge more, and certain customers will appreciate the opportunity to indulge.

Whatever spirits you choose, introducing creative new recipes and keeping some that are tried-and-true are key to building a successful bar program.

Banuelos, for example, recently added the Tinto de Verano to El Noa Noa’s menu. It’s a simple Spanish cocktail made with red wine and lemon soda that’s perfect for sipping on El Noa Noa’s expansive patio.

At Fonda San Miguel in Austin, a long-time favorite is the Silver Coin Margarita made with watermelon-infused tequila, Cointreau and fresh lime juice and served up. Chef and co-owner Miguel Ravago brought the recipe to Texas after serving as executive chef at one of the Zócalo restaurants in New York City. Another recipe with ties to Fonda San Miguel is the pitcher-perfect Cazuela Guadalajara: Tropical Tequila Punch laden with watermelon, pineapple, oranges, lemon and star fruit. When The James Beard House in New York City invited the San Miguel team to present a lavish Mexican meal there in 1993, co-owner Tom Gilliland invited tequila aficionada Lucina Hutson, who served the punch from a five-gallon glass jar.

Lime in the Coconut, a mezcal cocktail made with coconut rum and coconut cream that Chef Enrique Cortes created for The Thirsty Palms in Palm Springs, California is another creative cocktail — as is Cortes’ Freseada, a summery libation made with fresh strawberries, mezcal and a splash of simple syrup.

It’s vital that every cocktail tastes the same each time it’s made — which means you must make sure your staff can efficiently and accurately create each drink on your menu. Don’t let your bartenders do it their “own way” — that’s a recipe for inconsistency and unhappy customers. Explain the importance of consistency!

A key place to start is to make sure your bartenders know how to properly pour spirits. If your bartenders are accustomed to pouring the spirits by the “count” method (a shot is a six count, for example), break them of that habit. Instead, teach them how to use the jigger, and properly. Don’t let

Yes, we encourage them to create new cocktails = 37%

Sometimes, but it’s not really part of our program = 33% our bartenders stick to our set cocktails = 30%

DO YOU HAVE “MOCKTAILS” (COCKTAILS WITHOUT ALCOHOL) ON YOUR

Source: el Restaurante reader survey, April 2023 them “trail pour,” or continue pouring from the bottle as they dump the jigger into the glass. Customers love that, but it means your bartender is pouring your profits into the glass and creating a drink that may not taste the same the next time. Once you determine the most efficient way to make the drink, have your staff practice.

Some cocktails, or at least elements of them, can be pre-batched, which saves time during service. Margaritas and sangria, for example, are often made ahead in large containers. Just don’t add the ice too soon or the drinks will get diluted.

Charging the right amount for your cocktails is essential to your bottom line. There is a careful calculus that goes into pricing — charge too much and you miss out on sales; charge too little and you make less money.

A common way to price drinks is to start with the “pour cost.” This is basically the cost of the alcohol in the

drink (other ingredients cost money as well, of course, but alcohol almost always is the main cost component). The pour cost is expressed as a percentage of the amount you sell your drinks for. For example, if a bottle of tequila costs $20, and you sell $100 worth of cocktails using the tequila in that bottle, your pour cost is $20/$100 = 20 percent. If you sell $150 worth of cocktails with the same amount of tequila, your calculation is $20/$150 = 13 percent. As you can see, the lower your pour cost, the higher your percent of profit.

Many restaurant and bar owners shoot for a pour cost of between 18 and 24 percent, long-time bar owner Michael Sanders says in his book Trendy Bar & Nightclub Business Startup.

Once you have a target pour cost, you can set your prices based on it by working the math described above in reverse order. Let’s say you target a pour cost of 20 percent and you source tequila that costs $25 for a fifth. There are about 16 shots in a fifth, so each