Summing It Up
• Create “chef-crafted” cocktails that emphasize freshness, seasonality and purity. |
By mastering the art of creative mixology, many clubs and resorts are now watching the profits pour in fro exotic new alcoholic beverage revenue streams.
These days people are drinking less, but drinking better. Expert Mixologist Robert Plotkin has called this the most significant megatrend in the beverage business. Club and resort managers are responding by emphasizing rare and premium brands, reviving the art of creative mixology, and recasting bartenders as “bar chefs.” Elevating offerings and implementing cutting-edge ideas for presentation and service is seen as the way to create a top-shelf experience for guests that will boost bar sales and grow tab revenues.
In today’s competitive market, club managers need to be innovators, explains William Minard, Chief Opera-tional Director of the Scarsdale (N.Y.) Golf Club, 25 miles north of Manhattan. “Members have many choices for where to eat and drink,” says Minard, a Culinary Institute of America graduate. “What we offer in the clubhouse has to be comparable to—or better than—what they can get outside.”
To do that, Minard and his team have returned to “the art of traditional hand-crafted libations.” Bartenders are shaking and pouring classic cocktails and high-concept signature drinks—each one prepared from scratch, in front of the customer, with fresh ingredients. No pre-made mixes or sugary artificial juices are used. Care goes into every detail. Garnishes include cherries macerated in brandy, and mint- or rosemary-infused melon slices. The result is something much more flavorful and exciting.
“These drinks take a little longer to mix,” Minard admits. “But customers don’t mind waiting. They love to watch the process and get all that personal attention. It has an appealing air of showmanship. We’re finding that the approach is a big plus for business entertaining, and that members are boasting about we’re doing.”
Raising the Bar
In a clubhouse setting, it’s possible to keep per- drink prices lower than restaurants and lounges offering comparable quality. This becomes an added benefit to membership, and that’s good for Scarsdale’s bottom line. “By exceeding their expectations,” says Minard, “we entice them to use the club more often, and the increased sales offset the higher cost of working this way.”
To further boost revenue, Minard has removed all the mainstream brands from the back bar, replacing them with beautifully bottled boutique spirits such as Cadenhead’s saffron-kissed Old Raj Gin. Minard thinks of it as a shop window filled with eye-catching jewels. The display prompts questions and conversation, giving staff a chance to tell customers about the products and to prompt interest in trying them.
Beverage Manager Phil Wells mixes fresh drinks that are just as unique as the boutique spirits used to make them. |
William Minard is Chief Operational Director for the Scarsdale (N.Y.) Golf Club |
Many years in the business have convinced David Cronin, Food and Beverage Director for the Harbor Beach Marriott Resort and Spa in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that there’s value in raising the bar at the bar. When customers purchase a drink, they don’t mind paying a premium if it “comes with a story.” Unfamiliar and exotic labels and the theatrics of seeing ingredients squeezed, crushed and muddled can take a cocktail from ordinary to extraordinary, and give patrons something to talk about.
“We’re using Square One organic vodka in a cucumber cocktail,” Cronin reports. “When we make a mojito, people can smell the mint and the limes going in. To decorate a drink, we might coat a blackberry with powdered sugar and present it on a small stalk of sugarcane. These are details patrons notice and appreciate. It defines them, and us, as being associated with quality.”
With the help of his Beverage Manager, Larry Day, Cronin has been moving to make the drink offerings “chef-crafted,” with an emphasis on freshness, seasonality, and purity. “It’s a style that started in the professional kitchen, and now it’s surfacing in the world of mixology,” Cronin says. “We’re even making our own simple syrup. We are also applying the same practices to non-alcoholic cocktails.” Each of the resort’s bars are equipped with industrial-size juicers, and kitchen staff have been enlisted to prepare fresh fruit purées (mango and pomegranate are especially popular right now, Cronin notes).
His bartenders buy in to the concept, even though it requires extra work for them. They appreciate the chance to demonstrate their skills, and understand that stimulating a desire for these costlier options means fatter tips. “Our consumers are sophisticated and demanding,” says the Irish-born and German-trained Cronin. “They’ve traveled, they watch the Food Network. They want something more. If you give it to them, you can charge more.”
Instilling Flavor
At Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa in Farmington, Pa. (70 miles south of Pittsburgh), Beverage Director Brian Henderson is playing with infusions and herbs to upgrade drinks. For a strawberry basil mojito, dried berries are steeped in Level vodka, which is combined with the leaves of the green, peppery plant, producing an intriguing sweet and savory effect.
“We put the fruit and alcohol in a large glass apothecary jar equipped with a spout and keep it at the bar, where it becomes both a marketing tool and a visual aid to help staff explain the drink,” says Henderson.
On the other side of the country, Lobby Lounge bartenders at The Montage Laguna Beach (Calif.) are also using the unusual combination of strawberries and basil in their version of a caipirinha, muddling them together with Ypióca cachaça, a Brazilian rum.
Lounge Manager Gibbie Whelehan is having success with infusions, too. “We’re making our own cucumber vodka for a spa-inspired summer cooler,” she reports. “It’s a drink with a refreshing ‘healthy’ taste that customers like. We’re also doing a non-alcoholic version with mint.”
That’s in step with what’s happening in the restaurant realm. Gary Regan, a beverage consultant and columnist, recently noted that cucumbers are getting a great deal of attention from mixologists. Another spirit-free cooler incorporates melon infused with lemon grass and cooked to a purée. The facility’s kitchen staff provides both culinary advice about pairing flavors and handles much of the most labor-intensive advance preparaton, such as puréeing passion fruit for the Markisa—a cocktail featuring 42 Below vodka.
Even with the kitchen’s help, it still requires extra time for a bartender to prepare specialty cocktails with fresh ingredients for a large group. To keep guests from getting too impatient, Whelehan has a solution.
“We’ll serve them a small portion of sparkling wine on the house, so they have something to sip while they wait,” she reports. “They appreciate the gesture and the extra service that goes into their beverage preparation.” She also provides all Lounge customers with an ever-changing array of classy, chef-created bar snacks. “Currently we’re serving honey-glazed cashews tossed with lemon, lime and thyme,” she says. “These nuts taste delicious, wake the palate and encourage patrons to order another round of drinks.”
This extra effort to produce concoctions and experiences that are stylish and distinctive has paid off, and not just in customer satisfaction. Managers like Whelehan, Cronin and Minard know there’s nothing watered-down about the margins being earned from the beverage side of the F&B ledger. The entire club and resort business is also waking up to the tremendous profit potential of signature mixed drinks and other forms of “liquid gold.” By thinking outside the box—and the bottle—beverage sales are bubbling.
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