Halloween Inspiration for your Bar
Celebrating festive occasions can improve your customer's experience and their overall impression of your bar. Halloween is the perfect time to lean into this and try something different. Discover top tips to plan and host a Halloween celebration in your bar that exceeds everyone’s expectations.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Halloween is one of the most social occasions of the year. A night of dressing up, eating, celebrating and, without a doubt, lots of ghoulish decorations. It’s the perfect opportunity to drive new customers through your door, excite your regulars and change up the atmosphere for your bar staff.
Here are our top tips to help you get ready for a spooky night. Don’t have time today? Scroll down to our key takeaways for the highlights.
Make Your Bar Stand Out
We explore how to make your bar stand out during this festive occasion and give customers a reason to choose yours as their top destination for a Halloween celebration.
- Pick a theme: Host a costume party or theme your event on a horror movie. Encourage your staff to wear fun and creative costumes to ramp up the excitement.
- Halloween food: Get creative and give your usual food or bar snack menu a Halloween twist. Add some new themed names to keep things interesting.
- Punches and cocktail lists: Create Halloween-style punches for groups to enjoy together and offer a special limited edition cocktail list for the night. Creating batched punches and reducing the number of cocktails on your menu will keep quality consistent and speed up your service.
PROMOTE YOUR HALLOWEEN EVENT
Social media is a great way to promote your event. Create an “event” on Facebook and ensure everyone knows about your event’s hashtag so you can track all those #HalloweenSelfies on Instagram.
If you have a customer database, it’s worth emailing an invite to them – they may end up forwarding it to their friends too. Update your website’s blog or events page to include exclusive offers and your themed menus for the night.
Spread the word early – especially if you’re planning a costume or themed night so your customers can get their outfits ready. Your regulars are likely to be in your venue in the weeks prior to the event, so promote the occasion and the Halloween serves that will be on offer with posters and themed menus.
Check out some easy, Halloween themed recipes here.
Get Your Bar Ready for Halloween
As with any busy night in your bar, preparation is key.
- Stock levels: Ensure your bar is fully stocked and have backups of all products close to hand.
- Pre-cut garnish: Cut and place in containers with a damp napkin over them to keep fresh and to save you time.
- Glassware: Stock enough glassware, especially if your theme requires specific glassware.
- A pre-service run-through: This is vital to ensure everyone knows the available Halloween cocktails, can recommend them confidently, and knows how to make them.
Maximise the Impact of the Night
- Photos: Take photos of the event and share them on social media channels or add them to your venue’s wall. Use your hashtag and encourage customers to tag friends to help amplify the event.
- Engage: Your customers are precious. If they’ve taken the time to share photos and posts from your event, a simple like, quick comment or repost will show you value them.
- Learnings: Try to assess the event and learn from it. Analyse the turnout rate and compare it to other seasons or events. Also, look at what customers ordered, if the orders delivered incremental revenue, and which serves worked better.
Serve Halloween Cocktail Recipes
These recipes are simple - with a little crafty presentation and the help of the moonlight shining on your mixing, you can stir up great concoctions. They also allow you to introduce uncommon props and ingredients such as food dye, wormy gummy sweets, or dry ice to create a bewitching result.
Key Takeaways
- Learn how to prepare your bar for a spooky Halloween night
- Understand how to promote a spooky event to attract customers
- Discover Halloween cocktail recipes you can craft for your guests
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