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#87 Kim Haasarud: Are Bar Owners Waiting for a Guest Who No Longer Exists

#87 Kim Haasarud: Are Bar Owners Waiting for a Guest Who No Longer Exists

Most hospitality operators are running a broken strategy and calling it optimism. They are sourcing the same ingredients, targeting the same guest, and waiting for a market that structurally no longer exists. The middle of the market is hollowing out, consumer spending has split into luxury experiences and high-value basics, and the bar industry's third space identity is being competed away by bookstores, online communities, and drive-through coffee brands that have cracked Gen Z culture without serving a single craft cocktail. 

Kim Haasarud, 20-year beverage innovation veteran, author of eight cocktail books including the 101 series published by John Wiley & Sons, USBG leader, and consultant to national chains and hotel groups, brings the strategic clarity this industry desperately needs. This conversation is a direct challenge to the way you are thinking about your concept, your menu, your competitions, and your creative identity.

Expect to Learn:

  • What the Stockdale Paradox reveals about why hospitality optimism is killing businesses right now, and the specific mental shift operators need to make before it is too late to pivot.
  • The exact reason competition judges can identify an AI-generated entry within seconds, and what you must do instead to make your submission the one they remember.
  • Why the "I work busy shifts, I know how to make drinks fast" mindset is actively sabotaging your competition performance, and the unconventional practice method a world-class winner uses to stay on pace under pressure.
  • How the economy is forcing every concept into a binary choice, and the creative frameworks successful operators are using right now to position on either end rather than disappear in the middle.
  • The single most important rule in any competition, the one that most experienced bartenders still skip, and why violating it results in automatic disqualification with zero chance of appeal.

Links:

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I talk mostly to people in and around the service industry space. I'm looking to hear from the people I wish I could have talked to when I was coming up in restaurants. Said another way: I am trying to make sense of this wild, beautiful mess of a life, and help others that are feeling similarly confused and/or lost. Check out the Podcast Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get in touch with me!

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As always, I’m just here taking notes, trying to figure out what it all means.

Cheers
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