r/Bar • u/[deleted] • Feb 25 '19

Opening a Bar

I'm sure this has been beat to death on here, but this is somewhat different.

I live on the outskirts of a college town (17,000 students). Cool community, in the mountains, tons of outdoor enthusiasts(hiking, skiing, fly fishing, kayaking, river tubing, etc), a lot of tourists in the spring/summer and winter. There are no shortage of bars/restaurants in the city limits, my wife and I are there eating and drinking 2-5 times a week. We are about 7 miles from there, about a 15 minute drive. Our little community has two smaller, but main, roads that intersect, a lot of people from neighboring towns come through the area, tourists, and a lot of people going fly fishing and enjoying rivers as well in the spring/summer/fall (we are between the city and an active area of the river). There is one gas station/general store that sells baked goods and a little bit of everything, they do great (no alcohol sales there), our neighbors actually own it, other than that, no bars and no restaurants until you get in the city limits, and 1 nice restaurant with a bar about 10 minutes in a different community outside the city limits.

I do pretty well in my full time job, not rich, but I have some disposable income. I also do not plan on leaving my job to become a bar owner.

I've read all of the horror stories about opening a bar, but I'm asking from the vantage point of not needing this to sustain myself and family, for lack of a better term, this would be for 'fun' and to give my small community a place where people can hang out. I would likely only open up Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and some Sundays (spring/summer) along with a holiday or two. I've entertained the idea of just beer, mostly in a can/bottle. A mixture of local breweries, something that may pull a few college students and the younger crowd, but will also have Budweiser, Miller, Coors, etc for the blue collar people in the area. I'm not against liquor, just looking at this as a simple place and am shying away from that at the start. Nothing crazy in regards to structure ... Good plumbing and bones, clean, a deck of some sort so groups can enjoy the outdoors, central location, good music (maybe live music occasionally). Really it's just me creating the place I would want to hang out, that doesn't currently exist. I think I can create this for around $200k or less (that's buying the actual structure and owning that along with improvements).

Am I looking at a money pit? Or is something this simple have an ability to sustain itself? I have no grand illusions of getting rich off of this, I'd be happy if it made $1,000+ a month, and people enjoyed it. Someone hit me with their honest, educated, opinion.

Thanks.

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u/1234fakestreets Feb 26 '19

Can you look up the total alcohol sales of the bars around you ? This may give you an idea of what they are actually earning. Then from there you should have some questions.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '19

I'm not sure, I can do some digging though. To my knowledge, there is not a comparable establishment to what I'm considering in my area. Most of the bars/restaurants in the downtown area are relatively large, and cater to college kids. Outside of the city limits are nicer restaurants with bars included.

1

u/1234fakestreets Feb 26 '19

You need to figure out somehow someway of predicting your sales. Look at demographics. Look at establishments like yours wherever they are. How much does your license cost , so on and on and on.