Summertime cocktails are almost in season—this means mojito madness! Considering that drinks don’t require as many ingredients or as much prep time as food, you can see that the bar has the potential to be very profitable part of your restaurant, especially when it’s warm outside and customers are seeking refreshment.  Don’t risk disappointing your patrons because you weren’t fully stocked with the bar equipment to make this popular concoction.

Mojito

1.25 oz white rum
12 mint leaves
1 tbsp sugar
juice of ½ a lime
2 oz club soda

Place mint leaves, sugar and juice of lime in bottom of rocks glass. Muddle with bar muddler. Add ice, jigger of rum, and soda water and stir well. Garnish with mint leaves or lime!

Looking for a sophisticated alternative to the martini, the cosmo, the margarita?  Try out a trendy “mocktail,” as these non-alcoholic beverages are known.  Though I’d heard of them before, I had never seen them described in such glowing prose as I found on in Restaurant & Institution’s inaugural blog post.  So far, I’m thoroughly enjoying the writing over at their “Open Kitchen” blog; and I’m now convinced that I must try a mocktail for myself.

It seems that mocktails represent a great opportunity for restaurateurs looking to hook a niche market, namely because so many places seem to botch the mocktail to some degree.  If your bartenders and servers can put together a palate-pleasing mocktail, yours will be a rare establishment, a go-to destination for expectant mothers, for tea-totalers, and for designated drivers.  Personally, I like the drink’s fresh factor and health appeal created by the use of fresh juices and the absence of high-calorie liquors.  And this is one menu addition that requires very little investment in extraneous barware: just grab a muddler, a citrus squeezer, a shaker, and some stylish glassware and you’re ready to go.

Captain Jack Sparrow would be excited to know that this Saturday is National Rum Day. To help you kick off one of the last weekends of the summer why not open a bottle of rum (yo ho) and have a party at your restaurant.

If you are not familiar with rum (or just want to brush up) this is a great informative site. Once you know all the basics about this popular spirit it is time to start coming up with some interesting drinks that will help set your restaurant apart from every other one celebrating this day. This is a great list of mixed drinks featuring rum as is this list.

While your guests are hanging out enjoying their cocktails they might decide they are interested in some appetizers to help those tasty drinks go down. While you probably already have a list of trusty appetizers, an event like this is a great time to try more. Allrecipes.com has a great selection of appetizer recipes that can be viewed by type.

Even if you can’t get everything ready to celebrate National Rum Day by Saturday it is a great item to feature during a future celebration. Your Serv-U representative can help you get all of the glassware you need to feature your tasty rum-based concoctions and all the plates you need to serve your incredible new appetizers. So give your representative a call today and prepare to celebrate Captain Jack’s favorite drink (just don’t celebrate it quite as much as he does, ok?).