Dear Restauranteurs,
PLEASE, please, please, UP your NAB GAME!
One of the most common complaints that I hear from people who have gone alcohol free is the LACK OF OPTIONS IN RESTAURANTS!
Let me spell it out for you restaurant owners –> PEOPLE WANT NAB OPTIONS!
People WILL PAY for something they want.
I was out for dinner the other night with my little fam jam and we decided to try out an upscale independent that I had been wanting to try for a while.
Now I am a huge food and beverage lover and have not had many opportunities to dine out with this whole pandemic thing and a new baby. So to say I was excited to dine out is a bit of an understatement!!
Now, I am the type of person that usually has a pre meal beverage (martini or delightful cocktail anybody?!) with my appetizer and a glass (or who am I kidding, more likely a bottle!!) of wine with dinner. I typically like to order a coffee with some sort of add in (espresso and sambuca was my GO TO) and then if there is time and the conversation is good I love a good stiff digestif (A Sazerac, or a 20 year tawny perhaps?) to round out the meal.
And that is a basic meal! … that is not even an indulgent meal.
Ok maybe not basic but definitely not indulgent either.
Like I said, I REALLY LOVE food and beverage!
So we enter into this fine establishment with an entire wall of wine along one side and a beautifully stocked bar, and I am SO EXCITED! I really haven’t had the chance to eat out like this since 2019.
That is an excruciatingly LONG time when I typically spend 10-12 hours a DAY in a restaurant and have my choice of delicious menu items cooked up for me at a moments notice. –Ahh the manager life.
So the server comes to take our drink order and I ask what she has available for Non Alcoholic Beer……
I will give you 3 guesses as to what her response was.
🙁
Nothing. Nada. Not one thing.
Sadness..
The only thing they had to offer me in replacement to an adult beverage was a virgin Caesar. Or pop.
Are you kidding me?
In the age of delicious NA beverage options popping up everywhere there was nothing to offer?
I didn’t feel like a Caesar so I kindly declined and sat begrudgingly with my water. I don’t really drink much pop and was a little bitter for that moment that I don’t drink alcohol.
I actually contemplated having an alcoholic beverage even though I have zero desire to put poison into my body!
Wow the power of social influence!
However, I did not. I looked over the cocktail menu and got her to throw me together a mixture of ingredients and she came back with a pretty good lavender lemonade.
But no garnish, no fancy glass, no love.
Although my thirst was moderately quenched, my desire for a beverage that matched my dining experience was not.
This got me thinking.
I wonder if other people are annoyed by this same experience.
I asked my Dad a few days later and he told me a story about going to a restaurant and asking for a “near beer”.
“A WHAAT??!” retorted the server.
And so he proceeded to tell me a story about an underwhelming service experience because he was a NON drinker.. the restaurant did not have any alcohol free options and was a little rude about the request of one.
So I brought the same question to my TMNI coaching family. We are all coaching in the realm of alcohol and none of us drink.
SAME THING.
An abundance of people reporting similar dining experiences about the LACK of NAB options.
This has got me thinking. Would you be more likely to drink less if there were better options available that were alcohol free?
And since I am on a mission to help people make alcohol small and irrelevant in their lives, I have decided to write to the industry, in hopes that we can shift the thinking around why it is equally as important to offer quality NAB options as it is to have a well stocked bar.
Adults who choose not to drink (for whatever reason) do not want to be reduced to the kids table. Sometimes I feel like you might as well offer me some chocolate milk.
Adults want an ADULT beverage without alcohol.
Tell me, if you couldn’t drink alcohol tomorrow because the doctor told you it was poison and it will kill you (which is 100% true btw), would you want an option that made you feel like you were still out for a nice meal and getting served to the highest level?
From my limited research that is EXACTLY what people want. They want the fancy glass, and the lovely garnish. They want options. They want to be questioned less about why they are not drinking and have an opportunity to cheers friends with a beautiful NA beverage.
There is a growing market of sober curious and AF people out there and it is time that you make your menu reflect those choices.
So darling restaurant owner that I love so much and appreciate so much for making it through the hell of a year (+) you have been through, over the government hoops you have had to endure…. can you please think about adding a few more NAB options to your menu?
Market to the NAB segment. Train your team on the importance of treating AF people with the same level of service they do to a table of drinkers. Get curious about the new and exciting products that are coming onto the market. And have fun with it.
The NAB market is about to EXPLODE.
Mark my words and get out ahead of it.
Everyone knows there are tons of alcoholic options in your establishment. But do people know you have NAB options to quench their wants and needs for a showstopper AF dining experience?
Please continue to offer the amazing high quality food and service that you already do. And thank you for being here doing what you do in times of great struggle.
Just know that the times are changing and your clientele is likely to start shifting their attitudes around alcohol. A friendly tip from me to you. You increase your NAB offerings and you increase your sales.
If you want more insights on the growing NAB industry check out my new page, “The Master of NON”, where we will dive deep into the growing NAB industry and how you can use it to your advantage in your business.
All my love,
Danielle xx