Instant Gratification Mindset is Killing Your Beverage Program

"We all get distracted, the question is, would you bounce back or bounce backwards?" -Kendrick Lamar- "Growing Apart (To Get Closer)"

Hey Folks, believe it or not the idea for this article came from quite the unlikely source. A YouTube video that was recapping the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar talking about how Kendrick played the long game. Now I will be the first to admit that although I am a fan of the music genre and have a soft spot for the old school hip hop, I am not well versed in a lot of the genre as it stands today. But after listening to a few of Kendricks albums this week I have to agree that he has got to be one of the all-time greatest poets and lyricist. He didn't win a Pulitzer Prize for no reason. But to get back on topic I was taken by his approach to the whole situation. It was calculated, he anticipated his competitors moves and instead of trying to get a quick snap back put together, this genius of a human put together a campaign that ended with him overwhelmingly winning the feud and taking home 5 grammies and a Superbowl performance that shattered records as a little dessert.

So, for this article I want to and piece together some of my views on club beverage programs and how I think the industry as a whole has pivoted away from long term success and is instead opting to a quick hit and short-term mentality... something that didn't work so well for Drake and probably is not going to work well for clubs either. Let's jump in with some baseline observations of club bars and see where it started going wrong.

The Bar is not taken seriously: an estimated 80 percent of US adults regularly consume alcohol. So naturally any club that has a bar is going to benefit from a majority of their membership's preference. Wine or beer or cocktails a full-service bar will have something on the menu that will cater to the drinkers at your club. The problem I see is that this is taken for granted. If they participate in drinking the sales are a given. For draft beer this is fine. How can you possibly mess up serving a draft or bottle of beer? Currently IPA is all the rage so make sure it is cold, and you are good to go yeah? Well, if you have good prices and someone who knows how to pick a good line up of beer to offer you can't really go wrong, I guess but how does that work with cocktails and wine? not all cocktails are created the same. Poorly trained bartenders lead to poorly made drinks. If they don't know anything about the product (including beer btw) then they can't sell anything with any measurable means of effectiveness. Bad recipes lead to bad reviews, and the list goes on and on. But more importantly over all of the potential reasons to explain the overwhelming evidence that clubs serve more beer than anything other types of alcohol is the management mentality that the drink sales are a given. The sales are taken for granted and that the bar will always be busy. Look no further than your own bar program. Do you have a director of beverage? does your club have someone in charge who has formal education in the field? Are they treated as importantly as your executive chef? Is the position filled with the same scrutiny and vetting process as your director of grounds? I bet not... Most clubs I visit have a lead bartender who may be a long-term employee who does inventory and may make the occasional drink special. No finance training, no executive reporting training, maybe you have an entry level Somm, but I have yet to see a certified spirit specialist or anyone with Bonafide's in the big 3 of beverage (Beer, and Wine, AND Liquor).

The Club world has bad recruiting practices and even worse support for Beverage Professionals: This point in particular is a shot to the entire club world. Let's just wrap this whole thing up into a question. What kind of candidates did you think you would attract by highlighting the fact that your bar closes earlier than public bars? This "perk" is showcased in almost every bar manager job description in the club scene. That is not really a perk worth caring about. True professionals in the craft want to know how the club is going to bolster their career and to be frank, clubs have no idea how to do this. Neither does the CMAA for that matter. Before I was in the club world, the bar I was working at Dirty Habit in DC encouraged and even helped all of the bar staff get training, recognition, spots in national programs etc. My first-year bartending, FIRST YEAR! I got published in Liquor.com for a drink competition that centered around Ardbeg Scotch. My bosses paid for me to use their resources to refine my recipe, gave me time off to collaborate with other bartenders in the scene, brought in educators from industry professionals to refine my practice and the list goes on forever. I was celebrated at work for bringing national attention to the bar and was rewarded with more access to education like having Emily Wines, a master Somm come in and provide wine education to the bar staff. Where is any of that in the club world? The CMAA has a wine club and little less to offer the bartenders and bar programmers of the club world. The only education I could remember at the world conference in FL was the wine dinner and a tasting. No beverage finance classes, no craft mixology education, no collaboration with the Bartenders guild, no beverage trends/club beverage operations classes. Almost nothing of value for beverage professionals. The club world is SO incredibly good at fostering growth in the culinary world, the agronomy world, the executive leadership world, the HR world and so on but when Beverage, the financial backbone of the F&B finances, there is little to no incentive for a professional in the space. I have been fortunate enough to host some CMAA educations, and I focus on beverage, and I might be the only one in the club world offering Beverage education outside of RAMP training. It's not good enough. Who do you end up attracting to your business when you have no real structure for growth?

I'm going to cut myself off for now and pick this up later with another article, but I want to leave everyone who is reading with some hope and some practices to move forward with. Please look at your beverage program. Look at the leader of the beverage program first. Are they equipped with the skills needed for long term growth? Screw short term management. Can they plan out the next 5 years in collaboration with the clubs' goals? Then look at your beverage programs performance. Are your numbers taken for granted? Are you a better bar than the best bar within an hour's drive? Can you attract the best staff? Can you support and grow the best staff? Are you looking at having the best results this month or are you looking to dominate the year? This article is not about highlighting the misses of the Club world and the CMAA it's about trying to identify the problems and move with a strategic mindset to get better and put out a grammy performance that makes all of your competitors think twice before they come after you. Planning your beverage program should be poetic, aggressive, and without holding back, un-apologetically ambitious.

I live this life at a pace that anyone can go. Know your place, and dedicate your role." -Kendrick Lamar – "See No Evil"