This article first appeared in the Drinks International Global Bar Edition which can be read in full here
At Mondhügel Bar, craft bartending goes deeper. Owners Benito Opitz and Philipp Schmitz do not only serve local German products – they make them themselves. They’ve created their own gin, Kreuzberg, and for their Barrel Aged Negroni, they make a homemade bitter from cinchona bark and simulate ageing through macerating with wood. The amaro is made using a cold drip method, for the Whiskey Sour, their Kreuzberger Moonshine is embellished with lemon essence and right now, they are they are experimenting with a mezcal alternative based on smoked hemp seed and apple.
Yet as wildly inventive as all this is, none of it is as innovative as Mondhügel Bar’s pricing policy. Look away accountants – the menu doesn’t have prices, just suggestions. It is up to the guest to determine the amount they pay.
It immediately makes you stop and think – questioning the very things we’ve taken for granted about our financial system – that products have prices. But what if customers paid based on how much you enjoyed the hospitality experience – would the product be better or worse? Could we be at the genesis of a new way for hospitality – offering guests the same discretionary powers they enjoy with tips, but afforded to the whole bill?
But for now, does it even work? “Yes, so far,” says Opitz, who notes that most people choose to pay the recommended price, or something similar. “Sometimes students come, and the price is less for them, but that’s why we do it – they should also be here.” In a sense it’s means-tested pricing. The less your means, the less you pay. And in a gentrifying neighbourhood, some flexibility in pricing widens your audience to those who can’t keep financial pace.
Opitz adds that with their concept, they are “not only adapting to a time when our guests are experiencing significant financial uncertainty” – there’s more to it. “It also provides us with a certain level of flexibility,” he says. “We can quickly adjust our cocktails based on guest feedback and better gauge the range.”
But what stops people from low-balling? Ethics, yes, but also probably pride. Either way, this approach requires a certain level of belief in humanity. Opitz is open-minded: “How this will work out in the long run is, of course, another matter. We’ll have to revisit that in a year. But we remain optimistic."
The idea isn’t completely new. Sporadically the pay-whatyou-want concept has appeared over the years in different industries, but the pricing dynamics here are quite different. More recently Weinerei in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg, a wine shop with a bar that regularly offered selected wines for tasting, allowed you to drink as much as you wanted and then pay an amount that reflected your own sense of the price-performance ratio. It seemed to work quite well for the most part, but the concept was eventually discontinued.
But could it catch on in the bar channel, where a younger crowd, open to new ideas might take it on, unencumbered by tradition? Discussions with other bartenders in Berlin suggest that this is unlikely to become a widespread trend. The prevailing thought is: “Why should I end up covering the costs simply because a guest has had a bad month or lacks knowledge about drink pricing?”
It certainly is a leap of faith, but it could also be a USP. In terms of marketing value, taking slightly less than the would-be advertised price might gain you more than what you lose. Certainly in terms of word of mouth, no message could be more aerodynamic. And the more people who hear of it, the wider the knowledge of your bar, the more bums on seats.
You may be surprised how many people would be happy in the knowledge that those who can’t afford to pay quite as much don’t have to. Some might even pay more. And those students might be short on cash today, but they won’t be forever. The good will and PR could live longer.
