Your restaurant or eatery may serve great food items, but what about the beverages? Nearly all of us drink something before, during, or after our meals. Water doesn’t really cut it at a restaurant. Your consumers are probably sick of being serviced soft drinks, as if they are at a cheap fast food drive-through. So, how can a restaurant serve up beverages to interest and attract new customers? Here are several tips to consider:
Choose Beverages that Best Complement Your Signature Dishes
Don’t choose drinks just for their price or convenience to make. The beverage menu must complement the signature, main dishes your restaurant serves. That means you would have to consider each and every item on the menu before introducing beverages.
For example, if your restaurant serves spicy or hot dishes, don’t introduce hot beverages alongside it. Customers would prefer cooling drinks with tastes that can contradict yet complement the flavours of the dish. If your menu is varied, consider introducing both hot and cold drinks for customers to choose. Breakfast menus must have hot beverages, while cooler drinks are preferable for the evenings.
Aim for the Best Quality
Give the drinks menu as much thought as the regular meals menu. Don’t expect to get away by mixing beverages from powdered products. When a customer orders a drink, it should be as good as what they can get at a shop that specialises in beverages, such as a café. Therefore, ensure the quality of ingredients used in drinks, as well as the production process.
Invest in the right type of equipment for preparing the beverages in the restaurant. That means buying industrial juicers and commercial coffee machines for sale, among other items. Using high-end equipment is the best way to ensure quality of the product in a manner that justifies the price. Remember, if the beverages are bad, your restaurant would get bad reviews, regardless of good the rest of the menu is.
Variety is a Must
There should be a variety of beverages on offer, of course. Variety should be achieved in terms of flavours as well as the types of drinks on offer. For example, you might want to introduce cocktails with alcohol. The types of beverages also matter, such as smoothies, soft drinks, or teas.
Aim to achieve a healthy level of variety on the beverages menu. You don’t want to introduce too many items, as it would just overshadow the rest of the menu. Offering too little of a choice is just as bad. Just like Goldilocks, try to achieve the right balance with variety.
Offer Seasonal Beverages
One way to make the beverages menu varied and interesting is to offer seasonal drinks. Starbucks is a master of this art. While your restaurant may not get the same attention, loyal customers would keep coming back for season-specific drinks. Seasonal beverages are all the more important to go with seasonal dishes.
Come up with Eye-Catching Presentation for the Drinks
You think a lot about how food is presented to customers as a restaurateur. Just like this, spare similar thoughts to the beverages. Make the drinks look as Instagrammable as much as possible. Attractive presentation for drinks is one of the best ways to keep customers coming back for more.
Remember, beverages are just as important as the food in a restaurant. So when you are adding new drinks, carefully consider the above.