Bar Trays

Bar Trays and Beer Tasting Trays: What You Need to Know

Bar serving trays save your servers time and help ensure your customers get their drinks promptly and without spills. They are a staple of bars and dining rooms everywhere as they are inexpensive, effective, and easy to maintain. Beer flight trays enable operators to offer samplings of their best beers, encouraging guests to try them all and find their favorite. Our selection of bar trays and beer trays includes plastic, stainless steel, wooden, and melamine options in a variety of colors and finishes. Adding the right serving trays can elevate the aesthetic of your establishment.

Common Questions About Bar Trays

What establishments need bar trays?

Any bar with seating away from the bar itself will need bar trays to facilitate serving drinks to customers out of arm's reach. Servers can place multiple drinks or dishes on the bar tray and carry all of them at once, preventing the need for multiple trips to and from the bar or kitchen. Especially useful for large parties, trays enable servers to bring everyone's drink at the same time.

Beer flight trays provide establishments a way to offer samplings of their best beers or other drinks. These premium offerings fetch high margins but also market your beers to enthusiastic customers. Adding beer tasting trays gives you a new avenue via which you can market your drinks and drive profits.

Do I need a nonslip bar serving tray?

Some trays have nonslip surfaces built in to keep drinks and plates from sliding around and slipping off. Each spill costs establishments a significant amount of money once you factor in spilled food and drink, broken dishes or glasses, and the time spent replacing either of those. On top of lost time and money, spills can potentially lead to lost business as most customers don't appreciate their drink being on them rather than in them. Operators frequently compensate their doused patrons with free drinks in the interest of maintaining customers, which is another lost bit of capital.

Nonslip trays won't eliminate spills, but they can give your servers a bit of leeway when it comes to keeping the tray steady. However, establishments that use beer trays to serve wide-based glasses, such as beer steins, might not have an issue with spills. Consider how often you find yourself cleaning up spills and whether the cost of nonslip trays or inserts is worth more than the money lost.

What style of bar tray should I get?

Round bar trays are the most common option for carrying drinks out to guests. Beer trays can range from wooden pieces with chalkboards for writing to decorative slate options. The main determinant for style is preference – does a black bar tray or satin-finished stainless option best fit your aesthetic? Some round bar trays come with rims, which is helpful in containing a spill and keeping glasses from breaking to prevent some of the most significant costs related to spills. Some beer flight trays come with chalkboard built in so you can denote which beers are which with each flight.