Message in a Bottle: Aperol's Lesson in Staff Training
Aperol Grew Tenfold. The Recipe Fits on a Napkin.
3 minute read
Aperol was 84 years old when Campari bought it.
Since then it has grown more than tenfold.
Nobody reinvented the product. Campari reinvented what happens between the bottle and the glass.
If you own a restaurant with one great dish and a team that makes it three different ways, keep reading. This one is about you. Vacation in a Glass
Order an Aperol Spritz and you can practically see the vacation forming. Orange drink. Big glass. Someone at the next table in linen, looking like they have never answered an email.
It feels effortless. It was engineered.
Brothers Silvio and Luigi Barbieri created Aperol in Padua, Italy in 1919.
Campari Group acquired it in 2003 through its purchase of Barbero 1891.
In its 2023 annual report, Campari said the brand had grown more than ten times since the acquisition, crediting its easy taste, its versatility and continuous marketing support.
Marketing gets the headlines. The part operators should study happened behind the bar.
The 3-2-1 Rule That Built a Category
In a 2015 investor presentation, Campari described a UK "Perfect Serve" video for the Aperol Spritz. The stated goal: educate bartenders and ensure consistency in bars and restaurants.
The official recipe is famous now. Three parts Prosecco, two parts Aperol, one part soda, over ice, orange slice.
Simple? Absolutely.
So are scrambled eggs. We have all been served scrambled eggs that made us question humanity.
My favorite detail is on the same slide. The video was also meant to educate consumers and "increase ranking of recipe." That reads a lot like a spirits company doing SEO on a cocktail in 2015. That's a brand that understood the whole journey, from search bar to barstool.
A bottle on a shelf is an opportunity. A bartender who knows exactly what to do with it is a repeat order.
Your Restaurant Has an Aperol
Every restaurant has one. The dish people drive for. The cocktail they photograph. The thing your reviews keep mentioning.
Now the uncomfortable questions.
Does it taste the same at Tuesday lunch as on Saturday night? Can your newest hire explain it to a guest? Or does your training consist of three conflicting opinions and a handwritten note covered in sauce?
I have written bar programs and helped build a kitchen system from one location to seventeen. The pattern never changes. The spec sheet nobody reads is the most expensive document in your building.
Run the 3-2-1 Test on Your Own Menu
Borrow Campari's math.
3. Can three different people on three different shifts make your signature item identically?
2. Can two new hires learn it from your written standard alone, within two shifts?
1. Is there one person who owns that standard and checks it every week?
Three yeses and you have a system. Anything less and you have a favorite employee.
That works at one location. At five, it is a margin problem. At fifteen, it is a brand problem.
Great Products Need Operators
Aperol's story is not about a better liqueur. It is about what happens when a good product meets an owner who knows how to make it repeatable.
For a restaurant founder, that partner might be an operating executive, a seasoned GM or an advisor who turns your standards into something the team executes without you in the room.
You should not have to personally explain the orange slice at every location. Now be honest do you still have to do that.
By Daniel Angerer | Restaurant Operator & Scaling Advisor |
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