Beverage

$10 used to be the magic number.

A decade ago, that was a typical price for a craft cocktail. Since then, that number has climbed and climbed — $14 to $16 is normal now, and in cities like New York and Los Angeles, no one blinks at $20.

Why have cocktails gotten so expensive? Restaurant operators cite several reasons: rising rents, the increased demand for quality ingredients, and most importantly, the cost of labor, which includes hiring skilled bartenders and paying for the time required to make elegant, complicated concoctions.

Serving high-end cocktails can do wonders for a restaurant’s bottom line, bringing in a 15-25 percent profit (compared to the 4-6 percent margin most operators see overall). But what if customers start to feel cocktail price fatigue?

When you’re buying a high-performance blender or other restaurant equipment, you care about how much it costs. You care about how easy it is to operate and how long the warranty lasts. You probably don’t care about all the mysterious agency certifications it has: NSF, ETL, UL… Should you?

Yes. For one, health inspectors look at these marks. They want proof that your kitchen equipment is certified to be sanitary and safe. Also, certified foodservice equipment is better for your bottom line: more durable, safer for employees to use, and easier to clean so your risk of foodborne illness is decreased. But restaurant equipment certifications can be cryptic and confusing. There’s a lot of overlap between them, yet standards recognized in the United States may not count elsewhere in the world.

Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know.