Ask a room full of food and beverage operators why they’re in business and the likely response is “to make money.” All except for the one businesswoman in the back, the one with the air of confidence, who knows that the answer is “exceed guest expectations”.

The formula for long-term success in this business is far from tricky—keep the clientele intrigued and they and their discretionary income will continue to return. Dissatisfied guests will leave and tear out your listing from the yellow pages and advise everyone they come in contact with for weeks to do the same.

With this in mind, creating an engaging line-up of signature drinks is essential. These enhanced creations will become the restaurant’s trademark. Thinking in terms of specialty drinks misses the point, however. Savvy consumers are growing cold to the notion of house specialties. There’s nothing necessarily exclusive about a specialty drink.

Today people want more than something purported to be special; they’re looking for a personal commitment. That’s exactly what is conveyed when you market a signature drink. They’re libations that come with a personal endorsement.

What you really don’t want to have happen is for your guests to order your restaurant’s signature drinks only to find that there’s nothing special about them. The natural presumption is that if the specialties in the front of the house are lacking, so must the specialties coming out of the kitchen.

A signature drink needs three things to become an enduring classic—great taste, good production value and perceived value. Successful signature drinks invariably have an intriguing captivating flavor, one not easily replicated without being privy to the recipe. If your guests want to taste it again, they’ll have to come back.

People buy with their eyes, making production value a critical consideration. A signature drink must look special, like something one couldn’t easily concoct at home. Unusually colored drinks attract attention and stir the imagination. Don’t discount the importance of aroma—the better a drink smells, the better it sells. Even the act of hand shaking a drink enhances its production value. The sights and sounds of a drink being masterfully prepared certainly improve its marketability.

Perceived value in a signature drink renders down to good quality at a fair price. Sticking with high quality brands and products is an unerring strategy. Likewise, people know when they’re being gouged on price and rarely will they allow themselves to be consistently taken.

Pizzazz Injections

No one said you have to offer the same bill of fare at your bar as does the competition. Anyone can make drinks, few can make drinks something special. Pizzazz behind the bar entails doing something unexpected, something out of the ordinary. The sales axiom “Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle!” is equally true here. If it doesn’t sizzle, who needs it?

While the types of drinks you feature as your house signatures greatly depends on the make-up of your clientele, promoting a unique variation of the Martini, Manhattan, Bloody Mary, Mojito and Margarita is an excellent place to start. These classic drinks are at the height of popularity and the creative possibilities they present are nearly endless.

No need to stop there, of course. In addition to promoting variations of the classics, create your own singular concoctions. You have the entire spectrum of mixology within which to work, so don’t limit yourself. Start a few infusion jars going, play with some special beer drink combinations, or open a bottle of champagne and see what you can make.

Create hot signatures starting with classic coffee drink combinations. Recipes such as the Keoki Coffee or Toasted Almond are fabulous finished with espresso and frothed milk rather than house coffee and whipped cream. Then if you want take, the cappuccinos and serve them over ice, or drop them into the blender with a scoop or two of ice cream. Creativity knows no bounds.

Develop a balanced line-up of signature drinks, one tailor-made for your clientele. Between frozen drinks, shooters, straight-up cocktails, coffee/hot drinks, and tall, iced concoctions, the range of possibilities is extraordinary. Make sure that the line-up you feature will have an offering to satisfy just about any of your clientele desires.

Embellishing drinks is a classic way to spark interest. For instance, there’s a wide array of fresh fruit, vegetables, candies, pretzels, and cookies that can be used to garnish drinks. And where’s it written that a Bloody Mary can only be garnished with stalk of celery? Among the other more creative options are a scallion, boiled shrimp, a crab claw, a Slim Jim or beef jerky, asparagus, cucumber spear, or a pepperoncini, to name but a few. Garnishing is an art, not a burden.

Glassware is another vehicle for enhancing a cocktail’s presentation. Companies such as Libbey and Anchor-Hocking have catalogs filled with interesting, cost-effective specialty glassware. In a world where first impressions are the most significant, ensuring that drinks look their best is a marketing imperative.
Interested in more ways to inject some vim and vigor in your beverage line-up? Consider the following:

• Infusions — Infusions are a dynamic way to boost pizzazz. The secret to their success is that they’re a fun and profitable way to create something exciting that the competition can’t duplicate. When you create a winning infusion, there’s only one place to get it. You can turn

virtually any spirit into something extraordinary by infusing it with everything from kiwis to sun-dried tomatoes. The process involves marinating fresh fruit, among other things, in large containers filled with spirits. Several days to a week later, the fruit will infuse the chosen spirit with flavor, color, aroma and loads of appealing character.

• Champagne Drinks — Nothing adds pizzazz to a celebration like champagne, so make every night memorable by promoting champagne-based cocktails. They’re light, effervescent and thoroughly delicious. Eye appeal alone qualifies champagne cocktails as bona fide works of art. It’s their luscious flavor, though, that makes them masterpieces.

• Beer Drinks — Blending different types of beers together has long been standard practice in pubs throughout Europe and Australia, but has only recently become popular in the United States. Beer drinks are delicious, intriguing and an innovative means of increasing sales. Mixing beers requires balancing the attributes of one brew with the characteristics of another. The key is using two beers with appreciably different properties—body, taste, texture, sweetness and bitterness. Don’t stop at the Black & Tan, there are scores of recipes to tempt your clientele.

• Drink Flourishes — According to Bon Appétit, swizzle sticks have become “one of the coolest collectibles around” and they’re enjoying a renaissance in bars and nightclubs across the country. More than mere implements for stirring, swizzles are contemporary memorabilia for the taking, mementoes embossed with your company’s identity. Swizzles have function and provide a lot of impact for the buck.

“Hang-ons” have universal appeal. They’re those cute plastic chimps, lounging mermaids or blue whales that hook on the rim of a glass. The kid in us likes hang-ons (“You mean I can keep this pink flamingo fruit spear?”), while the operator in us appreciates their value-added aspect. You’ll never spend less raising a smile out of your guests than giving them a groovy plastic orangutan in their drink.

• Secret Ingredients? — Everybody loves secrets. Who’d have guessed that the secret behind the Flaming Moe of The Simpsons’ fame was a splash of cough syrup? During the golden age of bartending, homemade elixirs, potions, syrups and infusions were the rage. They helped distinguished one establishment’s specialties from the next. What if you followed suit and created your own orange bitters, honey-flavored simple syrup or rose petal tincture? The alchemy involved is uncomplicated. A little research on-line or at the library should be all that’s necessary to send you in the right direction. Once you devise a winning concoction, keep the recipe in your vest pocket and don’t tell a soul. Then let’s see the competition try to duplicate your recipes.

• Adopt A Spirit — Spirit sales, especially the top-shelf brands, are soaring. Per capita consumption is steadily increasing back to the highs of the early ‘80s. Now is the time to jump board and leverage their popularity into greater sales. Choose a spirit and become known as a great bourbon bar, tequilaria, or single malt haven. Educate your staff and expand your back bar selections to offer guests an interesting array of brands from which to choose. Also prominently feature your rums or vodkas, for example, into your signature drink program. Tap into the guests’ sense of discovery and you’ll be guaranteed success.

• Staff Gone Flaccid? — If bartenders could be replaced by tuxedoed robots or drink-making holograms, someone would have done it by now. Fact is no machine, gadget or computer can provide the dynamics necessary to transform a body-filled room into party central the way a great bartender can.

A bartender with a genuine smile, quick wit and winning personality is a hot commodity. But wait, there’s more. Arm them with some basic flair bartending techniques and watch the magic happen. Guests are enthralled with bartenders who flip bottles, toss some glasses and fling a few mixing sets. It reinforces that they’ve selected a cool place to make their hangout. Flair bartending keeps people in their seats longer, which translates to higher sales.

So when it comes to bartending, what’s
really in demand is competency with panache. Want to add some pizzazz to your operation? Light a fire under your bartenders and turn them loose.

• Float Programs — A Piña Colada may be a good drink, but a float on top of Kahlúa, Chambord or Midori nudges it into the great range. The same is true about a Margarita with a shot of Grand Marnier served on the side, or a Daiquiri with an optional float of Myers’s or Appleton V/X Jamaica rum. The program is classic suggestive sales — your guests receive better tasting drinks and you bank higher sales.

• Swirl Drinks — Double the popularity of your frozen drinks by swirling complimentary recipes together in the same glass. The taste and presentation is impressive and sure to grab people’s attention. One such recipe is called the Pain in the Butt, a swirled blend of a Piña Colada and a Rum Runner. Try swirling a Midori Sour and a raspberry Daiquiri or a frozen lemonade and a Frosted Coke. Great taste and captivating looks make for increased sales.

In the final analysis, injecting your bar with pizzazz involves exceeding people’s expectations and doing the delightfully unexpected. Your clientele will likely appreciate it more than you may realize.

For example, imagine applying the concept of random acts of kindness to your business. What if you unexpectedly bought a couple of loyal guests their dinner or a round of drinks? “It’s just our way of saying thanks,” you’d say. Why they’d be on the phone telling their friends what you did before they got home.

So have fun, think outside the box and start generating some magic of your own.