Setting Up a Bar Program

Apple Podcasts, Spotify , Google Podcasts , Stitcher, TuneIn, Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro, Castbox, Podchaser, Podcast Addict, Deezer ,Listen Notes, or RSS Feed

On today's episode of The Restaurant Realty in 10 host, Michael Carro, is joined by Chef Blake Rushing.  Chef Blake is Owner and Head Chef of Union Public House in Downtown Pensacola, FL.  In this episode Chef Blake is sharing what makes a great bar program, how his bar team crafts custom cocktails, and what a well-designed bar program can mean for a restaurants' bottom line.

Find out more about Chef Blake and Union Public House at unionpensacola.com.

Subscribe to get new episodes that provide uncensored straight talk geared to answer your restaurant and restaurant real estate questions.

Rather Read? Check out the full interview below!

Michael Carro 0:01 Welcome to The Restaurant Realty in 10. Ten minutes of uncensored straight talk for restaurant entrepreneurs twice weekly The Restaurant Realty in 10 dives into restaurant operations, facilities, real estate and investments. Today we are joined with Chef Blake Rushing from Union Public House to talk about how to build a bar program in a successful restaurant. Chef Blake, welcome to the program.

Chef Blake 0:23 Thanks for having me.

Michael Carro 0:24 So Blake, I want to dive into how you were able to create a fantastic bar instead of union public house. And then how do we keep it going? So why don't we start off with how do you bring a fantastic bar program to any restaurant?

Chef Blake 0:37 The staff is what does it. The guys behind the bars--That's the most important part. Next to the ingredients, of course. So start off with a really great bartender who's also I mean, not just knowledgeable and knows how he has a great palate, but also knows how to train people, and pull that knowledge from his mind and put it in theirs. And it's such a high paced area back there, that you've got to be able to know where you're coming from. Especially while you're talking about the cocktails, talking about your knowledge of the cocktails while you're working and putting them out to the guests, because that's what they love as well. So that's one of the biggest things and our lead bartender, now, Mandy, she's she's actually works in the kitchen as well. She's an amazing cook, and she has a great palate. So to see that transfer over to the bar is pretty cool because she can pull different flavors together for different cocktails.

Michael Carro 1:19 So are you seeing that...let's just use Mandy as the basis for this part. You're taking the menu, and Mandy is able to help identify great cocktails and of course, wine and beer, but great cocktails that marry well with certain meals. And then when your servers go to a table, they may say, Hey, listen, this particular dish goes great with this cocktail. It may be a margarita, it may be an old fashion, it may be something unique, but because of the flavors, they marry well together,

Chef Blake 1:48 Big time. Yeah.

Michael Carro 1:49 And I get that a lot when I go to your restaurants. So tell me what you look for. When you're pairing a beverage with a dish.

Chef Blake 1:57 It's very similar to doing wine. You can go about it one of two ways. One way is you've got the wine or the cocktail you really like. And then the other ways you got the dish you really like you want to pair with it. You could go pair, the disrepair, the cocktail, say if you got like a nice smoky old fashion, probably recommend our hanger steak. It's a nice meaty, gamey steak rubbed down with black garlic served with collards and cauliflower mash and red eye gravy, which has got some coffee and bacon, and so it's a stronger flavors, which would also pair nicely with that. Whereas you got like a nice light salmon dish, I would go with a lighter white wine or a lighter, lighter cocktail, say like a pilloum or something like that little heat to it a little acidity, they would pair nicely with the fish.

Michael Carro 2:33 Fantastic. And so translating that knowledge to new bartenders takes a lot of time and effort and study. So how do you begin a training program for your newer bartenders that may have experience bartending at a more simplistic bar, but how do you elevate their understanding and their training into your restaurant?

Chef Blake 2:54 In interviews, we always push them to make sure they have creativity. They need to be a little bit laid back because it's not gonna be the same thing you did before, you need to have open mind coming into Union Public House your not starting over but take your basic mechanics and all that. And you're going to learn kind of a new way to do it our way to do it. But we also want you to be creative. Like when we do the cocktail menus, there's always input from every bartender, everybody brings cocktails to the table, and we all taste them. And then each bartender says, Hey, this many it's more acidity, or this one is a little bit more booze, or this one needs this nice when these that

Michael Carro 3:25 so is that how new drinks are also formed?

Chef Blake 3:27 Yeah, we do it seasonally, and changes with the food menu, which is about five times a year. And it's fun. Basically, the bartenders work over a matter of weeks playing with cocktails tasting it between each other before it actually gets to me. And then we have a cocktail day on like a Sunday, where everybody comes up and they have their two or three cocktails. They have the names because we always want to have a funny name. My most recent favorite one was one of the guys Nate did a 'sage against the machine.

Michael Carro 3:51 Yeah, I saw that.

Chef Blake 3:52 That was a fun one. But we come up with silly names and basically taste stuff and the bartenders critique each other It tastes that the bartenders have more critiques of their peers than I do. Because they've been tasting them and they they know it better than I do.

Michael Carro 4:05 So by the time they get to you, I mean, listen, what's been either the craziest name, I love Sage against machine. But has there been anything that has been described to you that you thought? No way will that ever work?

Chef Blake 4:15 I'm trying to think of one and I am I think it may not have made it to me, we do have one coming up that we've been playing with and it's gonna take a while to get there by a guy named Frank Perez. He's doing a Dirty Martini and using the boiled peanut juice over our bowl peanuts to make and so that's gonna be interesting. I love the idea. I love the idea the saltiness and everything and garnish it with both peanuts. Of course, we're still playing with the recipe.

Michael Carro 4:41 So in the kitchen, you make a lot of your ingredients that ultimately go out to the bar and are served in drinks. Tell us about some of those ingredients.

Chef Blake 4:50 Um, there was a fun we did we have Meyer lemon trees behind the restaurant, and we comfit a bunch of Meyer lemons which the two different ways we comfit some for dessert and gave them the syrup. They'd Meyer lemons simple syrup they could use for cocktails. And then there was we preserved some Meyer lemons, which is a lot of salt and sugar. So it's a little bit very strong flavor, so you only use a couple drops. But that was another crossover. Pickling rhubarb can create like a tincture that the excess. We had. It was a beet cocktail. We did and they use the pickled beet juice from our pickled beet salad. I forget what it was. Anyways, some some cheeky name. So that was that was neat using the pickle beet juice. So basically the whole idea for the kitchen and the bar is not to have any waste. And so we always want to figure out something we can use somewhere else.

Michael Carro 5:34 Now you do a lot of great meat. Do you ever incorporate a meat into a cocktail?

Chef Blake 5:39 We have done some of our bacon infused in some whiskey but as far as using it in there, we have not done that much. I know it's popular, but it's kind of gets me. I'm not a big fan.

Michael Carro 5:49 Well, so getting into the finances of your drinks, you know you have cocktails, beer and wine. What are your target cost of goods sold for each category.

Chef Blake 5:59 For the most part, we double the beers our cost so 50%. The wines we do, depending on how expensive The wine is, so the more expensive the less we mark it up.

Michael Carro 6:08 Yep.

Chef Blake 6:08 So like on a, on a less expensive bottle of wine, like some of our house wines range from like $9-10 to $14 $15 glass. And so usually the glass price is the bottle price, on those, but then we get like the nicer wines. We may markup only, like double or not even that much, maybe just put $20 or $30 on top

Michael Carro 6:27 Those and be sold by the bottle. Correct?

Chef Blake 6:29 Yeah, yeah. Michael Carro 6:30 And then your cocktails.

Chef Blake 6:32 cocktails are about 20- 21% around there. All right.

Michael Carro 6:35 Yeah, that sounds fairly common with most most restaurants. So last question, Blake, what percentage of sales does your bar make up for the overall revenue?

Chef Blake 6:45 It's between 19 and 20%. around there.

Michael Carro 6:48 So pretty strong. That's why a bar program is so important to any restaurant.

Chef Blake 6:52 Yeah, definitely important and I mean, it just brings people to the to the restaurant, especially Why go Why go to a place to have a cocktail before dinner, when you can just come to our bar and have a cocktail before you sit down.

Michael Carro 7:02 Perfectly stated

Michael Carro 7:02 Thank you for coming in chef Blake. We will look forward to our next visit.

Chef Blake 7:06 Thanks for having me.

Michael Carro 7:06 Thank you for listening to The Restaurant Realty in 10. If you're interested in restaurants, whether operations facilities buying, leasing or investment, The Restaurant Realty in 10 is for you. Please subscribe to this podcast and you can also visit The Restaurant realty.com for show notes, topics and additional information.