What is Natural Wine?

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For the past few years, natural wine has been pegged as the “the next big thing” in the wine world.  But natural wines haven’t had their moment in the spotlight. In the first two months of 2016, there has been a lot of coverage and discussion of natural wines, as they seem to be making more of push nationally. Will 2016 be the year of natural wines? Will 2015’s Brosé be replaced by Bro Naturel? Here’s what you should know about natural wine if you’re contemplating putting it on your menu. Read more

Uncorkd Weekly News Round-Up Jan. 2nd – 8th

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Every Friday Uncorkd compiles the most recent restaurant and beverage industry stories that had us talking. Here’s our list of must-read articles from the web this week. Featuring  the “simple food” revival, sustainable Champagne production, Celebrity Chefs David Chang and Tom Colicchio, and the demise of Sommeliers. Here is our round-up from January 2nd- January 8th.  Read more

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How to Increase Restaurant Sales and Cut Losses in 2016

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With our new year just a few days away, it’s time you start thinking about how to improve your restaurant in 2016. For savvy restaurant operators, this starts with taking a fine tooth comb to your 2015 financial reports. As a business resolution, this is the equivalent of cursing that last piece of honey baked ham you ate before stepping on the scale, noting the pounds, and then analyzing your eating habits to identify the junk and grease you need to cut from your diet. Instead of the resolution to loose weight, a restaurant’s resolution should be to increase profits. Like any New Year’s resolution, this means you eliminate bad habits, accentuate good ones, and add a few productive bits to your routine. There are now a host of new restaurant technologies available to help you do all that. Read more

Uncorkd digital beverage menus

New Study Shows Why Wine Tasting Notes Are Important

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The Drinks Business recently detailed a study commissioned by wine subscription service taste4. The study sought out the top 10 wine terms that consumers are most confused and put-off by. The 2,000 consumers surveyed gave insight into the way many wine drinkers approach buying a bottle. While some of the terms on the list may be surprising, like “tart,” “legs,” or, “nose”, the take-away message of the survey is something very familiar to us at Uncorkd.

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How to Deal with the Free Drink Dilemma

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The free drink is an apocryphal tenet of bartending. The comped shot, or buy back, should never be given away willy nilly by a bartender. It also shouldn’t be expected by a customer. But, if used properly, that privileged dram can be a powerful tool for rewarding loyal patronage.  The danger of the free drink is if this privilege gets abused. Restaurant operators can’t have their employees giving away the bar, and bartenders shouldn’t rely on comped drinks in lieu of good service. But, if exhibited with finesse, a drink on-the-house can be a tradition both time honored and beneficial to all parties. And a party it is. But, as a restaurant operator, how should you go about enforcing a policy that keeps bartenders honest while also giving them the ability to show love for a well-liked patron?

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Uncorkd’s Weekly News Round Up

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Every Friday Uncorkd will compile a list of the restaurant and beverage industry stories that had us talking this week. Here’s our list of must read articles from the web this week. Featuring Whisky Advocate awards, salvaged foods, new dessert trends, and the ever present purchasing power of millennial diners.  Read more

4 Ways Restaurants Can Wipe Out Food Waste

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Food waste is a big problem for restaurants. It means higher costs. It’s also a larger community problem as it compounds front page issues like sustainability and hunger. Cutting back food waste should be high priority for all restaurants. For one, it reduces operating costs while helping kitchens run more efficiently through improved oversight. Wiping out food waste also creates an opportunity to become an active and positive member of your local community. By becoming a leader in combating local issues, restaurant’s can gain followers from the glow of positive PR. It’s a win/win for restaurants and the community. Here are a few ways to avoid food waste.  Read more

Beverage Trends for 2016: Beer

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The aftershock of the craft beer boom is still being felt, and not just the tremors. The explosion has been more like a night of fireworks than a single detonation.  The do-it-yourself ethos of microbreweries has blown holes in Big Beer’s dominance of the U.S. market. New breweries and brewpubs are popping up all across America, and as distribution increases, more bars and restaurants have craft-minded beer lists. Regional beer markets have created new forms of tourism, and gives local beer geeks more ammunition to argue with in comment threads on blogs across the globe. With no signs of slowing, what trends should we expect to see in 2016? Read more

Creating Dynamic New Marketing with Digital Menus

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If you run a restaurant, you’ve tried your hand at in-house marketing. Maybe you’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of stuffing daily specials into table tents, only to see your customers push them off to the side like a dirty plate. Or you’ve looked into the glazed-over eyes of a customer who is clearly not listening as you list off the night’s specials. If not, then you’ve definitely shuttered in horror at the blatant typo on the event flyer you just printed and planned to tuck into guest’s checkbooks.

Many of these methods are used all over the restaurant industry, from mom-and-pop diners to white table cloth bistros. But these efforts are often overlooked by guests because they’re scattered advertisements that don’t come to guests at the right time.

But if you’re restaurant is using digital menus, you can better integrate marketing to guest’s into the dining experience. And you’ll never have to worry about replacing table tents again.

Here are some tips for using digital menus for marketing.

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Image of Culinary and Vegetable Cocktails

How Your Restaurant Can Create Innovative Cocktails

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Cocktail bars have reinvigorated drinker’s imaginations over the past decade. They’re the lifeline that has pulled cocktails from the depths of saccharine swamps filled with frozen daiquiris and sugar-rimmed cosmos. While these bars have certainly been innovative hubs of creativity, they’re most notable achievement, on a whole, has been as revivalists. While cocktail bars often look to the past for inspiration, one cocktail trend is set in the present. Culinary cocktails celebrate the philosophy of the kitchen. In today’s dining world, that means locally sourced ingredients with fresh flavors that reflect the seasons. Though exciting and inventive, culinary cocktails haven’t made as big a splash as some other beverage trends. More so, they’ve been a ripple: subtle but widespread. If you’re a restaurant thinking of revamping your cocktail program, you should look to the kitchen for inspiration.

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