Greetings Bourbon Enthusiasts. I haven't been on the site much lately, nor have I lately even sampled much bourbon. For the past few months my wife and I have been very busy pursuing our goal of finding and buying a restaurant. We have finally achieved that goal and are now the proud owners of a 100-seat restaurant, with.... a full bar. We are both in our mid-50's so some might say we're too old to try something like this (my boss sure did when I resigned from my job). But we figure we've got more than a decade left in us so we'd better go for it. We've both worked in the industry (albeit many years ago) but never as owners so this will be a real challenge.
The restaurant is located in downtown Columbus, OH and is (currently) open 11 to 7 Monday through Friday. Most of the clientele are office workers within walking distance. We do a brisk lunch business and then a small happy hour. Our first plans for expansion will be to get into breakfast service, add Sunday morning service and later get more evening customers.
But back to the bar. When we took ownership last month (April 2012) we took the liquor, wine and beer inventory as it was. Now let me tell you, there were only 4 bourbons (most of the clientele drink vodka and tequila). The four that were there are Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey 101, Woodford Reserve and Echo Spring. So, 3 pretty good pours and one I've never heard of (the Echo Spring).
We recently had to make our first order from the liquor supply so I decided to expand our selection. I got in a bottle of Maker's 46 and one of 4-Roses Small Batch. Why these two? They're 2 we really like. Going forward, additions will have to be sales and profit driven. Buying a bottle that will just sit on the shelf does not help the bottom line. I think the next 'new' item will be Knob Creek. I want to represent each of the major distilleries. I plan to start having a 'bourbon of the week' to get peoples' attention and highlight a product.
Anyway, does anyone have experience with liquor sales and maybe have suggestions on what sells for them? Thanks, George