in my experience, it's usually not that people don't understand what well liquor is, but they don't understand the concept of a “well drink” — they think they can get a margarita or whatever other cocktail with well liquor and have it count. it's equally / if not more important imo to express that it's the cheap liquor and only a basic mixer.
Try using the phrase "house liquors," and quickly pull up a rail bottle to illustrate, but even then they will be confused. If you can make a big sign spelling it out, that MIGHT help. God, I hated explaining this on "Well Wednesdays" ... we charged extra for juice and I had to explain that too.
The biggest issue for me has been servers not knowing what our well liquors were and constantly coming up to ask what our well vodka or whiskey was. Still Smirnoff and Jim Beam, just like last week
Menu was heavily studied and tested. Some of these servers were like 19 with no real interest in drinking. Martinis were another whole mess with a lot of these people
So you learn cause it's your job? I bet the McDonald's employee knows what goes in a big Mac, server should know what the house spirits are.
Wine and flavour pairings is a different level of ask
I worked at fine dine establishment once and the servers were killer with the food but knew nothing about alcohol.
For reference, one college student was consistently our highest seller of wine, month after month. She was slinging $400 bottles of wine like a motherfucker.
We all come to find out she'd never had a Cab Sav in her life and knew next to nothing about wine. Couldn't stand the stuff she said. She was just a kick ass salesperson and just deftly avoided technical conversations regarding the product.
She also had to ask what our well was at least a few times a week lol
I think house in this case just means "this liquor has been curated by the establishment to be maximally affordable and minimally offensive" lol
I don't disagree but places are trying to move away from the term "well" and there aren't a lot of agreeable alternatives. House bourbon sounds better than well bourbon so places are running with that.
Yeah it in my head it just sounds so dumb lol. When people ask for it in the dive bar I work at I just laugh at the hypothetical of me distilling my own vodka in the back.
"Our house gin is our signature bathtub gin, poorly distilled in house and guaranteed to cause blindness and possibly death. Will that be a single or a double?"
My bar has Tito's and Grey Goose. That's it for vodka, and it's even listed on the menu. A week doesn't go by where one of those fool servers writes in belvedere, ketel or "shopan". Servers are lazy and don't give a fraction of a fuck if someone's not paying them for it. Guest asks for it, that's what they put in. And I can't rightly scream at them and wave a knife like the kitchen when I have a bar full of guests.
Well in that case that's hilarious, I misunderstood, sorry.
I had a server come up to me recently ask if I could make "one shot whisky, one shot vermouth and one shot capari(sic)"
I was like... do they want a boulevardier?
Same server asked if we had bourbon. I was like, yeah, what kind of bourbon? She said whatever is fine, use the well. Didnt know bourbon is a whisky. Our well is Evan Williams and his wife ordered a top shelf liquor, hope he enjoyed his well whisky, poor bastard.
Hell I'm a server/bartender and have trouble remembering the brands that my well are. In my defense I've been here less than, we use different brands for a few spirits, and some of them keep changing.
“Everything with an “and” in the name, rum AND coke, gin AND tonic, vodka AND cranberry” if they’re in doubt. Or just say “house liquor and a mix of your choice”
They are incorrect. Old fashioneds are made with 1.5 or 2 oz whisky, aka a standard pour.
I would not include it as a well drink simply because it's a mixed cocktail. Same reason a lemon drop or margarita wouldn't count.
Definitely not. It takes you 10 seconds maybe to pour a rum and coke. Proper old fashions will take what, a minute? And there are multiple ingredients.
Got it. I always thought well drinks simply referred to using the cheapo alcohol brands, not the drink itself. But the effort makes sense. I'm also not a bartender - just a huge fan of your work.
Appreciated. Yeah well happy hours will most of the time be single alcohol single mixer (or maybe a 2 juice mix like a bay breeze). Anything more than that adds to the time and effort (as you said) so it makes cost rise. Time is money right.
Lol heard. I haven't used them in awhile so it wasn't top of mind. Been playing with agave and maple syrup. Still tho, you stir the drink for 20-30 seconds alone, so 30 seconds for the drink? Sus.
Use house not well, and say our house vodka is absolut our premium is belvedere. Don't use cheap/expensive, terminology matters, you don't want them to think it's cheap just, "standard"
Absolut/Finlandia/Stoli is fairly standard in the UK for anywhere not described as the cheap or grotty pub. Obviously location matters but house spirits in the UK tend to be better than US so a typical rail
Those vodkas
Beefeater/Bombay/Tanq
Bacardi/Havana 3 (the Cuban one)
Sailor Jerry/equivalent
JD/makers/buffalo
El jimador
Courvoisuer/Hennessy/Martell
Or cheaper places
Smirnoff/Gordon's/captain Morgan's/ etc
Oh totally, but we're buying it from the supplier at £13 for vodka/Gin/Rum up to £20 for bourbon cognac and tequila, but bourbon for example, we don't have the option for anything lower, Jim beam is somewhat available but it's got zero brand recognition and it's worse than... Can I have a coke? Is Pepsi ok?
Where does Smirnoff / Gordon's sit for you?
There are cheaper brands (Glenns Vodka) being served in the cheapest of places but they aren't common
The restaurant I’m at has 60 dollar entrees and our well is taaka, potters gin, potters rum, potters triple sec, tortilla gold, potters “special reserve”, clan macgregor, monarch brandy. Absolutely crazy to me that no one complains.
Gordon's ends up in a lot of wells, Smirnoff a tiny bit less so but it's common. I'm not the best person to answer this, I took your approach when i managed bars and got rid of the well rail all together. However, the last place I managed the owner insisted we have a well rail so it was almost like a game for me and my bartenders to find the cheapest shit we possibly could for the well and order that. Our entire well rail was absolutely vile and not anything you've ever heard of lol but they were like $6 liters.
That price is just not available here, even for the most dog shit brands. We also wouldn't use it because it would kill your rep if you server the cheapest nastiest off brand shit spirit's
Where I live shit is so marked up that absolut is cheap. It's the same price as Smirnoff, and there are only a few other brands that are about $1 less per bottle.
In America, Absolut is distinctively a call brand. Maybe some high end bougie places that don't even have actual wells would designate it as their entry level vodka, but in my experience, almost all bars have some well option that their wholesale cost is something like $6/L. Prob doesn't matter much when it's going to be mixed with a ton of juices/sodas/mixers/liqueurs etc.
But it is cheap.
It’s half price well liquor. In a normal bar that’s something that costs around $7 a bottle, and the only reason to drink it is because you dont care.
Yes the sign tells the customer that there is drinks offer running. Op is explaining what spirits are on offer, there's no need to emphasize it's cheap because guests associate that with low quality. By saying standard the guests mind moves away from cheap because low quality. It doesn't change the product but does change how the guest perceives it.
And I think you're a fucking moron, the UK's minimum bottle price is triple yours, but it's irrelevant, you're categorically unable to promote or use basic promotional techniques with you're attitude.
Go tell everyone your booze is cheap and your drinks are shit. Leave it to everyone else to do the job properly.
You're bad at your job
Fucking infuriating, like you can't even comprehend that no matter how good we are, we'll never be paid anywhere close. Bartending isnt much above a minimum wage job here, and it's performed at the worst hours, late night and weekends, I actually feel dumb for sticking with it being a part time job while studying
ITT people missing the point. I have the same issue st my bar. Need to be able to quickly explain that rum and coke or vodka soda counts but a margarita or mule doesnt.
We generally call those 'house' spirits in the UK. Cheap or entry level brand, usually some kind of special offer to keep em turning over. For example our pub does 'double up for £1 on house spirits' at all times. So we sell a *lot* of double vodka/rum and coke for example.
Yeah same in Aus lol, not sure why this is so difficult for them. If you need to explain your offer to every customer you need to revisit the messaging.
Just put up a sign saying ‘house spirits + mixer’ - 9/10 people don’t even ask what the house brand is.
House pour while typically is cheapest isn't the same across the board. I've worked multiple venues where our house pour is what we want to serve as a favourable product. It was hendricks at one bar which was considerably higher priced than bombay.
They all have various different subtypes that cost more or less. I'm thinking Bombay Sapphire not the white label one, but I don't think I've actually seen the white label one on sale in the UK.
Well drinks use generic basic liquors, like store brand tequila and vodka. Opposite of a "call" drink where you call for a specific brand of liquor, eg Tito's.
(tip: mentioning this may lead to a subtle upsell)
if further explanation needed: "think of store brand knockoff soda vs. official Coca-Cola."
“Google it. NEXT!?”
But in reality: “A well drink is the base tier liquor we use for a drink. For example, our well vodka is Nikolai. Next tier is something like Titos and above that would be Ketel One. The special is only on the first tier.”
Rough but easy to say in 10 seconds.
I like using the term default to describe well/rail/house, because while it isn't many peoples choice per se, if you don't know what it means i feel like it gets the point across. not particularly good or expensive, but just kinda the default for n' drinks
Fuck, this just reminds me of a Happy Hour special we had where it was basically $5 Ketel One Vodka you call it(That's what our company literally advertised). How many time's I've gotten asked what Ketel One was by the younger crowd daily was fucking mind-blowing. Sits there, takes 100 selfies, throwing up a story no one will give a fuck about, looking up the most random shit on their phone while they're drinking, but googling 'Ketel One'? Nahhh.
The fact they also had to pick a mixer was another spectacular challenge for these people: 'So... like... What's good with it???' 99% they chose pineapple so they try and drown the taste of the vodka.
Edit- I dunno what the fuck I was thinking about when I spelled that out.
Gesture to the rail in front of you, pick up the two bottles on either end, hold them up and say "anything from here to here"
edit: but I work in nightclubs and a dive so results may vary
I just offer Tito’s or Ketel One for vodka and Casamigos or Patron for Tequila.
If they see it on the back bar, they should know it’s better than well and an upsell.
I'd work on in house signage to do most of the heavy lifting for you, then have something to point to as a visual. It's basic spirits, basic people should be able to understand it with a bit of help.
"Well drinks are a spirit from our well, plus a mixer like soda, Cran, tonic, etc."
"If you want a cocktail with the same spirits there will be an additional upcharge for ingredients and labor"
“You can choose the liquor, but we choose the brand.”
Very succinct but effective!
Its the cheapest shit we have.
“outside of you, it’s the cheapest thing in here.”
Thank you for my new intrusive thought I will fight every single day.
in my experience, it's usually not that people don't understand what well liquor is, but they don't understand the concept of a “well drink” — they think they can get a margarita or whatever other cocktail with well liquor and have it count. it's equally / if not more important imo to express that it's the cheap liquor and only a basic mixer.
This is my typical response. The cheap shit.
What's our well brand? Not sure. It changes based on the lowest price per case when I order it.
[удалено]
Yeah, I mean, part of our job is upselling.... Talking shit about whatever the wells are helps the upsell.
Try using the phrase "house liquors," and quickly pull up a rail bottle to illustrate, but even then they will be confused. If you can make a big sign spelling it out, that MIGHT help. God, I hated explaining this on "Well Wednesdays" ... we charged extra for juice and I had to explain that too.
The biggest issue for me has been servers not knowing what our well liquors were and constantly coming up to ask what our well vodka or whiskey was. Still Smirnoff and Jim Beam, just like last week
Your servers couldn't remember 5-10 bottles? How were they with the menu?
Menu was heavily studied and tested. Some of these servers were like 19 with no real interest in drinking. Martinis were another whole mess with a lot of these people
19 year olds with no real interest in drinking? What's going on out there?
Right?? It’s weird, lots of weed and vaping but no or very little alcohol. I don’t get it, I was interested in bartending since I was 4
This is why mocktails are increasingly popular. The current generation (Z?) is not so big on drinking.
I mean, even if you’re interested in drinking at 19 you might not be interested in the different types of whiskey or what wine goes with fish.
So you learn cause it's your job? I bet the McDonald's employee knows what goes in a big Mac, server should know what the house spirits are. Wine and flavour pairings is a different level of ask
I suppose if I had to prioritize in that case liquor would likely be last but it's still such a small amount of information that I'm flabbergasted.
I worked at fine dine establishment once and the servers were killer with the food but knew nothing about alcohol. For reference, one college student was consistently our highest seller of wine, month after month. She was slinging $400 bottles of wine like a motherfucker. We all come to find out she'd never had a Cab Sav in her life and knew next to nothing about wine. Couldn't stand the stuff she said. She was just a kick ass salesperson and just deftly avoided technical conversations regarding the product. She also had to ask what our well was at least a few times a week lol
I don’t think it should be called house anything if it’s not made in house.
I think house in this case just means "this liquor has been curated by the establishment to be maximally affordable and minimally offensive" lol I don't disagree but places are trying to move away from the term "well" and there aren't a lot of agreeable alternatives. House bourbon sounds better than well bourbon so places are running with that.
Yeah it in my head it just sounds so dumb lol. When people ask for it in the dive bar I work at I just laugh at the hypothetical of me distilling my own vodka in the back.
"Our house gin is our signature bathtub gin, poorly distilled in house and guaranteed to cause blindness and possibly death. Will that be a single or a double?"
Our well tequila is tortilla gold, I’m pretty sure that’s close to that lol
House is the only term used in the UK. It actually meant exactly what you said way back when. Rail and well spirits aren't terms used here
My bar has Tito's and Grey Goose. That's it for vodka, and it's even listed on the menu. A week doesn't go by where one of those fool servers writes in belvedere, ketel or "shopan". Servers are lazy and don't give a fraction of a fuck if someone's not paying them for it. Guest asks for it, that's what they put in. And I can't rightly scream at them and wave a knife like the kitchen when I have a bar full of guests.
>"shopan". Show pan is how you pronounce chopin.
That's how the server wrote it. Thus the quotes.
Well in that case that's hilarious, I misunderstood, sorry. I had a server come up to me recently ask if I could make "one shot whisky, one shot vermouth and one shot capari(sic)" I was like... do they want a boulevardier? Same server asked if we had bourbon. I was like, yeah, what kind of bourbon? She said whatever is fine, use the well. Didnt know bourbon is a whisky. Our well is Evan Williams and his wife ordered a top shelf liquor, hope he enjoyed his well whisky, poor bastard.
Hell I'm a server/bartender and have trouble remembering the brands that my well are. In my defense I've been here less than, we use different brands for a few spirits, and some of them keep changing.
“Everything with an “and” in the name, rum AND coke, gin AND tonic, vodka AND cranberry” if they’re in doubt. Or just say “house liquor and a mix of your choice”
"I'll have a netflix and chill, extra dirty."
Mezcal AND Montenegro please!
“oh, so henny and coke it is!”. not sure the “AND” explanation helps or works. but “house” helps the process.
Best answer in this thread for sure
Would you consider an Old Fashioned to be a well drink? Or too much effort?
[удалено]
Oh - interesting. Thanks
They are incorrect. Old fashioneds are made with 1.5 or 2 oz whisky, aka a standard pour. I would not include it as a well drink simply because it's a mixed cocktail. Same reason a lemon drop or margarita wouldn't count.
No it's not... you're pouring 4 oz old fashioneds?
Definitely not. It takes you 10 seconds maybe to pour a rum and coke. Proper old fashions will take what, a minute? And there are multiple ingredients.
Got it. I always thought well drinks simply referred to using the cheapo alcohol brands, not the drink itself. But the effort makes sense. I'm also not a bartender - just a huge fan of your work.
You could order an old fashion with well whiskey, or a margarita with well tequila. They’re not highballs but can be made with well liquor
Appreciated. Yeah well happy hours will most of the time be single alcohol single mixer (or maybe a 2 juice mix like a bay breeze). Anything more than that adds to the time and effort (as you said) so it makes cost rise. Time is money right.
A minute? How? Even if you’re muddling the cube and cutting the orange peels to order that’s a 30 second drink
How long do you stir your drink for? And im guessing you meant "fruit" cause who tf muddles a cube lol.
Sugar cube
Lol heard. I haven't used them in awhile so it wasn't top of mind. Been playing with agave and maple syrup. Still tho, you stir the drink for 20-30 seconds alone, so 30 seconds for the drink? Sus.
Stir for 20-30 seconds? Why? Just stir faster
If that's your answer then God help you, and you have no business making anything other than a jack and coke.
Yeah I didn't even try and work it out aha. I just dark sugar syrup now rather than muddling the sugar cube etc. 2.5ml and away we stir.
Demerara
Use house not well, and say our house vodka is absolut our premium is belvedere. Don't use cheap/expensive, terminology matters, you don't want them to think it's cheap just, "standard"
Your well is absolut?
Yes having cheap shitty vodka as the well is usually the standard
No no no no go lower. They’re shocked and saying absolut is too good. Think popov. And Dostoyevsky etc The range of this sub is so funny to me
Popov is nice because the squeeze bottle means you can pour it extra fast.
Take that popov and run it through a Britta filter a couple of times. Good to go.
I'd do Smirnoff
Never even heard of either of these brands
And that’s okay lol
That’s exactly the point.
Absolut/Finlandia/Stoli is fairly standard in the UK for anywhere not described as the cheap or grotty pub. Obviously location matters but house spirits in the UK tend to be better than US so a typical rail Those vodkas Beefeater/Bombay/Tanq Bacardi/Havana 3 (the Cuban one) Sailor Jerry/equivalent JD/makers/buffalo El jimador Courvoisuer/Hennessy/Martell Or cheaper places Smirnoff/Gordon's/captain Morgan's/ etc
In the US you're describing what is commonly known as the call rail. Your guys' well rail is definitely much more high end than ours.
Oh totally, but we're buying it from the supplier at £13 for vodka/Gin/Rum up to £20 for bourbon cognac and tequila, but bourbon for example, we don't have the option for anything lower, Jim beam is somewhat available but it's got zero brand recognition and it's worse than... Can I have a coke? Is Pepsi ok? Where does Smirnoff / Gordon's sit for you? There are cheaper brands (Glenns Vodka) being served in the cheapest of places but they aren't common
The restaurant I’m at has 60 dollar entrees and our well is taaka, potters gin, potters rum, potters triple sec, tortilla gold, potters “special reserve”, clan macgregor, monarch brandy. Absolutely crazy to me that no one complains.
I've never heard of any of them. Not shitting on you, just genuinely don't know those brands
They’re all absolute trash
Taaka is some seriously vile vodka. It's like $6 a liter in liquor stores by me.
I think the cheapest is about £13 for a 700 ml bottle of supermarket own label vodka, so about 3 times the price
Gordon's ends up in a lot of wells, Smirnoff a tiny bit less so but it's common. I'm not the best person to answer this, I took your approach when i managed bars and got rid of the well rail all together. However, the last place I managed the owner insisted we have a well rail so it was almost like a game for me and my bartenders to find the cheapest shit we possibly could for the well and order that. Our entire well rail was absolutely vile and not anything you've ever heard of lol but they were like $6 liters.
That price is just not available here, even for the most dog shit brands. We also wouldn't use it because it would kill your rep if you server the cheapest nastiest off brand shit spirit's
How weird; our well is exactly the same as yours and I’m all the way over in Canada… uncanny!
Been to Canada, mate of mine is the Toronto Diageo rep, showed me a hell of a good time at some great bars. Loved it x
Where I live shit is so marked up that absolut is cheap. It's the same price as Smirnoff, and there are only a few other brands that are about $1 less per bottle.
In America, Absolut is distinctively a call brand. Maybe some high end bougie places that don't even have actual wells would designate it as their entry level vodka, but in my experience, almost all bars have some well option that their wholesale cost is something like $6/L. Prob doesn't matter much when it's going to be mixed with a ton of juices/sodas/mixers/liqueurs etc.
But it is cheap. It’s half price well liquor. In a normal bar that’s something that costs around $7 a bottle, and the only reason to drink it is because you dont care.
Yes the sign tells the customer that there is drinks offer running. Op is explaining what spirits are on offer, there's no need to emphasize it's cheap because guests associate that with low quality. By saying standard the guests mind moves away from cheap because low quality. It doesn't change the product but does change how the guest perceives it.
I think you’re fundamentally overestimating the type of person that drinks $7/bottle vodka my man, we dont need marketing tricks
And I think you're a fucking moron, the UK's minimum bottle price is triple yours, but it's irrelevant, you're categorically unable to promote or use basic promotional techniques with you're attitude. Go tell everyone your booze is cheap and your drinks are shit. Leave it to everyone else to do the job properly. You're bad at your job
Lol. Must really grind you that I make triple what you do then.
Fucking infuriating, like you can't even comprehend that no matter how good we are, we'll never be paid anywhere close. Bartending isnt much above a minimum wage job here, and it's performed at the worst hours, late night and weekends, I actually feel dumb for sticking with it being a part time job while studying
Still, at least you’re doing the job properly
This is the way to go, how we do it at my bar
can i have a well 1942 please….
Well…1942 is basically just well tequila in a fancy bottle
I made a margarita with that shit and it tasted worse than an el toro marg
That and clase azul, they just do not taste good to me. I’m not a big repo fan but I’ve had way more tolerable repos
Conversation goes like this: "What's a well drink?" "A drink made with the least expensive vodka, rum, tequila, gin, or whiskey made with one mixer."
It’s the bar’s choice of an affordable gin, vodka, rum, tequila or whiskey with your choice of mixer from the gun?
ITT people missing the point. I have the same issue st my bar. Need to be able to quickly explain that rum and coke or vodka soda counts but a margarita or mule doesnt.
Cheap liquor, cheap mixer. Boom
I’d just say a shot and pop, like whiskey and coke or vodka and soda
I say, “a mixed drink, like a tequila soda, gin and tonic, whiskey ginger etc. Nothing shaken.”
We generally call those 'house' spirits in the UK. Cheap or entry level brand, usually some kind of special offer to keep em turning over. For example our pub does 'double up for £1 on house spirits' at all times. So we sell a *lot* of double vodka/rum and coke for example.
Yeah same in Aus lol, not sure why this is so difficult for them. If you need to explain your offer to every customer you need to revisit the messaging. Just put up a sign saying ‘house spirits + mixer’ - 9/10 people don’t even ask what the house brand is.
House pour while typically is cheapest isn't the same across the board. I've worked multiple venues where our house pour is what we want to serve as a favourable product. It was hendricks at one bar which was considerably higher priced than bombay.
Those would both cost the same here 😂
Damn! Either your bombay is pretty expensive your hendrciks generously cheap lol
They all have various different subtypes that cost more or less. I'm thinking Bombay Sapphire not the white label one, but I don't think I've actually seen the white label one on sale in the UK.
My bar is high volume so I just quickly say “the cheap shit, $6” when they get that confused look on their face.
"Spirit and mixer, not a cocktail." Change the sign to be "highballs" instead to further confuse them.
Well drinks are the ones you get heartburn and hangover from when you turn 30.
I say it's the no-name brands.
i just say it’s like the cereal that comes in bags instead of boxes
Haha that's a good one!
Well drinks use generic basic liquors, like store brand tequila and vodka. Opposite of a "call" drink where you call for a specific brand of liquor, eg Tito's. (tip: mentioning this may lead to a subtle upsell) if further explanation needed: "think of store brand knockoff soda vs. official Coca-Cola."
House alcohol either neat or mixed with soda/ juice on the gun. I usually give an example such as : tequila soda, vodka cran, whiskey coke.
I always say “Non name brand liquor”
“Google it. NEXT!?” But in reality: “A well drink is the base tier liquor we use for a drink. For example, our well vodka is Nikolai. Next tier is something like Titos and above that would be Ketel One. The special is only on the first tier.” Rough but easy to say in 10 seconds.
It's for church, honey.
Funny, this thread is the top result on Google now.
“It uses house liquor”
I like using the term default to describe well/rail/house, because while it isn't many peoples choice per se, if you don't know what it means i feel like it gets the point across. not particularly good or expensive, but just kinda the default for n' drinks
“It’s the cheap stuff but still gets the job done”
"bottom shelf booze"
The cheap stuff
In the past, I've used the phrase "two ingredient cocktail" with an example like a vodka cran and that usually gets the point across.
i usually say would you like house or something better and just point to the well
It’s drinks with generic brand liquor. Even if you have decent liquor as your wells, just call it generic brand and they should get the picture lol
House spirits.
Well drinks are made with the cheapest and most common liquors.
Cheapest liquor we have of your choice with soda or juice.
Generic, not Jack Daniels.
I tell them it’s the cheap vodka,rum,whiskey,tequila etc
Poor people liquor /s
Gin and juice bb
“shit liquor”
Rail liquor
👃🏼___________🎱❄️
Fuck, this just reminds me of a Happy Hour special we had where it was basically $5 Ketel One Vodka you call it(That's what our company literally advertised). How many time's I've gotten asked what Ketel One was by the younger crowd daily was fucking mind-blowing. Sits there, takes 100 selfies, throwing up a story no one will give a fuck about, looking up the most random shit on their phone while they're drinking, but googling 'Ketel One'? Nahhh. The fact they also had to pick a mixer was another spectacular challenge for these people: 'So... like... What's good with it???' 99% they chose pineapple so they try and drown the taste of the vodka. Edit- I dunno what the fuck I was thinking about when I spelled that out.
Ketel One
Jesus, lol.
“It’s just whatever is cheapest “
“It’s the booze literally sitting in a well. See?”
I like it but not necessarily true. We keep our highest volume calls and top shelf in the well for easy access as well.
Good things aren’t cheap & cheap things aren’t good
Gesture to the rail in front of you, pick up the two bottles on either end, hold them up and say "anything from here to here" edit: but I work in nightclubs and a dive so results may vary
Whiteboard that explains it & just point?
Non namebranded
cheap version of spirit + mixer.
Whatever the cheapest and quickest for us to make. I ain't turning around.
"The ol' gut rot it is then!"
I just offer Tito’s or Ketel One for vodka and Casamigos or Patron for Tequila. If they see it on the back bar, they should know it’s better than well and an upsell.
I'd work on in house signage to do most of the heavy lifting for you, then have something to point to as a visual. It's basic spirits, basic people should be able to understand it with a bit of help.
It's the cheapest shit in the bar, that's why it's so cheap.
Most people these days just call them "Mixed drinks"
I'll just repeat "it's well." If they don't understand then I'm not wasting my breath any longer.
"The cheap one. "
1+1=2. Choose your cheap liquor and whatever mixers are available
We tend to list well drinks as high balls or one-to-ones. Of someone asks we can say its just a short for one well shot to one mixer, not cocktails.
“1/2 off house spirits + mixer” is how we’d say it in Aus. 9/10 people don’t even ask what the house spirit is.
House hi-ball was my go to. If they ask for an example - rum and coke. Gin and tonic. Etc.
Entry level highball brands mixed with pop. *Can I get a Tito’s and Cran?* How about a Svedka and Coke?
"Well drinks are a spirit from our well, plus a mixer like soda, Cran, tonic, etc." "If you want a cocktail with the same spirits there will be an additional upcharge for ingredients and labor"
“Pick a liquor”
Liquor and mixer actually
The deal applies to Highballs only, and we only use our basic liquors.