Brewpub menu

[aorrick]

Hi all-

I am not a brewpub owner...just the brewer. I was wondering, though, for those of you with brewpubs/working at brewpubs, how many items do you have on your menu? Ours is in the range of 50 individual items, which seems on the high end compared to some of the other local places. Just curious what other menus look like out there.

Thanks,

Adam Orrick
Head Brewer, Grove Street Brewhouse
Shelton WA

[einhorn]

You'll probably get a flurry of answers on this question, just thought I'd post a general 'restaurant answer' (I do not work in a brewpub, just my opinion). I think that the current "trend" is to offer a menu with a decent concept, keep it simple and as fresh as possible. Offer what folks seem to expect of your place, be it a gastropub with higher-end dishes, but also brewpub fare. And finally, have a signature dish.

On a side note, 50 sounds like a lot to me too. Are they throwing away a lot of spoilage or using frozen food?

[Scott M]

In the same vane, not a restaurant owner, nor do I work in a brew pub, simplicity is key. It all depends on what you want to be.

I remember Vinnie Cilurzo as saying "If we can't bake it, we don't make it." and that has stuck with me. Pub fare should be wholesome, fresh and should complement your beer. Once you decide to become a restaurant, that is where the majority of your energy will be spent.

I would design your menu around the local favorites and limit it to 10 items. Visit local restaurants for lunch or dinner and ask, "What is the local Favorite?"

[Fennellys]

Posting as a restaurant owner and chef. 50 items is not to bad if you can move them or if you have cross use of base ingredients. For example if have 10 sandwiches and each sandwich is served on its own special baked fresh bun you have a good chance of ending up with stale bread. But if 2-3 of those sandwiches use the same bun then your chances of ending up with stale bread is smaller. Or maybe you specialize in making your own bread pudding or super tasty croutons and having some stale bread is part of your menu plan. Or maybe great beer and fresh bread is your niche and you will sell tons of sandwiches each day and never have a stale bun.

So with out knowing your specific sales numbers I would say 50 sounds like a decent number. I personally have just shy of 40 items on the menu, and I make sure if an item starts to dog out I ditch it fast and find a good replacement that moves.

[liammckenna]

Just counted.

We have 60 items on our menu plus daily specials, soup etc.

That being said, our most popular items are burgers (lamb, salmon or beef) and pizzas. We have a wood-fired pizza oven and make some pretty great za's.

We are a 'gastropub'. Whatever the heck that means. Even though we are maxing out our brewing capacity (no room for expansion - about 30 hL/week) about 2/3 of our sales are from food.

Depends on your vibe, I guess.

Pax.

Liam

[bmxfrank]

2/3 food sales?

Liam, is that right? That leaves ony 33 percent of the pie for beer, liquor, wine, and soda. Seems high.

As for your question, we carry about 50 items including desserts and apps with a good mix of different styles of salad, soups, burgers, entrees, and specials.

[liammckenna]

I meant to say '2/3 from everything else'

Pax.

Liam

[ryanwithanr]

50 doesn't seem incredibly high, I mean it's nowhere near BJ's or Cheesecake Factory that have hundreds. That has to be one of my biggest pet peeves. Restaurants with 10 page menu's serving all kinds of food styles. Seems fishy. Although when you're in a mall or shopping center you have a lot of pallets to please.

Anthony Bordain made a menu comment once on his show 'No Reservations' which I loved; in a round-about-way, menu's shouldn't have photos of the food and shouldn't be more than a single sheet front and back. It just depends on what you're shooting for.

[Brewtopian]

KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. Words to live by.

We're not a brewpub, we're a bottleshop/restaurant/pub that has a very small but very inventive menu of flatbread style pizzas and upscale chicken wings. We do a lot of seasonal experimental items like the pizza a came up with today a South Carolina style Pulled Pork pizza with dill pickle and onion. May sound strange but it taste great.

I tend to find that places with menus with more than 15 or 20 items are menus made up of frozen food that is dropped into a fryer. I try to make as much as possible from scratch so that means keeping the number of items to a minimum and using as any individual ingredient in as many dishes as possible.

If you guys are doing a lot of burger and pizza biz then I would say lay claim to those items and make those the thing you're known for. Dump everything else.

[v2comp]

Loco Moco!

everyone of you guys that sells food really need to think about this thing from Hawaii.
Rice is dirt cheap, a precooked hamburger patty and a prefried over easy egg and some brown gravy.
2 cups of rice on the bottom, hamburger and egg with gravy on top of everything.
every item is cooked ahead of time, and just needs to be kept warm.
this stuff wont win any awards from the low cholesterol, low fat folks, but it is hearty, and cheap.
really, dont laugh until you try it.....

[Brewtopian]

everyone of you guys that sells food really need to think about this thing from Hawaii.
Rice is dirt cheap, a precooked hamburger patty and a prefried over easy egg and some brown gravy.
2 cups of rice on the bottom, hamburger and egg with gravy on top of everything.
every item is cooked ahead of time, and just needs to be kept warm.
this stuff wont win any awards from the low cholesterol, low fat folks, but it is hearty, and cheap.
really, dont laugh until you try it.....

That just sounds disgusting. Not just because it sounds like a heart attack on a plate but the idea of making up a bunch of cooked burger patties and fried eggs and letting them sit in a steam table until you need them. If you can't make it to order then it shouldn't be made. Only exception that rule is hot dogs.

[v2comp]

That just sounds disgusting. Not just because it sounds like a heart attack on a plate but the idea of making up a bunch of cooked burger patties and fried eggs and letting them sit in a steam table until you need them. If you can't make it to order then it shouldn't be made. Only exception that rule is hot dogs.

its not disgusting, its actually very good. and I dont care whether or not they are precooked frankly, it tastes about the same either way.......
thats what the heart attack gravy is for!
this was meant to be amusing btw, but I guess I should have known it would start a pissing contest over something, but I didnt think that far ahead. sorry!!!
this whole thing was off topic anyway......my bad!

[aorrick]

I tend to find that places with menus with more than 15 or 20 items are menus made up of frozen food that is dropped into a fryer. I try to make as much as possible from scratch so that means keeping the number of items to a minimum and using as any individual ingredient in as many dishes as possible.

Indeed. But we do not have a fryer and very little of our food comes frozen. Without a fryer, we have no fries, onion rings...things that people expect at a brewpub. I am not talking about cheese sticks and poppers, because that isn't really our scene, but I think a lot of people expect fries with their burger. The owners wanted to go a different direction that typical pub fare, and that is completely fine, but I think our menu has grown because they built it around their vision, and slowly added in the things that customers tend to expect at a pub. Personally, I think it makes the menu busy and a little too eccentric. We have spoken about paring it down some, but I did want to get an idea of what other joints are doing. Thanks for the responses everyone!