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Bar food — love it or hate it, it’s a necessity of the industry. It’s often greasy, delicious, and made with just the right amount of love and spite to be truly excellent. When we say bar snacks, there’s a specific type of food that pops into mind; pizza, nachos, burgers, fries, and any other greasy snack that you can think of. But what makes a truly great bar food menu?
Why Bar Food Matters
Bar food is, at the end of the day, a necessity for a reason. First and foremost, some locations require that bars sell food (namely Oregon and Texas). This is because drunk people need to eat! It helps them to sober up, stay a bit less messy in your establishment, and (let’s be honest) drunk people give the best food reviews out there.
Additionally, though, selling food encourages guests to order more drinks and stick around just a bit longer. Salty food makes for thirsty guests, and, would you look at that, you have a whole bar just stocked with drinks! It’s so convenient! (It’s by very purposeful design.)
The Role of Bar Food in Customer Satisfaction
There are few things more beautiful than watching the intimate dance that a drunk man has with his food. He’ll rant and rave about each bite, often swaying side to side in the process, but damn does he love the food. It’s a great way to get your foot in the door with new customers, too — in fact, that’s one of the many reasons that happy hour exists! Entice them to visit with cheap wings, fries, and sliders, and you’ll find that they’re more likely to order a beer (or two, or three).
Perhaps more importantly, though, you’re bound to have hungry guests; it’s just a matter of fact. And it’s far better to provide them with tasty food than to force them to leave to satiate their hunger.
How Great Snacks and Appetizers Boost Drink Sales
A solid bar food menu does more than just feed guests. It encourages them to stay longer and, if done properly, to order more drinks. Many bars achieve this by serving salty snacks, while others opt for large portions that take longer to power through — how you approach it is up to you, but know that a solid bar food menu will do wonders for your drink sales.
Classic Bar Food Staples
First things first, when building a bar menu, we need some staples. The classics that everyone expects: wings, nachos, and sliders.
Crispy Chicken Wings
Wings are the quintessential bar food. Why? I can’t answer that. They’re messy and get everywhere, but people love wings. It doesn’t matter how you make them, how you dress them, if you have wings on the menu, people will buy them. Often, a good bet is to offer several well-known flavors (Buffalo, lemon pepper) along with something that sets you apart. I’ve found great success with hot honey wings, blueberry habanero wings, and just about anything that combines spicy and sweet.
And no matter what you do, you make sure those wings are crispy.
Loaded Nachos
Nachos are another essential bar food. Cooks love them because they’re easy to make, management loves them because they’re incredibly cheap with high profit margins, and customers love them because they’re easy to eat and, importantly, super simple to share. Keep things simple and stack some tortilla chips, load them with chicken or ground beef, and throw on some diced onion, pickled jalapeno, salsa, and (of course) nacho cheese or beer cheese.
Sliders and Mini Burgers
Sliders are a great option for a bar menu for many reasons, but the most obvious is that they’re simple and easy to eat. With all bar food, you want the option for guests to share, and sliders are an excellent example of this. Whether you opt to sell them individually at a low (~$3) price or in batches of three or four, this makes it super simple for a table to order a few sliders and pick at them as they want. And best of all, they’re cheap and easy to make!
Creative Bar Snack Ideas
Snacks are a major part of any good bar food menu. Let’s take a look at a few classics.
Soft Pretzels with Dips
Many areas have a local bakery that will happily provide soft pretzels by the batch, and if you can find them (or make them in house, of course), soft pretzels are a killer bar food. They’re easy to eat, quick to fire, and can be gussied up with beer cheese, good mustard, and just about any other kind of dip that you can think of.
Sweet Potato Fries & Flavored Fries
Sweet potato fries are a bit of a new occurrence in the restaurant scene, but they’ve very quickly gained quite a bit of traction. They’re sweet, salty, and crispy, so it really makes sense. Another alternative is flavored fries — garlic parmesan, cajun seasoned, truffle, the options are endless (and easy).
Flatbreads and Mini Pizzas
Now, this option works best if you have a flattop grill available or, alternatively, a good convection oven with a pizza stone or two. Flatbreads and mini pizzas can be pre-assembled and fired on the flattop or in the oven and sent in a matter of minutes. They’re easy, often needing little more than sauce, cheese, and pepperoni, and let’s be real here — we all crave pizza at some point or another.
Healthy Bar Food Options
Not every type of bar food needs to be greasy, salty, and deep fried. Sometimes, it’s best to offer something a bit lighter.
Veggie Platters with Unique Dips
From hummus to spinach artichoke dip, veggie platters and dips are a great bar food option. They’re incredibly simple to make, encourage sharing, and offer somewhat of a healthy alternative to fries and tater tots.
Grilled Skewers
If you have access to a grill, skewers are a great option for quick and (relatively) healthy bar food. Slice veggies (onion, peppers, mushrooms), slice some chicken or beef, and stick a skewer through them. Then, when it comes time to fire, all that’s needed is a quick kiss from the grill and you’re set.
Edamame and Lightly Seasoned Nuts
Bars the world over have made a habit of salted nuts, pretzels, and even edamame on the bartop, and for good reason. It’s a super simple snack that takes the edge off the drinks without requiring really any prep or thought. You salt and season them, toss them in the oven for a little bit, and bam — easy bar food.
Shareable Appetizers
Finally, we get to the main show of most bar food menus — the appetizers. Let’s dive right in.
Charcuterie Boards and Cheese Platters
Charcuterie boards and cheese platters are a mainstay for many bars for one reason — they’re incredibly easy to make and often can be upcharged quite heftily. Pre-assemble them, throw them in the fridge with some plastic wrap, and then pull them out when they’re sold. From there, you just need to add a few pickles, some bread or crackers, and maybe a sauce or two, and you’re set in thirty seconds.
Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Spinach and artichoke dip is a mainstay at restaurants and bars alike for one reason — just about everyone loves it. A simple combination of cream cheese, parmesan, artichoke, spinach, and time makes for a super tasty dip when served with pita bread, toasted baguettes, or crackers.
Meatballs or Mini Sausages in Sauce
Depending on your vibe, you can also offer meatballs with meat sauce or, if you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, mini sausages (or brats) with beer mustard, beer cheese, and maybe a touch of pepper jelly.
Sweet Bar Bites
Mini Doughnuts
Doughnuts are a great option for bars with a fryer, as they can either be made to order with doughnut batter or cooked off ahead of time. Whether you opt to heat them to order and sell them with a bit of ice cream (or just solo if they’re good), or you choose to make them to order, you can rest easy that you’ll quickly become a destination bar for dessert.
Stout Float
The beer float is a dessert that’s very close to my heart, and one that often gets me flak — until people try it. Combine a nice, heavy stout (preferably a sweeter one with notes of nuts and chocolate) and some vanilla ice cream in a pint glass. That’s it, really! Just like a root beer float, you get a delicious drink that’s slowly sweetened by ice cream, but unlike a root beer float, this one gets you drunk.
Chocolate-Covered Pretzels
If you already have soft pretzels, they make for a surprisingly excellent bar dessert. They can be gussied up with chocolate sauce, ice cream, caramel, and more, and require very little prep time to get ready.
Cookie Skillets or Brownie Bites
Cookie skillets and brownie bites are another great option for bars, because they’re a dessert that requires very little additional work beyond the initial plating. Buy a few 3” or 6” cast iron pans and throw some cookie dough or brownie batter into them and bake those suckers off. Once they’re done, you can sell them hot as-is, or offer to gussy them up a bit (for an upcharge, of course) with ice cream, caramel, chocolate, or anything else that feels right in the moment.
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