SPIRIT SPOTLIGHT: Back Bar Blues
by Carrie Powell-Davidson


What’s in your back bar? If it looks like most bars, there’s a nice array of dust collectors and gold dust makers. For some of you, there may be items back there that came with the place when you bought it. You’re not sure how old they are. You’re not even sure what they are, but they hold some kind of emotional attachment, and thus have claimed a permanent spot on your “Back Bar Wall of Shame”. It’s time for a decent burial!

Dollars and Sense
Imagine you owned a bar on some tropical island in the South Seas. Your bar manager decides that it would be good for business if you purchased a snow blower. You think maybe it’s time you purchased a new bar manager. After all, tying up capital by investing in items you won’t use just doesn’t make good business sense. The same can be said for that colourful compilation of elixirs providing arachnids with rooms at “The Back Bar Saloon”.

And speaking of sense, your good business sense is not the only sense taking a beating by the back bar blues. Like food, the flavours and aromas in compounded distillates will diminish once they are opened. If you only use a little blue curacao every now and then, buy smaller amounts and open it more often. You’ll have less money tied up and the customer will always have a fresher product.

What’s Hot and What’s Not?
Interestingly enough, there is very little difference in the alcohol preferences of patrons throughout the province except on the subject of Jagermeister. On Vancouver Island, this product is hot, hot, hot with the youngsters. Mix it with an energy drink (not recommended by the manufacturers, by the way) and it is even hotter. Up north, Jager sits on the shelf until the tree planters come in, then anything with an energy drink is huge.

Another interesting comparison is the flavoured vodkas. In Vancouver, these products are only outdone by the latest flavoured vodka to be introduced. On the Island and outlying areas, the trend has not caught on. All parts of the province, however, are reporting growth in the higher end vodkas such as Grey Goose and Belvedere.

Straight shots of tequila and Sambuca seem to be remaining a popular BC trend while Crown, Bacardi, and Smirnoff never tire of their reign.

Many bars got stuck with a large quantity of scotch when the trend for single malt scotch died down. While sitting around awhile won’t hurt these products, the initial outlay to purchase the single malts would tie up a fair chunk of change.

The scotch-based liqueur, Drambuie is a mainstay in most bars and continues to show well. Its counterpart Glayva, however, is not. Could a little public education and a Rusty Nail special remedy this situation?
The mainstays of the liqueur world also include Kahlúa, Grand Marnier, Bailey’s and Amaretto. These products are middle movers and will always have a place in BC bars.

Many of the older-style products such as Brandy and Benedictine, Galliano, cherry brandy as well as peach and peppermint schnapps are collecting dust bunnies. The advice from the experts is to not have these items around in the first place. “If you don’t have a demand for them, don’t purchase them,” says one bar owner from Prince George. “We keep a pretty close eye on items that don’t move and we limit our stock.”

Rating Products
On a scale of 1-5, rate all the items in your back bar. A product rated 1 sells very well and must stay, while a product rated 5 has earned antique store status. Out it must go. However, before we give it the old heave ho, let the staff conduct a professional taste testing to determine if the product is salvageable. If they don’t keel over, then this product can still be used. Because flavoured products such as liqueurs and aperitifs lose their flavour intensity once opened, these 5-rated items may not be appropriate for the bar anymore, but their alcohol content would make a nice addition to the kitchen. Hello Chef! I have a gift for you.

Move It On Over
The 5-rated items that didn’t hit the bin or were not gratefully accepted by our cooks now require effort to recoup some of the expense incurred from housing them. Can you say “Drink Specials”? Now is the time to unleash your employees’ creative urges. Have a contest with prizes to the staff member who can create the most enticing and profitable drink menu from the dredges of the dust collectors. Prizes can be from within the house, or better yet, name the drinks after local businesses and they may provide the incentives. Kathy’s Day Spa Colada or House of Blue Hawaiian Jeans could just be the next big seller. 
Your staff could have some great fun with this challenge: Plunk down a bottle of Galliano. Invite them to come up with one old classic recipe, one new twist on an old recipe, and one completely new recipe. You might see something like this:

The Harvey Wallbanger, Harvey’s Banging the Wall With His Navel (peach schnapps, Galliano and O.J.) and the Bumble Bee (black Sambuca and Galliano). 

How about partnering with your local tourism operators and coming up with some unique activities. One of the local hotels joined forces with a cave tour company and formed “Scotch on the Rocks”. After a cave touring expedition, the group gathered around the fire in the lounge for a scotch tasting. This concept attracted patrons from far and wide, enabled the operators to take advantage of cross marketing, and most important to our purpose, cleared out the scotch!

Reviving the Classics
One of our former managers brought in some cherry brandy - not just a few bottles but several cases. This new manager was not a happy camper until we brainstormed some old favourites using cherry brandy, and added a twist onto a few new cocktails and came up with the “Cherry Picking Time” cocktail menu. He got rid of his cherry brandy.

Cleaning up the back bar will not only improve your ROI, it will make room for products that will generate more profit.