Flipping through the pages of a menu can feel like cracking open a new book. A good menu takes its reader by the hand, leading them this way and that, encouraging them to use their imagination and promising something delicious at the end.
Of course, there’s the business end of things as well. How can this document help the bottom line?
The stakes are potentially higher with a drink menu because beverages typically drive much of the profits in a restaurant. And just like a beautifully-written book can wind up in cobwebs on a shelf, so too can a drink menu be chock full of amazing concoctions but lack the marketing and aesthetics to reach its target audience and drive sales.
The good news is, your audience is clamoring for more. A study by the National Restaurant Association reported that 84% of adults aged 21-plus who drink wine, beer, or cocktails “say restaurants are a good place to learn about alcohol beverages that they haven’t tried before.”
So how do you design an effective drink menu to maximize your profits and deliver on your promise of a great experience? It takes a bit of education and planning.
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Write Out All Menu Items.
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Categorize Menu Items. Categorize drink offerings by the kind of drink. Design a section for beers, wines, cocktails, and specials. …
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Set Menu Prices. Menu prices aren’t arbitrary and they warrant a deep dive into food costs.
List the Ingredients in Cocktails
Customers want to know what’s in their drink, whether out of curiosity or because of food preferences or allergies. Here too, you have choices; you can provide a simple list or you can add some description. It may help to use adjectives like aromatic, full-bodied, silky, effervescent, crisp, smoky, creamy, and robust.
As with a food recipe, list the ingredients from the most used to the least.
What is Menu Planning?
A great drink menu does more than offer customers a simple list of libations. It incorporates elements of your business plan, marketing, graphic design, customer psychology, even storytelling. Whew.
As with a great restaurant menu, you’ll need to have a clear understanding of what your restaurant offers and what your target customer wants and expects from the experience. Menu planning includes being crystal clear on factors like type of cuisine, target clientele, price points, and how to categorize your dishes.
Your beverage menu will complement all of that. For example, the establishment that caters to families and offers a fun, easy night out might keep the drink menu basic and to the point for parents who have one eye on the menu and one on the children. Meanwhile, the cozy Italian place with dim lighting will likely present its clientele with a completely different style of menu, perhaps an extensive wine list.
Evaluate your food menu and what drinks would pair well with your offerings. This comes from an understanding of flavor profiles as well as complementary dishes. Do you want to offer a gin cocktail, with its citrusy notes, alongside seafood dishes? Do you have dishes that are salty, maybe featuring cured meats or hard cheeses, that would pair well with a slightly bitter negroni?
How you describe products is also important. Consider how a martini can come off as a raucous party in a glass or as suave and sophisticated. There’s no wrong answer, but which are you selling?
Then there are the fonts, prices, and details like your address and contact information. Menu planning is so important that Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts has an entire course within its online Hospitality & Restaurant Operations Management program called Menu Design and Management, with beverage menus as part of that.
How to Design an Excellent Cocktail Menu: Vitor Lourenço
How do I make my drink menu fit?
There are countless party themes and many great ways to make your drink menu fit, but you’ll have to use some imagination. When you have a special theme to work with, you have endless possibilities. For example, this is a “rocktini” menu created for a jewelry-making party and the hostess requested drier “up” drinks.
What is the best lemon drink recipe for the morning?
The best recipe is the one that you have the best tolerance for, that is pleasing to your palate and still nutritious. A suggestion for a recipe is the lemon juice of kale. A kale leaf, juice of two lemons and 200 ml of water. Beat everything in the blender and then drink without straining.
How do you choose a drink menu?
Often, a drink menu will start with the lightest drinks up top, progressing to heavier. This includes sparkling whites to full-bodied reds; ditto for beers and for spirits. Additionally, the first drink on the menu is typically the most profitable and one of—if not the most—popular.
How do I create a custom drinks menu?
Create a custom drinks menu template with your logo. Include a map of the bar and restaurant in the back of the template to help customers find their way around. Include a list of the drinks you offer, with prices and descriptions.