How to: list all your menu items on BeerMenus

Listing all your menu items—from beer to wine to spirits to gift cards to food—is now possible with BeerMenus! 

Overview: how does it work?

No matter what kind of menu item you're adding, you'll still be doing it from your Update Menu page (the same place you add your beers). We simply added a few things and streamlined the layout in order to accommodate this evolution. new direction.

The most impactful change is the addition of 5 tabs at the top of the form where you add beers. Those tabs are: Beer, Wine, Cocktail, Spirit, and Custom.

Your update menu page will always default to the Beer tab. So, if you're only adding beers, you'll never need to mess with the tabs. Just add your beer as you normally would.

How to add a Wine or Spirit

If, however, you're adding a wine or spirit, just build one extra step into your process: select the corresponding tab before adding that menu item. Fill out the fields, hit “Add to menu,” and you're all set. Move on to your next menu item.

Here’s how to add a wine or spirit:

How to add Cocktails and Custom items

The Cocktail tab and the Custom tab are a little different. The short story is that when you add a Cocktail or a Custom item, you can also add a custom description (highly advised) of the cocktail or menu item—unlike with beers, wines, and spirits, these items are custom to your business, so there’s no existing database for you to pull from (until you build up your own private database by adding these items).

Here’s how to add a Cocktail:

You can use the Custom tab to add anything you’d like—appetizers, entrees, t-shirts, gift cards...the list goes on.

Here’s how to add a custom item:

Anything you add in this section is unique to your business (you're not creating a global entry that other bars can see or use). That means you can get pretty creative and colorful with what you add. The only thing to keep in mind is to steer clear of being inappropriate with your menu items.Egregiously inappropriate menu items or descriptions will be removed.

Frequently asked questions

What about ciders, meads, kombuchas, hard seltzers, canned cocktails, and malt beverages?

Easy: use the Beer tab to add beers, ciders, meads, kombuchas, hard seltzers, canned cocktails, and malt beverages (like Not Your Father's Root Beer).

I used to add my wines, cocktails, and/or other stuff as “beers”—should I not do that anymore?

Correct. Now that there are different tabs for different beverage types, you should enter those beverage types in the corresponding tabs.

This is good for you and the whole community for a few reasons:

1. A cleaner beer database. While we now support listing every menu item you've got, beers remain our bread and butter. Because wines, cocktails, and other items will no longer be categorized as “beers” in our database, the fine folks who diligently work to clean up our database will be able to spend more time fixing incorrect or incomplete beer entries and less time sifting through cocktails, wines, spirits, etc. That means a cleaner database, faster.
2. Create and improve awesome wine and spirit databases. Wines and spirits will now have their own separate databases on BeerMenus. This means we'll be able to create, grow, and maintain top-notch wine and spirit databases that rival our beer databases. At the end of the day, this means that it'll be super easy for you to add other beverage types.

When I add a cocktail or custom item does it get saved to a personal database so I can bring it back later?

Yes!

A common example of this would be seasonal cocktails. When fall rolls around you’ll likely be pulling your fruity refreshers in favor of a more roasty, warming selection. You can delete those summer cocktails from your menu, but when next summer rolls around they’ll still be saved to your personal database. Just start typing the name and the description will populate.

Why would I list all my menu items?

Reason 1: with a lot of folks, more is better

Just think about your website. You put all your menus on there. Why?

While it's true that some people come to your website looking for one specific thing, find it, and then bail, that's definitely not everyone. Folks come for one reason, but then they click around elsewhere. They scan the rest of your website, they see the other things you have to offer. It's something we all do. You have all your menus listed so that you can push those clicker-arounders over the finish line and get them to actually walk through your doors and become customers.

A similar phenomenon happens when you list all types of menu items on BeerMenus: folks may not come to your BeerMenus page looking for your wine, cocktail, or food menu (although they might—we've got some mighty SEO on our side), but once they arrive on your page, that wine, this cocktail, or some appetizer could be the single thing that pushes a prospective customer over the edge and makes them come through your doors.

Reason 2: make all your menus with one click, in one place
More practically, adding all your menus to your BeerMenus page allows you to create all your printable menus through BeerMenus. Just make your menu updates on your page, then push print. Your menus are made. You no longer have to go through the rigmarole of each one.

The best part is that we can take care of design for you. Whether you want to match your existing design or have us come with a totally custom design for you, we've got you covered. Just schedule a call to get the ball rolling.