Articles

In our last 2 newsletters we've featured advice from Shaun McGuire, a bartender extraordinaire and service industry expert who coaches bartenders on work/life balance, finances, etc. (Learn more about that part of his life on his website, philosophicallydrunk.com.)

That last point—finances—is the focus of Shaun's advice this week, specifically how bartenders, servers (and anyone else, really) can go about wrangling their finances.

In short, if it feels like you just can't get ahead of your spending, this week's interview is for you.

Darian Everding manages London Underground, a craft beer and whisk(e)y bar in Ames, IA.

Along with so many others in the industry, Darian has seen more angry, disruptive customers than before the pandemic. Ours is an era of rage, a recent article from the New York Times wrote, and the data bears that claim out: London Underground has had to ban more customers in the last year than in all of the previous five years combined.

So how do you teach staff to deal with these situations? The answer for Darian is communicating with staff and using de-escalation training:

Digital beer menus are attention-grabbing, easy for customers to read, and way easier to manage than the old fashioned chalkboard. This makes life easier for your bartenders and makes the entire ordering process more efficient, which drives a significant increase in beverage sales.

But questions abound: how do I create a digital beer menu? How can I get it onto a TV? And can I update it in real-time?

TV Menus from BeerMenus make it extremely easy.

You know the scene. A keg kicks and your heart drops: you have to update your beer menu.

What comes next goes something like this: you go to the office computer and head to Google to find the new beer's description. You search and search, finally find a description you like, then copy and paste it into your Adobe, Canva, Word, or Google Docs menu document. You're done...except now the formatting is screwed up. You fiddle with it until it's finally ready. You push print and take a deep breath.

You're done.

Until you have to do the exact same thing the next day.

It doesn't have to be that way! Read on to learn how to create a professional beer menu template that automatically includes beer descriptions.

Megan Rickerson of Someday Bar has deep experience with hospitality advocacy. One of the most important take homes she's shared with us is that you just have to get started, and once you do it's all down hill from there.

But how do you actually get started? What's the first thing you should do?

Here's advice from Megan on that front:

When you switch from Untappd to BeerMenus you’ll save hundreds of dollars and have access to almost all of the same tools as with Untappd (some of which are better with BeerMenus). Plus, you'll get access to other tools from BeerMenus. Here’s more about the differences between Untappd and BeerMenus.

This year we've helped bars, restaurants, and breweries from Alaska to New York showcase their craft beer tap list in just about every way possible, from modern to sleek to chalkboard-inspired.

In this article we highlight the 10 best digital menu board designs we made this year. Enjoy!

The most common question: Pricing

Untappd for Business has two tiers: Untappd for Business Essentials ($899/year) and Untappd for Business Premium ($1199/year).

BeerMenus, a popular Untappd for Business alternative with most of the same features (and many helpful features not offered by Untappd), costs $599 per year.

Unlike Untappd, which has done so twice in the last few years, BeerMenus has never raised prices on existing customers and has no plans to do so.

BeerMenus is not in any way affiliated with Untappd for Business.

Use this guide to learn about Untappd for Business and to consider whether it's right for your business.

Pricing

Untappd for Business has two tiers: Untappd for Business Essentials ($899/year) and Untappd for Business Premium ($1199/year). THis marks the second significant price increase they've enacted in the last few years. (Previously, Untappd for Business increased their price from $599 to $899 (a 50% increase) in Winter 2021.)

BeerMenus, a popular Untappd alternative with many of the same features (and many others that Untappd does not offer), costs $599 per year, and has never raised prices on existing customers.

BeerMenus is in no way affiliated with Untappd for Business.

Picture this: you're the bar manager. Things are going pretty much as usual, when all of a sudden a customer starts screaming at one of your bartenders.

Not okay. But we've all seen something like this happen or been on the receiving end of the screaming.

Including Alicia Rogers, Bar Manager at Jeremiah’s Tavern.