Hosting with Guests

Hand every guest a menu that fits in their pocket. Share a link or QR code, and they can browse, search, and pick a drink on their own phones, without you handing over yours or answering “what do you have?” all night.

Guests don’t install anything or sign in. (Building menus is part of your own Speakeasy account, so you’ll need to be signed in to create them.) They see only the drinks you put on the menu, and you stay in control from your own device. Mark a drink out when you run short, and star a few favorites to point people toward.

Sharing a Menu

Start with a saved menu in the Menu Builder (see Menu Builder & Event Menus). Tip: the Add all ready button in the drink picker adds every cocktail you can make with your current bar in one tap. You can also add a drink from its own page: open More actions (the ⋯ button) and choose Add to Menu. With one menu, it goes straight on; with several, you pick which. If that menu is already shared, guests see the new drink within a few seconds.

  1. Open the saved menu and, in the Guests card, select Create guest link.
  2. Share it however suits the moment. Show the QR code (tap it, or choose Show QR full screen, for a large code that keeps your screen awake), Copy link, or use Share… to send it in a message.
  3. Guests scan the code with their phone’s camera and the menu opens in their browser.

The full-screen QR also shows the link as a short web address. If a guest’s camera can’t scan, they can type it into their browser instead.

What Guests See

The guest menu is designed for a phone held in one hand:

  • Picture cards. Each drink is drawn in its own glass with a short description, so people who don’t know a Sazerac from a Sidecar can still choose.
  • Search. Guests can search by drink name, ingredient, or mood (“gin,” “lime,” “smoky”). It matches whole words, so “gin” finds gin drinks rather than everything with ginger. Search appears once a menu has 8 or more drinks.
  • Mood chips. Tap Bright & refreshing, Bittersweet, Rich & cozy, and more to narrow the list to the kind of drink they’re in the mood for.
  • Sections. On longer menus (24 or more drinks), the list is grouped by base spirit, such as Bourbon, Scotch, Gin, Rum, and Agave, with headings that stay in view as you scroll.
  • Avoid. On menus with search, a button beside the search box lets a guest leave out drinks with egg, dairy, tree nuts, or honey. Their choice is remembered on their phone.
  • Find my drink. A short quiz about mood, drink strength, and favorite spirit that suggests a top pick and two runners-up from what’s actually available.
  • Surprise me. A little shuffle that lands on a random drink (respecting any mood or search the guest has chosen).
A guest’s phone showing a menu with Find my drink and Surprise me buttons, a search box, mood chips, and the host’s picks
The guest menu: quiz, search, mood chips, and your picks up top.
A guest’s phone showing the Manhattan page with a Save button and an I’d like this button
A drink’s page, with Save and I’d like this always in reach.

A drink’s page

Tapping a drink opens a page built for guests: what it tastes like, what’s in it, a flavor chart, a collapsed How it’s made for the curious, and where the recipe comes from when it has a source. Two buttons stay at the bottom of the screen:

  • Save (a heart) keeps a drink on the guest’s shortlist. Saved drinks get a small heart on the menu and a Saved filter, so someone comparing a few can find them again. This list lives only on their own phone.
  • I’d like this opens a full-screen card with the drink’s name in large type, ready to show you across the room. Guests can add their name or send the request to you through their phone’s share sheet. From the Saved view, Show my order lists everything they’ve saved on one card.

Speakeasy doesn’t take or track orders. The card is a clear, friendly way to ask, so you stay the bartender, not a queue.

Running the Party

Once the link is live, your controls sit right in the Menu Builder, next to each drink:

  • Pouring / Out. Flip a drink to Out when you run out of something. Guests see it grayed out at the end of its section within a few seconds, and it can’t be requested.
  • Host’s picks. Tap the star on up to three drinks. Guests see them first, under a Host’s picks heading with a badge, and the quiz leans toward them when it’s a close call.
  • Dietary notes. Speakeasy reads egg, dairy, tree nuts, and honey from each drink’s ingredients and shows them on the drink’s page. Tap the leaf beside a drink to correct them, for example when your falernum has no almond, or to offer an egg drink made egg-free with cocktail foamer.
  • Egg drinks made with foamer. If you always use cocktail foamer instead of egg white, turn on Egg Drinks Use Foamer in Settings. Egg-white drinks then show Made with cocktail foamer instead of Contains egg on every menu, and Speakeasy will suggest the switch when your bar has foamer and no egg. Drinks made with a whole egg or yolk are unaffected.
  • Editing the menu. Add or remove drinks and save; the same link and QR code keep working and update for everyone.
  • Stop sharing. Removes the guest link. The QR code and link stop working right away. Deleting the menu does the same.

Guests’ phones remember the last few menus they opened, so a refresh on spotty Wi-Fi brings the menu back (with a small notice that it’s a saved copy) instead of an error.

You can also use Print Guest Menu to get a physical version of your menu formatted for paper or PDF export.

What’s Shared and What Isn’t

Publishing a menu makes a copy of just those drinks (names, glassware, ingredients, descriptions, and directions) available to anyone who has the link. Your custom recipes work the same as bundled ones.

  • Never shared: your bar’s contents, your private recipe notes, the rest of your recipe library, ratings and history, and your account details.
  • No sign-in for guests. A guest’s saved drinks and name stay on their own device.
  • Anyone with the link can view it. Treat it like a private photo link: it isn’t listed anywhere, but it isn’t password-protected either. Use Stop sharing when the party’s over.