100 Proof Strategies

06/28/2019

"Feelings: Think about your feelings and how others might feel. Put yourself in their shoes. Everyone is going through their own struggles.

Thoughts: Control your thought process. Take time to assess the situation. Have situational awareness. Be proactive and not reactive.

Authenticity: Be true to yourself. Don’t be fake.

Empathy: Be understanding of other people’s situations. Show remorse.

Give praise/feedback: Congratulate others and give positive reinforcement.

Keep an open mind: Take criticism as a learning experience. I know that constructive feedback can sometimes be hard to swallow, but it’s the only way we learn.

Admit and accept: Apologize for mistakes. Practice forgiving and forgetting.

Be noble: Always keep your word.

Step up: Be the first to help others."

If you’re wondering how to maintain your personal bartending brand in a digital era, the latest piece in Chilled’s Ask a Bartender series gets to the bottom of it.

05/02/2019

The is one of our favorite stories to tell, and Casamigos is one of our favorite brands to work with. !

Casamigos started as an idea between Clooney and friend Rande Ge**er while they were in Mexico. The company sold to Diageo for $1 billion (£79 million) in June 2017 — a sale that just made Clooney the highest-paid actor of the last year, according to Forbes.

05/01/2019

All it takes is the right people who understand how to curate the right drink(s) for your . The team who knows how to best impact your . Don't gamble with your business (pun unintended). When you partner with 100 Proof Strategies, our expert team of professionals are dedicated to your . This is what it means when I say, "Every you make should be a in a glass..."

The most popular drink of all time at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas has not been on the menu for eight years, but it's still rang up over $9.4 million in sales.

04/22/2019

Happy Earth Day! At Twisted Alchemy, we are committed to transparency and making an impact. Not only in our customer's lives but on the planet as well. We've compiled a list of just a few of our sustainability initiatives:

💚 We compost all of our citrus waste
🌎 All of our bottles are comprised of 25% post-consumer recycled material
💚 All of our bottles are made of polyethylene terephthalate, which is the easiest of plastics to recycle
🌎 All juices shipped direct are packed with environmentally friendly packaging material
💚 We utilize Green Cell Foam which requires 70% less energy and produces 80% fewer greenhouse gases than petroleum-based foams.
🌎 Our cooler is also backyard compostable, biodegradable and water soluble
💚 1% of all Persian Lime Juice sales are donated to

To learn more about the difference Twisted Alchemy makes visit our website at: https://www.twistedalchemy.com/our-difference/

04/05/2019

In our desire to make the Food + Beverage world a more ethical and sustainable place, we've come across some great resources to help our clients make better business choices and decisions. Here's one that everyone, businesses or individuals, should get familiar with.

Established in 1995, DSIRE is the most comprehensive source of information on incentives and policies that support renewables and energy efficiency in the United States.

The most comprehensive source of information on incentives and policies that support renewables and energy efficiency in the United States. Managed by NCSU.

09/21/2018

"Et tu, Taylor?"

Sources say owner Casey Patten's meeting with President Trump hurt business. The company says it grew too fast.

11/10/2017

Retaliation: adverse action(s) that a company takes against an employee because he or she filed a complaint about harassment or discrimination. Adverse action can include actions such as firing the employee, giving them negative evaluations, disciplining or demoting them, reassigning them or reducing their pay.

Protection against retaliation doesn't just apply to the person who filed the complaint, it also applies to anyone who participates in the investigation that arose from the complaint. This means that employees who are interviewed regarding a complaint cannot be retaliated against because they participated in the investigation.

11/07/2017

Microaggressions: the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.

11/06/2017

Now Serving: Good Business

After many years of working on all sides of the Food + Beverage industry 100 Proof Strategies has engaged with thousands of hospitality professionals across the country and found a tragic common denominator of employer-related abuses ranging from immoral or unscrupulous, to patently criminal. From local watering holes, neighborhood restaurants and fine dining ratings darlings, to national chains, nightclubs or sporting arenas, both the vast number of offenses committed against employees, and the frequency of their occurrence, are all too alarming. But far more destabilizing to our industry is the absence of accountability and appropriate consequences for the offending employers.

Today we launch Now Serving: Good Business, a series of resources based on our goal of improving working conditions for every hospitality professional:
1.) to aide all hospitality professionals, particularly the non-unionized population, with employer-related abuses, grievances and mediation.
2.) to work with stakeholders and hold accountable offending employers, pursue policy changes or other remedies, and monitor and evaluate their implementation.
3.) to recognize, celebrate and support Food + Beverage businesses who are committed to developing best practices in HR and employee relations.
4.) to advance and expand the capacity and opportunity of disenfranchised or underrepresented populations within the Food + Beverage industry who seek to incubate a safe employee space.

Anyone who is (or has) experienced unfair or unethical treatment in the Food + Beverage workplace can now get free resources and support, maintain their anonymity, and be a catalyst for change in our great industry. We believe that every Food + Beverage workplace should be a safe place to work.

If you have experienced employer abuses in a Food + Beverage workplace such as:
+ Administrative action
+ Assault (physical, sexual, etc.)
+ Coercion
+ Discrimination
+ Fines
+ Harassment
+ Nepotism
+ Quid pro quo
+ Racism
+ Retaliation
+ Schedule manipulation
+ Stalking
+ Suspension
+ Termination
+ Threats
+ Unpaid hours/wages

Contact us immediately:
[email protected]

Please share this information with your colleagues and networks.

06/20/2017

Demystifying Gratuity In America:

In the last few weeks I've seen recurring arguments about gratuity in the Food + Beverage industry. Please take a moment and share this with any and everyone you can, because in many of the conversations I've observed people saying that there is a lack of awareness about the proper "etiquette," which is a terribly misleading word to use as it relates to gratuity (more on that later).

1.) Gratuity Is Not A Reward/Bonus For "Good" Service

Good service is one of the most subjective things on earth. Did they make eye contact? Did they smile, fold your napkin and incessantly refill your water? What about their tone and inflections? Or their physical appearance? Sure, all of those things matter and impact your experience as a guest. But that has absolutely nothing to do with the gratuity standard. There is no "etiquette" or politeness to paying for things. There is a standard, and then there is generosity above that standard.

Gratuity is a system. Not for rewarding the person standing in front of you, but for supporting the entirety of the venue you're sitting in. Non-unionized independent Food + Beverage establishments are notoriously low-margin businesses. The federal government, and most local governments, have established wage classes and various protections for the service industry professionals. This creates an opportunity of scale, particularly for small, local and independent establishments who wouldn't be able to absorb higher wages without drastic price increases to offset the cost.

You would be understandably angry if your anticipated paycheck was ever short, but when you pay less than the standard gratuity that is exactly what you're doing to others.

2.) Gratuity Is Not "Optional"

Yes, the line is blank. And yes, you can fill in any amount you would like. But when you don't leave the standard gratuity, you are gaming the system. Let me say that more poignantly, you are stealing money from people's paychecks. Not just the server who had the misfortune of you being seated in their section. Depending on staffing structure, that gratuity lands in the hands of several other employees within a venue. The standard gratuity is a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) formula for the service industry. The line is not blank for you to arbitrarily decide what is appropriate. The line is blank because the standard changes over time with the economy. Generosity is anything above the standard, and that is at your discretion, of course. But anything below it is unacceptable and immoral.

The Food + Beverage gratuity standard in most metropolitan areas is 20% of the pre-taxed amount. It may be slightly less in some rural areas. But I also need to mention a word here about discounts. If your bill is discounted by the house, or if you are using any coupons, deals or promotions that deflate the full cost on what you are served, it is important for you to factor the full cost into the gratuity. So if your $100 check is discounted 50%, you should still be calculating a standard gratuity of $20. That makes perfect sense, right? Good.

3.) Gratuity Benefits The Consumer

That gratuity line at the bottom of your check is at the bottom for a reason. Anything above that line is subject to taxation. So the argument that restaurants should be paying the full wage to its employees is actually hurting the consumer. Food, labor and operational costs are already staggeringly high in the United States compared to many other countries. The average restaurant would have to increase prices by more than 30% to take in enough revenue if they had to pay direct wages. That means the $100 meal that you didn't want to tip $20 on is now at least $130 plus tax. Using a tax rate of 10%, the difference in the gratuity system and a full wage system ($130 vs. $143) is pretty stark.

That's not to say that bars and restaurant shouldn't be doing more to competitively and fairly compensate their staff, but that's a can of worms to open for another post altogether.

4.) Gratuity Should Be In Cash Whenever Possible

Credit/debit card fees are the devil. And that's all I have to say about that.

If you are an operator in need of support to grow and scale your Food + Beverage business, feel free to send us an e-mail: [email protected]

05/25/2017

As if we needed another reason to eat ice cream...

Ben & Jerry's bans same-flavored scoops in support of marriage equality in Australia.