Bar Menu

[Big Ben]

I've been tasked with creating a new cocktail menu, something I've never done but am excited about. I need drinks that both compliment the menu (http://castirongrillandbar.com/images/menus/dinnermenu.pdf) and balance between traditional cocktail drinkers, girly drink lovers, and bandwagon drinkers, with some innovation and creativity thrown in. I hate our current cocktail menu, I feel the restaurant and bar staff are better than this. Please help, EG!

[nikkib]

I'd recommend you start by researching some of the "best" cocktail lists in your area and big cities such as NYC/San Fran/London etc with thriving cocktail scenes to see where they are taking their inspiration from and what ideas migt be transferable to your bar. If you have a good chef then get them making some great flavoured simple syrups for use in cocktails where you can do something a bit unique that could maybe be a signature drink. You want a balance of spirits - tequila, rum, gin, whisky and vodka - some straight up, some on the rocks, some tall, some short etc. These are just a few things to be looking at, i'd also look at what your best selling drinks were previously and how you can work on creating a drink taht is all new and improved but recognisable to the regulars - if everyone loved the mragarita and you take it off the menu with no suitable replacement you arent going to have all that much success. get out "research" (and boy how fun will that be) ask your guests what they would like to see on the list maybe... Good luck and keep us posted!

[EvergreenDan]

I see Peach Schnapps and Apple Pucker. Is there a willingness to use fresh citrus? If not, that might tilt the menu toward cocktails that don't need fresh citrus.

I went to look at the menu for inspiration, but it is very broad: Southwest, Southern, Midwest comfort, Cajun, Italian, Burgers. If this is a successful menu in your area, then I think you might gear the cocktails toward the patrons that are attracted to this menu. This might not include innovative or craft cocktails, but rather slightly tweaked non-craft standards (dirty martini, well-made cosmo, etc). Maybe a few accessible classics, such as a good Manhattan?

The descriptions need help. For example, some are described as "chilled", as if the others are room temp or warm. If the citrus is fresh, I'd say so.

[pastrygirl]

Fresh herbs and herbal infusions or house made infusions of spices (i.e. a couple of cinnamon sticks thrown in a bottle of rum) and trendy right now. Mint, basil, thai basil, sage, rosemary, lemon verbena, even tarragon can work in cocktails. One of our signature cocktails is a margarita with muddled fresh sage. With how freakin' HOT it can get in the Sacto valley - well I'm sure you have air conditioning but still - I'd want something really light and refreshing for summer, like a mojito or something else lightened with a splash of club soda. I also enjoy tequila cocktails that go beyond the margarita, I've had a couple with tequila and honey and don't remember what else that were really nice.

What I don't like is saying something is a deviation on a classic then taking that more than a few steps beyond. If something is 'our version of a french 75', it will still be recognizable if there is a yuzu-lemon blend instead of straight lemon and the garnish is orange peel, but if it's vodka instead of gin, pomegranate instead of lemon, hard cider instead of sparkling wine, and garnished with mint leaves its not a French 75.

[jsmeeker]

A menu that isn't 90% vodka based drinks.

[gfweb]

Love your menu.

I've always thought a lightly spicy drink would be a great dinner starter. Get the juices flowing and all.

[jrshaul]

My suggestions:

1. Don't use a really shockingly bad whiskey, brandy, gin, or rum for your rail drinks. While it's nice to have an incentive to spring for the Henessey or Makers' Mark, I flatly refuse to go to half the bars in town, where $7 buys you an Old Fashioned that tastes as though it had been passed by a moose.

2. Don't overdo the infusions. I make a lot of liqueurs, and even the best are sometimes poorly received. Booze is for most not a point of experimentation and familiarity is important. Furthermore, getting infusions right is quite difficult: I've not had success making aquavit despite many attempts, and half the infusions at the trendy restaurant down the street are no better.

3. Do use discounts carefully. A buy-one get-one special on sake bombs is asking for invasion by a legion of stumbling louts in Red Wings jerseys, while free charcuterie with purchase of top-shelf Manhattan will bring in...well, me. Find a drink that appeals to young women, and the young (and not-so-young) men will follow.

4. Do standardize. If customers receive wildly different drinks from two bartenders upon receipt of the same order, they may well not return.

5. Whenever possible, avoid artificial flavorings in favor of the genuine article. Mint juleps should have real mint, not creme de menthe. While using real citrus is a no-brainer, it's not difficult to find high quality juice concentrates of cherry, pomegranate, and many others.

EDIT:

I'm by no means an expert on pairing drinks with dinner, but robust steakhouse-style fare calls for equally robust beverages. Cocktails featuring whiskey, brandy, or bourbon have the potency to cut through the flavor of a big ribeye or meatloaf. My favorite steakhouse cocktail (where I can get it) is the Garnet, which consists of roughly equal parts red wine, creme de cassis, and brandy - preferably cognac. Caphrinias are great, too, and I see a lot of folks ordering Dark and Stormys around here.

Edited July 19, 2011 by jrshaul (log)

[Steamtrain]

The beer and wine prices on your menu are inexpensive compared to the cocktail prices, upgrading to craft cocktails could raise the price more.

Is there a market for craft cocktails in your area?

How much red bull is being used in your bar?

Edited July 19, 2011 by Steamtrain (log)

[JulianZoetmulder]

I've written a few cocktail lists for various venues and they've all been massively different.

The key is to look at your venue very critically and get as many people on board as possible. The kitchen crew for example will be invaluable in helping you match drinks to food and showing you some interesting non-alcoholic ingredients. The wait staff will also have great input on what customers want.

If your place is massively busy I reccomend putting together a few crowd pleasers that can be made by any of your bartenders in under 45 seconds.

Your list will also reflect your patronage, the food seems to be widely accesible to all and your beer list has the pleasers but is interesting. Try and avoid long winded explanations about each drink, it's a bar/restaurant not a library. And think very hard about who will drink what. The item with red bull on your list for me is a big no no. Red Bull plus alcohol may or may not result in binge drinking, alcohol fuelled violence and all the things your mother warned you about but that's arbitrary. It attracts a clientele who aren't there for skill. Sweet and sour is another one. Fresh lemon juice, good simple syrup and fresh egg white do so much more.

I like to follow this rythym, I make my list to encompass every drink I think wil suit the venue, about 20% Classics, 20% crowd pleasing speed drinks, 40% middle ground (Complexity wise) drinks and 20% artisan, kooky, whatever drinks.

This usually gets me about 30-40 drinks. This needs to be cut down to a maximum of 18. People don't want to read an essay. A shorter drinks list also means every staff member can sell them that much more easily. Classics on the list are also a weird subject. Margerita's and old fashioned's are the staple of any bartender's experience. Don't waste space on them, people assume the bartender knows them.

Change your list seasonally to reflect the weather and what fresh fruits are going for the next 3 months. Specials without being shoved down peoples throat's are great also.

I hope this helps, cheers.

[brinza]

A menu that isn't 90% vodka based drinks.

Amen to that! I was looking over the drink menu of a local bar the other day which listed 26 drinks total (divided into "Martinis" and "Cocktails" but with no apparent logic behind their classifications) and a whopping 6 of them were not vodka-based. Another menu I looked at had seven cocktails named after desserts. And these are places that bill themselves as "Martini bars."

Edited August 11, 2011 by brinza (log)

[ScoopKW]

I don't like the menu -- any of it.

1) I agree with Jeff that an all-vodka bar menu isn't right. Why is almost every drink vodka-based? It tells me (whether true or not) that the bartenders or the F&B managers are lazy.

2) List the beers in order of distance from your front door. Considering your location, why are Guinness, Newcastle and Stella even offered? You have some of the best breweries in the world less than 50 miles from your tap handles. Why aren't they on the menu?

3) Finally, the food menu. What? Did the restaurant manager throw darts at a map of the Earth? "Ooh, we hit Louisiana. Add jambalaya to the menu. Korea? Add some rib appetizers. Japan! Put some Mizuna on the menu somewhere -- with the crab cakes. Nobody will notice."

The dinner menu is a mess. Looks to be 1/2 American comfort, 1/5 Italian comfort and the rest a complete hodgepodge of "running ideas up the flagpole and seeing if anyone salutes."

Find some direction...

The best thing about the menu is the wine selection -- mostly local, fair (I'd say even low) prices. Put the Suisun wines first. You're actually describing those. So they go first. Then the Napa wines. Also, I'll bet if you added Schramsberg or other higher-end wine to your sparkling menu you'd sell some.

Finally, a major peeve -- you list a Sunday champagne brunch, but you don't offer any champagne on your wine list. So, are you bringing in the French bubbly on Sunday afternoon only? Or is your "bottomless champagne" actually "bottomless sparkling wine?" Smacks of dishonesty.

It's not my intention to slam a place I've never dined at. But based on this menu, I would find someplace else to eat.

[KatieLoeb]

Lose the crappy schnapps. If you simply MUST have an Appletini on the menu, make it with Berentzen's Apfelkorn, a true German apple flavored liqueur that isn't loaded with Green Dye #4.

Make your own flavoring syrups and cordials from fresh herbs, dried spices and fresh fruits. It isn't that difficult and certainly makes it look as if you care, at least a little bit.

Use call brand liquor for the signature drinks. Buy a decent quality well (like Smirnoff or Gordon's) for the non-specified vodka/gin tonics and the brown liquor (Jim Beam or Evan Williams) and sodas. Anyone that wants something specific will order it that way. Those that don't at least give something palatable.