The American Mixologist Online® Newsletter Vol. 15, No. 11 All Rights Reserved
Drinks

Shooters are as popular as ever. In one guise or another, shooters are capable of achieving popular success in practically any establishment, regardless of the specific make-up of the clientele. Granted, marketing shooters in your bar or nightclub may require a bit more effort than at others. Recipe names might have to be toned down, glassware may have to be changed and an altogether different approach may have to be taken. Nevertheless, like color TVs and tax refund checks, marketing shooters have a nearly universal appeal.

For one thing, shooters are fun, contemporary drinks. Since most are served neat or straight-up, the quality of their ingredients can be more fully appreciated. With a vast array of recipes at your disposal, shooters can also facilitate the turnover of slower moving inventory. And should these benefits prove insufficient incentives, shooters are exceptionally profitable.

At the onset, the word "shooters" encompasses a large and diverse body of drink recipes; ranging from the elegant and sophisticated to the radically bizarre. Shooters are anything but one-dimensional. Long gone are the days when the breadth of the category consisted of a shot and a beer, or a shot in a beer. Today’s shooters are made with nearly every potable product behind your bar and cater to every taste imaginable.

The key is to select shooter recipes that target your clientele’s particular tastes. At a swank club, for instance, consider promoting shooters as "neat cocktails," recipes such as the GRAND ALLIANCE, equal parts of Amaretto and Champagne served in a chilled sherry glass, the TORQUE WRENCH, Midori, orange juice and Champagne, and the LOBOTOMY, a blend of Amaretto, Chambord, pineapple juice and Champagne. Change their names and you’ve got some highly promotable specialties.

Because of their great taste and dramatic presentation, up-scale establishments can also effectively promote layered concoctions. Candidates include the INVERTED NAIL, Drambuie with Glenfiddich on top, TUACA POUSSE CAFÉ, grenadine, white crème de menthe, Midori and Tuaca, and the venerable B-52, Kahlúa, Bailey’s Irish Cream and Grand Marnier.

Many establishments cater to a clientele that are predisposed to drink shooters. Here the key is to promote house specialties that feature popular ingredients, such as the YELLOW JACKET, a delicious blend of Jägermeister, Baeren Jaeger (German honey liqueur) and Kahlúa, MEXICAN ITCH, El Tesoro Añejo Tequila, Grand Marnier and fresh lime juice in a salted shot glass, and the inflexible RIGOR MORTIS, Absolut, Disaronno Amaretto, and equal parts of orange and pineapple juice.

Shooters currently riding the crest of popularity include the OATMEAL COOKIE, made with Goldschläger, Jägermeister, Bailey’s and Butterscotch Schnapps, the CEMENT MIXER, Absolut Citron and Bailey’s, the DUCK FART, a layered shooter made with Kahlúa, Bailey’s, and Crown Royal, and the Florida specialty, SAMMY JÄGER, equal parts of sambuca and Jägermeister.

If these are too tame for you, you may want to consider promoting two New Orleans specialties. The OYSTER SHOOTER is a Gulf specialty made with Tabasco sauce, horseradish, cocktail sauce, draft beer and a raw oyster. The BLOODY NOSE is a fiery combination of Absolut Peppar, horseradish, Bloody Mary mix and a raw oyster served in a chilled rocks glass. So who needs a half shell?

Marketing Options
There are numerous means of stimulating interest in your house specialty shooters. The most frequently relied on methods are bar menus and table tents. The Fridays Club and Bottle Shop, a landmark in Minot, ND, has a printed bar menu with 101 of their most popularly requested shooters. The menu could also be used to market your other house specialty drinks, non-alcoholic beverages and bar food items, among other things.

Other methods of in-house marketing include chalkboards or lighted message boards to feature the "Shooter of the Day." If your bar or nightclub has a newsletter or sends out promotional mailers, these can be used to list upcoming shooter specials. Encourage your clientele to submit their favorite shooter recipes as candidates for "Shooter of the Day."

Most establishments have space that is not being used to its fullest. This space could, without great expense, be converted into a "Shooter Bar," a small facility large enough for one bartender, a sufficient supply of glasses, liquor stock, ice bin, a few bus tubs for returned glasses and a cash register. It is an extremely effective method of generating interest in shooters, some fun and, of course, extra profits.

Drink presentation is another marketing consideration. When appropriate, shooters should be served in chilled glasses. This will help keep the ingredients at their proper serving temperature and enhances the drink’s presentation. Experiment with alternative glassware, such as sherry, cordial or pousse café glasses. Match each specialty shooter with the most appropriate looking glass.

There are other alternative vessels that can be used to present shooters. One of the most popular is the acrylic test tube, commonly known as a Tooter. These test tubes have gained widespread acceptance in the industry. They offer the operator a viable means of serving many different shooter combinations to their clientele at once. The formula for success with these test tubes is tried-and-true. Take a server, give her a tray with a rack containing rows of brightly colored, intriguing looking libations, price the tubes at an accessible price, and watch the profits roll in.

This type of marketing is predicated on the fun factor. Simply put, drinking a puny cocktail from a test tube appeals to the kid in all of us. There likely isn’t a nightclub or bar that couldn’t effectively benefit from running test tube promotions. Tooters Promotions of Cocoa Beach, FL, and Top-Shelf Marketing of Buffalo, NY, are the industry leaders in distributing the novel, dynamic tubes.

Top-Shelf Marketing also has plastic shot glasses of every imaginable shape and size. There is even a shot glass with a protuberance in the center that bears a striking resemblance to the male genitalia. Phallic Shotz as they’re called certainly grab attention and stimulate sales. They also market popper glasses. These plastic shot glasses are perfect for slammer drinks. The lids that fly off when the glass is slammed down on the bar top. Slammers are a great way to create some excitement at the bar.

Also available are edible vessels, such as foil-wrapped chocolate cups or small ice cream cones. A small amount of hot fudge is poured inside of the cone, such that once hard, it will prevent them from leaking.

Call them what you will — truncated cocktails, puny poppers or petite elbow-benders, shooters are about the best thing to hit the business since electric blender and swiveling bar stools.

The recipes below are excerpted from the latest edition of "The Original Guide to American Cocktails and Drinks" by Robert Plotkin.

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