Efficient & Attractive Bar Design for Bar Owners: Maximize Space & Durability

One thing that came up there in the last few weeks was bar design and really how to design a bar along the lines of the episode we had a few weeks ago regarding bathrooms . So we're going to talk all about the bar and the back bar , not the dining area , not storage , not the office , but literally just the bar area .

And the first thing I want to consider here is what shape should a bar be ?

When we think about the shape of a bar , there's a few things that come to mind Everything from just a straight bar along one wall to U-shaped or horseshoe bars that are extending from the wall out into the room and have seating on three sides , to bars that are completely either circular , rectangular , but have seating on all sides .

And when it comes to bar shape , something a lot of folks don't consider is what that means for your room . So obviously , if you're buying a bar , you don't have very many options here .

Now we are going to talk in a few moments about construction materials for bars , things like that , that a lot of times when you buy a bar , it's worth tearing out the bar that exists and putting in a new one .

We'll get into all that , but for a second , let's just pretend we have a white box space and we can put in any type of bar that we want , any shape of bar that we want .

Frankly , you want to make sure that you're maximizing your seating area and that means a lot of times that a circular bar in the middle of a room or a U-shaped bar is not actually going to be the most efficient . One bar I was involved with was a remodel and I wasn't involved in the remodel itself .

I was involved in managing the bar a few years after it was remodeled . But when this bar was put in , they put in a large U-shaped bar in the space and that U-shaped bar ate up so much of the seating capacity of the room that it actually was a detriment to the business .

It was a wonderful , large , nice , gorgeous bar , but it drastically reduced our ability to have tables and the amount of space and the number of customers we could serve and because of that , because it actually decreased our overall capacity by having this large U-bar that jetted out in the middle of the room it wasn't a good design .

Now , in a lot of instances , I am very much a fan of a bar that runs along the long wall of the establishment .

It can be an L bar , maybe it has a little bit of a U-tube , but I don't want to jut too much out into the space that I can use for seating and dining and for events , because if you have events going on whether that's trivia , karaoke people want to pull tables together . They want to sit with groups .

You need that flexibility , and having your physical bar jut out in the room and eat up a lot of space decreases the ability of people to pull tables together and sit with their friends . It decreases the ability of you to move tables out of the way and have a larger space if you need it for an event or a tasting or something that you're doing .

So U-bars can be great , but you always need to consider is this eating into the space that I have available for my guests and is this actually going to be a positive impact on my business ? And , like I said , frankly , I like straight bars along one wall . Maybe you L shape it and you do it along the back wall and one of the sidewalls .

There are all sorts of different options , but I think that dining space or cocktail table space is actually a premium that can allow you more flexibility and to attract more gas than having necessarily more bar seats .

Also , when you think about it a bar stool you're gonna need more space for four bar stools on a U-bar than you are for one four top , especially if we're talking a cocktail sized four top . You know it's a little smaller than , say , a dining table , but the shape of the bar is really something you can only impact if you are building a bar from scratch .

If you're buying a bar or you have an existing bar , however , you can definitely affect the materials involved behind your bar and a lot of times when people are buying establishments , yes , you're going to run with the bar that exists there for a while , but at some point it may be worth considering redoing your bar and looking at what you can do to make your

guest and employee experience better . As we've talked about before , one of the biggest things to keep in mind when we're looking at everything from the physical design to our steps of service , to how we do our inventory , where we put things , is how many steps is that bartender taking to make a drink ?

How close and at their fingertips is everything that they need , and steps equal time . Time is money , so we always want to minimize the number of steps someone needs to take to do something , and that really comes into playing your design .

So even if you have a current bar , it is worth evaluating that bar design and deciding hey , do I want to redo this bar , do I want to tear this out and put something new in ? Because , frankly , most bars are kind of disposable . They have a certain life to them and we'll get into the reasons behind that .

But even if you have an existing bar , it is very much worth considering redoing that bar , reduce your steps of service and to come out with a product that's going to be more durable and better for you in the long run . As we talk about this physical design behind the bar , one thing I want to do is start from the floor up .

So we're going to work the floors , then we'll talk bar top , bar structure rather then we'll talk bar tops , then we'll talk about what's going under that bar and then we'll discuss back bar and some other pieces .

So if we're starting from the floor , first thing we have to talk about is the floor , and flooring behind the bar is something that a lot of bartenders have a lot of opinions on and a lot of bar owners have a lot of opinions , but obviously bartenders are the ones standing on it and dealing with it all day .

One thing that is hideously important in my mind is you need something that can get wet . Right , you should never have carpet behind the bar , and ideally you don't have a wood surface behind your bar .

If you do have a wood surface , maybe you consider putting some sort of plastic tray down for lack of a better word a fiberglass , something that's going to hold water and not get water all over that wood , because one of the problems you'll run into bar floors , or floors behind bars rather , are going to be wet . You have drinks being made .

You have ice draining . You have , if you have , cake boxes . Those have to go into a floor drain . You have all sorts of things behind your bar that produce liquid , and a wooden floor is not going to work well for that . It's going to get wet . So a concrete floor or a tile floor is always best .

But if you have a wood floor and you're stuck with it and you can find a way to put fiberglass or something there , that's going to create an impermeable barrier , that's worth considering . Also , when it comes to your floors , you're going to need floor drains All your sinks in restaurants in most .

I believe almost every jurisdiction in the United States with health code are going to require gap drains . So you have to have a floor drain and you have the pipe that comes down and there's a gap between the floor drain and the pipe coming off , say , your floor compartment sink for your bar .

And the reason for that is , if there was ever sewage back up , it's not coming into your sinks , it's coming onto your floor . Another good reason to have a floor that is not going to be affected if things get wet .

But if we have that floor that's impermeable whether it's concrete tile , some sort of fiberglass contraption , you come up . Well , whatever that may be , it's going to be hard and your bartenders are standing on that all day , every day , and it's going to be slick obviously , because anything that's wet like that will be slick .

So you need to make sure you have great bar mats , and when I say great bar mats , you need something that's cushy but also has some height to it that's going to prevent water from getting on the bottom of your bartender's shoes .

It's going to allow them to walk if that floor is wet on a dry surface , because the last thing you want is a bartender mid-shift to be rushing up and down your bar , taking care of your guests , busting ass and then slip and fall and bust their own ass . That doesn't help anyone . So , regardless of your floor , bar mats are a key thing to consider .

Now I have seen places that have gone with kind of a squishy tile behind the bar , and I'll tell you what I don't actually like those . I think that they're a little bit more prone to mold and bacterial issues and things like that . But more than that , the wonderful thing about a bar mat is I can pick that up , I can clean it .

Now I have this bare floor , I can mop that floor , clean that floor very well . Bar mats my thing always used to be take them out back , spray them down with a hose If they get real nasty , throw some bleach or something on them , degrease them whatever it's going to take to get those clean .

But by being able to remove the mat from behind the bar , it makes cleaning the bar much easier . So once you have your floor in place , then you have to talk about the actual structure of the bar , and most bars are made out of wood and that works . There's nothing wrong with a bar made of wood .

But there are some potential issues with a bar made of wood . The biggest issue is obviously that wood rots and wood in a constantly damp , wet situation will rot quite quickly . And I will tell you this much , having had a bar that I purchased . That was an older bar that had a wood structure to it . That wood started to rot after some time and it smelled .

It smelled bad and in addition to its smelling bad , when we actually went to pull equipment out from under it and look at the structure itself , the four compartments , sink and the keg boxes were the only things holding the bar up .

As soon as we pulled those out from behind the bar , the bar just didn't quite fall all the way over , but it definitely started to lean really hard and was about to fall over . So wood works . Wood can work for a while , but wood is something you're going to have to replace on a maybe not five-year basis .

You might get 10 years out of it , you might get 15 years out of it , you might get 20 years out of it , but it definitely comes with its own set of issues . One way to make a great bar structure that's not going to have those issues , and something I would do , having had that experience where I moved my sink and my bar almost fell over .

Something I would do today if I bought a bar , or prioritized today if I was building or buying a bar , is to make that bar structure out of cinder block . No-transcript , because cinder block or brick or stone , it's not going to rot , it's not going to have those issues .

And that base , if you have a cinder block based bar , probably has a life of 50 or 100 years , not 10 or 20 . So you're saving yourself potentially expense down the road . You're building something that you won't have issues with its structural integrity . You won't have issues rotting and smelling and all of that wonderful stuff .

So consider , anytime you have a bar , if it's wood , if you're going to replace it , if you just bought a bar , consider ripping that out and replacing the base of the bar with cinder block . Now , obviously cinder block does not look great from the customer side , but you can put anything you want on top of cinder block .

You can put faux brick facades on there so it looks like it has a brick base . You could put a wood facade on there and make it look like the structure was made out of wood . You can do almost anything on top of cinder block if you're a little innovative .

So it's not really an issue as far as what the guests sees Now behind the bar , obviously there'll be cinder block and all your equipment will be up against cinder block . That's OK . Guests should not be behind your bar looking at what the substructures of your bar anyway .

Now , once you have that structure built up , you got to come up with a bar top , and with bar tops you can pretty much do anything you want .

I've seen bar tops with for lack of a better way to put it nice for Micah wood , concrete , metal , stone , all of those work and , depending on the type of venue you are in , your atmosphere , obviously that's going to have a lot to play in to your bar top . But there are a few things , regardless of the material you're using , that you should consider .

The first one is , again you need an impermeable surface . You need something that's not going to absorb everything that gets onto it . Now , you can do that with epoxy , you can do that with varnishes if you're using wood or you know something that otherwise would be a permeable surface . Metal can look great , but also remember , metal can tarnish .

So even if you're using metal , you're probably going to need to seal the bar top . Concrete , I think , can make a very nice modern bar . But if you're aesthetic of your overall establishment , if your concept does not fit that modern concrete bar look , it's not going to work . And for that matter , just go back to the base of the bar real quick .

If you're pouring a concrete top , you can always pour concrete bottom or sides to your bar as well . That is always an option , rather than doing something like cinder block . You can go stone . You could do granite marble , those sorts of things .

Now , obviously that gets expensive and , depending on the stone you use , some of them are prone to chipping on the edges , they're prone to cracks and you have to be aware of that and try to prevent that , because it's going to be obviously a problem if you have some sort of fancy marble and then you have to replace it every four or five years because it's

cracking on you . So the more industrial , the stronger material you can do , the better .

But regardless of what you pick and again , you can make so many different things work as bar tops you can almost make a bar top anything you want , as long as you seal it well , as long as that's going to be a completely impermeable surface and beer and acid and everything that gets on that is not going to destroy that surface and soak through it .

And when we're on the topic of acids and things like that , obviously you have citrus . You have all sorts of things that are going to produce acid on top of your bar . But one thing to also think about is that quant sanitizer so standard sanitizer that we all use is not a particularly friendly substance .

It is going to cause surfaces to break down if those surfaces cannot handle it . And again , when we think about things like stone as a bar top whether it's granite or marble or whatever those seals on there those stones can be affected more by something like a quant sanitizer .

So always make sure that how you clean your bar matches what type of bar top you have , and then that bar top is set up in a way to prevent any issues .

The same bar that I had purchased years ago , where the bar itself started rotting on me at one point it was kind of funny because I had three quarters of the bar top was one way and that was where people sat .

And then one quarter of the bar top was a completely different material and that quarter of the bar was a different material because it had all been the same starting out .

But that quarter of the bar was where most of the drinks were made , it's where the servers picked up their drinks , it's where the soda guns were , it's where the ice bin was , it's where the dish you know our four-compartment sink was , and the bar top there had actually rotted to the point that it had to be replaced .

The base had not been replaced , but a quarter of the bar top had been replaced . And the bar top when I bought that bar was kind of an industrial grade for my KFU . Well , it was a composite wood with some sort of layer on top . It was not a great surface . It worked well .

It probably wasn't terribly expensive to put in , but it wasn't a surface that in the long run and long-term use was really going to hold up well . So they had to replace a quarter of it . You really don't want to do that . So pick the right surface the first time .

It might cost you a little bit more money , it might be a little bit more difficult to do and then maintain it properly . Because in the long run , even with that difficulty , even with that cost , you're going to save yourself money and you're going to provide a better experience for your guests .

Now , when we're thinking under the bar , let's talk about under the front of the bar , so like under where the guests sit , and the actual bar top itself . That's where you're going to have your four compartment dish sink .

That's where you're going to have your keg boxes , that's where you will more likely to not have your well liquors and your liquor rails and wells that you have everything going there , your ice bin , that's probably where your soda gun is going to be hooked up . So make sure when you're building a bar that you have enough space for all of that .

Obviously , you have to have both the height to fit it , something like a keg box under the bar top . You also have to have the whip .

So if you have a very narrow bar and you extend it out towards the guests an appropriate amount , the backside of that is not going to extend enough to cover up where your sinks and things are , and obviously you don't want to cover it 100% , but you also don't want your guests to see that shit .

So you need enough bar surface , enough width there to cover everything and for most bars I think that's going to be three to four feet . It really depends on exactly how much you put out front , how much you put in back . But remember , regardless of what you do , you need enough bar top to cover that .

And when you have enough bar top to cover that especially if , say , you're washing dishes and it's partially covered by the bar top you're going to need lighting there .

So make sure that you have things like electrical and lighting that are on the back of the bar and available for your use , and along those lines , you might want to consider and this is something I would definitely do today if I was going to build a bar or remodel a bar putting electrical outlets under the bar itself .

So two things one thing that I've always said you need to have under a bar when you build it is purse hooks . Women need a place to hang their purses , and if they can put it on a little hook in front of them under the bar , that's out of the way great .

When you're putting in purse hooks , though , make sure that people aren't going to hit their knees on it , because a guy that hits his knee on a purse hook is not going to be a happy camper . But purse hooks are an almost 100% absolutely required , always under a bar .

But the other thing I would do is I would put some outlets under the bar , that way , when people need to charge your phone , they're not asking you to plug their phone in behind the bar , they have a place to plug it in .

And while you're at it , why not put in a USB outlet so that your guests have a place to plug in a USB or a standard plug and nowadays you can get the USB A and USB C combo plugs a little bit more money , but again , it's going to save a lot of aggravation and your guests will like it .

So that's something I would recommend doing as far as under your bar , if you will , as

concerned . Now , when we look at the back bar , the main thing on the back bar there's two areas right , there's kind of below your bar surface and above your bar surface . Below your bar surface is all about storage , and I don't care how much storage you think you need . You need more than that .

There is never a reason not to maximize every inch of potential storage space under your back bar . Some people want to hide that with cabinet doors so that it's a clean , sleek look , especially in a higher end establishment . That's going to be the way you want to go .

But you can do shelves , you can do whatever the heck you want , but you need the storage .

I was working on a project once with a country club that was putting a bar in a room that didn't previously have a bar , and when we were doing the demo to start putting the bar in , we found behind a wall was this just old concrete lined , what appeared to be some sort of old cabinet .

I don't know if it was a , you know , maybe it was a cold shoot , maybe it was a fireplace back in the day . I have no clue why it was there , but we found this concrete cavity behind the drywall that was about three feet by about four feet and about three feet deep .

That was just there and wonderful and framed out , and we just put cabinet doors on it and put a shelf in it .

So we had this great storage space behind the bar that we never intended to have , but the second we found it we utilized it because that was key to having a good Storage space , because , again , steps cost you money , so you never want your bartenders to have to run to the back to get more booze , especially if it's something common , if it's captain or Bacardi

or Tito's vodka or Whatever is selling at your bar today . You don't want people to have to constantly run the back to get a new bottle . You need those bottles under the bar . You need that storage . So always think about you need the storage space and how much storage you need .

Now , once you get above kind of that bottle storage , you may have some coolers back there , some reaching coolers , for example , for bottles of beer , canza beer . They could be doors that open outward . They could have the slide top doors and you reach down .

Does not matter , but you're gonna have some coolers back there , probably for your beer bottles , wine , what have you . And then you need glassware storage . So one thing that's wonderful about the slide top reaching coolers hey , they hold a whole bunch of bottle beer if you stack it vertically on its side .

But also they have this wonderful shelf on the back of them . That makes a perfect place to store your glassware . A Lot of folks like to put glasses hanging from racks under a bulkhead or above the bar itself . Personally , I don't like that . I think it obstructs people's view . It kind of closes the whole room in .

It makes it seem like a smaller space than it actually is . So I like to put all my glassware behind the bar . And actually I the first bar I bought had a lot of hanging glass racks and At first I didn't think anything of it . I went a few months Before I said you know what ?

I just don't like these and I think if I take them down it's gonna be way better , because we had TVs behind the bar and it kind of obscured views from some places . So I took those racks out and I'll tell you what it made the whole space seem bigger .

It increased the number of people sitting at tables that could see the TVs behind the bar and it really just helped Elevate the space by not having glassware hanging down there . So you need to make sure you have ample glass storage and , just like with liquor storage , you're gonna need more glassware than you think you're going to need more glassware storage .

Then you think so make sure you have plenty of it . But the slide top beer coolers , as I was saying , the back of those is a great place to store some glassware . Shelves are a great place to store some glassware . Obviously , above the shelves that have your glassware , you're going to need your top shelf liquors .

And here's the thing a lot of people want to put one of everything they carry on the back of the bar when people can see it . You really don't need to . I think in the United States at least , everyone assumes that you have Bacardi . If you don't have Bacardi because you're a high-end craft cocktail bar , that's different .

But if you're a run of a mill bar , a neighborhood bar , a dive bar , a moderately high-end bar Most restaurant bars you are going to have Bacardi . So Bacardi can go in your well off the front of the bar when people can't see it , because it doesn't matter , they don't need to see that .

But if you're a dive bar that just happens to carry I don't know grandpappy van Winkle , because you got a good deal on it and somehow got on the list and you have One of the best bourbons in the world sitting in your bar , people aren't gonna assume you have that in a neighborhood bar or a dive bar .

If you're a high-end cigar bar in a big downtown area , yeah , they're gonna assume you have it or that you could have it . But if you have liquor that doesn't quite fit your concept , which is fine as long as you can sell it . You need people to be able to see it , to be aware of it , so that back bar space where you can actually display bottles .

Your goal needs to be to display bottles people assume that you don't have and display bottles that people are going to call . So , for instance , tito's relatively run on the Mel vaca everybody pretty much carries Tito's at this point that can be in your well , but maybe Stoly not everybody carries Stoly .

So , and it's a little more money You're gonna put that on your back bar . So always consider that what you want to display are things that people do not assume that you have and and things that people will order if they see it . Now there are some other things you want to consider having space for on your back bar .

If you're in a state that does things like Kino or pull tabs , maybe you have a pull tab board you need to display that behind your bar so people can see what's going on . If you have any lottery gaming type games the people are playing at the bar , obviously you're gonna need some display space for that .

Further and to me one of the biggest things , I think every bar in the world if you provide a cool , unique experience , you can sell merchandise . So you need space on your back bar to show people the merchandise that you're selling .

You don't need a stack of t-shirts , but you need one t-shirt so that people can see that they can buy a t-shirt , because most people that go to bars are not planning to buy a t-shirt , they're not planning to buy a hat , they're not planning to buy a mug , but if you show them that they can buy a hat or a t-shirt or a mug , they will .

And that's Especially true in tourist destinations . People spend a lot of money on bar merch while they're on vacation , so you need to have that there available to them and visible to them . I Was not in a tourist location with any of my bars , but I still did sell a fair amount of merchandise , and mostly to people that were my regulars .

I gave away a lot too , but I sold a lot of it , and when you have the opportunity to sell somebody something and then they wear it and they're a walking billboard for you , it's not an opportunity you should pass up . So definitely make sure on your back bar out there you have place for merchandise . A Final thing that has to go on the bar .

This is something we have not touched on yet is your POS system . Obviously , your bartender has to be able to bring things in . There was one bar that I worked with I Worked at , I guess I should say where the POS system was behind a wall behind the bar , and it was quite possibly the worst design decision I have ever seen .

And the reason they did that is they thought that the POS system behind the bar would take away from the guest experience . They didn't want the guest to see the bartender bringing things into the POS system .

In practice , what that meant is that their inventory was always skewed because people didn't get things rung in and things got in rung in wrong and the bartender sometimes forgot to bring things in because it was too many steps it's too far away Now , when possible , it's great if you can have a POS system that faces your guests , especially if you have a long ,

one-sided bar . If you will not a U-type bar or something like that , but if you have a long bar and you can have your POS system in a location where your bartender , while ringing stuff in , is facing the , yes , that's great . Obviously , one of the things we always want to do is minimize the amount of time the bartender's back is turned to the guests .

But there are a lot of bars that have POS systems where the bartender has to turn around to ring things in . That's okay Again , not ideal , but that's okay . But you need a POS system located near where your bartender works .

Now , if we have a bar that , say , has two wells , you have a service well , for your service bartender that's taking care of your cocktail Waiters and waitresses , and another bar well , for your bartender that's handling the bar . You need a printer for the servers at the service well , so everything they ring in the POS pops up right there .

You don't want people having to run to get tickets . That's going to slow down service . That's going to cause tickets to get out of order . That's going to Create issues . So if you have two wells , you need printers for each if appropriate . You need POS systems for each if appropriate .

If you're having questions in your mind about where the POS system should go for optimizing the layout and everything of your bar and I've been there the answer is to , while you're redesigning a bar , while you're building a bar , while you're renovating that actual bar area To run wires , multiple locations , give yourself flexibility .

Give yourself the ability to say , oh , I have a POS system here and oh , I need another one . I'm gonna put it over there now . The great thing is , nowadays a lot of POS systems are gonna run wirelessly , so you don't have to worry so much about the hard wire connections .

But if you're using a POS system that uses hard wire connections , if you're using printers that require hard wire connections , whatever you're doing , any time you have a chance to run cables for something that might need a cable , just run them cables cheap . Running them while you're constructing something is cheap .

Trying to move the location of cables down the road , trying to move the location of electrical wires down the road , is hideously expensive . So future proof yourself anytime you're doing something like this . But again , nowadays most POS systems are able to operate wirelessly .

That's going to save you a lot of effort and give you a lot more flexibility in where that POS system lives . Final note with the POS system you're gonna have a cash drawer . Make sure that cash drawer is accessible to your bartenders not your servers , easily and not your guests at all , because you want one person responsible for cash drawer at all times .

So you need to make sure wherever that cash drawer is sitting in your bar design . It is set up so that one person is using it and other people cannot get to it . Now we could talk a lot more about bar design , about ways to set up wells , about a lot of little Intricacies behind the bar .

But as far as an overall picture of how to design or renovate a bar , this is about as good as I can give you , and again , there are a lot of things here where we have options . But the main Point of all of this , if we were going to distill everything we just talked about down into a few points Impermeable surfaces things are going to get wet .

You don't want them to rot , would rats be careful ? Make sure that the surface you have not only can stand up to water but can stand up to acid and puke and can stand up to drinks being spilled on them and beer being spilled on them and Toxic cleaners being used on them , because that will happen .

Make sure that your Lickers that people don't Expect you to carry or wouldn't automatically assume that you carry are visible and they can see them so that they're aware that you have them . And Then everything that is Expected that you carry , that is more routine .

You can go ahead and hide that in a well or in a rail or on a shelf , however you want to do that and then finally make sure you have more storage for glassware and Boos , then you think you need you always need more storage than you think . So , on , that note will wrap up for the week .

If you have not had a chance to pick up the book how to make top shelf profits in the bar business yet , if you have not checked out Bar business nation Facebook group , check out the show notes . There's links for both down there . If you need Consulting services or anything for your bar , check out the website . There's contact forms for me on there .

Otherwise , I will talk to you guys next week . Have a good one .