March 10, 2025 • 51 mins
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Curious about how restaurants can effectively implement NA beverage programs?
Join us for a transformative conversation as Dana Bonelli, a veteran in the wine and spirits industry, unveils the evolution of inclusivity in the non-alcoholic (NA) beverage space. Discover how the hospitality sector has shifted from exclusive, patriarchal beginnings to a more welcoming and inclusive environment. Dana reflects on her journey starting in the mid-90s and provides a comprehensive look at the industry's progress in response to technological advancements, cultural changes, and increasing consumer demand for wellness-oriented options.
As restaurants adapt to evolving guest preferences, the right technology can make all the difference in streamlining operations and ensuring seamless service. From automated oil management to kitchen efficiency solutions, Restaurant Technologies helps operators reduce waste, improve safety, and free up time to focus on hospitality.
Chapters:
00:00:08 - Inclusive Hospitality Evolution in Non-Alcohol Sector
00:07:57 - Shift to Inclusive Non-Alcoholic Beverages
00:19:28 - Expanding Non-Alcoholic Beverage Categories
00:34:50 - Navigating Non-Alcoholic Beverage Programs
00:43:04 - Crafting a Non-Alcoholic Beverage Program
00:48:54 - Future of Non-Alcoholic Hospitality
Dana shares invaluable best practices, from staff education to legal considerations, ensuring these offerings seamlessly enhance the dining experience. We explore the rise of diverse NA beverage subcategories, such as functional beverages, cannabis-infused drinks, and de-alcoholized wines, highlighting their potential to cater to a broader audience and elevate menu offerings. Dana underscores the importance of these trends, emphasizing their long-term viability and transformative impact on the hospitality landscape.
Finally, Dana offers a glimpse into the future of NA hospitality, encouraging industry professionals to embrace and integrate these inclusive practices. We discuss the strategic benefits and positive momentum of investing in high-quality NA options, with practical advice tailored for restaurant operators. Tune in to gain a deep understanding of how the NA beverage movement is reshaping hospitality and why it’s here to stay, providing a roadmap for creating more inclusive, welcoming dining experiences for all.
Resources:
Dana Bonelli
Wine Company of Minnesota
St. Agrestis Phony Negroni
CHOW
12 Day Leadershi
More from Christin:
Grab your free copy of my audiobook, The Hospitality Leader's Roadmap: Move from Ordinary to Extraordinary at christinmarvin.com/audio
Curious about one-on-one coaching or leadership workshops? Click this link to schedule a 15 minute strategy session.
Podcast Production: https://www.lconnorvoice
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
94% of consumers purchasing non-alcoholic
beverages in restaurants arealso purchasing alcohol.
Dana Bonelli has worked in thewine and spirits industry since
2003, having held nationalleadership roles for two major
US importers, as well asexecutive-level distribution
roles.
She currently works as aportfolio director for the Wine
(00:30):
Company of Minnesota, afamily-owned wholesaler of fine
wine, craft spirits and, mostrecently, adult non-alcohol
products.
She is passionate about thebargaining NA space and
approaches her work andmessaging to the on-premise
trade around the philosophy andvalue proposition of inclusive
hospitality.
(00:50):
In this episode, we will covertopics such as the evolution of
inclusive hospitality over thelast 20 years, the different
drink categories in thenon-alcohol space, best
practices on how to start yourown NA program at your
restaurant, the watchouts forkids ordering non-alcoholic
drinks and share some of ourfavorite brands in the space
(01:12):
today.
Welcome to the RestaurantLeadership Podcast, the show
where restaurant leaders learntools, tactics and habits from
the world's greatest operators.
I'm your host, kristen Marvin,with Solutions by Kristen.
I've spent the last two decadesin the restaurant industry and
(01:32):
now partner with restaurantowners to develop their leaders
and scale their businessesthrough powerful one-on-one
coaching, group coaching andleadership workshops.
This show is complete withepisodes around coaching,
leadership development andinterviews with powerful
industry leaders.
(01:52):
You can now engage with me onthe show and share topics you'd
like to hear about, leadershiplessons you want to learn and
any feedback you have.
Simply click the link at thetop of the show notes and I will
give you a shout out on afuture episode.
Thanks so much for listeningand I look forward to connecting
(02:19):
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Hi Dana, thank you so much forbeing here.
Super excited to learn more.
Hi Dana, thank you so much forbeing here, super excited to
(04:08):
have you on the show today.
Hey Kristen, hi, how are you,I'm great.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I'm so good, thanks, I love.
In your bio you talk about theconcept of inclusive hospitality
.
Would you say a little bit moreabout what you mean by that and
how the NA space is having animpact on creating a more
inclusive environment forrestaurant guests?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
and staff.
Yeah, okay.
So first of all, thank you somuch for the opportunity to talk
about this topic, which I thinkis so prescient right now in
the space of hospitality, andit's collision, whether by
accident or intentionally, withthe NA space which is, as we
know, just growing by leaps andbounds right now and sort of
(04:58):
blowing up, if you will I comefrom my origin story is like
going all the way back to beinga teenager working in
restaurants uh, long, long timeago now.
But, um, I learned about thehospitality industry long before
I went into the world of drinksand working in the distribution
world and at its core, you know, hospitality is, I think,
(05:20):
pretty intrinsic for us as humanbeings.
It's just this very sort ofinnate concept that we look to
be friendly, we look to begenuine and authentic towards a
stranger when we welcome theminto, whether it's our home or
our place of business right, sothis isn't complicated and
(05:41):
hospitality can take differentshapes and forms depending on
the cultural and history of that, cultural implications and
history of that culture.
But at its core, worldwide, itis pretty basic.
It's just the idea that you'recreating a very generous sort of
receptive environment forpeople who don't necessarily
(06:05):
know each other immediately whenthey come into a public space.
So we got that right.
Everybody understands that, soI don't want to over-explain it.
But when we bring in the ideaof inclusivity into and marry it
with the word hospitality, Ithink that there might be a
little bit of a tendency rightnow to over-complicate that.
When fact it's also just sortof taking the idea of
(06:30):
hospitality into more of ahyperbolic state.
And when we hyphenate or we addthe word inclusivity or
inclusive hospitality, put thetwo together.
It's just the idea that youwould go above and beyond your
normal way of being hospitableto your customer or your guest
(06:50):
by making sure that you are kindof covering all of these bases.
That does not exclude any oneindividual when you welcome them
in, and this can mean so manythings.
You're probably already, as arestaurant operator, doing
diligence around this when itcomes to making sure that an
(07:13):
elderly person is comfortablecrossing the threshold of your
establishment or a person withany type of needs that they're
going to be met.
And so when we talk about thenon-alcoholic space, it's an
opportunity for us to beinclusive when we set the table
literally for our guests.
(07:34):
So, yeah, it's doing diligencearound that and really
ultimately kind of doing a corevalues exercise as a business
owner around what not onlyhospitality means to you and
your team, but what the idea ofmaking it totally inclusive
could also mean Love it.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So you've been in the game for a while.
Take us back to 2003 and yourstart in the wine and spirits
industry.
How have you seen inclusivityand hospitality change over
those years?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Oh, wow, okay, that's a that's a good question.
Yeah, and my story inhospitality actually goes back
into the mid nineties, so beinga teenager working in
restaurants, but, you know, toformalize my career, it is about
20 years old now.
It's scary, but yeah, if we'regoing back to circa 2003,.
(08:33):
There just really wasn't muchin the way of a broad lens in
and around this conversation,which is not to say that people
were not well-intended.
I think people were, just wereliving the way they were living
back then, but the Wine andSpirits business back then was
(08:55):
certainly not turning an eyetowards you know, broadening an
offering for people outside of.
You know the sort of formalhistorical categories you know.
Even when it comes to back then, when it came to learning about
(09:17):
wine, for example, it was sortof a category that was shrouded
in secrecy, veryinstitutionalized, very much an
old boys club.
You really had to approach itacademically and attack it from
like, you know a textbook, likea literal.
(09:39):
You had to have literal books,you know, to learn about it.
And then you had to surroundyourself by this.
You know sort of esoteric, um,ivory tower group of elders who
could teach you the way.
Uh, and that's how I came up inthe industry.
Honestly, um, I came up in theindustry learning about wine and
(09:59):
then later, spirits, um, byjust gaining access to, uh, you
know a small group of people whohad the knowledge that I sought
to be transferred to me, right,and so of course, all of this
changed when we, with the adventof the iPhone and our ability
to have a supercomputer on ourperson at all times.
(10:20):
But, yeah, in the olden days,you know, it was an old boys
club and you had to learn on thejob and you had to surround
yourself with the sort of anelite group of people who had
that information and the powerto transfer that information.
Yeah, and you had to beaccepted right, you had to be
accepted.
(10:41):
Yeah, yeah, and I just want tosay that you know that group and
, look, there are many people inthat group in my experience who
are very generous with me withtheir time and their knowledge,
but ultimately it was a.
It was a real patriarchal poolI decided to dive into and it is
what it is.
But you know, fortunately thathas changed, it has evolved
(11:03):
there.
You know, inside of theindustry there's a lot more
equity from a gender standpoint.
I would say it's been a slowclimb.
That all being said, it iscompletely different for young
people coming into the industrynow.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Hey there, podcast friends, I hope you're enjoying
these impactful conversationsand leadership insights I'm
bringing you each week.
Before we dive back intotoday's episode, I want to take
a moment and reach out and ask asmall favor that would go a
long way in supporting the showa rating and review wherever you
(11:41):
listen to your podcasts.
Not only does it make my day,but it also plays a pivotal role
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Your reviews boost myvisibility, attract new
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So if you want to be part of myshow's growth journey, hit that
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(12:03):
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think.
Thanks a million for beingawesome listeners.
Yeah, so it's really impactedeverybody in the industry, right
?
It's impacted the products thatare served to, that are offered
from the suppliers torestaurants, both you know, and
on-premise and off-premise.
There's been this huge shiftthat's happening now and some
people keep asking me is NA atrend?
(12:25):
And I say no, it's not a trend,it's a movement.
This is here to stay.
So get on board.
This isn't something that'sgoing to be hot for a couple
months and then fade out foryour business?
When did you start to see thatshift happen and realize that NA
(12:46):
was something, was a categoryand area that you really wanted
to put your time and focus into?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, it's a great question.
It's hard for me to reallypinpoint the exact.
You know there certainly wasn'tlike a aha moment that I had
personally or that you know,someone brought me all of this
great data that I was able to,like, make a data-driven
decision around.
You know, I really startedpaying attention to the NA space
, I would say in the second halfof 2021.
(13:17):
So, you know, we're in thesecond more or less full
calendar year of COVID.
I think there were some earlyinklings, you know, not inside
the industry per se, but just agroundswell of, you know, people
in the US and culturally, wherepeople were starting to sort of
question their relationshipwith alcohol after the.
(13:40):
I mean, look, we all know therewas a lot of heavy drinking
going on during 2020 and into2021.
And the industry datasubstantiates, you know, those
consumption trends having grownsubstantially during that period
of time.
You know we won't get into whythat happened today, but, that
all being said, like you know,it was a pretty good time to be
(14:04):
a retailer in the alcoholindustry those years.
So, late 21, I started payingattention.
I was starting to see beverageson the market that I wasn't
able to sort of put in a tidysort of neat existing bucket.
Categorically, things likefunctional beverages were
(14:25):
starting to catch my eye, drinksthat were geared towards, you
know, perhaps, my demographic,like a middle-aged woman, you
know, who was interested inconsuming less sugar on a
day-to-day, more transparency inlabeling and then certainly a
(14:52):
bit of a sea change.
I was starting to see that timejust moving in the direction of
conversation around health andwellness and then ultimately
mental health.
So, big picture, I was startingto pick up on that.
I'm certainly a targetdemographic for all of the
wellness products that exist inthe world.
(15:12):
And my yeah and my, you know myInstagram feed is my phone's
listening to me right now.
It's chock full of all thegoopy things and all of the woo
things that money can buy.
And so, you know, just as aconsumer outside of my work in
the drink space, you know I wasthe target audience for that.
(15:34):
So, okay, my paying attention,you know, probably was
accelerated by the ads that Iwas being targeted by on social
media.
But but, yeah, I mean there wasa lot happening.
I mean there had certainly beena good body of work in the
on-trade, in the mixologycommunity, in and around doing
(15:55):
R&D behind the bar and notoutsourcing that.
And so lots of talented peoplewere starting to work
independently in the on-premisespace certainly in my market
developing the parts of thewhole or the builds of,
ultimately, what would become anon-alcoholic cocktail or, you
(16:15):
know, a full strength cocktail.
But those sometimes adaptogenicingredients were being siloed
and understood and we werestarting to develop a
nomenclature around like whatare these plants?
What do they do for the body?
How do we ingest them?
And then, ultimately, how couldthey wind up in a drink in a
liquid form, right?
(16:36):
So, getting outside of thehealth and wellness space and
into the on-premise trade andthen ultimately retail, of
course, the advent andinsurgence of ready to drink
also, I think, has propelled theidea that not only can we
package these goods to consumers, but that a home bartender
(17:01):
whether they're making again anon-alcoholic cocktail or a
full-strength cocktail withalcohol could also incorporate
some of these new ingredients,often plant-based, into their
palates of ingredients.
So, looking ahead, we reallygot formally into the game in
(17:22):
2022 and started to put someintention behind not only
bringing products to market, butstarting to lead a conversation
inside the trade, in and aroundthe idea that there were simple
two things that we could affectthings that we could affect the
(17:46):
bottom one, the bottom line ofour customers, by being
consultative to them in theirbeverage programs and
highlighting the opportunityaround non-alcoholic beverages
and products, but also toultimately widen the lens on
this notion of inclusion andhospitality for that literal
table setting for their guest.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I love it.
I want to talk about, spendsome time talking about the
value proposition here, but I'dlike to go back to the
functional beverage category,because there it's, and I'd love
for you to talk a little bitmore about what the function,
what a functional beverage is,and then the rest of the
categories that are in thenon-alcoholic space, because
there's many, many of them.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, I mean a functional beverage at its core.
It's pretty simple.
It's a drink that is designedto have a specific health
benefit to its consumer.
Many of us already areconsuming functional beverages
unknowingly.
So an energy drink, I mean,that's kind of the OG of the
functional beverage world.
(18:47):
I'm not going to name names,but I'm sure we can all think of
one.
It has an animal on the label.
We used to mix it with vodka.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yeah, my husband might work for the company.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yeah, yeah, we used to mix it with vodka in the year
2000 if you were you know, 23years old, uh, when that was
happening, like I was, um, soyou know.
So, energy drinks, for sure, um, you know, and and by proxy
sports drinks like Gatorade is afunctional beverage, you know,
cause like we're trying toaffect.
(19:17):
We're trying to affect a healthoutcome by consuming, uh, an
electrolyte based beverage,right, so anything that's going
to help your health, help youout, help you, whatever cures
what ails you, kind of thing.
But as we've kind of gone intolike the 2 and 3.0 mode on
functional beverages, we'regoing above and beyond.
(19:39):
Now we're talking aboutadaptogenic beverages and those
are just drinks that havecomponents that would help the
nervous system regulate, help usmanage stress.
There are other functionalbeverages on the market now that
would help us, for example,create a mood or a sense of,
(20:00):
like a vibe, right, when we'renot drinking.
And, um, yeah, there's a lotout there that, uh, you know,
has come online even in the lastyear, uh, in the NA space.
That would help, um, I don'twant to use the word help but,
like you know, give the consumerthe opportunity, uh, in their
(20:20):
evening to, instead of choosingalcohol, which is, as we know, a
depressant, choose a moodlifting drink that doesn't have
alcohol but still gives us.
You know the ritual around theway we consume alcohol and you
know potentially like easesocial tension or give, give you
a little bit of energy, or lift, et cetera.
(20:41):
Other OG functional beverageswould include, like herbal tea.
So it's a big category andwe've been consuming these
beverages for a long time.
But again, just withoutattaching like jargon, right,
(21:04):
yeah, so sorry, you had a secondquestion for me.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, would you talk about the other categories
beyond functional beverages inthe non-alcoholic space?
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, so this is interesting because I think it's
a very easy and sort of normaltendency for us to just sort of
think of non-ELK or NA.
But what does it mean?
Right, and it's awesome that wehave now subcategories that we
want to divide and conqueracross, because it used to be
(21:32):
that we could check a box as acertainly as a distributor or a
restaurant owner, by saying, yes, we have an NA offering and
that includes soft drinks andyou know, a dusty bottle of
non-alcoholic beer that we keepnot even cold and there are two
(21:53):
people that work at therestaurant who could put their
hands on it.
Right, okay, so that's theolden days.
The future and this will changelike literally by the time you
timestamp this podcast.
The future is like that there'sall kinds of cool and amazing
stuff going on.
So we just talked aboutfunctional beverages.
They are technically asubcategory inside of, like the
(22:14):
big NA bucket.
Right, you have ready to drinks.
So sometimes that ready todrink, if you live in the state
of Minnesota, like I do, couldbe cannabis or hemp derived
based beverages.
Legal here will probably belegal elsewhere sooner than
(22:35):
later, certainly in states thatallow the sale of cannabis and
marijuana, and marijuana.
You've got ready-to-drinks alsothat are technically what we
would call cocktail cognates, oryou know, being direct analogs
to a cocktail.
One of the most famous outthere, the one that created sort
(22:56):
of the ready-to-drinknon-alcoholic cocktail
phenomenon, st Agrestus PhonyNegroni is a perfect example of
a product that was built forrestaurants single serve, zero
waste and a straight up a dupefor the real thing.
Many people actually can't tellif this particular ready to
(23:19):
drink cocktail cognate ready,you know is a non alcoholic
drink.
So that's a lot of words.
All is is a non-alcoholic drink.
So so that's a.
It's a lot of words.
All that being said, it's a.
It's a beautiful subcategorythat now exists, so I refer to
it as a cocktail cognate, butwe're still now in the ready to
drink world, if that makes sense.
Then you have, of course,de-alcoholized wine.
(23:41):
So you know what this is.
It's just like de-alcoholizedbeer.
It started out as a regularwine and then, through the magic
of reverse osmosis, had thealcohol spun out of it, and
that's down to 0.5 typically,although some of them are now
0.0.
And then you have this sort ofbig ubiquitous group called Wine
(24:05):
Alternatives, and WineAlternatives are gaining
momentum as options for peoplewho don't want a de-alcoholized
wine for whatever reason, butthey still want to enjoy the
ritual of wine.
They want to enjoy fruit acidtannin ultimately an adult
beverage with food.
(24:25):
So that's a big spectrum.
Again, if we were having thisconversation six months from now
, I'd probably be forgettingsomething.
So just to recap, you've gotready-to-drinks.
Some of them are cocktailcognates, some of them are more
in the soft drink world.
Some of them have the additionof THC derived from cannabis.
(24:49):
We've got functional beverages,we have de-alcoholized wine and
beer, and then we have what wewould call wine alternatives.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
So there's really something for everyone here.
I love you.
Know, when you were talkingabout the functional beverages,
I was immediately thinking thisis a perfect opportunity for
people to offer a functionalbeverage during the daytime.
Right, Breakfast, lunch service.
Coming from a restaurantperspective, this is a it's a
huge industry, right, it's oneof the top booming trends of
(25:20):
2024.
Nikki Sani, owner of Groovy,just posted a link this morning
on LinkedIn releasing some statsaround how big the industry is
so far in 2024.
And this is as of the end ofJuly.
The industry is at $423 million.
So, if the rest of the yeartracks pretty big, it's reaching
(25:45):
close to a billion dollars,which is incredible.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Right, there's so much opportunity here?
Yeah, and again, with thecaveat that we're talking about
and I'm not trying to be hung upon jargon, but we're talking
about the adult non-alcoholspace, so this would exclude the
classic categories of softdrinks.
This is not a diet Mountain Dewconversation.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Correct, right, right , yeah, and so he was surveying,
really looking at data for hisbrands, right?
The non-alcoholic beer, whichis really the force driving the
market here, and thennon-alcoholic cocktails and wine
, or not, not cocktails, butwine that they offer, offer as
well.
Talk a little bit about.
When you're in thisconsultative consultancy, I
(26:29):
can't say, say the word.
When you're consulting withrestaurants, um, what is the
value add for them?
And I'd love to hear what, ifthey're, how it's being received
?
Are they?
Are they coming in arms wideopen here?
Are they saying I'll make itourselves, don't worry about it,
we don't want your product?
Or is there pushback here?
So what's the value add forrestaurants?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, I mean let's go back to the data.
You know, if we're businesspeople who are just being data
driven and you know my job is tomake data driven decisions like
any business leader rightdecisions like any business
leader right we're collectivelyworking in a space to your point
of nearing $1 billion in theUnited States, so there's a lot
(27:16):
of money on the table.
There's a lot of revenue andprofitability that can impact
anybody's bottom line if theywant to dip their toe in the
water.
Another amazing data point youknow to kind of substantiate
like why is this happening?
I love this stat.
This is from our friends at theAdult Non-Alcoholic Beverage
Association, the ANBA.
They've got a great website ifyou haven't checked it out, but
(27:40):
they've come to the table at theend of the first quarter citing
the audience and defining theaudience around these products.
Obviously, people are spendinga lot of money on this.
Who are these people?
It turns out that it's everyone, because they were able to
collate this data and tell usthat 94% of consumers who are
(28:02):
purchasing in the adult NA spaceapropos to our conversation
today 94% of those consumersalso consume slash, buy alcohol.
So that's pretty much everybody.
Every human being with a bankaccount is buying inside this
(28:25):
space probably has.
Many of them have longhistories of buying products
inside of this space.
So I just want to put that dataout there because, yeah, it's
compelling, it's something topay attention to, if you're not
already.
You know, in our role as adistributor, you know again,
we've made the decision that wewant to be leaders in this space
(28:48):
.
We want to be the people out infront of educating around the
category.
It does require a lot ofdiligence and education because
we still see, you know, despitethe fact that, again, I'm in
Minnesota, which is ground zerofor the THC beverage space,
(29:08):
which is on fire, it is going tobe a $400 million category in
the state of Minnesota this year.
So just to say, like the doorhas been kicked wide open on the
NA beverage conversationgenerally, but that, all being
said, adult and a writ large, westill find that we have to have
(29:29):
sort of the origin valueproposition conversation with
most of our customers.
We work with about 500 to 600.
It varies every year because ofopening and closing in the
on-premise space, but we workwith, call it, about 500
restaurants in the state ofMinnesota, many of the merchant
bars too, and I would say that70% of the time, we are not only
(29:54):
the first distributor to comein with a compact offering that
covers all of the subcategories,but we're also the first
distributor that wants to takethe time to have the
conversation around, one, thevalue proposition on the space
and two and that would include aconversation around hospitality
(30:16):
and the concept of inclusivehospitality.
But two, the bottom line impactto that, to that restaurant.
You know it, it.
It is one at a time that weturn them, and most of our, most
(30:39):
of our customers who get onboard and decide to dip their
toe in the water later, thank usfor bringing them products that
are pretty risk-free, oftensingle serve, so that there's no
worry about waste or dumpingproducts down the drain.
But yeah, generally, kristen,we are still kind of doing the
(30:59):
heavy lift with the trade.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Unlock the skills to transform your leadership with
the Hospitality Leaders RoadmapMove from ordinary to
extraordinary, packed withpractical strategies to lead
with confidence and createlasting impact in your
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(31:24):
audio book today.
So, Dana, I want to go back tosomething really quick that you
mentioned.
You said this isn't just a GenZ thing.
Everyone is drinkingnon-alcoholic.
I have some friends that havesaid you know what, when I go
out, I like to have, I like tostart with an NA beverage and
then maybe I'll go into somealcohol with dinner.
(31:45):
Are you seeing that in yourregion?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
We for sure are.
Just, you know, again, there'sa big, bigger conversation, I
think, happening societallyaround moderation and
mindfulness, with alcoholconsumption and adult NA
beverages are the perfect, youknow, gateway for people to do
what you're describing.
(32:09):
They're actually technicallybeing now being called switchers
oh yeah, which I think is cute.
Okay, so let's just use thoseswitchers.
But yeah, the switcher is areal customer.
The switcher is the person who,for whatever reason, may be
(32:30):
choosing to drink less, may bechoosing not to drink.
Maybe they are a switcherMonday through Friday, and on
Saturday they like to drink, andthen on Sunday they don't drink
at all.
Ok, so let's just talk aboutthat consumer.
So when we have them sitting atour table in our restaurant or
(32:51):
our bar, the goal is it's thesame.
We want to upsell, like let'ssell dessert, let's sell herbal
tea, let's sell dessert wine,let's sell an aperitif.
You know, let's get as manybeverages on the table as
possible across the course oftheir dining experience.
So why then would we not servethe needs of the switcher right
(33:16):
and also allow them to feel likethey are adults out at night
spending money in a restaurantand not, you know, having the
sort of meager choices of clubsoda with lime or a tonic that
has a garnish in it which can bebeautiful, don't get me wrong
but that sort of those sort ofstaples of the NA list that are.
(33:38):
You know what I kind of think ofas like the equivalent of being
a vegetarian in the 90s.
And you know, lucky you,everyone, everyone else is
having a steak, or like lobsterat the table, and and your, your
option is a veggie burger, andso you've been sort of like
moved to the kids table, uh, inthat dining experience.
So so, yeah, back to that personwho is moderating, for whatever
(34:00):
reason, um, we know, regardlessof their demographic or their
reasons.
So, from Gen Z all the way tothe boomer, the common
denominator for people sittingthere spending money in your
restaurant is that they wantflavor and they want a flavor
experience that isn't going todisappoint them or subtract from
(34:22):
their overall experience.
So I put that out there forfood for thought, especially
given the enormous range ofoptions that we now have.
And then to sort of come backto that value proposition
(34:48):
conversation, we have done themath on our side and often, in
our role as consultants to ourcustomers, we want to
demonstrate that the poor costis actually more profitable on
adult single-serve NA productsthan alcohol, and alcohol has
long been the profit center ofmost restaurants, of most
(35:09):
restaurants, and so the net netis actually even better in adult
NA than it is in thetraditional alcohol profit and
loss sheet.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
That sounds a little scary for the alcohol industry.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Perhaps, but you know , at the end of the day, you
know it's still super profitable.
Yeah, so, and we'll, and we'llcontinue to be the preponderance
of like the business, right.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Yeah, I mean, I am.
I am talking to clients thatare seeing their liquor sales
drop significantly.
Yeah, Three to four to 5%,right, and and having to pivot
now and and this is new,something new that they've never
had to deal with before.
They're like I've never.
You know, a couple operatorsI've spoken with have said we've
never had to market our barprogram.
We, you know what?
How do we do this?
(35:54):
What do we do differently?
So I love that.
I love that you are havingsuccess with this and you
mentioned some of therestaurants that you're working
with are saying you know they'recoming back to you saying thank
you for this.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
What?
What is contributing to theirsuccess?
You know, for starters, I thinkthat there's just sort of an
organic groundswell arounddemand in the space.
Consumer behavior has changedand there's just a there's just
a natural demand that is sort ofdriving the growth.
I do think that there has beena good amount of education
(36:32):
around the space and the valueproposition.
I mean, I sound like I'mtalking out of both sides of my
mouth, but overall, not just inthe media but with consumers,
there is an understanding thatthere are options available.
So I do think that that isdriving it.
Sorry, we're going to have toedit.
(36:53):
I'm like sorry, yeah you'regood.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
No, you're good.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
You're good, let's start.
Can we do it over.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah, totally.
You want me to go back to thequestion?
Yeah, okay, so let's talk aboutwhat those restaurants that are
thanking you.
What is contributing to thesuccess of the NA program in the
restaurant?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, so it starts with staff education.
Typically we like to spend timewhen we can and you know this
goes back to our basicfundamentals around training
around alcohol.
It is no different.
It is in our role in supportingour customers.
It is no different.
It is in our role in supportingour customers.
When we are doing training onour alcohol products, we are
(37:46):
also simultaneously training onthe value proposition of the
adult non-alcoholic productsthat we're selling as well, you
know.
And then you know serving it up, if you will, as a way to
upsell the ticket and helpingthe server, helping the
bartender understand that itshouldn't be an afterthought but
it should be part of thepresentation of the beverage
program.
So when you leave the list atthe table, you're comfortable
(38:09):
navigating a conversation aroundwhat is a?
And then insert functionalbeverage what is a phony Negroni
, what is?
How is de-alcoholized wine made?
I didn't know that that existed.
So preparing, preparing thatstaff for those I mean difficult
(38:30):
questions, honestly, they'resecond nature to us around
alcohol, but not so much, notquite yet, around the
non-alcoholic offerings Such anopportunity to educate and offer
additional hospitality andcreate a different, memorable
(38:50):
experience for somebody, whichis so cool.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Now we talked about something pretty interesting
last time.
This is on, you know familyfour sits down at the table.
There's a non-alcohol categoryon the menu.
Johnny, eight-year-old, ordersa phony Negroni what?
Speaker 2 (39:09):
do you?
do yeah, what do you do?
This is a tough one, it's atough one for parents and it's a
tough one for restaurant owners.
I will say that while I am nota lawyer and I'm not giving
legal advice here, I dorecommend, if you are a
restaurant owner, that you checkwith your local laws, which are
(39:29):
often dictated at a municipallevel, around the service of
adult non-alcoholic products.
The case in point NA beer.
It's been around for a verylong time and it really gives us
good, it's a good guidepost foreverything else.
Okay, so you know this raisesthe conversation how are you
(39:56):
marketing your adult non-alcoholproducts?
Uh, on your menu?
Uh, you know.
So it of course depends on yourrestaurant concept, because not
every restaurant has astandalone drink list.
Uh, sometimes that drink listis it's a really casual
restaurant just wrapped into thefood menu.
It doesn't take up a lot ofreal estate on that document.
(40:18):
But if you are an establishmentwho has a proper beverage
program and you have a cocktaillist and you have a wine by the
glass list, my recommendation isthat you segment the adult
non-alcoholic offering on thatlist which is going to be handed
to the adults at the tableversus the non-adults.
(40:41):
Okay, so that's one sort ofprotective measure, because
there are laws out there thatsay you cannot sell a
non-alcoholic beer to a personunder the age of 18.
It's not true everywhere.
This is always at the state andthen city level.
So you do need to do diligenceon that.
(41:03):
If you have questions, you cancontact local lawmakers and or
your insurance company, becausethey will be able to give you
very clear information aboutthat.
But yeah, my recommendation isto pull it into the list that
you would give to the person whois old enough to buy alcohol in
the first place at that table.
I don't think most operatorswould want to see a 12-year-old
(41:29):
literally sitting at a bardrinking a non-alcoholic beer.
But again, that's a personaldecision for the business owner.
Other tips many of the mostprogressive lists out there are
showing the net ABV next to thebeverage.
(41:49):
So whether that is a Manhattanor a Phony Negroni, they're
going to show that net ABV andthen they mix it all together so
that when I'm ordering my phonyNegroni and it's sitting next
to the Manhattan or theold-fashioned, I'm also feeling
included when I point at thelist and order my zero alcohol
(42:13):
cocktail, um, but that everyonehas full clarity on which ride
they're getting on.
If you will, um yeah, then ofcourse there's.
We all know there's a big trendinside of the the slow and low
ABV categories as well.
Uh, so if that's part of yourbeverage program and you're
(42:37):
trying to position a lower ABVcocktail, it only stands to
reason that you would traversefrom zero all the way to the
highest proof or highest ABVcocktail on that list.
Hope that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, totally no.
And I love the point that youmade about, again, inclusivity
of where you're placing thoseNAs on the menu, right, because
I think it is a little.
It can be a little uncomfortablefor people that are not ready
to start telling their friendsor family or coworkers or
whoever they're dining with, hey, I'm not drinking, and so when
(43:19):
they look to maybe the bottomright corner of the menu,
they're kind of pointing in thatdirection of like here where my
options are.
But it's in.
If it's just included in thenormal categories, then you know
it's it's so much morecomfortable, I think.
So there's, there's so manyoptions available and I really
appreciate your insight and, youknow, taking the time to
educate the audience on all thedifferent categories and
everything that's available tothem.
But this is a, again, I thinkit's going to be something
that's with us for a long time.
For restaurants again, the onesthat you've seen success with
(43:42):
and if a restaurant is listeningto this show and they're really
curious about starting an NAprogram, what would you suggest
they do?
Where are they going to get thebest bang for their buck out of
the gate?
Speaker 2 (43:55):
So I always like to recommend that people sort of
walk before they run.
Do some research in your homemarket.
I always think it's interestingto R&D with your competitors,
but also with your peers, right?
So take a look if there's a youknow particular restaurant in
your market, or even nationallymost restaurants have their
(44:16):
lists online.
Do a little research, go out,go experience a meal in someone
else's establishment someone yourespect and see how they're
doing it, especially if they'vebeen highlighted as a leader in
this space.
So you know, good old-fashionedR&D is a great place to start.
(44:38):
But, yeah, the walk before yourun piece.
You don't need to throw thekitchen sink at this right away.
You know, dip a toe in thewater across the subcategories
so that you have representation.
I would recommend having, if youdon't already put a
non-alcoholic beer of quality onyour list there's, there is a.
(45:01):
Just any beer is amazing.
Now that you there are so manyquality options, many local
breweries in your hometownprobably are bringing something
to market that is trulyexcellent.
You could probably put it ondraft and have it ice cold,
which is where it tastes thebest.
So you know, check that outlike.
(45:22):
Challenge yourself a little bitto go outside of the
commoditized products, which arealso excellent.
I'm a huge fan of Guinness, I'ma huge fan of Stella.
You know they are very goodproducts.
But if, if supporting local isimportant to you, like, do check
out your backyard on themicrobrewery scene, you know, to
see if there's something greatBecause you might be able to
(45:44):
support, you know, a business inyour neighborhood by doing that
.
So, you know, check that beerbox, put some intention behind
it.
Next, find a greatde-alcoholized wine.
Take a look and try to findsomething that comes in a single
serve format like a 200milliliter, because then your
(46:06):
risk is way reduced.
You're not going to open thatbottle of sparkling NA and then
watch, you know, the bartenderthree days later dump it out
because it's lost carbonation.
So, you know, the bartenderthree days later dump it out
because it's lost, lostcarbonation.
So, um, you know, walk beforeyou run there but find something
that, um, you know hits yourpoor cost model in that space.
But is is well done.
(46:27):
And again, um, there are greatoptions out there.
I will my.
My pro tip here is that thesparkling de-alcoholized wines
tend to be, in my opinion, thebest on the market.
I really favor Prima Pave.
It comes in at 200 ml.
But check that out.
You know, de-alcoholized winecan be great.
(46:47):
They're dry and, again, thesparkling versions tend to mask
the flaws that are a littleeasier to detect with still
versions.
So do look at that and thenfind yourself a cocktail.
Cognate I think I've given theplug for St Agrestus funny
Negroni now four times.
But it really is that good andyou really cannot go wrong by
(47:12):
putting this product on yourlist.
That being said, it is a bitterdrink and not all human beings
are attracted to a bitter flavorprofile, so it can be a little
polarizing.
People either love it or it'sjust not for them.
But it is a great option.
Wine alternatives there's a lotof great single serves out there
.
Proxies has cans.
(47:34):
They're marvelous and again,you know the risk of sounding
like an old industry guardperson If it's cold it's sold,
and you know it's sold once youbring that can to the table and
pour it into an elegant glassnext to the can, if that's how
(47:55):
you want to serve it.
So I would look at that.
Above and beyond that, you know, if doing some R&D is important
or you have a more progressivelist, you know, then I would
suggest you want to move intosome house-made options again
that are lower in sugar, andthen also take a look at the
functional beverage space.
There's a lot of cool stuff onthe market.
(48:17):
Three Spirit is beautiful.
Curious Elixirs, which isreally marketed to the
on-premise segment, has somereally beautiful options.
Many of these products arebeing served at the best
restaurants in the US at thispoint.
So they've been vetted by, likeyou know, the SOM community.
They've been vetted by some ofthe most discerning chefs.
(48:38):
So, even looking at some ofthose lists, you know what is
the French Laundry doing, whatis you know what is Eleven
Madison Park doing, because theyhave all had to go down this
rabbit hole and serve the mostdiscerning customers.
So, yeah, that's my tip interms of research If you can
(49:00):
hitch your wagon to adistributor that can help guide
you, like the wine company,that's also a huge benefit too,
because if you trust thatdistributor and they've got the
expertise to, you couldoutsource this list to them.
That's another resource thatyou should consider you could
outsource this list to them.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
That's another resource that you should
consider.
Yeah, absolutely, and I agreewith you.
Craft beer is really drivingthe market right now in the NA
space, which is awesome, andthere's so many delicious
offerings out there.
I love the sparkling, thesingle service.
It's so great, it's so smartfor restaurants.
I'll put all the links toeverything that Dana just
mentioned in the show too, soyou can quick reference those.
Dana, how can people get a holdof you if they want to learn
(49:40):
more and if they want to workwith you?
Speaker 2 (49:43):
So we just serviced the state of Minnesota, kristen.
So unfortunately I'm not ableto affect anyone's business
outside of the state ofMinnesota at the distribution
level.
I can be reached at dana atthewinecompanynet, so dana at
thewinecompanynet.
So if you're in Minnesota,we're here to help Outside of
(50:03):
Minnesota.
Just at a consulting level, I'malways happy to talk shop with
industry peers and help guideother distributors who want to
invest in this space and sharewhat we've learned so far.
We've certainly made somemistakes already.
We've also had some tremendoussuccesses.
(50:25):
That being said, I encouragewhether you're a restaurant
operator and owner, or you'rerunning a beverage program or
you're on the distribution side,to take a very serious look at
this space.
Come on in the water's warm.
We're going to be doing thisfrom here on out.
I don't think that this is apassing fad or a trend that will
(50:47):
be punctuated by 2024 or 2025.
10 years from now, this will bethe new normal and for those of
us who are invested early anddoing the pioneer work you know
so far, all I have to say islike I'm here to testify that it
is gratifying work.
It is not a heavy lift, sodon't fear it.
(51:10):
There's a lot of opportunityand I feel just a tremendous
tailwind as we move further intothe space.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Yeah, I love it.
Dana, thanks for all the workthat you're doing in the space
and for the industry.
It's just incredible.
Thanks again for being heretoday, taking the time to work
with me not once, but twice.
Really appreciate that.
I'm glad we were able to getall of our tech stuff figured
out this time, so we'll stayconnected and talk to you very
(51:38):
soon.
That's going to do it for usthis week.
Everybody, please share thisshow with anyone in the
restaurant industry who couldbenefit and we will talk to you
next week.
94% of consumers purchasing non-alcoholic
beverages in restaurants arealso purchasing alcohol.
Dana Bonelli has worked in thewine and spirits industry since
2003, having held nationalleadership roles for two major
US importers, as well asexecutive-level distribution
roles.
She currently works as aportfolio director for the Wine
(00:30):
Company of Minnesota, afamily-owned wholesaler of fine
wine, craft spirits and, mostrecently, adult non-alcohol
products.
She is passionate about thebargaining NA space and
approaches her work andmessaging to the on-premise
trade around the philosophy andvalue proposition of inclusive
hospitality.
(00:50):
In this episode, we will covertopics such as the evolution of
inclusive hospitality over thelast 20 years, the different
drink categories in thenon-alcohol space, best
practices on how to start yourown NA program at your
restaurant, the watchouts forkids ordering non-alcoholic
drinks and share some of ourfavorite brands in the space
(01:12):
today.
Welcome to the RestaurantLeadership Podcast, the show
where restaurant leaders learntools, tactics and habits from
the world's greatest operators.
I'm your host, kristen Marvin,with Solutions by Kristen.
I've spent the last two decadesin the restaurant industry and
(01:32):
now partner with restaurantowners to develop their leaders
and scale their businessesthrough powerful one-on-one
coaching, group coaching andleadership workshops.
This show is complete withepisodes around coaching,
leadership development andinterviews with powerful
industry leaders.
(01:52):
You can now engage with me onthe show and share topics you'd
like to hear about, leadershiplessons you want to learn and
any feedback you have.
Simply click the link at thetop of the show notes and I will
give you a shout out on afuture episode.
Thanks so much for listeningand I look forward to connecting
(02:19):
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Hi Dana, thank you so much forbeing here.
Super excited to learn more.
Hi Dana, thank you so much forbeing here, super excited to
(04:08):
have you on the show today.
Hey Kristen, hi, how are you,I'm great.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I'm so good, thanks, I love.
In your bio you talk about theconcept of inclusive hospitality
.
Would you say a little bit moreabout what you mean by that and
how the NA space is having animpact on creating a more
inclusive environment forrestaurant guests?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
and staff.
Yeah, okay.
So first of all, thank you somuch for the opportunity to talk
about this topic, which I thinkis so prescient right now in
the space of hospitality, andit's collision, whether by
accident or intentionally, withthe NA space which is, as we
know, just growing by leaps andbounds right now and sort of
(04:58):
blowing up, if you will I comefrom my origin story is like
going all the way back to beinga teenager working in
restaurants uh, long, long timeago now.
But, um, I learned about thehospitality industry long before
I went into the world of drinksand working in the distribution
world and at its core, you know, hospitality is, I think,
(05:20):
pretty intrinsic for us as humanbeings.
It's just this very sort ofinnate concept that we look to
be friendly, we look to begenuine and authentic towards a
stranger when we welcome theminto, whether it's our home or
our place of business right, sothis isn't complicated and
(05:41):
hospitality can take differentshapes and forms depending on
the cultural and history of that, cultural implications and
history of that culture.
But at its core, worldwide, itis pretty basic.
It's just the idea that you'recreating a very generous sort of
receptive environment forpeople who don't necessarily
(06:05):
know each other immediately whenthey come into a public space.
So we got that right.
Everybody understands that, soI don't want to over-explain it.
But when we bring in the ideaof inclusivity into and marry it
with the word hospitality, Ithink that there might be a
little bit of a tendency rightnow to over-complicate that.
When fact it's also just sortof taking the idea of
(06:30):
hospitality into more of ahyperbolic state.
And when we hyphenate or we addthe word inclusivity or
inclusive hospitality, put thetwo together.
It's just the idea that youwould go above and beyond your
normal way of being hospitableto your customer or your guest
(06:50):
by making sure that you are kindof covering all of these bases.
That does not exclude any oneindividual when you welcome them
in, and this can mean so manythings.
You're probably already, as arestaurant operator, doing
diligence around this when itcomes to making sure that an
(07:13):
elderly person is comfortablecrossing the threshold of your
establishment or a person withany type of needs that they're
going to be met.
And so when we talk about thenon-alcoholic space, it's an
opportunity for us to beinclusive when we set the table
literally for our guests.
(07:34):
So, yeah, it's doing diligencearound that and really
ultimately kind of doing a corevalues exercise as a business
owner around what not onlyhospitality means to you and
your team, but what the idea ofmaking it totally inclusive
could also mean Love it.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So you've been in the game for a while.
Take us back to 2003 and yourstart in the wine and spirits
industry.
How have you seen inclusivityand hospitality change over
those years?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Oh, wow, okay, that's a that's a good question.
Yeah, and my story inhospitality actually goes back
into the mid nineties, so beinga teenager working in
restaurants, but, you know, toformalize my career, it is about
20 years old now.
It's scary, but yeah, if we'regoing back to circa 2003,.
(08:33):
There just really wasn't muchin the way of a broad lens in
and around this conversation,which is not to say that people
were not well-intended.
I think people were, just wereliving the way they were living
back then, but the Wine andSpirits business back then was
(08:55):
certainly not turning an eyetowards you know, broadening an
offering for people outside of.
You know the sort of formalhistorical categories you know.
Even when it comes to back then, when it came to learning about
(09:17):
wine, for example, it was sortof a category that was shrouded
in secrecy, veryinstitutionalized, very much an
old boys club.
You really had to approach itacademically and attack it from
like, you know a textbook, likea literal.
(09:39):
You had to have literal books,you know, to learn about it.
And then you had to surroundyourself by this.
You know sort of esoteric, um,ivory tower group of elders who
could teach you the way.
Uh, and that's how I came up inthe industry.
Honestly, um, I came up in theindustry learning about wine and
(09:59):
then later, spirits, um, byjust gaining access to, uh, you
know a small group of people whohad the knowledge that I sought
to be transferred to me, right,and so of course, all of this
changed when we, with the adventof the iPhone and our ability
to have a supercomputer on ourperson at all times.
(10:20):
But, yeah, in the olden days,you know, it was an old boys
club and you had to learn on thejob and you had to surround
yourself with the sort of anelite group of people who had
that information and the powerto transfer that information.
Yeah, and you had to beaccepted right, you had to be
accepted.
(10:41):
Yeah, yeah, and I just want tosay that you know that group and
, look, there are many people inthat group in my experience who
are very generous with me withtheir time and their knowledge,
but ultimately it was a.
It was a real patriarchal poolI decided to dive into and it is
what it is.
But you know, fortunately thathas changed, it has evolved
(11:03):
there.
You know, inside of theindustry there's a lot more
equity from a gender standpoint.
I would say it's been a slowclimb.
That all being said, it iscompletely different for young
people coming into the industrynow.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Hey there, podcast friends, I hope you're enjoying
these impactful conversationsand leadership insights I'm
bringing you each week.
Before we dive back intotoday's episode, I want to take
a moment and reach out and ask asmall favor that would go a
long way in supporting the showa rating and review wherever you
(11:41):
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Not only does it make my day,but it also plays a pivotal role
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Growth journey hit that reviewbutton and let me know what you
think.
Thanks a million for beingawesome listeners.
Yeah, so it's really impactedeverybody in the industry, right
?
It's impacted the products thatare served to, that are offered
from the suppliers torestaurants, both you know, and
on-premise and off-premise.
There's been this huge shiftthat's happening now and some
people keep asking me is NA atrend?
(12:25):
And I say no, it's not a trend,it's a movement.
This is here to stay.
So get on board.
This isn't something that'sgoing to be hot for a couple
months and then fade out foryour business?
When did you start to see thatshift happen and realize that NA
(12:46):
was something, was a categoryand area that you really wanted
to put your time and focus into?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, it's a great question.
It's hard for me to reallypinpoint the exact.
You know there certainly wasn'tlike a aha moment that I had
personally or that you know,someone brought me all of this
great data that I was able to,like, make a data-driven
decision around.
You know, I really startedpaying attention to the NA space
, I would say in the second halfof 2021.
(13:17):
So, you know, we're in thesecond more or less full
calendar year of COVID.
I think there were some earlyinklings, you know, not inside
the industry per se, but just agroundswell of, you know, people
in the US and culturally, wherepeople were starting to sort of
question their relationshipwith alcohol after the.
(13:40):
I mean, look, we all know therewas a lot of heavy drinking
going on during 2020 and into2021.
And the industry datasubstantiates, you know, those
consumption trends having grownsubstantially during that period
of time.
You know we won't get into whythat happened today, but, that
all being said, like you know,it was a pretty good time to be
(14:04):
a retailer in the alcoholindustry those years.
So, late 21, I started payingattention.
I was starting to see beverageson the market that I wasn't
able to sort of put in a tidysort of neat existing bucket.
Categorically, things likefunctional beverages were
(14:25):
starting to catch my eye, drinksthat were geared towards, you
know, perhaps, my demographic,like a middle-aged woman, you
know, who was interested inconsuming less sugar on a
day-to-day, more transparency inlabeling and then certainly a
(14:52):
bit of a sea change.
I was starting to see that timejust moving in the direction of
conversation around health andwellness and then ultimately
mental health.
So, big picture, I was startingto pick up on that.
I'm certainly a targetdemographic for all of the
wellness products that exist inthe world.
(15:12):
And my yeah and my, you know myInstagram feed is my phone's
listening to me right now.
It's chock full of all thegoopy things and all of the woo
things that money can buy.
And so, you know, just as aconsumer outside of my work in
the drink space, you know I wasthe target audience for that.
(15:34):
So, okay, my paying attention,you know, probably was
accelerated by the ads that Iwas being targeted by on social
media.
But but, yeah, I mean there wasa lot happening.
I mean there had certainly beena good body of work in the
on-trade, in the mixologycommunity, in and around doing
(15:55):
R&D behind the bar and notoutsourcing that.
And so lots of talented peoplewere starting to work
independently in the on-premisespace certainly in my market
developing the parts of thewhole or the builds of,
ultimately, what would become anon-alcoholic cocktail or, you
(16:15):
know, a full strength cocktail.
But those sometimes adaptogenicingredients were being siloed
and understood and we werestarting to develop a
nomenclature around like whatare these plants?
What do they do for the body?
How do we ingest them?
And then, ultimately, how couldthey wind up in a drink in a
liquid form, right?
(16:36):
So, getting outside of thehealth and wellness space and
into the on-premise trade andthen ultimately retail, of
course, the advent andinsurgence of ready to drink
also, I think, has propelled theidea that not only can we
package these goods to consumers, but that a home bartender
(17:01):
whether they're making again anon-alcoholic cocktail or a
full-strength cocktail withalcohol could also incorporate
some of these new ingredients,often plant-based, into their
palates of ingredients.
So, looking ahead, we reallygot formally into the game in
(17:22):
2022 and started to put someintention behind not only
bringing products to market, butstarting to lead a conversation
inside the trade, in and aroundthe idea that there were simple
two things that we could affectthings that we could affect the
(17:46):
bottom one, the bottom line ofour customers, by being
consultative to them in theirbeverage programs and
highlighting the opportunityaround non-alcoholic beverages
and products, but also toultimately widen the lens on
this notion of inclusion andhospitality for that literal
table setting for their guest.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I love it.
I want to talk about, spendsome time talking about the
value proposition here, but I'dlike to go back to the
functional beverage category,because there it's, and I'd love
for you to talk a little bitmore about what the function,
what a functional beverage is,and then the rest of the
categories that are in thenon-alcoholic space, because
there's many, many of them.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, I mean a functional beverage at its core.
It's pretty simple.
It's a drink that is designedto have a specific health
benefit to its consumer.
Many of us already areconsuming functional beverages
unknowingly.
So an energy drink, I mean,that's kind of the OG of the
functional beverage world.
(18:47):
I'm not going to name names,but I'm sure we can all think of
one.
It has an animal on the label.
We used to mix it with vodka.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yeah, my husband might work for the company.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yeah, yeah, we used to mix it with vodka in the year
2000 if you were you know, 23years old, uh, when that was
happening, like I was, um, soyou know.
So, energy drinks, for sure, um, you know, and and by proxy
sports drinks like Gatorade is afunctional beverage, you know,
cause like we're trying toaffect.
(19:17):
We're trying to affect a healthoutcome by consuming, uh, an
electrolyte based beverage,right, so anything that's going
to help your health, help youout, help you, whatever cures
what ails you, kind of thing.
But as we've kind of gone intolike the 2 and 3.0 mode on
functional beverages, we'regoing above and beyond.
(19:39):
Now we're talking aboutadaptogenic beverages and those
are just drinks that havecomponents that would help the
nervous system regulate, help usmanage stress.
There are other functionalbeverages on the market now that
would help us, for example,create a mood or a sense of,
(20:00):
like a vibe, right, when we'renot drinking.
And, um, yeah, there's a lotout there that, uh, you know,
has come online even in the lastyear, uh, in the NA space.
That would help, um, I don'twant to use the word help but,
like you know, give the consumerthe opportunity, uh, in their
(20:20):
evening to, instead of choosingalcohol, which is, as we know, a
depressant, choose a moodlifting drink that doesn't have
alcohol but still gives us.
You know the ritual around theway we consume alcohol and you
know potentially like easesocial tension or give, give you
a little bit of energy, or lift, et cetera.
(20:41):
Other OG functional beverageswould include, like herbal tea.
So it's a big category andwe've been consuming these
beverages for a long time.
But again, just withoutattaching like jargon, right,
(21:04):
yeah, so sorry, you had a secondquestion for me.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, would you talk about the other categories
beyond functional beverages inthe non-alcoholic space?
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, so this is interesting because I think it's
a very easy and sort of normaltendency for us to just sort of
think of non-ELK or NA.
But what does it mean?
Right, and it's awesome that wehave now subcategories that we
want to divide and conqueracross, because it used to be
(21:32):
that we could check a box as acertainly as a distributor or a
restaurant owner, by saying, yes, we have an NA offering and
that includes soft drinks andyou know, a dusty bottle of
non-alcoholic beer that we keepnot even cold and there are two
(21:53):
people that work at therestaurant who could put their
hands on it.
Right, okay, so that's theolden days.
The future and this will changelike literally by the time you
timestamp this podcast.
The future is like that there'sall kinds of cool and amazing
stuff going on.
So we just talked aboutfunctional beverages.
They are technically asubcategory inside of, like the
(22:14):
big NA bucket.
Right, you have ready to drinks.
So sometimes that ready todrink, if you live in the state
of Minnesota, like I do, couldbe cannabis or hemp derived
based beverages.
Legal here will probably belegal elsewhere sooner than
(22:35):
later, certainly in states thatallow the sale of cannabis and
marijuana, and marijuana.
You've got ready-to-drinks alsothat are technically what we
would call cocktail cognates, oryou know, being direct analogs
to a cocktail.
One of the most famous outthere, the one that created sort
(22:56):
of the ready-to-drinknon-alcoholic cocktail
phenomenon, st Agrestus PhonyNegroni is a perfect example of
a product that was built forrestaurants single serve, zero
waste and a straight up a dupefor the real thing.
Many people actually can't tellif this particular ready to
(23:19):
drink cocktail cognate ready,you know is a non alcoholic
drink.
So that's a lot of words.
All is is a non-alcoholic drink.
So so that's a.
It's a lot of words.
All that being said, it's a.
It's a beautiful subcategorythat now exists, so I refer to
it as a cocktail cognate, butwe're still now in the ready to
drink world, if that makes sense.
Then you have, of course,de-alcoholized wine.
(23:41):
So you know what this is.
It's just like de-alcoholizedbeer.
It started out as a regularwine and then, through the magic
of reverse osmosis, had thealcohol spun out of it, and
that's down to 0.5 typically,although some of them are now
0.0.
And then you have this sort ofbig ubiquitous group called Wine
(24:05):
Alternatives, and WineAlternatives are gaining
momentum as options for peoplewho don't want a de-alcoholized
wine for whatever reason, butthey still want to enjoy the
ritual of wine.
They want to enjoy fruit acidtannin ultimately an adult
beverage with food.
(24:25):
So that's a big spectrum.
Again, if we were having thisconversation six months from now
, I'd probably be forgettingsomething.
So just to recap, you've gotready-to-drinks.
Some of them are cocktailcognates, some of them are more
in the soft drink world.
Some of them have the additionof THC derived from cannabis.
(24:49):
We've got functional beverages,we have de-alcoholized wine and
beer, and then we have what wewould call wine alternatives.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
So there's really something for everyone here.
I love you.
Know, when you were talkingabout the functional beverages,
I was immediately thinking thisis a perfect opportunity for
people to offer a functionalbeverage during the daytime.
Right, Breakfast, lunch service.
Coming from a restaurantperspective, this is a it's a
huge industry, right, it's oneof the top booming trends of
(25:20):
2024.
Nikki Sani, owner of Groovy,just posted a link this morning
on LinkedIn releasing some statsaround how big the industry is
so far in 2024.
And this is as of the end ofJuly.
The industry is at $423 million.
So, if the rest of the yeartracks pretty big, it's reaching
(25:45):
close to a billion dollars,which is incredible.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Right, there's so much opportunity here?
Yeah, and again, with thecaveat that we're talking about
and I'm not trying to be hung upon jargon, but we're talking
about the adult non-alcoholspace, so this would exclude the
classic categories of softdrinks.
This is not a diet Mountain Dewconversation.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Correct, right, right , yeah, and so he was surveying,
really looking at data for hisbrands, right?
The non-alcoholic beer, whichis really the force driving the
market here, and thennon-alcoholic cocktails and wine
, or not, not cocktails, butwine that they offer, offer as
well.
Talk a little bit about.
When you're in thisconsultative consultancy, I
(26:29):
can't say, say the word.
When you're consulting withrestaurants, um, what is the
value add for them?
And I'd love to hear what, ifthey're, how it's being received
?
Are they?
Are they coming in arms wideopen here?
Are they saying I'll make itourselves, don't worry about it,
we don't want your product?
Or is there pushback here?
So what's the value add forrestaurants?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, I mean let's go back to the data.
You know, if we're businesspeople who are just being data
driven and you know my job is tomake data driven decisions like
any business leader rightdecisions like any business
leader right we're collectivelyworking in a space to your point
of nearing $1 billion in theUnited States, so there's a lot
(27:16):
of money on the table.
There's a lot of revenue andprofitability that can impact
anybody's bottom line if theywant to dip their toe in the
water.
Another amazing data point youknow to kind of substantiate
like why is this happening?
I love this stat.
This is from our friends at theAdult Non-Alcoholic Beverage
Association, the ANBA.
They've got a great website ifyou haven't checked it out, but
(27:40):
they've come to the table at theend of the first quarter citing
the audience and defining theaudience around these products.
Obviously, people are spendinga lot of money on this.
Who are these people?
It turns out that it's everyone, because they were able to
collate this data and tell usthat 94% of consumers who are
(28:02):
purchasing in the adult NA spaceapropos to our conversation
today 94% of those consumersalso consume slash, buy alcohol.
So that's pretty much everybody.
Every human being with a bankaccount is buying inside this
(28:25):
space probably has.
Many of them have longhistories of buying products
inside of this space.
So I just want to put that dataout there because, yeah, it's
compelling, it's something topay attention to, if you're not
already.
You know, in our role as adistributor, you know again,
we've made the decision that wewant to be leaders in this space
(28:48):
.
We want to be the people out infront of educating around the
category.
It does require a lot ofdiligence and education because
we still see, you know, despitethe fact that, again, I'm in
Minnesota, which is ground zerofor the THC beverage space,
(29:08):
which is on fire, it is going tobe a $400 million category in
the state of Minnesota this year.
So just to say, like the doorhas been kicked wide open on the
NA beverage conversationgenerally, but that, all being
said, adult and a writ large, westill find that we have to have
(29:29):
sort of the origin valueproposition conversation with
most of our customers.
We work with about 500 to 600.
It varies every year because ofopening and closing in the
on-premise space, but we workwith, call it, about 500
restaurants in the state ofMinnesota, many of the merchant
bars too, and I would say that70% of the time, we are not only
(29:54):
the first distributor to comein with a compact offering that
covers all of the subcategories,but we're also the first
distributor that wants to takethe time to have the
conversation around, one, thevalue proposition on the space
and two and that would include aconversation around hospitality
(30:16):
and the concept of inclusivehospitality.
But two, the bottom line impactto that, to that restaurant.
You know it, it.
It is one at a time that weturn them, and most of our, most
(30:39):
of our customers who get onboard and decide to dip their
toe in the water later, thank usfor bringing them products that
are pretty risk-free, oftensingle serve, so that there's no
worry about waste or dumpingproducts down the drain.
But yeah, generally, kristen,we are still kind of doing the
(30:59):
heavy lift with the trade.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Unlock the skills to transform your leadership with
the Hospitality Leaders RoadmapMove from ordinary to
extraordinary, packed withpractical strategies to lead
with confidence and createlasting impact in your
restaurant.
Visit kristinmarvincom slashaudio to download your free
(31:24):
audio book today.
So, Dana, I want to go back tosomething really quick that you
mentioned.
You said this isn't just a GenZ thing.
Everyone is drinkingnon-alcoholic.
I have some friends that havesaid you know what, when I go
out, I like to have, I like tostart with an NA beverage and
then maybe I'll go into somealcohol with dinner.
(31:45):
Are you seeing that in yourregion?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
We for sure are.
Just, you know, again, there'sa big, bigger conversation, I
think, happening societallyaround moderation and
mindfulness, with alcoholconsumption and adult NA
beverages are the perfect, youknow, gateway for people to do
what you're describing.
(32:09):
They're actually technicallybeing now being called switchers
oh yeah, which I think is cute.
Okay, so let's just use thoseswitchers.
But yeah, the switcher is areal customer.
The switcher is the person who,for whatever reason, may be
(32:30):
choosing to drink less, may bechoosing not to drink.
Maybe they are a switcherMonday through Friday, and on
Saturday they like to drink, andthen on Sunday they don't drink
at all.
Ok, so let's just talk aboutthat consumer.
So when we have them sitting atour table in our restaurant or
(32:51):
our bar, the goal is it's thesame.
We want to upsell, like let'ssell dessert, let's sell herbal
tea, let's sell dessert wine,let's sell an aperitif.
You know, let's get as manybeverages on the table as
possible across the course oftheir dining experience.
So why then would we not servethe needs of the switcher right
(33:16):
and also allow them to feel likethey are adults out at night
spending money in a restaurantand not, you know, having the
sort of meager choices of clubsoda with lime or a tonic that
has a garnish in it which can bebeautiful, don't get me wrong
but that sort of those sort ofstaples of the NA list that are.
(33:38):
You know what I kind of think ofas like the equivalent of being
a vegetarian in the 90s.
And you know, lucky you,everyone, everyone else is
having a steak, or like lobsterat the table, and and your, your
option is a veggie burger, andso you've been sort of like
moved to the kids table, uh, inthat dining experience.
So so, yeah, back to that personwho is moderating, for whatever
(34:00):
reason, um, we know, regardlessof their demographic or their
reasons.
So, from Gen Z all the way tothe boomer, the common
denominator for people sittingthere spending money in your
restaurant is that they wantflavor and they want a flavor
experience that isn't going todisappoint them or subtract from
(34:22):
their overall experience.
So I put that out there forfood for thought, especially
given the enormous range ofoptions that we now have.
And then to sort of come backto that value proposition
(34:48):
conversation, we have done themath on our side and often, in
our role as consultants to ourcustomers, we want to
demonstrate that the poor costis actually more profitable on
adult single-serve NA productsthan alcohol, and alcohol has
long been the profit center ofmost restaurants, of most
(35:09):
restaurants, and so the net netis actually even better in adult
NA than it is in thetraditional alcohol profit and
loss sheet.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
That sounds a little scary for the alcohol industry.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Perhaps, but you know , at the end of the day, you
know it's still super profitable.
Yeah, so, and we'll, and we'llcontinue to be the preponderance
of like the business, right.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Yeah, I mean, I am.
I am talking to clients thatare seeing their liquor sales
drop significantly.
Yeah, Three to four to 5%,right, and and having to pivot
now and and this is new,something new that they've never
had to deal with before.
They're like I've never.
You know, a couple operatorsI've spoken with have said we've
never had to market our barprogram.
We, you know what?
How do we do this?
(35:54):
What do we do differently?
So I love that.
I love that you are havingsuccess with this and you
mentioned some of therestaurants that you're working
with are saying you know they'recoming back to you saying thank
you for this.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
What?
What is contributing to theirsuccess?
You know, for starters, I thinkthat there's just sort of an
organic groundswell arounddemand in the space.
Consumer behavior has changedand there's just a there's just
a natural demand that is sort ofdriving the growth.
I do think that there has beena good amount of education
(36:32):
around the space and the valueproposition.
I mean, I sound like I'mtalking out of both sides of my
mouth, but overall, not just inthe media but with consumers,
there is an understanding thatthere are options available.
So I do think that that isdriving it.
Sorry, we're going to have toedit.
(36:53):
I'm like sorry, yeah you'regood.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
No, you're good.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
You're good, let's start.
Can we do it over.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah, totally.
You want me to go back to thequestion?
Yeah, okay, so let's talk aboutwhat those restaurants that are
thanking you.
What is contributing to thesuccess of the NA program in the
restaurant?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, so it starts with staff education.
Typically we like to spend timewhen we can and you know this
goes back to our basicfundamentals around training
around alcohol.
It is no different.
It is in our role in supportingour customers.
It is no different.
It is in our role in supportingour customers.
When we are doing training onour alcohol products, we are
(37:46):
also simultaneously training onthe value proposition of the
adult non-alcoholic productsthat we're selling as well, you
know.
And then you know serving it up, if you will, as a way to
upsell the ticket and helpingthe server, helping the
bartender understand that itshouldn't be an afterthought but
it should be part of thepresentation of the beverage
program.
So when you leave the list atthe table, you're comfortable
(38:09):
navigating a conversation aroundwhat is a?
And then insert functionalbeverage what is a phony Negroni
, what is?
How is de-alcoholized wine made?
I didn't know that that existed.
So preparing, preparing thatstaff for those I mean difficult
(38:30):
questions, honestly, they'resecond nature to us around
alcohol, but not so much, notquite yet, around the
non-alcoholic offerings Such anopportunity to educate and offer
additional hospitality andcreate a different, memorable
(38:50):
experience for somebody, whichis so cool.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Now we talked about something pretty interesting
last time.
This is on, you know familyfour sits down at the table.
There's a non-alcohol categoryon the menu.
Johnny, eight-year-old, ordersa phony Negroni what?
Speaker 2 (39:09):
do you?
do yeah, what do you do?
This is a tough one, it's atough one for parents and it's a
tough one for restaurant owners.
I will say that while I am nota lawyer and I'm not giving
legal advice here, I dorecommend, if you are a
restaurant owner, that you checkwith your local laws, which are
(39:29):
often dictated at a municipallevel, around the service of
adult non-alcoholic products.
The case in point NA beer.
It's been around for a verylong time and it really gives us
good, it's a good guidepost foreverything else.
Okay, so you know this raisesthe conversation how are you
(39:56):
marketing your adult non-alcoholproducts?
Uh, on your menu?
Uh, you know.
So it of course depends on yourrestaurant concept, because not
every restaurant has astandalone drink list.
Uh, sometimes that drink listis it's a really casual
restaurant just wrapped into thefood menu.
It doesn't take up a lot ofreal estate on that document.
(40:18):
But if you are an establishmentwho has a proper beverage
program and you have a cocktaillist and you have a wine by the
glass list, my recommendation isthat you segment the adult
non-alcoholic offering on thatlist which is going to be handed
to the adults at the tableversus the non-adults.
(40:41):
Okay, so that's one sort ofprotective measure, because
there are laws out there thatsay you cannot sell a
non-alcoholic beer to a personunder the age of 18.
It's not true everywhere.
This is always at the state andthen city level.
So you do need to do diligenceon that.
(41:03):
If you have questions, you cancontact local lawmakers and or
your insurance company, becausethey will be able to give you
very clear information aboutthat.
But yeah, my recommendation isto pull it into the list that
you would give to the person whois old enough to buy alcohol in
the first place at that table.
I don't think most operatorswould want to see a 12-year-old
(41:29):
literally sitting at a bardrinking a non-alcoholic beer.
But again, that's a personaldecision for the business owner.
Other tips many of the mostprogressive lists out there are
showing the net ABV next to thebeverage.
(41:49):
So whether that is a Manhattanor a Phony Negroni, they're
going to show that net ABV andthen they mix it all together so
that when I'm ordering my phonyNegroni and it's sitting next
to the Manhattan or theold-fashioned, I'm also feeling
included when I point at thelist and order my zero alcohol
(42:13):
cocktail, um, but that everyonehas full clarity on which ride
they're getting on.
If you will, um yeah, then ofcourse there's.
We all know there's a big trendinside of the the slow and low
ABV categories as well.
Uh, so if that's part of yourbeverage program and you're
(42:37):
trying to position a lower ABVcocktail, it only stands to
reason that you would traversefrom zero all the way to the
highest proof or highest ABVcocktail on that list.
Hope that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, totally no.
And I love the point that youmade about, again, inclusivity
of where you're placing thoseNAs on the menu, right, because
I think it is a little.
It can be a little uncomfortablefor people that are not ready
to start telling their friendsor family or coworkers or
whoever they're dining with, hey, I'm not drinking, and so when
(43:19):
they look to maybe the bottomright corner of the menu,
they're kind of pointing in thatdirection of like here where my
options are.
But it's in.
If it's just included in thenormal categories, then you know
it's it's so much morecomfortable, I think.
So there's, there's so manyoptions available and I really
appreciate your insight and, youknow, taking the time to
educate the audience on all thedifferent categories and
everything that's available tothem.
But this is a, again, I thinkit's going to be something
that's with us for a long time.
For restaurants again, the onesthat you've seen success with
(43:42):
and if a restaurant is listeningto this show and they're really
curious about starting an NAprogram, what would you suggest
they do?
Where are they going to get thebest bang for their buck out of
the gate?
Speaker 2 (43:55):
So I always like to recommend that people sort of
walk before they run.
Do some research in your homemarket.
I always think it's interestingto R&D with your competitors,
but also with your peers, right?
So take a look if there's a youknow particular restaurant in
your market, or even nationallymost restaurants have their
(44:16):
lists online.
Do a little research, go out,go experience a meal in someone
else's establishment someone yourespect and see how they're
doing it, especially if they'vebeen highlighted as a leader in
this space.
So you know, good old-fashionedR&D is a great place to start.
(44:38):
But, yeah, the walk before yourun piece.
You don't need to throw thekitchen sink at this right away.
You know, dip a toe in thewater across the subcategories
so that you have representation.
I would recommend having, if youdon't already put a
non-alcoholic beer of quality onyour list there's, there is a.
(45:01):
Just any beer is amazing.
Now that you there are so manyquality options, many local
breweries in your hometownprobably are bringing something
to market that is trulyexcellent.
You could probably put it ondraft and have it ice cold,
which is where it tastes thebest.
So you know, check that outlike.
(45:22):
Challenge yourself a little bitto go outside of the
commoditized products, which arealso excellent.
I'm a huge fan of Guinness, I'ma huge fan of Stella.
You know they are very goodproducts.
But if, if supporting local isimportant to you, like, do check
out your backyard on themicrobrewery scene, you know, to
see if there's something greatBecause you might be able to
(45:44):
support, you know, a business inyour neighborhood by doing that
.
So, you know, check that beerbox, put some intention behind
it.
Next, find a greatde-alcoholized wine.
Take a look and try to findsomething that comes in a single
serve format like a 200milliliter, because then your
(46:06):
risk is way reduced.
You're not going to open thatbottle of sparkling NA and then
watch, you know, the bartenderthree days later dump it out
because it's lost carbonation.
So, you know, the bartenderthree days later dump it out
because it's lost, lostcarbonation.
So, um, you know, walk beforeyou run there but find something
that, um, you know hits yourpoor cost model in that space.
But is is well done.
(46:27):
And again, um, there are greatoptions out there.
I will my.
My pro tip here is that thesparkling de-alcoholized wines
tend to be, in my opinion, thebest on the market.
I really favor Prima Pave.
It comes in at 200 ml.
But check that out.
You know, de-alcoholized winecan be great.
(46:47):
They're dry and, again, thesparkling versions tend to mask
the flaws that are a littleeasier to detect with still
versions.
So do look at that and thenfind yourself a cocktail.
Cognate I think I've given theplug for St Agrestus funny
Negroni now four times.
But it really is that good andyou really cannot go wrong by
(47:12):
putting this product on yourlist.
That being said, it is a bitterdrink and not all human beings
are attracted to a bitter flavorprofile, so it can be a little
polarizing.
People either love it or it'sjust not for them.
But it is a great option.
Wine alternatives there's a lotof great single serves out there
.
Proxies has cans.
(47:34):
They're marvelous and again,you know the risk of sounding
like an old industry guardperson If it's cold it's sold,
and you know it's sold once youbring that can to the table and
pour it into an elegant glassnext to the can, if that's how
(47:55):
you want to serve it.
So I would look at that.
Above and beyond that, you know, if doing some R&D is important
or you have a more progressivelist, you know, then I would
suggest you want to move intosome house-made options again
that are lower in sugar, andthen also take a look at the
functional beverage space.
There's a lot of cool stuff onthe market.
(48:17):
Three Spirit is beautiful.
Curious Elixirs, which isreally marketed to the
on-premise segment, has somereally beautiful options.
Many of these products arebeing served at the best
restaurants in the US at thispoint.
So they've been vetted by, likeyou know, the SOM community.
They've been vetted by some ofthe most discerning chefs.
(48:38):
So, even looking at some ofthose lists, you know what is
the French Laundry doing, whatis you know what is Eleven
Madison Park doing, because theyhave all had to go down this
rabbit hole and serve the mostdiscerning customers.
So, yeah, that's my tip interms of research If you can
(49:00):
hitch your wagon to adistributor that can help guide
you, like the wine company,that's also a huge benefit too,
because if you trust thatdistributor and they've got the
expertise to, you couldoutsource this list to them.
That's another resource thatyou should consider you could
outsource this list to them.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
That's another resource that you should
consider.
Yeah, absolutely, and I agreewith you.
Craft beer is really drivingthe market right now in the NA
space, which is awesome, andthere's so many delicious
offerings out there.
I love the sparkling, thesingle service.
It's so great, it's so smartfor restaurants.
I'll put all the links toeverything that Dana just
mentioned in the show too, soyou can quick reference those.
Dana, how can people get a holdof you if they want to learn
(49:40):
more and if they want to workwith you?
Speaker 2 (49:43):
So we just serviced the state of Minnesota, kristen.
So unfortunately I'm not ableto affect anyone's business
outside of the state ofMinnesota at the distribution
level.
I can be reached at dana atthewinecompanynet, so dana at
thewinecompanynet.
So if you're in Minnesota,we're here to help Outside of
(50:03):
Minnesota.
Just at a consulting level, I'malways happy to talk shop with
industry peers and help guideother distributors who want to
invest in this space and sharewhat we've learned so far.
We've certainly made somemistakes already.
We've also had some tremendoussuccesses.
(50:25):
That being said, I encouragewhether you're a restaurant
operator and owner, or you'rerunning a beverage program or
you're on the distribution side,to take a very serious look at
this space.
Come on in the water's warm.
We're going to be doing thisfrom here on out.
I don't think that this is apassing fad or a trend that will
(50:47):
be punctuated by 2024 or 2025.
10 years from now, this will bethe new normal and for those of
us who are invested early anddoing the pioneer work you know
so far, all I have to say islike I'm here to testify that it
is gratifying work.
It is not a heavy lift, sodon't fear it.
(51:10):
There's a lot of opportunityand I feel just a tremendous
tailwind as we move further intothe space.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Yeah, I love it.
Dana, thanks for all the workthat you're doing in the space
and for the industry.
It's just incredible.
Thanks again for being heretoday, taking the time to work
with me not once, but twice.
Really appreciate that.
I'm glad we were able to getall of our tech stuff figured
out this time, so we'll stayconnected and talk to you very
(51:38):
soon.
That's going to do it for usthis week.
Everybody, please share thisshow with anyone in the
restaurant industry who couldbenefit and we will talk to you
next week.
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