Thursday, March 4, 2010

Pop Quiz

The last few days I have immersed myself in sleuthing. I am trying to track down some very unique (read- hard to find) sodas for Saus.

To compliment our Belgian menu, we want to serve up some authentic Belgian sparkling juices. Unfortunately, while we've found the perfect company, they are rare within the U.S., so getting them into Saus is proving to be a challenge. (But after working our butts off to open a restaurant -something none of us have done before and therefore didn't know where to start-, we know how to approach a challenge.)

And to compliment our classic-ly American side at Saus, we want to serve some American classics like root beer and ginger ale micro-brew style. While significantly easier to find than Belgian soda, finding people who distribute these "micro-brews" to Boston is still proving to be a challenge.

Anyway, what this long winded introduction is all about is I want to know if I'm wasting my time. Are you guys interested in seeing rare (and extremely tasty) sodas (and probably pay a tad more for them to accommodate the importing costs) or would you just as happily order a coke/sprite/whatever to wash down your frites?

Speak up!

15 comments:

Gregory Collier said...

I vote for specialty sodas.

Christopher Walker said...

I think you should have both. There's going to be people that expect unique drinks with unique food, but you're also going to get people in there that will respond "uhhhh yeah, give me a Coke, or whatever" when you ask them what they want to drink.

People should be able to clearly see the cooler too (unlike like at 4 Burgers).

Christopher Walker said...

And me personally, I would gladly pay a "tad more" for some extremely tasty and rare root beer with my cheddar beer sauce and frites

shamrocandroll said...

I would definitely be willing to pay more for specialty Belgian sodas! I agree with Chris about offering the "regular" stuff too. Kind of like what Anna's Taqueria does.

Pam said...

Yes to interesting stuff. But don't forget the no/low-calorie stuff. If I'm eating fries, I want to be able to "balance" it out with a diet drink or a flavored water or something of the ilk.

Mrs. Inside said...

I would go out of my way for specialty sodas.

Unknown said...

Paying for specialty sodas MAY be something that people won't want to do every time they come to your restaurant.

Just throwing this out there. Why not have juices that you guys "spritz" yourself with a carbonation machine. Something like cranberry and seltzer, or something even fancier like specialty blended spritzed fruit juices. You could possible buy fruit syrups and mix them with seltzer instead of water. Would that be cheaper than importing specialty sodas?

Sarah said...

I would pay up for some Chaudfontaine lemon or lime! I miss them so much! I find that italian soda is the closest thing to the Belgian soda's

xtine said...

I think you should have both. While some people (including myself) would love to try a specialty soda, I'm not sure that many of your late night customers would want the same. Also, people order a Coke even when it's not on the menu (i.e. the place serves Pepsi or no soda)...I have a feeling a lot of people will just say that they want a Coke. If you don't have Coke, this could be a source of frustration.

Brett said...

If it's an either/or situation (which I assume it is due to costs) then it is hard to support specialty sodas. For better or worse, Faneuil is populated largely by tourists and drunks. While it might be interesting to keep a running tally of how many times customers ask for a Coke, explaining the absence of said Coke is going to become tiresome quickly. I have cringe worthy visions of Starbucks employees explaining that, yes, sir, a venti IS a large. The difference, of course, is that this customer is still getting his large, while your confused Bro, who just wanted some fries and a Coke to combat his imminent hangover, is still staring at your employee blankly.

Lauren Underhill said...

I agree with Walker, however I will most likely be drinking beer 95% of the time I am there ;-)
It would be fun to try out some fancy sodas too though!

Kim said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kim said...

I would much rather pay a little more for the Belgian soda choices.

Unknown said...

Unless you can do it for a reasonable price I don't think it's going to be worth it to get the specialty sodas. Maybe there is room for one or two as people have suggested, but the frites are the draw.

Anonymous said...

i heart ginger ale! (not the cheap mix coke with sprite) no no the canada dry ginger ale!