Glossary

Bar & Beverage Glossary

Name: PourIQ
Brand: PourIQ
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Plain-English definitions of the terms bar managers actually use. Pour cost, shrinkage, tenthing, variance, BTG, menu engineering, and everything in between.

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86'd

Bar and restaurant slang for an item that is out of stock, or a customer who has been cut off and asked to leave.

Beverage Cost Percentage

The total cost of all drinks sold divided by total beverage revenue, expressed as a percentage.

Break-Even

The level of sales a bar needs to hit to cover all its costs, with zero profit and zero loss.

BTG

By the Glass, a wine program category for wines sold by the individual pour rather than by the full bottle.

Call Brand

A mid-tier liquor brand that customers specifically ask for by name, priced above the well but below top shelf.

COGS

Cost of Goods Sold, the total cost of the product used to generate revenue during a given period, before labor and overhead.

Cover

A single paying guest who orders food or drink, used as the standard unit for measuring customer volume in bars and restaurants.

Cycle Count

An inventory method where you count a portion of your stock on a rotating schedule instead of counting everything at once.

Dead Stock

Inventory that sits on your shelf for weeks or months without selling, tying up cash and taking up space.

Dog (menu engineering)

A menu item with low profit margin and low popularity, the weakest category in the menu engineering matrix.

Draft Yield

The number of paid pints a bar actually gets out of a keg after accounting for foam, line cleaning, and waste.

Drink Cost Percentage

The cost of making a drink as a percentage of its menu price, including every ingredient in the recipe.

Free Pour

Pouring liquor directly from the bottle without a jigger, measured by counting in the bartender's head.

Gross Margin

The money left over from sales after subtracting the cost of the product, expressed as a percentage of revenue.

Highball

A simple two-ingredient drink with liquor and a non-alcoholic mixer served in a tall glass over ice, like gin and tonic or whiskey and soda.

Inventory Count

The physical process of tallying every unit of stock in your bar at a specific point in time to get an accurate on-hand number.

Jigger

A small measuring cup bartenders use to pour exact amounts of liquor, usually with a 1 oz side and a 1.5 oz or 2 oz side.

Keg Monitor

A device that tracks how much beer has been poured from a keg in real time, usually by flow meter or by weighing the keg.

Menu Engineering

The practice of analyzing each menu item's profit and popularity to redesign the menu for maximum profitability.

On-Hand Inventory

The total amount of product physically in your building right now, counted and verified, not what your system says you should have.

Over-Pouring

Serving more liquor than the recipe spec calls for, usually through inaccurate free pouring or heavy handing regulars.

P&L

Profit and Loss statement, the monthly financial report that shows revenue, costs, and whether the bar made or lost money.

Par Level

The minimum quantity of a product you need to have on hand to cover sales until the next delivery without running out.

Plow Horse

A menu item that sells in high volume but has a low profit margin, reliable on sales but a drag on margin.

Pour Cost

The percentage of revenue spent on the liquor in a drink, calculated as cost divided by menu price.

Pour Test

A measured test of how much liquor a bartender actually pours compared to the recipe spec, usually using a graduated cylinder or scale.

Puzzle (menu engineering)

A menu item with high profit margin but low popularity, worth promoting because every extra sale has big upside.

Recipe Costing

The process of calculating the exact ingredient cost of a drink by summing the cost of every component in the recipe.

Revenue Per Seat

The average amount of revenue generated by each seat in the bar or restaurant over a specific period.

RevPASH

Revenue Per Available Seat Hour, a metric that measures how efficiently a bar turns seats into revenue across operating hours.

Shrinkage

Any inventory loss that is not tied to a paid sale, including over-pours, spills, comps, waste, and theft.

SKU

Stock Keeping Unit, a unique identifier for every distinct product you sell, including size and brand variations.

Speed Rail

The rack of well liquor bottles mounted just below the bar top where bartenders grab the most-used spirits for fast pouring.

Star (menu engineering)

A menu item that is both highly profitable and highly popular, the best category an item can land in.

Tenthing

Estimating how full an open bottle is in tenths (0.1, 0.2, up to 1.0) during an inventory count instead of weighing or measuring it.

Top Shelf

The premium tier of liquor in a bar, stored on the highest shelves of the back bar and priced above call brands.

Usage Rate

How fast a product sells over a given period, usually measured in bottles per week or ounces per day.

Variance

The difference between the product you should have sold based on POS data and the product actually missing from your shelves.

Variance Report

A report that compares actual inventory usage to what should have been used based on POS sales, highlighting the gap per SKU.

Well Brand

The default liquor a bar pours when a customer orders a drink without specifying a brand, like 'vodka soda' or 'gin and tonic.'

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