Unit 10. Operating a Bar

- alcohol drinks

- soft drinks

- cocktails

- hot drinks

1. Pre-reading. Answer the following questions:

a What are the names of the establishments where beverages are

served?

b Can you give any examples of alcoholic and non-alcoholic

beverages?

c What drinks do we call cocktails?

d Can you name any famous wine brands? What do you know about

these wines?

e Who is the sommelier?

2. Read and analyze the text:

BEVERAGE SERVICE

In the foodservice business, beverage service is extremely profitable.

There are different kinds of places that primarily serve alcoholic beverages. In the USA the most common place is called a bar, and in

England it is a pub, short for public house, with a long counter from which drinks are dispensed. A cocktail lounge usually has a bar, small tables, a relaxing atmosphere, and minimal entertainment. A tavern is an old term for a similar place. Night clubs offer the additional attractions of dance music, meals and entertainment.

Almost every government jurisdiction throughout the world requires a license to sell alcoholic beverages. In some places the fee for such a license is small but in others, where the number of licenses granted is small and the demand for them is high the fee can be a major expense for the restaurant owner or operator, it almost always pays for itself within a short period of time.

The profit margin is usually much higher for alcoholic beverages than for food. The mark-up for wines and liquors can be increased with less

customer resistance than for food.

In restaurants where alcoholic beverages are part of the meal service, they can be grouped into three categories: before-dinner, with dinner, and after-dinner drinks.

The most common before-dinner drink is the cocktail, a concoction of liquor (such as gin, rye, and rum which are 80 to100 proof) and ingredients such as bitters, fruit juices, ice, and fruit. Some before-dinner

drinks are unmixed, such as vermouth and sherry, these are usually called aperitifs after the French term meaning to stimulate the appetite.

Drinks served with the meal are usually wine and beer. The customer makes a choice from a wine list, a menu of wines offered by the restaurant, listing the types and vintages.

Some restaurants that are particularly luxurious employ a wine steward or sommelier who has information about the wines, takes orders and serves them.

Liqueurs are served after dinner. They are usually strong and sweet and sometimes called digestifs after the French word meaning an aid to digestion.

Another means of classifying alcoholic beverages is according to the way they are made. Wine results from fermentation of grapes, a natural process in which sugar is changed into alcohol when yeast is added.

Beer is created when grains are converted to sugar which then becomes alcohol with the addition of yeast. Both these beverages have a relatively low alcohol content.

Another class of drinks consists of fortified wines, like sherry, to which more alcohol is added after fermentation.

Liquors and liqueurs are distilled, a process which changes a fermented beverage into a vapour, then condenses it to increase the alcohol content,

often to a very high level or proof. These distilled alcoholic beverages are often known as spirits.

In addition to alcoholic drinks restaurants serve many kinds of non-alcoholic beverages. These vary according to the meal, with coffee or tea and fruit juices customary at breakfast, soft drinks, tea and coffee at lunch, and coffee or tea at dinner. Coffee is often served first at breakfast, even before the customer’s order is taken; at other meals it is served last unless the customer specifies differently. Iced tea and coffee are popular drinks in hot weather. Almost all restaurants have milk and soft drinks such as colas and ginger ale.

The service of wines in restaurants varies from the formality of a wine steward and a large selection of vintages, to a house wine that a restaurant buys inexpensively in bulk. Wine can be served by the bottle, the half-bottle, the glass, or the carafe.

Mixing and serving drinks or cocktails at a bar is the job of the bartender

who needs to know the ingredients of a wide variety of mixed drinks.

In a restaurant he or she often works at the service bar, usually near the kitchen, dealing with waiters, rather than customers. Among the matters that are regulated on the beverage service are the hour during which drinks can be served. In England, for example, the pubs are open only for a few hours a day and are required to close early. After-hours drinking is carried on in private ‘clubs’ in which membership can be purchased.

Vocabulary

principal основной

counter прилавок, стойка

dispense (v) раздавать, распределять

tavern таверна, закусочная, бар

major expense основная статья расхода

profit margin уровень прибыли

mark-up разница между повышенной ценой и преж-

ней

storage facilities складские помещения

concoction смесь

liquor спиртной напиток

liqueur ликёр

proof установленной крепости

distilled изготовленный методом перегонки

rye Ам. хлебная водка

rum ром

vintage год сбора винограда

digestif = digester средство, способствующее пищеварению

yeast дрожжи

fermentation брожение, ферментация

in bulk оптом

carafe графин

bartender бармен

3. Exercise 3.1. Find in the text another way of expressing the following:

a A strong distilled alcoholic beverage.

b A menu of the wines served by a restaurant.

c A standard measure for the alcohol content of a beverage.

d A place that serves alcoholic drinks, usually in more comfortable

surroundings than a bar.

e A mixed drink that contains at least one alcoholic beverage and

other ingredients.

f A beverage fermented from grapes, usually with an alcoholic

content of about twelve to fourteen percent.

g A beverage fermented from grain, usually with an alcoholic content

of four or five percent.

h A harvest or year that produced grapes for a particular wine.

Exercise 3.2. Learn some basic overall rules of choosing wines:

Entrée: generally accompanied with dry white wine or rose.

Main course:

- red wine for red meat, light red wine for white meat;

- dry white wine for fish or seafood;

- on a general base, fresh and light red wine goes with everything;

- rose is not considered as top wine but it is good and fresh for casual

meals when it is hot

Cheese: red wine, preferably full-bodied with powerful cheese flavours.

Dessert: sweet white wine.

Exercise 3.3. Read the text about French wines and match the words with their definitions:

- chilled a tasting strong and rich

- luscious b the opposite of sweet wine

- dry c slightly cold

- fragrant d where grapes are grown

- full-bodied e having a strong and pleasant smell

- vineyard f having a pleasant sweet taste

France is famous for its wines. Paris is the best place in France to sample a wide range of the country’s many different wines. It’s cheapest to order wine by the carafe. Cafés and wine bars always offer wine by the glass – a small glass of white, a larger glass of red. House wine is nearly always a reliable choice.

Red wine.

Some of the world’s finest and most expensive red wines come from Bordeaux and burgundy regions, but for everyday drinking choose from the enormous range of basic Bordeaux and Côtes du Rhône wines. Alternatively try Beaujolais, which comes from the southern end of Burgundy and is light enough to serve chilled.

White wine

The finest white Bordeaux and Burgundy are best with food but for everyday drinking try a little dry wine such as Entre-les-Deux Mers or Anjou Blanc or Sauvignon de Touraine from the Loire valley.

Sparkling wine.

In France champagne is the first choice for a celebration drink, and styles range from non-vintage to deluxe. Many other wine regions make sparkling wines by the champagne method and they tend to be a lot cheaper. Look out for Crémant de Loire, Vouvray Mousseux and Blanquette de Limoux.

Beajoules Nouveau, the fruity first taste of the year’s new wine, is released on the third Thursday of November.

Southern Rhône is famous for its dark, rich red wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape north of Avignon.

Northern Rhône has some dark, fragrant red wines, best aged for ten years, from Côte-Rôtie near Vienne.

Burgundy wines include Chablis, a fresh, full-bodied dry wine from the northernmost vineyards.

The Bordeaux region produces Barsac and Sauternes which are sweet, luscious golden colored wines suitable to accompany a desert.

Exercise 3.4. Make up a plan of the text (ex.3.3.). Prepare a report “French wines”.

Exercise 3.5. Complete the sentences using the words below:

Champagne Port France Bordeaux Italian

Spain Frascati

1) … is the famous sparkling wine produced east of Paris. St. Emilion is also produced in 2) … in the 3) … region. Two 4) … wines include

Chianti from the Florence region and 5) … near Rome. 6) … comes from Portugal and sherry from the south of 7) ….

Exercise 3.6. Match the wines with a country or region:

- Port a France

- Sherry b New Zealand

- Champagne c Australia

- Sauvignon Blanc d Portugal

- Frascati e California

- Zinfandel f Italy

- Chardonnay g Spain

Exercise 3.7. Find the opposites of the drinks in the columns below:

- a short drink a … bottled …

- a single whisky b … sparkling/ fizzy / carbonate

- a light beer c … soft / non-alcoholic …

- some still mineral water d … sweet …

- a dry sherry or vermouth e … long …

- a draught beer f … double …

- an alcoholic drink g … and soda or water

- a neat (Am. straight) h … strong …

Exercise 3.8. Find the correct explanations on the right:

- On the rocks. a I want only a little …

- Thank you. b With ice, and nothing else.

- A stiff whisky. c Stop pouring now.

- Go easy on the soda. d A large … with nothing added.

Exercise 3.9. Work in pairs. Look at the drinks list and practise ordering drinks. Take turns to be the waiter or the customer. Use the information of exercises 3.8. and 3.7.

BAR TARIFF in Euros.

large small

Beer 7 4

Whisky 10 6

Gin 9 5

Vodka 9 5

Bacardi 10 6

Cognac 14 7

Red wine (glass) 8 4

White wine (glass) 8 4

Orange juice 3

Tonic 3

Soda water 3

Coke 3

Mineral water 4

Example:

C. Could I have/ I’ll have/ I’d like a vodka and orange, please?

W. Certainly. Would you like a large or a small one?

C. A large one.

W. Would you like ice and lemon?

C. Ice but no lemon, thank you.

Exercise 3.10. Read the article and answer the questions:

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