Backbar Academy

Your complete resource for alcoholic beverage professionals. Resources, templates, guides, checklists and articles to help you provide better beverage service.

From the blog

Restaurant Trends

What's Happening in 2023: Beer Trends

Bottoms up to a new year and new beer trends. While thinking about what to stock behind your bar in 2023, consider these five industry-hot picks to make the most of your..

Restaurant Operations

Build a Bulletproof Menu with Menu Engineering

Have your eyes ever glazed over when looking at a restaurant menu because it was so cluttered and disorganized? A menu shouldn't cause stress or indifference. A successful..

Restaurant Operations

4 1/2 Smart Ways Restaurants Can Battle Inflation

If rising costs are hurting your restaurant or bar business, there are ways to fight back. After outlasting a pandemic that turned the hospitality industry on its head, shaking..

Restaurant Operations

How Backbar's Square Integration Streamlines Inventory

Finally, some good news!  If you use Square as your point-of-sale system in your restaurant or bar you can now automate inventory tracking by integrating Square with Backbar. The..

Restaurant Operations

Happy Hour Ideas for Bar Business Growth

Implementing happy hour ideas and strategies in bars is a tried and tested way for bar owners to attract customers and increase sales. These strategies are implemented to increase..

Restaurant Management, Restaurant Operations

How to maximize your restaurant's success on Instagram

Are you part of the surge of restaurants marketing themselves on Instagram? In 2019, 78% of restaurants in a report by Toast had an Instagram profile. This is way up from just the..

Restaurant Management, Bar Inventory

8 Most Important Data Points to Track Behind the Bar

Being a bar manager requires a lot more math and brain power than you may think.

 

"This isn't what I signed up for!" you might be shouting over a pile of spreadsheets and..

Bar Inventory

How to Reduce Your Bar Inventory Levels

Keeping your inventory levels low without compromising on service is a tricky balance. How do you make sure you don't run out of product, while also keeping inventory levels..

Bar Inventory

Inventory Usage Rate is the Formula for a Successful Bar

Imagine that your bar's liquor inventory is perfectly managed:Your shelves are clear of overstocked liquor bottles that you don't need. You never run out of menu items..

Bar Inventory

5 Tips for Bar Managers to Manage Inventory [With Video]

If you're a new bar manager, you might be feeling overwhelmed with all the new responsibilities, so we're going to highlight 5 tips to focus on behind the bar to make things a..

Bar Inventory

Common Bar Inventory Mistakes

"I'm sorry we are out of that."  There is nothing worse than going to a bar and they are out of what you wanted.  Do you constantly find yourself out of products or wonder why you..

Bar Inventory

Using the Reporting Tools in Backbar to Manage Bar Inventory

Inventory can be one of the most costly things when it comes to running a bar or restaurant so analyzing your data to gain insights is one of the many benefits to using a ..

Restaurant Management, Restaurant Operations

How to maximize your restaurant's success on Instagram

Are you part of the surge of restaurants marketing themselves on Instagram? In 2019, 78% of restaurants in a report by Toast had an Instagram profile. This is way up from just the..

Restaurant Management, Restaurant Operations

The ultimate guide to using TikTok for bars and restaurants

If you don’t use TikTok yet, you probably just know it as that video app where people do dances and challenges in front of their camera. Its omnipresent influence on pop culture..

Restaurant Management

How to perfect the purchasing cycle for your bar

Managing purchasing for your bar is a lot of responsibility. It's easy to waste money by ordering unnecessary products or to run out of a menu item because you order 4 bottles..

Restaurant Management

How to Increase Delivery and To-Go Check Averages

Did you suggest a drink while they wait? Have they seen a dessert menu? What about that cabernet we're trying to sell? 

 

Managers are always looking for clever ways to raise..

Restaurant Management, Bar Inventory

8 Most Important Data Points to Track Behind the Bar

Being a bar manager requires a lot more math and brain power than you may think.

 

"This isn't what I signed up for!" you might be shouting over a pile of spreadsheets and..

Restaurant Management

The Importance of Sustainable To-Go Packaging for Restaurants

The financial fallout from coronavirus has been steep and swift—but have we been levying the same concern with the environmental impact it has had as well? 

 

With restaurants..

Bartender Training

Bitters Add a Dash of Flair to Your Cocktails (A Guide)

Long before Tylenol, twenty-five dollar copays, and debates on whether masks actually work (they do), people turned to alcohol as a one-stop solution for their ailments...

Bartender Training

The History of the Mule Cocktail

Mules (also known as bucks) are cocktails made with ginger beer or ginger ale, citrus juice, and any kind of spirit. Easy to make and easy to sip, these are some of the most..

Bartender Training

Essential Cocktail Equipment For Bartenders

Whether you're a novice bartender, or a seasoned pro looking for a quick refresher, this cocktail equipment guide is helpful for anyone that makes drinks behind the bar. 

 

A..

Bartender Training

Resume Tips for Bartenders and Servers

Bartender Training

The Most Important Bar Tools for Bartenders

Like any craft, bartending requires certain tools to do the job right. There are plenty of cool gadgets and delicate tools like smoke infusers or garnish tweezers that a bartender..

Bartender Training

How to Make Simple Syrup for Cocktails

 

Wine Knowledge, Restaurant Trends

Exciting Wine Trends for 2022 [With Data]

The wine world is like the universe, vast and ever expanding. Its rich history is fascinating and the modern wine world is innovative and engaged in making the world a more..

Wine Knowledge, Restaurant Trends

Restaurant Wine Trends to Watch in 2021

This past year has been a trying one for the wine industry. In California, wine makers were again besieged and burnt by a terrible wildfire season in California. And of course,..

Wine Knowledge

How to Sell More Wine With Your To-Go Orders

The service industry has successfully pivoted to delivery and take out in an effort drum up steady business—but aside from promoting your snacks and bites, it's time to include..

Wine Knowledge

Wine and Drink Trends You'll See in Fall 2020

We've already discussed some drink predictions for 2020, but consumer needs have shifted dramatically in the last few months. As the fall season approaches, we're seeing the..

Wine Knowledge

Exciting Wine Trends For 2020

2020 is coming. It's a year that doesn't quite sound real. 2020 sounds more like an abstract year used in sci-fi shows or books to indicate a distant future when society relies on..

Bartender Training, Wine Knowledge

7 Tips for Training Waitstaff on Wine and Beverages

We talk to dozens of restaurants every day and they often tell us one of their top challenges is training their wait staff.  And training staff on the wine list and beverage..

Liquor Cost

Understanding Inventory Variance in Your Bar (and How to Fix It)

Maybe the first time you learned about shrinkage was from that episode of Seinfeld, but today we're going to be talking about a different kind of shrinkage. 

 

Liquor Cost

Factors That Impact Liquor Costs

Do your liquor costs keep creeping up and you don't know where the additional costs are coming from?  Chances are they are right under your nose and you can actually take control..

Liquor Cost

How to Price Draft and Bottled Beer

"Come on in!  The price (can be) right!"  Customers don't want to come to your bar thinking they're playing The Price Is Right when it comes to your beer prices. 

Liquor Cost

What is the average liquor cost for bars and restaurants? [With Video]

Who knew running a successful bar and restaurant would require so much math?

Liquor Cost

Average Restaurant Costs: Liquor, Food, and Labor

There are many costs that go into running a restaurant and while some are not controllable, others are, and taking advantage of lowering those costs will lead to a successful..

Liquor Cost

Why Setting Purchasing Budgets Are Vital to Your Restaurant

Does the thought of sitting down and creating a purchasing budget stress you out to the point that you find literally anything else to do?  Or worse, take your best guess on the..

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