Bevspot

Whether you’ve got an expansive banquet room or a small semi-private space, hosting private events at your restaurant can provide a significant boost to your bottom line. Having a private events menu that’s separate from your regular restaurant menu is a great way to help your kitchen staff work more seamlessly during a party at your space. It can be something as small as offering to supply themed decor, renaming menu items to reflect the soiree (“Kayla and John’s Soulmate spaghetti squash” for an anniversary celebration, anyone? ), or having servers’ uniforms align with the theme (wearing red poinsettia pins during holiday events, for example). You can simply rename a common mixed drink to go along with the party’s theme, or you can go so far as to incorporate the client’s favorite liquor or fruit flavor into a sipper they’ll surely be boasting about all night long.

Building your leadership skills as a bar manager is absolutely essential for employee retention and team morale—and ultimately the success of your bar. The restaurant industry is notorious for sub-par skills and high turnover rates—one of the highest turnover rates of any industry in fact. Map out the activities that should be included in your onboarding process—from logistical aspects, like setting up direct deposit and an overview of benefits, to job responsibilities, like menu training and opening procedures. If you’re constantly learning new skills and sharing information about the industry, it encourages your team to stay informed and keeps you on top of your game.

Food cost, always expressed as a percentage, is the cost of creating food compared to the revenue generated off that food—or the cost of your inventory (COGS) vs. your food sales. How to Calculate Kitchen Labor Cost Percentage Use the same time period as above for food sales to determine kitchen labor cost percentage. This will vary restaurant to restaurant, but as a general rule, kitchen labor cost and food COGS combined should be 55–60% of total food sales. As with COGS, there’s no one-size-fits-all inventory metric every restaurant should strive to hit; this goal should be set based on your restaurant’s past performance and metrics.

To cost a cocktail you need to figure out the cost of the amount of each ingredient used in the cocktail and then add all these costs together to get the total cocktail cost. List the ingredients in the cocktail For each of these ingredients, note the package (unit) size and package (unit) price Calculate the price of the amount of spirits used (e.g., if the recipe calls for 2 ounces of Smirnoff Vodka [1.75 liter bottle bought at $21.99/bottle] the cost of vodka would be $0.74) Calculate the price of the amount of other ingredients in the drink the same way Add the cost of spirits and the cost of other ingredients to get the total cocktail cost With a cocktail cost of $2.65 and a target pour cost of 20%, take the calculated costs of $2.65 and divide by 0.20 (the target pour cost) to get baseline price of $13.25 for a Manhattan in this case.