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January 15, 2011 4:29 PM   Subscribe

Why at restaurants does everyone get their own menu but there's often just one beverage/beer/cocktail menu?

Please let me know if this is confirmation bias or region specific (I live in Atlanta) but at many restaurants I frequent, even some that are known for their beer, wine, and/or cocktails, there is often only one beverage menu for the table. Is this a way to save printing costs or table real estate? Is there some other reason I don't know that makes this a particularly good idea? Do people steal beverage menus?

Bonus question from a friend: Why will some places list the price of everything on their menu but not drinks?

Thank you restaurant-smart folks of AskMe!
posted by pointystick to Food & Drink (21 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I would imagine it is because the food menu changes more often than the drink menu.
posted by sacrifix at 4:32 PM on January 15, 2011


Cocktail/beer menu is usually listed as part of either the food menu or the wine menu, in my experience. If as part of the food menu, everyone gets to look at it. If as part of the wine menu, it is because the waitstaff at that type of place tend to see that usually, one person at the table orders wine for the whole table.
posted by Night_owl at 4:33 PM on January 15, 2011


I'd guess it's because virtually everyone who sits down at a table in a restaurant orders some food, but (depending on the restaurant) a much smaller fraction order an alcoholic drink. The same goes for deserts.
posted by Cogito at 4:34 PM on January 15, 2011


I think it's because in most restaurants they expect people to order wine with their meals. And one person would choose the bottle.

The waiting staff will nearly always give a food menu to each diner and the drinks menu just me (if I'm with a woman).
posted by selton at 4:36 PM on January 15, 2011


Food orders are per person, but wine orders are often for the table, so everyone decides together. Wine menus probably change on a different time scale than food menus.
posted by Joh at 4:37 PM on January 15, 2011


Also, anecdotally, it seems to me that people simply spend a lot less time debating over drinks than they do food.
posted by Tomorrowful at 4:37 PM on January 15, 2011


Not in my experience.
posted by b33j at 4:39 PM on January 15, 2011


Response by poster: I probably should clarify I'm thinking more of beverage menus that are beer, wine & cocktails by the glass versus an wine list with most selections being bottles. Thanks :)
posted by pointystick at 4:40 PM on January 15, 2011


There's a lot of tradition at work here. Wine lists are separate from menus because traditionally, a sommelier chooses and maintains a wine list, to pair with whatever the chef has. Both of these can change seasonally or weekly/daily. Moreover, traditionally, one person at a table will choose wine for everyone in the party -- this is the same person to whom the sommelier presents the wine and cork, etc. Sometimes, a wine list can be dozens or hundreds of entries, so it's kind of crazy to repeat all that for everyone.

These days, these traditions are rarely observed to their fullest, but the styles persist, and beverage lists get printed with the wine. Also, the bar might be separate from the dining room, so there's no need for a full food menu to be available to everyone.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:47 PM on January 15, 2011 [4 favorites]


You can order a manhattan or a martini or a whiskey on the rocks or a vodka cranberry or whatever pretty much anywhere that has a full bar—so the folks who already know what they're drinking don't have to look at the menu. That'll likely be most people in any given party. It's there so the one or two persons who want to peruse the wine selection or look for that restaurant's particular umbrella drinks can do so at the table.
posted by carsonb at 4:49 PM on January 15, 2011 [2 favorites]


In my experience, just about everybody seated in a restaurant is going to be ordering food of some kind. Only some people will be ordering an alcoholic item.
posted by galadriel at 4:51 PM on January 15, 2011


I think it has to do with how many drink menus they have versus their expected patron volume for the meal also taking into account the makeup of each table. I see this a lot when we go out with either my wife's parents or my parents with our 2 kids. I think they just have a limited volume of drink menus on hand and figure that 4 adults and 2 kids spread across 3-generations will be unoffended and share the limited resources of say, two drink menus. OTOH, if you have 7 iPhone/Android equipped hipsters at a table there's likely to be some hurt feelings and decreased revenue for the establishment if there's the smallest perception that any of them have been slighted. They might even tweet it and have it go viral putting a viable eating establishment out of business;-)
posted by Rafaelloello at 5:21 PM on January 15, 2011


My guess* would be that meals are ordered once but drinks can be ordered more than once. You'd want to leave a drink menu on the table so that people can order a second or third round but a drink menu for everyone would take up too much space. *based on how my friends and I order and my months of being a waitress
posted by hydrobatidae at 5:26 PM on January 15, 2011 [5 favorites]


i always thought of it as a combination of not-everyone-drinking and ease of leaving the one menu behind, since folks often order more than one drink over the course of the meal (in my experience). so it's easier to just have one drink menu that remains at the table, rather than juggling two sets of menu as the server or having to bring back individual drink menus.
posted by chickadee at 6:08 PM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


Cool Papa Bell is right.
posted by gjc at 6:34 PM on January 15, 2011


I think the reason a lot of prices aren't listed for drinks is because it's going to depend on the type of liquor you order with it. House vodka is cheaper than say, Belvedere. And something like Stoli would be in the middle.
posted by KogeLiz at 7:27 PM on January 15, 2011


There's probably a few reasons:

- Drink choices are more social, a bottle of wine or a pitcher of beer might be ordered for a whole table.
- For single drinks, people more order a second round, presenting the need to reference the menu again.
- In some chain restaurants, drinks can be seasonal.
- Availability, especially of certain vintages of wine, will change more frequently than your dinner menu
- Some jurisdictions will consider it intent to sale if you give a drink menu to a minor.
- You risk upsetting non-drinking customer.
- Blue Laws might also come into effect. Some states have laws that say when you can sell alcohol, typically making it illegal on a portion or all of Sunday. It's a lot easier to remove a single drink menu from each table rather than have a separate set of menus for Sunday.
posted by aristan at 8:12 PM on January 15, 2011


As for the prices not being listed on the menu, that depends on if you order from the Well or the Call.

Well liquor is the default alcohol that the bar has chosen to make drinks with. These bottles are stored in the well, the area right below the bar, making them easy to reach as you use these the most. Well alcohol may vary, depending on what was a good deal that week.

Call liquor are the alcohols from the back of the bar that are more desirable brands. These, of course, cost more. They're set in plain view to upsell you to a "nicer" drink.

Order a Maker's Mark, you'll get that brand. Order a bourbon, you'll get what's in the well.
posted by aristan at 8:24 PM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


With beer in general and draft beer in particular many restaurants don't even list what they have or just say they have a constantly rotating selection and to ask your server. I almost never consult a menu since I'm either going to ask for something I saw on a tap handle or I'm going to ask my server.

This is also a good test of your server's knowledge and experience. The good ones will be able to repeat back the beer list fairly easily while the others often have to run back to the bar to check.

When I dine with people I who order wine by the glass, they usually ask for a red or white and the server suggests what they have available. Again, no need for a wine menu.
posted by tommasz at 5:05 AM on January 16, 2011


Another possibility from my ex-wait staff friend: one drinks menu needs to be left on the table throughout the meal so that people can order more drink. The food menu only needs to be available at the start of the meal. This also means that drinks menus get food stains on them, whilst food menus are only used on clean tables. If you have to clean the drinks menus (or print new ones) more regularly, it makes sense to have fewer of them.

In my (London) experience I can't say I have noticed a particular trend: you might get a wine list or a full drinks menu, or just one menu for everything. Where you get two menus, beer might be on either one, or neither: in a pub, you are normally expected to consult the pump clips. Spirits might be on the "food" menu in places where they want to make the wine list exclusively wine, or on the "dessert" menu with irish coffees and that. Many places give everyone two menus. So it could also be confirmation bias :)
posted by doiheartwentyone at 6:14 AM on January 16, 2011


Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I don't feel like I am knowledgeable enough about the topic to choose a "best answer" but all this was great!
posted by pointystick at 1:07 PM on January 17, 2011


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