We write in the "Tips" section to share our knowledge and business experience as bar designers. It provides the keys to understanding and the means to successfully carry out your project from the design to the realization of your bar station, but also for existing operators to improve their daily work.
The ideal bar station must be a production tool capable of calmly handling the flow of orders at any time, while also making the best use of material and human resources. It is a bar designed to maximize profits through the simplification of operations, optimization of working conditions, and rationalization of equipment usage. The result is financial savings and a quantifiable increase in operating income.
Consider the Bar as an Equation with Multiple Unknowns
Calibrating and designing the workstations and equipment of a bar station is not an easy task. The complexity of the menu to be served, the estimation of service volumes, the physical and technical criteria of the spaces, and many other parameters unique to each establishment are the causes. Year after year, we observe an acceleration in the renewal of the offerings of establishments according to trends. Even more rapidly, the replacement of its staff and thus its way of working and needs behind the bar. Obviously, bar layout and equipment remain significant investments that cannot be renewed as frequently as menu cards.
For this reason, the development of bar layout proposals must leave safety margins in production volumes and possibilities for future transformations.
You will find in our various articles the principles of designing an efficient back bar that have reached a consensus after many years of practice in the creation and evolution of establishments. However, you will quickly realize that the constraints of the specifications when creating an establishment lead to compromises, where often only experience will guide you towards the right choices.
Bar Station Creator, Our Work Attitude
To achieve this goal, two attitudes must be adopted in addition to solid industry experience:
- Listening and Analysis: Listening allows you to gather all the information to calibrate the bar. Strong signals include all the straightforward information to be incorporated into the specifications (menu, seating, previous assessments, staff, etc.). It's also important to listen to weak signals, market trends, and unspoken factors. A thorough study of these elements partly guides the creation of the layout.
- Creativity: It is born from analysis as a basis for the specifications. Simply installing the largest bar with the best equipment is never the answer due to numerous constraints. Being creative for a bar designer means, above all, knowing how to propose the right and suitable layout solutions according to the project's constraints and the client's wishes. It is an iterative reflection between proposals, the program, and the project's partners. It also sometimes means having the courage to completely change plans during iterative phases. The creation must also look further and propose solutions that address possible evolutions or bring about improvement innovations that have not necessarily been suggested before. This is also how the profession evolves.
