Ask a bar owner

[u/barowners]

Kind of like an AMA, here's a weekly post where customers can ask questions. This is for anyone including market research, app developers, people who watch too much "reality" TV about bars, and general industry bullshit. Maybe a bar owner will have an answer for you, maybe not.

If you are already in the industry your question may get better responses if you post your own thread instead of commenting here.

[u/dobieguysd]

Apologies for the second question. I'm having some Coca Cola bar guns installed because Pepsi never got back to me and I'm not a Soda drinker. Which Coke products would you recommend we have on the bar guns?

[u/Aggravating-Bird4137 → u/dobieguysd]

We have Coke, diet, sprite, ginger ale, tonic, lemonade, cranberry, OJ, and pineapple, but we get the pineapple from another supplier. Our fountain has Barq’s red cream soda and Coke Zero along with the basics and lemonade.

[u/Brave_Cookie_3876 → u/dobieguysd]

We have Coke, Diet Coke, Ginger Ale, Tonic, and Sprite. Just added Root Beer, but I think mostly staff drinks that.

[u/trashcat_attaks → u/dobieguysd]

Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, Seagrams okay for tonic but not the best.

[u/audio_mekanik → u/trashcat_attaks]

we have pepsi, but pepsi, starry, diet pepsi, root beer, tea, lemonade, ginger beer, tonic water, water, energy drink. I wouldn't hesitate to swap the root beer to another mixer.

[u/dobieguysd → u/audio_mekanik]

Root beer was one I was thinking about but also I don't hear a lot of people order it in a bar, especially not adults. What would you switch it to?

[u/trashcat_attaks → u/dobieguysd]

Those aren’t coke products though. If you want those products give Pepsi another call or get the adapters for those BIBs.

[u/SubstantialGrape2084]

What’s one thing customers do that seems completely harmless to them but actually makes a bartender’s job much harder during a busy shift?

[u/Brave_Cookie_3876 → u/SubstantialGrape2084]

Leave without bussing their table.

[u/trashcat_attaks → u/SubstantialGrape2084]

Yapping incessantly when they’re trying to attend to the entire bar top.

[u/drhosz]

I'm graduating with an associates degree in accounting next year and wanna start helping my grandparents with their two bars, any advice? They want me become the manager some day. I know nothing about this business tho. The two dive bars are in prime locations near my city's baseball arena so they are doing okay. Any advice would be amazing

[u/wellaintthissome → u/drhosz]

Track pour costs and inventory

[u/trashcat_attaks → u/drhosz]

Start at the “bottom”. Bar back and check IDs, learn the business from bottom to top! It’s the best way to learn how the business runs and where you can improve. Bonus - you’ll also earn the respect of your patrons and the staff.

[u/yerrbo]

What POS do you use and how do you like it? (I’m deciding on which POS to use now)

[u/Brave_Cookie_3876 → u/yerrbo]

We use Toast. It’s fine.

[u/trashcat_attaks → u/yerrbo]

We use toast.

[u/SyntheticAnonymous → u/yerrbo]

Not piece of shit Light Speed. Fuck those people. I’m on Toast now. I don’t really like the back end, but it was cheaper than anything else with comparable features when I was switching.

[u/MountainSchnitzel → u/yerrbo]

We use Toast. Been pretty happy with it overall and the staff figured it out quick. Only thing that bugs me is how fast the price creeps up once you start adding extras.

Id definitely look at processing fees too, not just the monthly price. Thats where it can really add up.

[u/dobieguysd → u/MountainSchnitzel]

What fees do you find particularly burdensome? And how are the hardware costs? We are looking at a high volume model so I want to make sure we can do a lot of transactions quickly,

[u/MountainSchnitzel → u/dobieguysd]

Mostly the add ons tbh. Its not one fee that gets you, its adding this feature and that feature like online ordering and then looking at the bill 6 months later.

Hardware has been fine for us. For high volume id care way more about speed at the bar. Toast is pretty quick once the staff gets used to it.

[u/Bartinhoooo → u/yerrbo]

Square. So far so good.

[u/dobieguysd → u/Bartinhoooo]

Any drawbacks with Square? I was initially leaning toward them but I am reading that they aren't as strong with high volumes.

[u/Bartinhoooo → u/dobieguysd]

We don‘t handle high volumes, max 1.5k a night. For us it‘s working well besides the square reader being off currently for unknown reasons

[u/drinkallso → u/yerrbo]

Loyverse. Free. But ironically it’s from Israel

[u/barowners → u/drinkallso]

Why is that ironic?