As a Master Bartender/ Sommelier and Bar Manager let me tell you all...Everything and I do mean EVERYTHING Dave Allred shares with you should take as GOSPEL. The man has 30 years experience in the game and if you listen to him and execute his advice without a doubt your business practices will improve. Nothing and I repeat nothing he states should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. The Bar Patrol app eliminates the burdens of spot checking which should occur randomly and often... All the excuses Owners/Operators make can be corrected in time with these tools. DO IT and succeed, don't and you'll hemorrhage money and fail....DO IT! All the best SUPER DAVE
This app will be a game changer! Hubby & I are in the process of renovating our bar and stumbled upon this wonderful video! We will be using this app and scale. Thank you!
Thank you Dave, I really learned a few things on this video, as I’ve been contemplating opening up my own bar, after being in the business for almost 30 years, and just think I’ve earned my time to be my own boss finally. All of my co-workers and regulars are always suggesting it as well. Wish me luck 😅
in a small bar maybe this works..but definitely not in a big busy restaurant...where waiters make mistakes ringing the wrong drinks, customers impatient waiting,managers comp and voiding the wrong drinks, everything done in a rush which result in too many mistakes and where the bartender has no control over...the best way to spot a bartender is to look at your open tabs from a P O S or to watch them from a distance serving customers and when the tab is closed , double check if everything you saw them serve to the guest is on the closed tab.. of course , do this only if you are suspicious that a bartender is stealing from you,...you do not want to be in a position where you accuse a honest bartender of stealing,,,,you have to remember that on a busy night , ppl make mistakes , drink get spilled, returned, called wrong, dirty,you just cannot keep track of everything that goes on behind a busy bar, ..your best way is to look at your inventory, liquor cost, if its around 20 % which is a average for bars, you are doing good, don t try to micro managed..you are going to kill the mood, which is going to run your customers away...
With respect zaboomafoo, you couldn't be more mistaken, for several reasons: 1. The bar you are describing sounds like an absolute disaster with servers and bartenders making mistakes all over the place, which means they are not very well trained. If the bar (no matter how busy) is being run like a kids 5th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, there are not very good systems in place. 2. All those drinks that are rung in wrong, spilled, etc. simply need to be comped in the POS system and they are accounted for in the spot check, so the bartender will not be responsible for those. The statement "you just cannot keep track of everything that goes on behind a busy bar" is the lazy way to run a business. 3. It is a fact the 98% of the bars I have spot checked (and I've performed hundreds of spot checks for hundreds of bars) are losing more than 20% of their due to bartender over-pours. The owner has a right to ensure that the bartenders are not over-pouring, as it is their money. Again, this is with respect. I'm not just jumping on you, but I hear the excuses all the time, and in the meantime, the average NET PROFIT of bars and restaurants is 3 - 6%, BEFORE TAXES. That means if they have $1 million in sales for the year, they will make $30,000 - $60,000, less than the bartenders most likely, so to ignore problems, or say that it's impossible to keep track of what's going on, is simply being an irresponsible business owner, and those are the ones that fail. The ones that complain about spot checks are usually bartenders because they want free rein to do whatever they want. Hope that makes sense. Cheers.
as a bartender this is like some big brother george orwell shit. i get that you cant afford to loose money when youre running a buisness, but allowing occasional free drinks to your regulars is important. it builds rapport and rewards them for coming back. also allows your staff to build a friendly connection with the customers. granted 150 - 180 per day is way to much but if my boss pulled some sneaky inspector gadget shit on me like this i would be gone in a fucking heart beat, and id make sure the regulars knew why they werent being made to feel like regulars any more. i suppose buisness is buisness though.
As a long time bartender and now bar owner.... You want to give your guest a drink. Cool! Zero problems with that. But ring it in and get a manager to promo it!
If you're the kind of employee who thinks they can make unilateral decisions on giving away money that isn't yours and then would go as far as to try and sabotage the business because the owner had the audacity to keep an eye on the financial health of their own livelihood I'm sure you wouldn't be missed.🤷♂️
@@Dreadlock1227 Yeah man, I totally haven't seen listings of people looking for work as bartenders left and right. Sure you run the risk of some unknown stealing from you, but then again you're already doing that so I think they'll take their chances.
Most of this goes down to properly hiring. If you train your staff to ring in buyback and use jiggers, you should not have double(!) given away vs. charged.
Thanks for the comment Darwin. I'm afraid I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. I've taken thousands of inventories in hundreds of bars, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM had an over-pour issue. Talk to any owner or manager about how easy it is to properly hire a good employee, and you'll see a skeptical grin cross their lips. It ain't that easy. And bartenders simply steal. There's a million ways to do it and jiggers aren't the solution. Nevertheless, thanks for stopping by.
Appreciate it! Thanks for replying. That's what we call "the cost of doing business." Overpouring or waste is going to always be an issue. I can't imagine how jiggers aren't helpful though. There's no reason for a bartender to overpour a guest on a jigger, unless they're being kind to a regular. Another option is to be aggressive on training. One of my managers worked corporate restaurant/bars for many years where margins and waste were strict. Every week, bartenders were quizzed to free pour different volumes (1/2 oz., 1 oz., 1.5 oz., etc.) and measured on their pours. Don't get it right, try again, or punishments ensued. In the end, I'm lucky enough to have managed and worked with staff where stealing is not a major problem.
Good points Darwin. The jiggers do help, and so does the training. It lets the bartenders know that portion-size is important and that as a manager, you actually care what's going on. However, if a bartender wants to steal, there is nothing the naked eye will catch. There are a hundred different ways for them to steal undetected, but they can't hide from an inventory system that tracks their pours. In addition, I've had quite a few managers say, "We have a great staff and don't have theft issues," but when I would take inventory and run a variance report, they were always over-pouring. It's just the nature of the business. Conformity is contagious. So unless you track them, you have no idea if you have a stealing issue or not.
Afraid not KTB. Bartenders overpour to get bigger tips, and they steal to make more money. I'm not saying bartenders are bad people, but they get caught up with what other bartenders are around them are doing. Conformity is contagious, and any owner who thinks their bartenders are different is naive. Hate to be too cynical, but I've been around it for 30 years now.
@@DaveAllredTheRealBarman cry me a river. Maybe if you cheap fucks who run the restaurants paid more than pennies, bartenders wouldn’t have to resort to over pouring to make a living. You restaurant owners are so daft. Pay your staff next to nothing and then whine and cry when they steal from you. Give me a break
Hi! Just bought your app & still in need of the Bluetooth Scale. Is the app only compatible to your Bluetooth scale? Or I could buy a different Bluetooth scale available local and online? I’m all the way from Philippines 😄 Also do you have any tutorial that could teach us how we could set up the Bluetooth scale and the app? Thank you, Dave! ❤
Hey Imran, that's a tough one to narrow it down to just three, but I'll do my best: 1. As an owner/manager, you need to systemize your business, meaning put in procedures that automate the process for everyone from top to bottom. Saves time, saves money, saves sanity. 2. You need to create a culture and vision that everyone buys into, and a training program that drills it into them. When employees feel like their job has a purpose and is meaningful, they buy in 100% and provide world-class customer service. 3. You need to have concrete plans on how to get people into the bar/restaurant for the lowest cost possible. That means creative marketing and promotions. 3b. I'm cheating here adding a 4th one, but if you don't ensure that you have out of this world customer service (which should be part of the culture) none of the rest matters because nobody is coming back. Hope that helps. I do answer this question in a lot more depth in my new Restaurant Management Masterclass for those interested: register.barpatrol.net/welcome-to-bar-restaurant-mastery
Hey Michael, in general draft beer runs around 20 - 25%. You have to be careful not to price your beers too low on some of the craft beers these days that charge quite a bit. For instance, you might pay $90 for a 5.16 gallon keg. I've seen some places just slap on a price at $6 a pint, which seems reasonable, but if you look at the cost % it turns out like this: A 5.16. gallon keg will pour 41 pints. Multiply that by $6 and you would get $246 out of that keg. That cost % is 37%. In order to get a 24% cost you have to charge $9 per pint, which some bars don't want to do because their patrons would choke. Other places it wouldn't be a big deal, but make sure to consider this before you order some of those more expensive craft beers. Price everything out first.
I know there's a bit of conflict of interest, but in your opinion and experience, which one would you reccomend more as for inventory. Bar Patrol App or Upserve??
Good question Victor. Here's what's what with POS inventory systems. They are nice to have, but they don't accurately track what you ACTUALLY have in stock. What they track are your sales, and by using the ingredients and portions that goes into each sales item, they are able to theoretically tell how much inventory was used by what was rang in to the system so that when stock gets low, you can order more. Problem is, if the bartenders (or cooks) are giving away more than the recipe states they should, then the actual inventory is going to be way off from what is theoretically supposed to be in stock. There is no shortcut to determining what you have on stock. It needs to be counted, and for that you need a quality inventory system. POS systems do not do that. So to answer your question, strictly for inventory purposes, Bar Patrol App is the way to go. Thanks for stopping by.
Hey Joseph, so I fire bartenders for blatantly pocketing cash from the drawer or tip jar. First offense, gone. For overpours, I do spot-checks with Bar Patrol App for individual bartenders and I show them the variance report which will show how much they are overpouring. That's their wake-up call. Then we will spot-check them again at some point when they aren't aware. If they are way off again, that's their final warning. Third time, they are done. You just want to make sure you're documenting all of this along the way and giving write-ups so that the firing is justified. I hope that helps. Cheers.
Hello, so you said the system knows the tare weight of an empty and full bottle. The scale is taking the measuring of the liquid and bottle correct? Is there anywhere on your website that includes these tare weights? I was interested in your regular scale because we would only be using it for spot checks and not for inventory at this time.
One of the bartenders has a nasty attitude towards customers and yet it’s funny he gets so much tips. I’m starting to learn a little about bars and will be using this because I smell fraud.
@UCvdham8v7JxWsEa23YON_cg The truth is, we (yes including you, who is trying to sell something here) are humans and humans make mistakes. Missclicks in the POS, orders coming in wrong, etc.. it will happen. No matter how good your crew is trained. Its just human. You have to account for that. In germany, bar owners do not pay taxes for 3-5% for all types of bottles and barrels. It accounts for mistakes etc.
Thanks for the insight Jonathan, but you're a bit misguided here. Any mistakes, whether they be a wrong button or the order made wrong, is accounted for by comping it in the POS. Any and all mistakes are accounted for as long as they are rung in to the POS. Anything not rung in means that the bartenders are stealing which means they should be held accountable. Hope that makes sense.
![Bar Management Tips [Dead Stock]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yBJwppKQUlg/mqdefault.jpg)
As a Master Bartender/ Sommelier and Bar Manager let me tell you all...Everything and I do mean EVERYTHING Dave Allred shares with you should take as GOSPEL. The man has 30 years experience in the game and if you listen to him and execute his advice without a doubt your business practices will improve. Nothing and I repeat nothing he states should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. The Bar Patrol app eliminates the burdens of spot checking which should occur randomly and often... All the excuses Owners/Operators make can be corrected in time with these tools. DO IT and succeed, don't and you'll hemorrhage money and fail....DO IT! All the best SUPER DAVE
Right on Dave Allen. Amen! Thanks for the kind words and endorsement. I'm honored.
Sounds like an ad.
Absolute outstanding information! I am opening my own bar soon and will be using your bar patrol inventory app at my place!
Right on Sunny. Congratulations on opening your bar. Knock 'em dead.
Hope your bar is doing well
I am the bartender but now I'm in charge of the bar. Hell, I haven't left the bar since I stayed to paint and cure a wall xD
This app will be a game changer! Hubby & I are in the process of renovating our bar and stumbled upon this wonderful video! We will be using this app and scale. Thank you!
Awesome Danielle. Congrats on your new venture!
We just bought our 1st bar and will be opening in a few months; your tool is one of the 1st tools I have bought to make it a success. Thank you
Awesome Christopher, glad we could help, and congrats on your new venture. I hope you make millions!
Thank you Dave, I really learned a few things on this video, as I’ve been contemplating opening up my own bar, after being in the business for almost 30 years, and just think I’ve earned my time to be my own boss finally. All of my co-workers and regulars are always suggesting it as well. Wish me luck 😅
Omg.. the Free in Free Pour and Take out meaning Taking out my food.. Awesome.
in a small bar maybe this works..but definitely not in a big busy restaurant...where waiters make mistakes ringing the wrong drinks, customers impatient waiting,managers comp and voiding the wrong drinks, everything done in a rush which result in too many mistakes and where the bartender has no control over...the best way to spot a bartender is to look at your open tabs from a P O S or to watch them from a distance serving customers and when the tab is closed , double check if everything you saw them serve to the guest is on the closed tab.. of course , do this only if you are suspicious that a bartender is stealing from you,...you do not want to be in a position where you accuse a honest bartender of stealing,,,,you have to remember that on a busy night , ppl make mistakes , drink get spilled, returned, called wrong, dirty,you just cannot keep track of everything that goes on behind a busy bar, ..your best way is to look at your inventory, liquor cost, if its around 20 % which is a average for bars, you are doing good, don t try to micro managed..you are going to kill the mood, which is going to run your customers away...
With respect zaboomafoo, you couldn't be more mistaken, for several reasons:
1. The bar you are describing sounds like an absolute disaster with servers and bartenders making mistakes all over the place, which means they are not very well trained. If the bar (no matter how busy) is being run like a kids 5th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, there are not very good systems in place.
2. All those drinks that are rung in wrong, spilled, etc. simply need to be comped in the POS system and they are accounted for in the spot check, so the bartender will not be responsible for those. The statement "you just cannot keep track of everything that goes on behind a busy bar" is the lazy way to run a business.
3. It is a fact the 98% of the bars I have spot checked (and I've performed hundreds of spot checks for hundreds of bars) are losing more than 20% of their due to bartender over-pours. The owner has a right to ensure that the bartenders are not over-pouring, as it is their money.
Again, this is with respect. I'm not just jumping on you, but I hear the excuses all the time, and in the meantime, the average NET PROFIT of bars and restaurants is 3 - 6%, BEFORE TAXES. That means if they have $1 million in sales for the year, they will make $30,000 - $60,000, less than the bartenders most likely, so to ignore problems, or say that it's impossible to keep track of what's going on, is simply being an irresponsible business owner, and those are the ones that fail.
The ones that complain about spot checks are usually bartenders because they want free rein to do whatever they want. Hope that makes sense. Cheers.
But there are no restaurants for dine-in and doesn't seem like this industry will reopen soon.
@@DaveAllredTheRealBarmanNice breakdown.
as a bartender this is like some big brother george orwell shit. i get that you cant afford to loose money when youre running a buisness, but allowing occasional free drinks to your regulars is important. it builds rapport and rewards them for coming back. also allows your staff to build a friendly connection with the customers. granted 150 - 180 per day is way to much but if my boss pulled some sneaky inspector gadget shit on me like this i would be gone in a fucking heart beat, and id make sure the regulars knew why they werent being made to feel like regulars any more. i suppose buisness is buisness though.
As a long time bartender and now bar owner....
You want to give your guest a drink. Cool! Zero problems with that.
But ring it in and get a manager to promo it!
If you're the kind of employee who thinks they can make unilateral decisions on giving away money that isn't yours and then would go as far as to try and sabotage the business because the owner had the audacity to keep an eye on the financial health of their own livelihood I'm sure you wouldn't be missed.🤷♂️
@@chessguy1993 You can bet your ass I’d be missed. In this labour market? I’ll have another job tomorrow. Good luck replacing me lol.
@@Dreadlock1227 Yeah man, I totally haven't seen listings of people looking for work as bartenders left and right. Sure you run the risk of some unknown stealing from you, but then again you're already doing that so I think they'll take their chances.
@@chessguy1993 there’s WAY more bars looking for bartenders. Your staff’s got you by the fucking balls and you know it. 😂
Most of this goes down to properly hiring.
If you train your staff to ring in buyback and use jiggers, you should not have double(!) given away vs. charged.
Thanks for the comment Darwin. I'm afraid I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. I've taken thousands of inventories in hundreds of bars, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM had an over-pour issue. Talk to any owner or manager about how easy it is to properly hire a good employee, and you'll see a skeptical grin cross their lips. It ain't that easy. And bartenders simply steal. There's a million ways to do it and jiggers aren't the solution. Nevertheless, thanks for stopping by.
Appreciate it! Thanks for replying.
That's what we call "the cost of doing business." Overpouring or waste is going to always be an issue. I can't imagine how jiggers aren't helpful though. There's no reason for a bartender to overpour a guest on a jigger, unless they're being kind to a regular.
Another option is to be aggressive on training. One of my managers worked corporate restaurant/bars for many years where margins and waste were strict. Every week, bartenders were quizzed to free pour different volumes (1/2 oz., 1 oz., 1.5 oz., etc.) and measured on their pours. Don't get it right, try again, or punishments ensued.
In the end, I'm lucky enough to have managed and worked with staff where stealing is not a major problem.
Good points Darwin. The jiggers do help, and so does the training. It lets the bartenders know that portion-size is important and that as a manager, you actually care what's going on. However, if a bartender wants to steal, there is nothing the naked eye will catch. There are a hundred different ways for them to steal undetected, but they can't hide from an inventory system that tracks their pours.
In addition, I've had quite a few managers say, "We have a great staff and don't have theft issues," but when I would take inventory and run a variance report, they were always over-pouring. It's just the nature of the business. Conformity is contagious. So unless you track them, you have no idea if you have a stealing issue or not.
could it be just the bartender wanting to be safe and not have the customer make a scene for under pouring i find this be the most common cause
Afraid not KTB. Bartenders overpour to get bigger tips, and they steal to make more money. I'm not saying bartenders are bad people, but they get caught up with what other bartenders are around them are doing. Conformity is contagious, and any owner who thinks their bartenders are different is naive. Hate to be too cynical, but I've been around it for 30 years now.
@@DaveAllredTheRealBarman cry me a river. Maybe if you cheap fucks who run the restaurants paid more than pennies, bartenders wouldn’t have to resort to over pouring to make a living. You restaurant owners are so daft. Pay your staff next to nothing and then whine and cry when they steal from you. Give me a break
Thanks for the video.
Love your channel and am a new subscriber 😎
Great to have you Shirley!
@@DaveAllredTheRealBarman Nice video
Hi! Just bought your app & still in need of the Bluetooth Scale. Is the app only compatible to your Bluetooth scale? Or I could buy a different Bluetooth scale available local and online? I’m all the way from Philippines 😄
Also do you have any tutorial that could teach us how we could set up the Bluetooth scale and the app? Thank you, Dave! ❤
What would you say the three priorities for bar management are
Hey Imran, that's a tough one to narrow it down to just three, but I'll do my best:
1. As an owner/manager, you need to systemize your business, meaning put in procedures that automate the process for everyone from top to bottom. Saves time, saves money, saves sanity.
2. You need to create a culture and vision that everyone buys into, and a training program that drills it into them. When employees feel like their job has a purpose and is meaningful, they buy in 100% and provide world-class customer service.
3. You need to have concrete plans on how to get people into the bar/restaurant for the lowest cost possible. That means creative marketing and promotions.
3b. I'm cheating here adding a 4th one, but if you don't ensure that you have out of this world customer service (which should be part of the culture) none of the rest matters because nobody is coming back.
Hope that helps. I do answer this question in a lot more depth in my new Restaurant Management Masterclass for those interested: register.barpatrol.net/welcome-to-bar-restaurant-mastery
Shit maneeee. Johns in trouble!
"consider it severance pay"
How do you check your bartenders?
What should the average PC% be at a (vast majority) draft beer bar serving pints and liters?
Hey Michael, in general draft beer runs around 20 - 25%. You have to be careful not to price your beers too low on some of the craft beers these days that charge quite a bit. For instance, you might pay $90 for a 5.16 gallon keg. I've seen some places just slap on a price at $6 a pint, which seems reasonable, but if you look at the cost % it turns out like this: A 5.16. gallon keg will pour 41 pints. Multiply that by $6 and you would get $246 out of that keg. That cost % is 37%. In order to get a 24% cost you have to charge $9 per pint, which some bars don't want to do because their patrons would choke. Other places it wouldn't be a big deal, but make sure to consider this before you order some of those more expensive craft beers. Price everything out first.
I know there's a bit of conflict of interest, but in your opinion and experience, which one would you reccomend more as for inventory. Bar Patrol App or Upserve??
Good question Victor. Here's what's what with POS inventory systems. They are nice to have, but they don't accurately track what you ACTUALLY have in stock. What they track are your sales, and by using the ingredients and portions that goes into each sales item, they are able to theoretically tell how much inventory was used by what was rang in to the system so that when stock gets low, you can order more.
Problem is, if the bartenders (or cooks) are giving away more than the recipe states they should, then the actual inventory is going to be way off from what is theoretically supposed to be in stock. There is no shortcut to determining what you have on stock. It needs to be counted, and for that you need a quality inventory system. POS systems do not do that.
So to answer your question, strictly for inventory purposes, Bar Patrol App is the way to go.
Thanks for stopping by.
@@DaveAllredTheRealBarman Awesome! Thank you for taking the time to thoroughly answer my question! The Bar Patrol app is the way to go than.
dave, do you fire bartenders for intentionally doing overpouring as seen on your inventory or you just reprimand them?
Hey Joseph, so I fire bartenders for blatantly pocketing cash from the drawer or tip jar. First offense, gone. For overpours, I do spot-checks with Bar Patrol App for individual bartenders and I show them the variance report which will show how much they are overpouring. That's their wake-up call. Then we will spot-check them again at some point when they aren't aware. If they are way off again, that's their final warning. Third time, they are done. You just want to make sure you're documenting all of this along the way and giving write-ups so that the firing is justified. I hope that helps. Cheers.
That's a cool app
Hello, so you said the system knows the tare weight of an empty and full bottle. The scale is taking the measuring of the liquid and bottle correct? Is there anywhere on your website that includes these tare weights? I was interested in your regular scale because we would only be using it for spot checks and not for inventory at this time.
Hi Dona, yes, we have a comprehensive tare weight list for the full and empty bottle weights when you sign-up for Bar Patrol.
What is stopping somebody from adding a couple ounces of water rot gut whiskey to a bottle.
One of the bartenders has a nasty attitude towards customers and yet it’s funny he gets so much tips. I’m starting to learn a little about bars and will be using this because I smell fraud.
Some bartenders byob to work and sell it for themselves. One bar I drank at fired 2 bartenders for this.
This is why us bartenders in Australia ALWAYS use jiggers. Free pour is something we don't do at all here
You Australians...always two steps ahead of us.
Too busy to use jiggers
How then hell do you pour double the amount you're supposed to
This has been an issue for our business for the last 3 decades...
Amen BobbyBoy!
What's the name of this device? And App?
Hi Malose. It's an iPad and it's Bar Patrol App which you can check out here: www.barpatrol.net/
Can I work for you i need
work please
@UCvdham8v7JxWsEa23YON_cg The truth is, we (yes including you, who is trying to sell something here) are humans and humans make mistakes. Missclicks in the POS, orders coming in wrong, etc.. it will happen. No matter how good your crew is trained. Its just human. You have to account for that.
In germany, bar owners do not pay taxes for 3-5% for all types of bottles and barrels. It accounts for mistakes etc.
Thanks for the insight Jonathan, but you're a bit misguided here. Any mistakes, whether they be a wrong button or the order made wrong, is accounted for by comping it in the POS. Any and all mistakes are accounted for as long as they are rung in to the POS. Anything not rung in means that the bartenders are stealing which means they should be held accountable. Hope that makes sense.
This guy is so greedy and stingy. He probably slaps his own son at the breakfast table for overpouring milk onto his cereal.
...said the unethical thief who steals from the owner.