Food & Beverage

3 ways fast casuals can boost check spend with 'crossover cocktails'

Fast casual is the ideal segment to capitalize on the trend of combining wine, beer or spirits, according to Zach Poelma, SVP of Supplier Strategy & Insights, at Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits.

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May 29, 2024

When it comes to dining options, cocktails have historically had a very clearly defined home in consumers' minds in casual dining, polished dining and fine dining restaurants. Fast casual concepts have often been overlooked as a beverage alcohol opportunity in recent years, outside of carrying a couple of beer brands and maybe wine in a can. However, with fast casual restaurant growth continuing to outpace other options and consumers' preference for cocktails, there's an opportunity for these concepts to embrace, "crossover cocktails," which combine wine, beer or spirits to create new cocktail creations. Restaurants should take advantage of this consumer interest in wine and spirits-based cocktails by focusing on the following three themes.

1. Understand your core consumer
Your crossover cocktail options need to reflect choices that relate most closely to your consumer base. We continue to see consumers aged 21 to 34 seeking out lower alcohol, sparkling cocktails with a more refreshing tilt, such as the spritz. If the majority of your consumers fall into this demographic, shouldn't at least one spritz option be on your menu? This also works great if you don't have a spirits license since you can still serve a crossover cocktail by serving a wine-based cocktail. We also see in different data points that younger consumers seek occasions for non-alcoholic cross-over cocktails, such as during the week. Are you ensuring there's at least one option on the menu to capitalize on this and drive a higher ticket? Flavors also come and go depending on the season, so offering up a single new crossover cocktail option every three or four months also allows you to stay relevant with your core consumer, while also keeping things fresh. Finally, wine and spirits-based RTDs are an easy way to align with the shifting consumer preferences and the demand for cross-over cocktails.

2. Keep It Simple
There is a common thought that customers are looking for more options and choices. Often this is not reality. While consumers say they want choice, they also get overwhelmed. Consistency, quality and value play a much greater role than having to ponder over a decision while ordering, especially when you think about the exact definition of a fast casual restaurant. For example, did you know that the most popular cocktail in an account is the Margarita? Knowing that, couldn't a fast casual brand have a Sparkling Crossover Margarita and then also have that same bottle of sparkling wine (which also happens to be the fastest-growing wine category and over-indexes with fast casual segments core consumers) available for sale by the glass? Now, consumers have two choices without the operator having to add complexity to their restaurant with additional products. Focusing on a crossover cocktail menu that can leverage similar ingredients across each option while focusing on carrying only three core base spirits and wine products and one non-alc option can streamline your business while still providing an opportunity to create and develop a strong crossover cocktail menu.

3. Price it right
Much of the success within the fast casual segment has come from balancing quality, speed and price. If your crossover cocktail menu doesn't reflect this same approach, you'll lose interest from your customers. Try to make sure that the cocktails on your menus are priced about the same as your core food offering and wherever possible, around $10 max. Going above this likely puts an individual meal and cocktail well above $20, which for many consumers will force them to stay away from the crossover cocktail menu option all together. Fewer ingredients, simple to make, and affordable pricing should allow you to sell more meals with these crossover options, ultimately driving a higher check.

In closing, crossover cocktails have just really begun to emerge over the last couple of years across more restaurants and bars. Fast casual represents the ideal segment to capitalize on this movement as wine and spirits brands seek out less traditional channels for growth, and consumers seek additional non-and-low alcohol cocktail options. Industry surveys over the last few years indicate that anywhere from 25% to a third of consumers choose restaurants based on the alcoholic beverage selection. Fast casual chains need to take advantage of this opportunity by embracing the cocktail crossover culture, particularly during the dinner day-part, which is critical for this segment of dining.