I should focus on biz growth. Right?

Here's a quote from Nick Wendowski, owner of Stone's Beer & Beverage, a beer store in Philadelphia, PA:

"I'm not obsessed with growth as a business owner."

Not exactly what you'd expect from a business owner. You so often hear about growth, growth, growth, it's easy to forget that there are different ways to think about owning a business.

Nick's goal is to get to a point with his business where "it's all good," meaning everybody involved in the business—that's him, his employees, his family, and his customers—is in a decent spot.

Obsessing over always growing isn't his priority because in his mind it isn't worth the sacrifices it would take to get there. Getting stable, consistent, and comfortable is the sweet spot he's aiming for.

It's funny how sometimes it's only when you stop really pushing for something that it ends up happening.

Check out the interview for more from Nick about his approach to business:

Why worry about menu design?

Imagine this: you've done the significant work to have an always-up-to-date beer menu. Every single time a keg kicks or a new can arrives you update the menu accordingly. And that happens multiple times a month/week.

But you're not seeing an uptick in beer sales. Why? The up-to-date menu should be helping. You're starting to wonder if maybe it's not worth maintaining the menu.

If this is the case, your issue might be with the design of your menu rather than the content. A poorly designed beer menu can flatline your beer sales. But a well-designed menu can:

• Make your customers want to spend time with your menu.
• Help customers figure out what to order more easily.
• This puts customers at ease: coming back to the menu to order another beer isn't a daunting task. It's a pleasant one.

How can I get a well-designed beer menu?

You could do it manually. How you'd implement it depends on what works for your budget/team, but it could look like this:

• Locate a graphic designer, ideally one who has experience with menu-making.
• Work with them to create a well-designed editable menu template. Make sure they understand the use case—you'll be editing this often, so it can't be a fragile design that breaks if a beer name is too long, etc. It also needs to be editable in an approachable software program, not a difficult-to-use design program.
• Train all necessary members of your team (managers, bartenders, etc.) on how to edit the menu template file. Make sure they practice so they know where to locate it, how to edit it, etc. You don't want them to be handcuffed on a Friday afternoon.
• Anytime your beer selection changes, you/a team member visits the file to delete the beer(s) that's gone and add the new beer(s).

It certainly takes some effort to track down a talented graphic designer and to train your team, but doing it manually like this could be worth it if that's your only option.

• James Beard Award winners. Here's the full list. It's always fun to read through and see if you've been to any of the spots called out. Special shout out to a couple spots in the Twin Cities (where I grew up) that took home awards, including Bûcheron in Minneapolis, which took home best new restaurant.
• Dickey's BBQ franchisee reporting. Earlier this month the New York Times published a story outlining some terrible experiences faced by Dickey's franchisees. They alleged corporate overestimated expected sales and drastically underestated startup cost. It's a sad read. I've seen some stories popping up about how this terrible experience wasn't reflective of the majority of franchisees (example) but it's not clear to me what's true reporting and what's just a PR response to a pretty damning story. Dickey's is big enough (it's the world's largest BBQ chain) to pay for a huge PR blitz, so at this point I'm assuming it's more the latter.
• Send a fellow bartender a boomerang. Vinepair ran a fun article about boomerang culture: where you send a bartender at another bar a drink. It's "typically served in a glass covered in cling wrap, and often placed in a to-go food container," according to Jeffrey Morgenthaler, author of “The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails.” The practice seems to have started in the 2000s in NYC's East Village. Love it.