Steal This Play · Oct 21, 2026
Rename the drink, not the recipe: the fix that moved a dead cocktail
A quality pour that nobody orders is dead inventory and wasted menu space, and most operators respond by reformulating instead of renaming. Sunday Hospitality Group changed one name at Hotel Chelsea's Lobby Bar and turned a slow seller into its best seller, a move you can test on your own list this week.
At the Lobby Bar inside Hotel Chelsea, a signature cocktail called Mercury Pool barely sold. The drink was good. Guests just would not order it.
Brian Evans, director of bars for Sunday Hospitality Group, told the Business of Drinks podcast that they renamed it the 1884 Martini, after the year the hotel was built. Same spec, same glass, same price. Sales went night-and-day immediately, and it became the Lobby Bar's most popular cocktail. That bar served roughly 280,000 drinks in 2025, so the name was the only variable that moved.
Evans's rule behind it: "Undersell, overdeliver. You have a cocktail name. Don't give a word salad on the ingredients." He also notes that when money gets tight, guests retreat to familiar drinks and classics. A name that signals a category people already know (martini, spritz, old fashioned) lowers the risk of ordering it.
Adapt it by size. A tasting room renames the flight that never upsells: "Reserve Experience" beats "Vertical Exploration." A taproom gives the slow-moving sour a style word people recognize. A distillery renames a house cocktail after the build year or the street address. A shop retitles a shelf talker around the occasion instead of the grape. A distributor rep brings the account three menu names for a stalled by-the-glass placement.
Pick your single worst seller that you believe in. Change only the name for 30 days and compare units sold against the prior 30.