Nick Wendowski and his wife own Stone's Beer & Beverage in Philly. PA liquor laws are weird (more on that below), and Nick's license allows him to serve 3 rungs in the booze ladder:
Given this, it was interesting to talk with him about the trends he's noticed over the last 6 months or so. (We also touched on some crazy PA liquor limitations). Here are takeaways from the conversation:
Covid forced most of us to scramble and figure out new business models to make it through. (For instance, at BeerMenus we experimented with a carryout and delivery marketplace.)
It was tough, of course. But a positive way to look at it is it helped us all become more flexible.
That flexibility can still help now, specifically by helping you identify alternative revenue streams—ways you can bring in more money in addition to your typical business model.
Nick Wendowski from Stone's Beer & Beverage Market has experience with exactly this kind of flexibility, so we picked his brain about how to identify where to look for alternative revenue streams. Here are takeaways:
The last two weeks (8/31 & 9/7) we've shared some outside-the-box points from Nick Wendowski from Stone's Beer & Beverage Market.
This week I wanted to surface another important aspect of Nick's operations philosophy: how he thinks about solving problems at his business.
Though he uses these strategies at his beer store/distributor, they're just as relevant to bars, restaurants, snd breweries. Honestly, they're relevant to us here at Brave New Bar/BeerMenus as well.
Here are 4 takeaways from my conversation with Nick:
We've all been there: you're at a party. There's gin, dry vermouth, and olives out on the table. The only bartender—current or former—at the party is you.
Does anybody besides you every make the martinis?
Hell no.
There are a lot of challenges to working in the service industry (which we've covered in previous editions), but this is one we don't often think about: if you've spent meaningful time as a server or bartender, you never really turn off your server/bartender mind.
You look at everything through the lens of being a bartender or server—is somebody struggling to clear the table after Christmas dinner? You'll stack and clear the dishes. In a small group chatting? You catch yourself checking to see if anybody's glass is empty.
As both Marcus Aurelius and Shaun Mcguire (bartender extraordinaire and coach), say, a boxer is always a boxer because he’s always got his weapons—his fists.
We're like a boxer because we've always got our weapon too: our head-on-a-swivel attention to whether anyone needs anything.
In this week's interview Shaun talks about how important it is to create a distinction between You and You the Bartender, because if you don't proactively work at it, you're always going to be You the Bartender. And that's not going to get you in a good place in either your life or your relationships.
Check out the interview clip to hear more from Shaun:
In last week's interview, Nick Wendowski of Stone's Beer & Beverage Market shared some outside-the-box thoughts on growth as a beer store owner/distributor in Philadelphia: namely, growth isn't his primary goal.
In this week's clip Nick describes how that point of view is reflected in the distribution and wholesale side of his business.
Shaun McGuire has bartended in and around Peekskill, NY for years. He knows the community, has a ton of regulars, and has become legit friends with some of them (gone to their weddings, etc.)
This is of course great. As Shaun says, "as a bartender people are paying to spend time with you," and that feels good.
But there's a risk to the lifestyle too, and it's something most—if not all—bartenders deal with at some point: it's very easy to drink too much because there's always an excuse to have a drink.
Nick Wendowski and his wife bought Stone's Beer & Beverage in 2019. They had no experience in the industry and Nick's qualifications didn't go beyond liking good beer.
But after years in the corporate world, he realized he wanted something more meaningful out of his career. For him and his wife, that meant owning businesses in their home neighborhood. This would allow them to provide services (plural because his wife runs a yoga studio down the street) to their neighbors and feel like they were making a positive contribution to the community they love. Not to mention eliminating their commute and spending more time with one another.
How they bought the beer store is a long and winding tale involving a couple years, long nights, and a single beer with the store owner (check out the video clip for more on that), but the most compelling thoughts Nick shared came when I asked him about his 5-10 year vision for the business.
Here are some takeaways:
What started as a menu necessity during Covid has sneakily become one of the best marketing channels available to bars and restaurants. That's right: I'm talking about QR Menus, those little black-and-white squares you saw basically nowhere in the US prior to spring/summer 2020.
Here's how Rob Austin, a marketing expert who runs marketing for Leader Bar in Chicago, explains the marketing opportunity offered by a robust QR Code Menu system:
Given how visually driven social media is, it's essential to have good photos that catch customers'—and prospective customers'—eyes. But taking good photos is hard, especially if you don't have any training. Where should you take the photos? When? How many? How often?
Enter Rob Austin, who has a background in photography and videography and now runs marketing for Leader Bar in Chicago. We picked Rob's brain for easy tips (that anyone can do) on how to take great social media photos, and he gave us nine great ones:
Marketing expert Rob Austin runs marketing for Leader Bar in Chicago. A big part of his job is running Leader Bar's social media, which means he is fielding a ton of comments from folks on social media.
In this interview clip he shares his advice for doing so successfully. Here are Rob's 6 rules: