Pros And Cons Of Serving Alcohol At A Restaurant
June 5, 2008 – 10:57 pmIf you have a restaurant or you are considering opening one up, there are several issues to take care of. One of them will be the decision to serve alcohol or not. This is a touchy subject though and one that requires a great deal of consideration. First, you need to find out if you can even serve alcohol in that location. This can be determined by your city ordinances.
Serving alcohol at a restaurant can be profitable and that is why so many people choose to do so. You also get your hands on those guests who love to eat out but want an alcoholic drink to go with it. They will frequent other establishments if you don’t offer them that choice regardless of how good your food is. Other people are turned off by any restaurant though that does serve alcohol so they won’t come in.
If you want to do so, you will need to find out how to go about getting a liquor license. This can take some time to complete do make sure you work on it early. You don’t want to end up not having it when you open as it can be embarrassing. It can also give the impression that you aren’t taking your restaurant business seriously.
If you decide to set up your restaurant with a bar area, be prepared for some money to be involved. There are glasses, accessories for the drinks, and of course the alcohol itself you need to have available. You are also going to need to hire excellent bartenders who know how to make an array of popular drinks.
Yet if you get a good crowd that does want the alcohol, you can sell it for quite a profit. That is good news as that is what you want to be able to do with your restaurant overall. Alcohol can be purchased for a low price and then marked up as much as 100% and people will still pay for it.
It is important that you understand the laws relating to alcohol in your area. You also need to always comply with them. Underage servers can take orders for alcohol but they can’t deliver it to the table. They can remove empty glasses but not those that have alcohol remaining in them. You will need to make sure you have other staff members available that can deliver drinks for this reason.
There are severe fines and penalties for serving alcohol to those under the legal drinking age. It is imperative that you always ask for ID on every single person requesting an alcoholic beverage. It doesn’t matter how old they appear or even if they have been served alcohol there before. You want all of your staff to play it by the book each and every time.
Guidelines need to be in place too for those who have obviously had enough to drink in your establishment. You do have the right to refuse to serve them alcohol. You don’t want to let them get behind the wheel of a vehicle either. If they don’t have someone to drive for them then call a cab to pick them up.
Tags: Customer-Service
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