Need advice: opening a craft beer bar

There is a successful craft only beer bar 2 miles from my house with 20 monster TVs and the football crowd is huge (although being N Carolina college Bball is bigger) F the Panthers. However, I go nearly every day and the way they stay in business is event nights. Trivia is by far the biggest and most fun, and Thursdays are local small band night which draws in band groupies i.e. New customers. You didn't give us nearly enough information to give you specific advice, but you need 5 things just to start IMO; 1. Money. Double what you think you need. 2. Beer. All kinds. 8 great taps and 20 bottles, plus bmc. (50 taps is a waste, have 8 great beers of various styles, not 27 IPAs you can buy at the grocery store). 3. Location. Not just competition wise, but an area with the population AND per capita to have a decent number of craft drinkers. 4. Passionate, intelligent employees. I don't want to buy my beer from a hot 21 year old girl who just had her first IPA 3 days ago and thought it tasted like flowers. Give me a 30 year old, bearded man who has 1000+ different beers under his belt and a BA account. 5. Food, and not bar food. Intelligent dishes to compliment your beer. My local bar has nights every couple weeks where for @60$ you get a 5 course meal with 6oz of beer to go with each dish. Love it.

And I disagree with the people who say craft only. If you don't have wine, liquor, and bmc you are only limiting yourself. People will walk if you don't have bud light. Period. True craft enthusiasts appreciate bmc drinkers (or should) because if bmc didn't exist craft prices would sky rocket.

Good luck.

 

You have heard the comments of specifics, I will give general comments.

The food/beer/restaurant industry has a very high failure rate.

Concerning beer and breweries the expression, "Wanna make a small fortune? Invest a large one," is pretty accurate.

I would keep my doors and options open if possible with your present employment in the beer industry.

I would look to be manager, not investor, on this project.

 

People will also walk out if you do have Bud Light. Period.

Okay, not walk out, but just not go there in the first place.

In Louisville, I go to two craft only bars. A lot of the crowd goes to them vs other options because of the lack of the BMC crowd.

Either way, you are going to lose some business. But catering to a niche makes you especially attractive to that niche. So instead of rotating between a dozen bars that are mixed craft/bmc, they become a regular at the one targeting them specifically.

That said, what I said above still stands. Nothing wrong with being mixed. It depends on the crowd you want. A craft only bar will have a different demographic mix than a craft with bmc bar.

 

You got a like, what more do you want?

 

On the plus side, if the project ends up to be something like this one, you have a high chance of success. This local place where 2 friends of mine are brewmasters is doing fantastically well 7 months in.

http://www.millhousebrewing.com/

 

Buy me a beer?

 

Find a place you love and copy it.

 

As others have mentioned, location is huge. Even in a very beer-friendly place like Pasadena, CA, beer bars close down because they're down the wrong alleyway or too far from the main drag and/or parking.

 

When I was in Chicago, it was well known that the best beer bar was the Map Room. http://maproom.com/beer.htm
It is a pretty small bar, but has 26 taps and over 200 beers including some rare stuff. There is no food there, other than pretzel sticks on the tables. Prices were OK for Chicago. What brought people in was the selection, knowledgeable staff, and their monthly beer schools. The place was always packed.

A similar place in Chicago is Local Option. http://localoptionbier.com/ Again it is small, lots of beers, and knowledgable staff. They brew some of their own beers and have even started getting some distributed.

I think in both cases the owners love beer more than money.

 

Let me know if you need a finance guy.

 

Plenty of start-up capital. And then some. Whatever you estimate your costs to be, add at least 50%.
Don't nickel and dime with your pricing; make it all inclusive. There's nothing that bugs me more than seeing that a beer is $6.00 and then finding out it doesn't include tax. Pay attention to early sales - be flexible about what your vision is since the people you are trying to see may be hiding. Differentiate your place somehow from others in the area [e.g. a gimmick, a menu item, a beer no one else can get] and don't be consumed by location. The better the location, the more the rent. There are plenty of places that are out-of-the-way and quite successful, which is where the abundance of capital will be useful since it may take a little time for people to find you. Location is only important to chains that depend on transient business. A craft beer bar isn't going to get many people who walk/drive by and say "Wow, let's stop at the craft beer bar we just passed." It's more likely that your business will be found and grow by word of mouth, which also takes a little longer.
If you are in a state that allows it, have a happy hour or some sort of in-house, unadvertised deal. If you are going to serve food, keep it simple, fresh and plain. Keep the taps craft only, pour honesty [i.e. if you're using a 16 oz. glass, sell it as a 14 oz. pour] and if you want to offer AALs, have them in bottles only and price them the same as your craft drafts. If a AAL drinker complains, offer a sample of something comparable.

Actually, the best advice I can give is to open a place that you would enjoy patronizing. Hopefully others will enjoy it too.

You haven't indicated where you want to open this place, but if it's within 100 miles of NYC and you do 90% of the above suggestions, I'll be there when you open. If you're more than 100 miles away, and you do 80% of the above, I'll be there but when I can't tell you.

Edit: IMO - The best craft beer bar I've ever visited was HopLeaf in Chicago - no one under 21 admitted through the front door. Elitist? Perhaps. Appreciated? Absolutely.

 

Not sure what you mean there? Why would anyone under 21 be admitted?

Totally agree with the point about the location. The oldest continually operating bar in Philly is located down a tiny alley, lined with dumpsters.

 

Because many bars are also restaurants. Restaurants usually serve children. Many have children's menus.

 

This sounds bad, but in reality sorta makes the most sense.

 

I disagree with location being unimportant. I especially disagree with locating your bar down an alley lined with dumpsters.

 

Which craft beer bar in NC are you referring to, if you don't mind me asking?

 

Dont like this at all. Why alienate potential customers that have children? Why alienate potential customers who might want to have a bud ligh (in reference to the BMC discussion). Business is about making money. You might be able to get that bud customer into a craft customer, but you definitely wont be able to if they dont come in the door.

Yeah, its no fun to have screaming 4yr olds, but if you build the place right, parents will figure out that its not the place for them. But what about 14-18yr olds that are going out with their parents for dinner? Dont forget that those are potential customers in 3-7 years. I got to a lot of places now that my parents took me to when I was younger.

 

I don't know how much you are currently making, but I would want to see some in-depth financial projections that prove to me A. that they can actually afford to pay you the salary she is offering without hurting the profitability of the business, and B. that there is enough demand in your area to sustain one (and preferably several) new craft beer-centric bars long-term. I would also greatly consider not signing on without a contract that guarantees you a GM-type position, should they make a go of it and open multiple locations.

Working in a restaurant is nothing like owning one. Nor does a business education mean you will be successful at operating a bar. So much of the business is managing relationships - with suppliers, distributors, sales reps, employees, the licensing body of the city/state within which you operate, and of course, the customers. Think very carefully about whether you see your wife's cousin being successful in a business where she works long hours and spends much of it interacting with people.

I'm not saying don't do it - but you have a child on the way, and this is a big risk. If you can financially handle the risk of signing on to manage a bar that goes tits-up, then go for it, but be 100% prepared to be without a salary for a while if you do.

 

Partnerships can be hazardous to your well being if everyone isn't on the same page, and it's understood that salaries will be taken if and when there is a profit in the business. I would certainly keep my current job and participate as a manager/advisor until which time I have a better understanding of what my "partners" tendencies and expectations are, and whether there is a future for the business long term. You can arrange an ownership share based on your overall contribution to the business, and hours worked. To fly into this blindly without ever operating a business, and understanding human nature is just not realistic.

 

Love these threads along with Im getting married what should I drink. Perhaps you just wanted to tell all of your cyber friends you are getting married or thinking about opening a craft beer bar?