6 Things to Consider When Planning Your Bar

A successful bar relies on far more than just a good selection of drinks. Planning the layout of your bar to help utilise the space available to you is vital to maximising efficiency and profits. Servaclean has over 20 years of experience in planning, building and installing bars for clubs, pubs and cafes. Suffice to say we have learned a few things in that time. Below is what we consider six vital factors to take into consideration when planning the layout of a bar.

Managing glasses

Ensuring your glasses are easily accessible can help ease the strain on staff, especially during busy periods. Keeping your glasses clean is also an important consideration – a glass washing machine can make things simpler, but you’ll still need somewhere to let glasses drain, a sink or backup washer in case your primary machine fails and hand washing and drying facilities.

Draught beers and soft drinks

Draught drink sales will likely make up a lot of your business, so make sure that you use dispensers that sit at the right height and are easy for servers to use. Consider where customers will be approaching the bar from and place your taps accordingly – they should be able to tell quickly and easily which drinks you’re serving.

Cocktails and mixing

Popular for special occasions, events and during warm weather, cocktails require more preparation than most drinks and therefore require cocktail station planning. Most importantly, you’ll need sufficient amounts of ice storage allowing for crushed & cubed ice, which in turn requires water supply and drainage facilities. You will also need storage for the ice together with easy access to a wide variety of spirits and liquor bottles, as well as mixer bottles, shakers and condiments and accessories including fresh fruit slices.

Counters and tills

The height and style of your counters need to take into account the equipment you will be housing, the locations of mains services and connections to beer lines, and you should consider including service ducts on your side of the bar for simple maintenance access. Tills should be placed at the right height and position to allow for easy use even in busy periods, and you might want to include a standalone card reader for quick card and contactless payments.

Cooling and displaying bottles

There are a lot of storage options where bottles are concerned. Choosing the right option and location for your bottles allows quick and convenient access for servers, as well as giving customers a better look at your stock. Make sure that power points are placed with bottle storage in mind, and remember you’ll also need somewhere discrete to dispose of empty bottles.

Tea and coffee

Hot drinks like tea and coffee are popular all year round, but it’s not as simple as setting up a kettle and buying some teabags. A good coffee machine – as well as space in which to operate it and store things like sugar, milk and crockery – is a must and ideally, it should be positioned for convenient use.

Servaclean Bar Systems are experts in planning and installing bars. To take advantage of our free BARPlan service or to find out more about our range of products, get in touch today by calling 01274 390038 or emailing us at wmail@servaclean.co.uk.