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bar menu and food

Hostel Bars & Restaurants

Yaron Burgin started this discussion 13 years 6 months ago

Hi.
We have a small bar in the hostel serving:
- 2 kinds of local tap beer
- house wine and local wine
- rum, scotch, vodka and tequila
- soft drinks

The bar is open 1800-2300 and includes a happy hour as well.

We are considering to add to our menu a few food plates, preferably something easy to make, cheap to sell and that goes well with beer. We do not have a place (or a licence) to cook and serve hot meals (There is a self-catering kitchen of course).

Do you sell food in your hostel bar? What are the best dishes?
Which drinks are part of your hostel bar that sell well?

Thanks you for sharing your ideas,
Yaron

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micwal2610

13 years

We had a fairly large bar at our hostel that we sold freshly made juices, fruit salads and acai w. granola during the day. We also had a local lady make us sandwiches, hamburgers and hotdogs in the morning that we sold during the day. Hamburgers and hotdogs held up surprisingly well for one day and when reheated in an oven came out pretty good.
We had an empanada machine in which we sold at least 20-30 empanadas a day.
Coupled with chips, chocolates and muesli bars our bar food trade worked quite well.
Being in Brasil the most popular drink was naturally the caipirinha but we also did well with happy hour rum and cokes and tried to have a cocktail special every night. I.E order i bunch of mint and make a bunch of Mojito's.

Hope this gives some ideas

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byron

13 years

Thanks for sharing those ideas. How many beds did you have in the hostel? Were there any other food options nearby?
I find that during the day most of our guests are travelling around the city and come back only at evening time so during the day there is no point of keeping the bar open.

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micwal2610

13 years

The hostel had 60 beds. While we did have a number of other eateries close by I guess we managed to sell what we did due to the convenience factor. Our hostel was in a beach town environment where the guests for the most part spent their time surfing and lying on the beach. i.e not walking around a city seeing the sites. For this reason being able to grab a bite at our bar before walking to the beach was appealing.
Another aspect was that we operated a charge system where the guests could charge things to their room and just sign for it at the time of purchase. Generally I've found that tab systems allows the guest to more willing spend money as they don't see it leaving their pocket at the time. Not trying to trick them into spending but it is a small psychological trick that can be employed.

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marips

12 years

Are you still running the hostel Micwal? Where is it located? You had an excellent offer don't it compromise your budget? Are brazilian hostels allowed to sell food (hot/ cold dishes) or do they need an extra permission (maybe extra fees to governement)? I'm going to open a hostel in Brazil Northeast and I'm making my homework collecting all information I can =D
Your psyche trick is all right

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john1907

12 years

We are also starting with a cocktail bar on our outdoor big terrace which is our main common place. We will serve some cocktails (sex on the beach, cuba libre, caipirinha, mojito...) home made wine, and draft beer. Bar opening hours: 19:00 - 23:00h with a happy hour from 19:00-20:00 . We are going to serve some free popcorn and snacks so they will get thirsty and of course, drink more :)
What do you think? :) ;)

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