Bar managers juggle many different responsibilities including stocking their menu with food items that are cost-effective, fairly simple to prepare and appealing to customers. Your bar’s menu is crucial to your establishment’s success and can help set you apart from your competitors. Customers that have a positive first experience are likely to come back again, so your bar menu items need to have a lasting impact on your patrons. Choosing the best bar food menu requires analyzing each item’s cost, ease of preparation, popularity and ability to integrate with your bar’s style.

Choosing the best bar food menu requires analyzing each item’s cost, ease of preparation, popularity and ability to integrate with your bar’s style.

Keep An Eye On Food Costs

Every restaurant or bar manager understands that your menu items must remain cost-efficient. It’s critical to keep prices affordable and profits high to sustain your business. To remain cost-efficient, bar managers need to calculate the amount of money it costs to make each menu item. This includes the cost of ingredients and labor to prepare the dish. If your menu item includes expensive ingredients, then you’re going to have to have a high price tag on that dish.

You don’t want to sacrifice quality for cost, but you’ll need to balance menu items to have a variety of high-priced and low-priced options for customers. For several decades, studies have indicated that a growing number of customers prefer locally produced food items. Reaching out to local farmers or independent food vendors will improve your customer’s perception of your business. It’s not uncommon for businesses to reach more equitable deals for quality ingredients with these smaller food vendors than giant corporations.

Be Aware Of Preparation Times

Bar managers need to consider how difficult it is to prepare their menu items. Food preparation staff need to move food quickly and efficiently, and rush periods can’t handle too many extensive and complicated recipes. While you want your kitchen staff to take their time in preparing appealing dishes, it’s not cost-effective to have lengthy, difficult meal preparations each day. Look for specialty dishes whose preparations can be streamlined. Anything that can be prepared in advance without sacrificing quality or taste should be done.

Include Popular Food Items

Your customer’s preferences are important to consider when you’re developing your bar menu. The most popular types of bar foods include classics like nachos, French fries, mozzarella sticks, potato skins and chicken wings. These classic bar foods are meant to be side-items to the drinks your customers are buying. More complicated but extremely popular bar menu items might consist of sliders, peel-and-eat shrimp, Jalapeno poppers or spinach and artichoke dip.

The right type of bar food menu items for your establishment should contain at least a few of your patron’s favorite choices. While French fries and sliders won’t make your restaurant stand out, they will put your establishment on the map and keep guests coming back for more. Customers that have a good experience the first time are more likely to come back again, so don’t forgo popular classic menu items for more individualized or trendy foods. You’ll want to have a variety of both to sustain your business.

Align Your Bar Menu With Your Bar’s Style

It’s a great idea for bar managers to pair their bar food menu items with their drink selection. If your drink selection focuses on beers, then you’ll want to lean more towards heavier foods, meats and carbs. There are many well-established resources that explain the best ways of paring wines with different food options. For the best possible results, research what types of menu items will go best with your drink selection.

The most common types of bar foods are usually cheap, easy to prepare and popular, and bar managers can easily make a profit and keep prices low. Your bar style and theme should be reflected in your menu, so it’s important to add more to your menu than traditional bar food. The ideal balance consists of classic favorites and unique dishes.

Choosing the best bar food menu requires analyzing each item’s cost, ease of preparation, popularity and ability to integrate with your bar’s style. If you don’t put much thought into creating your bar menu, then it’s likely that your customers won’t put much thought into your establishment either.