A bar has a problem a restaurant does not: buying prices move more often than the list. Duty, exchange rates, a supplier change, the end of a batch of a particular whisky — and the item on the list stops matching reality.
With a printed list the answer is always the same: either stick a correction over it, or keep selling at the old price until the next print run.
Three things paper cannot handle
Availability. The bottle runs out on Friday at 22:00. The list offers it until Monday, and the bartender apologises at every order — at the worst possible moment, because the guest has already chosen.
Happy hours. An offer running 16:00–19:00 looks like a footnote on paper. On a digital list the item either appears or does not, depending on the hour.
Cocktail rotation. A bar with its own list changes items every season, sometimes every month. Each change is a design job and a print run.
The cocktail description sells on its own
A drinks list is where description has the most force: at 30–40 items the guest does not know half the names. Somebody who does not recognise a house name chooses by the ingredients and by what they expect.
On paper a description costs space, which is why bar lists usually stop at a name and a price. On a digital list space costs nothing, so every cocktail can carry a line about how it tastes and what you are committing to: dry or sweet, strong or light, citrus or herbal.
A photo works harder here than on a food menu. A cocktail is chosen by eye.
Alcohol and allergens
A drinks list carries the same information duty as a food menu. Usually it comes down to two things:
- sulphites in wine — above the 10 mg/l threshold they have to be declared;
- gluten in beer — which covers practically every barley and wheat beer.
Add milk in creamy cocktails, egg in the classics with a foam, and nuts in liqueurs. Details are in the allergens on the menu guide.
The wine list as part of the bar list
A separate wine list makes sense where wine is the point of the venue. In a bar it usually works better as a category in the shared list: the guest sees it while deciding what to drink, rather than after asking for a separate document.
How to build and price it is in the piece on the wine list.
Where to put the code in a bar
A bar differs from a restaurant in its lighting and in the fact that guests often stand. A code under 4 × 4 cm scans badly in low light.
- at the bar top, somewhere lit — contrast drops in the evening, and a code in half-darkness reads worse;
- on the tables for those who sit;
- not flat on the bar itself — it will be soaked by the first spilled drink.
Test the code in the evening under real lighting, not during the day. It is the most common rollout mistake in a bar — details in eight mistakes.
When a bar does not need this
A bar with twenty items that do not change all year is served by a board and a printed list. A QR menu starts to earn its place with house cocktails, a rotating tap offer and international guests.
See QR menu for bars.
Frequently asked questions
Can a drinks list show happy hours automatically?
Items can be switched on and off, so a time-limited offer appears and disappears without printing. The exact mechanism depends on the system — what to ask a provider is in ten questions.
Do allergens have to be marked on a drinks list?
Yes. Most often it is sulphites in wine and gluten in beer, but also milk and egg in cocktails.
Does a QR code work in low light?
It does, if it has contrast and is lit. A code on a dark background or in an unlit corner of the bar scans badly — check it in the evening, not during the day.
