What Percentage of Sales Should Beverage Be at a Restaurant?

In a full-service restaurant, beverage should consistently run at or above twenty-five percent of total sales. Below that line, something is off, not always dramatically, but in the slow, compounding way that hides behind food-cost conversations for months.

It's not a rigid industry standard so much as a gut check. Pull your own beverage sales as a percentage of total revenue over the last ninety days. If the number feels low and you can't explain why, that's the first place to look, before touching pricing, before touching the wine list, before hiring anyone new. The number tells you whether the program is being managed or just running on autopilot.