Is Your Bar Ready for Edinburgh Cocktail Week?

Edinburgh Cocktail Week starts this Friday, running from 2 to 11 October, and bars, restaurants and hotels across the city are preparing for a very different kind of busy.

Cocktail demand can become concentrated very quickly. Particular serves may be ordered again and again, participating venues can see much higher drinks volumes and businesses across the city may benefit from customers moving between bars, restaurants and festival events.

With only a couple of days to go, the most useful final check is not simply whether the bar looks well stocked.

It is whether your team can comfortably make the drinks you expect to sell repeatedly for several hours without the same glass, tool or piece of equipment slowing service down.

James F Kidd is proud to be sponsoring Edinburgh Cocktail Week this year. If you are heading along, make sure to stop by the James F Kidd table and say hello.

Build the Final Check Around Your Bestselling Drinks

Rather than starting in the storeroom and counting everything you own, begin with the cocktail menu.

Choose the serves you expect to sell most frequently and work through everything required to produce them. That includes the glass, shaker, jigger, strainer, bar spoon, ice, garnish and any other equipment needed before the drink reaches the customer.

This can expose shortages that are difficult to see when equipment is counted as one overall total.

A bar may have plenty of shaker tins but only a couple of reliable strainers. Several bartenders might be sharing the same jigger, or one cocktail glass could be needed across three of the busiest drinks on the menu.

Reviewing each popular serve from start to finish gives you a much clearer idea of whether the bar is genuinely ready for higher volume.

Make Sure the Right Glassware Can Keep Moving

Cocktail led service can place a lot of pressure on a relatively small number of glass shapes.

If a signature cocktail is served in a coupe, hundreds of unused wine glasses elsewhere in the venue will not solve the problem when the coupes run out.

You need enough of the correct glass to cover the drinks currently in customers' hands, another round being prepared and the stock temporarily out of circulation while it is collected and washed.

The same principle applies to highballs, rocks glasses and other versatile tumblers used across several serves.

Before the first busy service, review both quantity and condition. Chipped, heavily marked or mismatched pieces should not be treated as dependable backup stock.

If you need to top up before the festival begins, browse the James F Kidd glassware range, including cocktail glasses, tumblers, wine glasses, beer glasses and other professional bar glassware.

Allow for the Time Glasses Spend Out of Service

Having enough glasses for one full round is not necessarily enough for a busy cocktail service.

At any point in the evening, glassware may be with customers, waiting to be cleared, sitting in racks, moving through the glasswasher or cooling before it returns to the bar.

That turnaround time needs to be included when you consider how many glasses are actually available to the team.

Before Friday, run a realistic check on how long it takes for a used rack to move from the floor through the wash and back to the correct station.

If the same style repeatedly disappears before the next rack is ready, the issue may simply be that the working quantity is too tight for the speed of service.

Give Every Active Station the Tools It Needs

During busy cocktail service, bartenders should be able to stay at their stations as much as possible.

Having plenty of bar tools overall does not help if they are all sitting at one end of the counter.

Think in complete working sets. If three bartenders will be making drinks at the same time, consider whether all three have convenient access to suitable shakers, strainers, jiggers, spoons and other frequently used equipment.

It is also worth removing worn or unreliable tools from the calculation.

A shaker that does not seal properly or a measure the team avoids using is not really providing useful backup capacity.

Ask the bartenders which tools they constantly reach for and which ones they regularly need to borrow from another station. Those answers often identify the gaps much faster than a stock sheet.

James F Kidd stocks a range of cocktail shakers and mixing equipment for professional bar setups, including shaker tins, mixing glasses, cocktail spoons and other preparation tools.

Give Ice the Same Attention as Glassware

Ice can become another pressure point surprisingly quickly when cocktails are being made back to back.

The output of the ice machine is only part of the equation.

Each station also needs suitable scoops, buckets, tongs and working ice containers positioned where staff can reach them without repeatedly leaving the bar.

The drinks menu should guide the plan too. A highball packed with ice has a very different requirement from a smaller shaken cocktail, so expected demand should reflect the drinks you actually expect to sell during Cocktail Week.

Make sure the team also knows where additional ice and replacement tools are kept before service starts.

Remember the Rest of the Venue

The pressure created by Edinburgh Cocktail Week may extend well beyond the main bar.

Restaurants and hotels may be sending cocktails into dining rooms, lounges, private events and function spaces at the same time.

That can increase demand for drinks trays, carafes, water jugs and other service equipment as well as cocktail specific pieces.

Look at everything happening across the venue and make sure the same equipment has not effectively been allocated to two different areas.

A tray or set of glasses reserved for a private event cannot also be counted as backup stock for the main bar.

Do Not Strip the Main Bar to Set Up a Function

Temporary cocktail stations and private functions can create their own equipment shortages if they are built by borrowing everything from the permanent bar.

A few shakers, measures, pourers, openers and ice tools may not look like much when they are removed, but the main bar immediately has less equipment available when its own rush begins.

If you expect to operate temporary bars during Cocktail Week, consider creating a separate function kit.

Keeping a small group of commonly used bar tools together means the temporary station can be set up without dismantling the permanent one.

It also makes breakdown easier because staff know exactly which equipment belongs together and where it should return afterwards.

Keep Immediate Backup Stock Within Reach

Backup stock is only useful if staff can get to it when service becomes busy.

An extra rack of glasses stored several floors away may solve the overall stock figure, but it is much less useful when a bartender suddenly needs it during a rush.

The same applies to spare shakers, measures, trays and ice equipment.

You do not need to put every spare item behind the bar, but identify the products most likely to be needed during service and keep immediate replacements somewhere accessible.

This is particularly important in larger hotels and venues where stock may be stored across several different areas.

Test the Bar Before Cocktail Week Starts

One of the most useful final checks is to stop counting equipment and actually run the bar.

Choose several of the cocktails you expect to sell heavily and put multiple orders through in quick succession.

Watch what the team does.

Does somebody immediately need to borrow a strainer from another bartender? Does one type of glass disappear faster than expected? Are staff crossing behind each other to reach ice, garnish or replacement stock?

These problems may never appear on a spreadsheet, but they become obvious once several drinks are being made at the same time.

If everything works smoothly, you know the setup is in good shape. If the test exposes a couple of weak points, there is still time to address them before the festival gets underway.

Get Ready for the Drinks You Actually Expect to Sell

With Edinburgh Cocktail Week now only days away, preparing the bar does not need to mean replacing the entire setup.

The most useful final checks are usually much more targeted.

Focus on the drinks you expect to sell most frequently. Make sure the right glassware can keep up with service and washing, give each active station a complete set of reliable tools and confirm that ice equipment, trays and replacement stock are positioned where staff can actually use them.

A busy Cocktail Week will naturally place additional pressure on the bar. Your equipment should help the team manage that demand rather than adding another bottleneck.

James F Kidd supplies professional glassware, cocktail equipment and barware for bars, restaurants, hotels and hospitality businesses across Scotland.

If you need to top up glassware or replace bar equipment ahead of the event, you can also visit us at our Edinburgh or Glasgow Showroom & Trade Counter to view available ranges and speak to the team. James F Kidd currently operates showroom and trade counter facilities in both cities.

And if you are attending Edinburgh Cocktail Week this year, make sure to stop by the James F Kidd table. We are proud to be sponsoring this year's event and would be delighted to see you there.

For more hospitality advice, buying guides and practical ideas for busy service, visit the James F Kidd blog.