What do the authorities on food and beverage share with the restaurant brokers?  Current trends in the beverage industry include craft beers, flavored vodka and mixology as an art form.  Both panelist agree that the most important aspect of a beverage program is education.  The restaurant brokers agree as the Senior Food Editor of Nation's Restaurant News and the CEO of Bevintel stress that staff must be educated in alcohol pairings in order to maximize the profit behind the bar.  The bottom line; "Stop training people in the industry to be order takers and uplift their skill set to become sales individuals “says restaurant broker, Robin Gagnon.

The radio show for the week even weighed in on the topic of the Millennials (individuals born from 1980-2000s).  This group has dining behavior that Nation's Restaurant News describes as “difficult to define”.  Is there a magic bullet to reach them?  Well, both Bret Thorn and Dan Smith recommend that restaurant owners market to the Millennials using social media.

What are the most common mistakes for developing a beverage program?  What should operators know to obtain a quality beverage program?  These questions and more are answered on the restaurant brokers radio show where they even tackle whether or not “virgin” drinks are a viable concept for a restaurant owners menu. 

The restaurant brokers close every show with “Restaurant Reality“ and this week was no exception.  Robin and Eric Gagnon talk sports bars and their ability to make or break a business. Eric Gagnon dispels the common misconception of running a sports bar and explains that it “is more than just watching the game and having a couple of cocktails with your friends”. On average, sports bar operators spend as much as 17 hours per day on the job. Eric Gagnon also explains that sports bars are a “penny business”, every fraction of a percent counts.

Restaurant beverage programs can deliver the most potential for profits but also come with an opportunity for losses. The typical loss a restaurant or bar can experience is a 20-25 percent variance because of poor management and lack of education. “A good restaurant beverage program begins with the right education” said Dan Smith.

Guests:

Bret Thorn:  Senior Food Editor of Nation's Restaurant News

Award winning columnist Bret Thorn is senior food editor of Nation’s Restaurant News, a website and bi-weekly trade magazine for the food service industry, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on culinary trends across the country.  From 2006 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves. He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mr. Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. His monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Dan Smith:  CEO Bevintel

The chief executive officer of Bevintel, Dan Smith has extensive hands-on experience in the food and beverage industry. While completing his undergraduate studies at Denison University and his MBA at Kellogg School at Northwestern University, Smith worked at casual restaurants, bars, nightclubs and fine dining. That experience serves him well in his present position.