Tales of the Cocktail: Raising The Bar Professional Series
Are you actively working in the food or beverage business industry? Do you need to better understand how you can improve or enhance the cocktail program you are offering? If so, we have created a special set of sessions just for you. An important focus at Tales of the Cocktail, is providing business value for the attending professionals. To specifically address this need we've designed a special track of sessions that we call "Raising The Bar". Each individual session will address specific needs in the restaurant and bar industry that will help attendees enhance their cocktail programs and improve their business.
Note: Attendance is limited to people working in the food or beverage industry.

While fresh-squeezed juices, just-ground spices and muddled herbs are trends in upscale bars and independent restaurants, most chain restaurants are still reaching for sugary mixes in lieu of fresh ingredients at the bar. Chain operators -- tethered by price restrictions, operational challenges and sales considerations -- often lack the flexibility to embrace new trends and improve the quality of their bar menus. Here, chain-based mixologists and culinarians speak about their challenges and successes, and explore what's to come.

Join a panel of experts including Andrew Knowlton from Bon Appetit, James Meehan Food & Wine, Bret Thorn from Nation’s Restaurant News and Rising Star Mixologists Todd Thrasher from The PX and John Kinder from The Pump Room to explore the future trends of cocktails moderated by StarChefs.com CEO Antoinette Bruno . Behind the bars across the nation, high quality, seasonal and exotic ingredients are still a must, with new trends popping up like wine-inspired cocktails, savory flavors, techniques from the culinary side and dessert drinks that go beyond the Chocolate Martini. We will discuss upcoming trends and developments in the cocktail culture as well as the future of the bar business.

Join James Beard Award-winning authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page for a workshop in cocktail design.  Covering a range of dishes and cuisines, they will walk through the steps of designing the perfect cocktail and take participants through several food-and-cocktail pairing scenarios. You'll learn to deconstruct dishes to analyze their components, and to compare and/or contrast flavors in the food with flavors in the cocktail.  Bring a notebook, pen and paper, and copies of CULINARY ARTISTRY and WHAT TO DRINK WITH WHAT YOU EAT.

This discussion on the business opportunity that cocktails offer for a restaurant/bar covers the ability of how a good cocktail program can increase spend per head or recruit new customers. Cocktails demonstrated during the seminar will illustrate the concept of added value, selling the theatre, showmanship, presentation, fresh ingredients of a cocktail as well as the all-important personality of the bartender. The seminar includes thoughts on the menu, understanding the profit contribution of different cocktails, profitability, cocktail trends, non-alcoholic cocktails and staff motivation.