Diners often want to see a menu to choose the drink that will go best with their meal. Presenting your guest with a well-made drink menu template allows them to take the time they need to choose, without feeling overwhelmed. Consider this as a marketing tool or a simple impression-creating tool. As such, it’s important to have an aesthetic design to show off what you’re offering.
Drink Menu Templates
How do I make a drink menu?
You can design your drink menu template with a lot of fun but the contents should depend on how you look at things. If you think about it, designing this template is not as complicated as that of a food menu.
Still, you may want to stick with similar guidelines used when preparing menus for food or desserts. Here are a few pointers to consider for your drinks menu designs:
- Follow the trends
There should be a variety in what you have to offer. Giving your customers the same thing, every time is not a good idea. When it comes to marketing your beverages, you have to keep up with trends.
Before you think about what types of drinks to put on your list, it is highly recommended to become an avid fan of mixology podcasts and blogs. Mixologists from all across the country rely on the information they provide. They have already done the research so you don’t have to. - Highlight your specialty drinks
The restaurant business is already a tough market and to gain an advantage over your competition, you must create a menu with offerings that customers can only avail of at your restaurant.
A great way to make yourself unique is to pair your special drinks with meals or desserts. This way, your customers can enjoy the flavorful combinations – then they would keep coming back for more. - Exercise your creativity when thinking about the names of your drinks
Generally, the wine list presented to customers is already straight forward. But you can be more flexible by giving your other beverage creations unique names. When choosing these, find something unique or names that reflect your restaurant’s theme.
Maybe you’re lucky enough to have a famous mixologist who will attract customers to your restaurant. You can go further with this benefit by using the name of the mixologist in one of the beverages. - Add images taken by a professional food photographer
The better your pictures, the more attractive they will be. Taking a photo of a drink might sound easy but taking it to benefit your business is a different thing. Hire a professional to do the job as they know precisely how to highlight your beverages to their full advantage. - Generate anticipation through killer descriptions
After your mixologist has created flavorful and unique masterpieces, you’re not done yet. You should have had the drink taste-tested, give it a cool name, and have a professionally-trained photographer take photos of it.
To really sell your creation, you should have a well-written description of the drink – one that will sell it. Start this by including all of the ingredients used in each cocktail. Start with the ingredient with the highest concentration. Follow this up with a short description meant to entice your customers into trying the drink out.
Drinks Menu Designs
How do I create a menu template?
An effective drink menu template should be both complete and well-designed. It should contain relevant information about the drinks that you offer. Here are the simple steps to follow when creating your alcohol menu design:
- Choose a theme
A great beverage menu should have a motif or theme. Use this theme when planning the format, layout, and overall appearance of your printed menu. - Add all of the relevant information on the template
Once you have chosen the theme of your menu, it is now time to collect all of the beverage items you intend to include. These include the photos, descriptions, and price lists. You should save this information in a different file or write it down on a sheet of paper before you start designing the template. - Download a template
To make things easier in creating your menu, use a template. You can download one online. Just make sure to choose a printable template with a design that matches either your marketing theme or your restaurant’s brand image. - Customize the template as needed
Next, open the downloaded template on the design software of your choice. Once open, replace all of the text and image placeholders with your beverage menu information. Don’t forget to incorporate your business’ letterhead, slogan or logo into the template. Once done, save the final template on your computer for future use. - Print out your template to check how it looks
You can now print your restaurant’s own menu template. If you’re creating your own printouts either at the office or at home, make sure you have the right cardstock or paper. Another alternative is to save the template file in a flash drive then have it printed at your local printing shop. They can take care of all the aspects of printing to make things easier for you.
When making different drink menus
If you are planning to have different drink menu templates, preparing a streamlined procedure should be your strategy. The best solution is to use a menu making software that allows you to:
- Manage all of your drink and cocktail menu templates in one place.
- Transfer your style and design to all of your templates.
- Use a single process for updating all of your templates
Alcohol Menu Designs
How often should you change your menu?
If the demand for your beverages results in having to change your drink menu template frequently, then it’s recommended to use a menu maker software or a downloaded to allow easy and quick updates while maintaining proper formatting for everything.
If there is a need to frequently update your menu, using printable templates designed for optimized, quick updating, will save you a lot of effort and time whenever you need to make changes.
As such, you can dedicate the hours that you save to high-leverage projects that will bring your business to a higher level. This is especially true if you have rotational wine, spirits or beer program or some other promotional offer at your establishment.