Page 46 - MENU Magazine - Jan/Feb 2018

“IF BRANDS DON’T CAPTURE MILLENNIALS NOW, TEN YEARS FROM NOW WE’RE ALL OUT OF BUSINESS. THEY ARE NOT LOYAL TO BRANDS... THEY RESPOND TO VALUES.”
LEADERSHIP BEHIND THE BAR
Jon Taffer wants you to get your act together. Best known as host of the re- ality series Bar Rescue, Taffer is quick with his wit and his opinions and he’ll be offering both at RC Show 2018.
According to Taffer, what’s trending today is product-based activity, which may not sound enthralling; but this
is a huge shift in the way bar prod- ucts and concepts are consumed and marketed. Says Taffer, in years past we’ve had traditional influencers like sports, music, social occasions. But products motivating trends in the beverage space...that’s new and Taffer is really excited about it. Today it’s all about product differentiation and core influences. You can “see a game in a thousand bars,” says Taffer, “whereas the mixology excites me, the food ex- cites me, and the product type. If I am excited, my peers are excited.”
Why do chefs get all the glory? Taffer doesn’t believe that’s entirely true. He explains that the best operator— whether in a bar or in a kitchen—is
a combination of three key person- alities. There is the operator that is product-oriented (they love making their products, touching plates and glassware and expediting in the BOH), then there is the type who loves their customers (their priority is people and they live in the FOH all the time), the third type is the accountant type (running the business from the num- bers). These three personality types combined, says Taffer, make the perfect operator.
“If brands don’t capture millennials now, ten years from now we’re all
out of business. They don’t do brand loyalty, they are not loyal to brands... they respond to values.” – Jon Taffer on capturing the attention of today’s consumers.
PAIRING
“Pairing is a word the industry has used for a long time and never done well.” Until now, he concedes. Taffer offers the following examples of
great pairings made by infusing beer, wine and spirits into food items. For example the Guinness burger infused with Guinness throughout, or chicken and waffles with a Crown Royal maple drip. “Don’t just take a burger and beer and put them together, there needs to be a why!” Be creative, bring your beverage brands into your food offerings uniquely and authentically.
TRAINING
Train yourself and train your staff. Work ON your business, not only IN your business. Incentivize your staff to be well trained; especially for be- hind-the-bar staff. Then let your staff train your consumers. According to Taffer, knowledge is more important than anything else. He makes his case without pulling punches, “the arrogance of our industry speaks so loudly. We have a sommelier come
in to teach staff all about wine and the manager doesn’t go! So now the manager has less knowledge than
the staff. Management should be in the room every single minute. Any manager who is above attending
a training program is a manager whose arrogance will cause a limited performance in their operations.” He goes on to say that this is a perfect
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JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2018