The Football World Cup is Coming up, is Your Menu Ready?
From June 14th to July 15th of this year the biggest and most watched sporting event in the world, the Football World Cup, is going to takeover televisions and conversations in bars around the world. Everyone will be watching it, even if their team isn’t in it.
Now is the perfect time for you to begin theming a speciality menu around the world’s most watched sporting event. This will enable you to profit from this quadrennial event and increase the profile of your bar. Here are a few tips to get you started.
Russian Cocktails
The name Russia is going to be repeated again and again so it makes sense it include Russian cocktails on your World Cup Menu. White Russians and black Russians are well known cocktails with the name Russia in them and, even if you don’t do a speciality menu, sales of these cocktails will definitely spike over the month of the World Cup because of the name association.
Moscow Mules
We excluded this cocktail from the above list on purpose. In recent years this modern classic has become extremely popular around the world and during this rise to stardom many variations of this refreshing beverage have also emerged. Think about creating a menu, or section of your menu, dedicated to Moscow Mules and riffing them onto different countries, Here are a few different ideas:
Mexican Mule: Tequila instead of vodka
English Mule: Gin instead of vodka
Brazilian Mule: Cachaça instead of vodka
Colombian Mule: Colombian rum Instead of vodka
Peruvian Mule: Pisco Instead of vodka
These are quick and easy to make, but fruits and other liquors can allow you to riff on this cocktail even further. Tell your bartenders about the idea and see what they can come up with, if they created it they’re often more likely to try and sell it.
Other Vodka Cocktails
If there’s anything that anyone knows about Russia it’s that Russia is the home of vodka. So use this to your advantage and highlight popular vodka cocktails on your menu; the cosmopolitan, the Bloody Mary, the martini, the screwdriver and the salty dog are just some examples. You could also switch out vodka in other cocktails, a vodka collins instead of a Tom Collins, or ask your bartenders to get creative with this spirit from the north.
Vodka Itself
Depending on the type or branding of your location this concept could fit in well or not at all. The consensus that most people have of vodka is that it is a flavorless spirit, consumed for the primary reason of getting drunk. As bar professionals we know this is not to be true, and with Russia, the home of vodka, hitting the headlines constantly over the course of a whole month this is the perfect time to educate your guests about the subtle qualities and differences in the vodkas found behind your bar.
To start the conversation you could put a list of neat vodkas on your menu, this will cause your guests to inquire their bartender as to why. If you’re going to do this you should produce a sheet of tasting notes for your bartenders to learn and also conduct at least one vodka training and/or tasting session with them, this will give them the knowledge and confidence to educate others on the topic.
These are cocktail based ideas for your menu but you could take the world cup theme further and include football themed snacks, Russian foods, competitions for different games, or a beer menu featuring a beer from each country competing in the tournament, the possibilities are endless! Work out what will work best for your location and the amount of time you’re willing to commitment to this program. You could go all out football for a month or just have a few select items related to the tournament to can boost your sales, the choice is yours.
