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2. Chapter 3 Creating And Maintaining A Bar Business
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3. This Chapter Will Help You
Develop an overall concept and tailor it to meet the needs and desires of a particular clientele.
Study the market, choose an appropriate location, and determine financial feasibility.
Plan an atmosphere and décor suitable to a concept and its intended clientele.
Plan the efficient use of available space.
Analyze the design and space needs of the bar itself.
Weigh the pros and cons of hiring professional design consultants.
Examine the major factors before investing in a specific location or building.
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4. Targeting Your Clientele
Types of Customers
Diners at restaurants where drinks are served.
Drop-in customers who are on their way elsewhere.
Meet-and-go customers.
Entertainment seekers.
Sports fans.
Regular patrons.
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5. Types of Customers Subgroups
Women
Latino Customers
Baby Boomers
Generations X and Y
Connoisseurs and Sophisticates
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6. Selling High-End Spirits
The experienced entrepreneur concentrates primarily on a single, definable customer group, or market segment, whose members will have similar reasons for visiting a bar.
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7. Planning Services to Define Your Image
Much of what will set your bar business apart from competitors’ is your overall image.
Make an effort to define whatever special character your bar exudes that will entice people to visit your establishment instead of your competitors’.
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8. Planning Services to Define Your Image
Some components of image involve very practical decisions.
What services will you perform for your target market, and how?
What kind of bar do you envisage?
What kinds of drinks will you serve?
An integral part of any bar’s image is the bartender or mixologist.
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9. Location and Market Feasibility
Choosing an Area.
Estimating Customer Potential.
Sizing Up the Competition.
Selecting a Site.
Consider the Structure.
Determine Financial Feasibility.
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Layout and Design
Trends in Bar Design
The gastro pub, a bar that also offers world-class lunches and dinners.
The concept bar, where the goal of the décor is to whisk patrons away to new or exotic locales.
Another trend is participatory bars, where customers are part of the action.
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11. Basic Elements of Layout
Available Space
Activities and Traffic Patterns
Furniture
Utilities, Codes, and Licensing Restrictions
The room layout must accommodate persons with disabilities; they must be given equal access to public or commercial buildings, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
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Parts of the Bar
The front bar is the customer area, where drinks are ordered and served, is typically 16 to 18 inches wide.
An armrest along the front edge, adds another 8 inches to its width.
The last few inches of the back edge are usually recessed. This part of the bar is known variously as the rail, glass rail, drip rail, or spill trough.
The vertical structure supporting the front bar, known as the bar die, is a wall that separates customers from the working area.
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The Backbar
The backbar has a dual function: as a decorative display area and as a hard-working storage space.
The backbar is a good place to display call brands as a subtle form of merchandising.
Multiple facings are used, meaning several bottles of a known brand are displayed side by side.
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The Underbar
The underbar is where most of the equipment and supplies for the products you are selling must be arranged compactly and efficiently, to facilitate speed of service.
The area where individual bartenders work is called a pouring station.
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The Underbar
Most operations use an automatic dispensing system.
Such a system has lines running from bulk supplies to a dispensing head with multiple push-buttons. It has several nicknames:
A handgun or six-shooter (it is aimed into the glass and buttons are pushed to dispense liquids).
A cobra gun (it has snaking lines that connect to the head).
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The Underbar
When drinks are served from the main bar for table service, the bar must always have a pickup station.
A section of the front bar near the pouring station where serving personnel turn in and receive orders and return empty glasses.
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Parts of the Bar
The Bar Floor
Materials and Upkeep
Bar Size, Shape, and Position in the Room
The Bar as Control Center
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18. Smaller, Specialty Bars
The term service bar refers to a bar that pours for table service only in conjunction with foodservice. It does not serve customers directly; it deals only with filling drink orders brought by wait staff.
The same goes for the portable bar, a typical extension of a hotel’s beverage service where banquets, meetings, receptions, conferences, and conventions are being held.
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19. Working With a Designer or Consultant
Choosing Design Assistance
Working Arrangements.
Smaller-Scale or Remote Projects.
Make a Checklist of Bar Design Essentials.
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20. © 2011 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Summing Up
The first step for turning a building, room, or space into a popular and profitable bar is determining your target clientele.
The next step involves choosing the products and services you will offer to this clientele, or market segment.
The third step is defining a unifying concept with a special character or identity.
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