Maybe it’s a matter of location. I can think of a number of local pubs that have barstools and no TVs (and maybe a jukebox). Of course, they all have tables and they serve some kind of pub grub as well.
I’m just not sure that “no food here!” is much of a selling point.
Sure. Every Tuesday night good for you?
Woot!!! goes to roll up a character
And stock plenty of Scotch. Neat.
Another angle that I don’t think has been brought up yet. Cheap booze. At least as far as typical bar prices are concerned. A five dollar crappy beer ain’t going to attract me very often. But I might drop by for 3 three dollar ones. You’ll make less per beer but you’ll make it up on volume. Made up numbers BTW but I think you get the idea.
Yes, but that’s about it. Over time the regulars will dwindle. Successful bars draw crowds. Live music and karaoke are big attractions around here. The successful bars become meat markets, and draw steady crowds all week long. But their crowds dwindle over time also, or they have the problems associated with too much success.
What I’ve seen is that the key factor for a bar is location. You need to have a large customer base in walking distance, or a short driving distance if you’re out of a population center. Once you’ve got that, you need to serve enough food to get people to spend all their money there instead of heading out somewhere else, and offer other entertainment like pool, arcade type games, lottery, music, horseshoes, darts, cards, trivia contests, and holdiday parties. You need competent, hardworking, attractive bartenders. Keep your ladies room scrupulously clean. Give a free drink to any newcomer, on anyone’s birthday, or occasionally to any good customer in return for the slightest favor or complement. If any customer is too drunk to drive, call a cab for them, and pay for it yourself if you have to. Contribute heavily to the community. Sponsor teams, make donations, raise money for charity. Never drink at your own bar (maybe once a year on your birthday or something).
There is a guy in Albuquerque, Rob O’Neal that has done several.
The first one was great. Nice Oak bar in a walkable, nightlifey part of town. No TVs. He opened a second sports bar in another part of town that did have TVs. That lasted maybe a year. Landlord decided to take over first bar when his lease was up, so he bought a place outright and reopened still no TVs, very successful.
He has a forth place open now don’t know if it has TVs or not.
He does a food menu though, and it is some good chow, but just burgers and sandwiches mostly.
The existence of the AFK Tavern is a significant factor in my desire to move to the Seattle area.
Drastic Wench would be better!
As others have said, you gotta have food, at the very least some pizza ovens and frozen pizza. Just something to keep people from taking off at 10:00 because they’re hungry.
OTOH, I know of one bar in Milwaukee that’s been around for over 100 years, has no kitchen and is in a terrible location, but it’s doing great. In fact, one of their pseudo slogans was ‘eat before you come’.
I’ve seen a lot of new bars go under. I sometimes think they never asked themselves “why should people come here.” To me one of the most important things is atmosphere. I can buy booze and drink cheap at home. I want some atmosphere with my liquor. Of course that means different things to different people (mine is dive bars with good jukeboxes. Not faux dive though). Pick your theme and determine if there’s enough of a market to support it (Someone near us opened an upscale tango/ballroom dance bar in eastern Tennessee. Out of business in 2-3 months).
Having some form of food means the hardcore drinkers won’t have to leave when they’re hungry (one place near us serves pretty much just hot dogs and simple sandwiches. The regulars order that shit like crazy).
As mentioned, regulars are very important. Some people might spend a few bucks on weekends, but regulars will drop money every single day.
Good bartenders can also make or break a place. Not overly friendly cutesie type ones, but people who match the bar’s character, get the job done, and make people feel welcome (what can I get you there chief?). New Orleans seems to have bartenders that excel at this (the real bars, not Bourbon St). They’re real, they’re fun, they can handle getting drinks to a crowded bar, but they also let you know they’re in charge. I have lists of places I’ll go just because of the bartenders, and places I avoid because of the bartenders.
As for dance type places, the more successful ones I worked at based everything around attracting women, making them feel safe, and making it fun for them. One owner used to give me the male to female ratio each night.
If you can’t tell, I enjoy hitting pubs and think bar-hopping should be an Olympic event.
My local ticks most of the boxes. No food, no TV, no jukebox just a straightforward bar where people go to socialise. Four good beers, regularly varied, and a wide variety of top shelf stuff. Music (mostly rock and blues) from a PA system with the volume kept just below conversational level so it’s there in the background but not intrusive.
Live music once a week but no other entertainment. Apart from Sundays it doesn’t even open at lunchtime as the owner likes to have his days to himself.
I’ve been drinking there for nearly twenty years and nothing has changed. There is a good regular clientele there most evenings and on music nights the place is heaving.
I’m so lucky!
Regular customers and tight inventory/portion control
Bumper stickers. Joey P is surely well aware of what I’d guess is the most well known bar in Milwaukee: Wolski’s Tavern. They give out stickers that simply say, “I Closed Wolski’s” at the end of the night. I’ve been there a few times, and it has pool tables and darts (maybe a couple other games) and a jukebox. I haven’t noticed a tv nor food, nor do I think they have bands play there. It’s just a small bar that’s well known because of the stickers. I had a good crowd, and just your regular mix of drinks. I think it probably is like Moe’s earlier in the night, and then is packed from 1-2am.
You might be able to get by with no food if you encourage connections with local food joints - have the menus on hand for the taco joint down the street, etc.
I second this.
To succeed, your knowledge of business should be greater than your knowledge of liquor and craft beers.
Of course, you need to be knowledgeable on liquor and beer. My point is that, to be successful at a business, you must be a business person first and foremost. While you don’t need to be an expert, you certainly need to have a good understanding of sales, marketing, accounting, tax law (business expense deductions, depreciation, capital expense deductions, quarterly tax submissions, etc.), labor laws, payroll, state liquor laws, and cash flow. If you hire this stuff out at the get-go, you won’t be in business for very long - you need to do this work.
Here’s my advice: work at a bar for a minimum of 6 months. This will give you an opportunity to see the business side of the bar from *behind *the bar. And you’ll get paid for it! While working at the bar, read the book linked to by Maastricht, and start reading up on the subject areas in the previous paragraph.
Another thing: I strongly suspect many bars are not 100% “squeaky clean” when it comes to following all tax laws, labor laws, and liquor laws. It’s difficult to compete with these places if you are following all laws.
Some localities may require that a bar serve food of some kind.
Assuming that the OP’s stripped-down bar is permissible, however, the clientele might be kind of grim and off-putting. My assumption would be that it would attract people who are not looking to be social but rather are looking just to lose themselves in a bottle for a while.
An owner who will work as the bartender for years. Seriously.
You can have extra staff to call in for busy nights and so forth, of course, but when there’s only one bartender, you’re it. You live on the tips, and save a fortune in labor costs, and all the profits go back into the business. People who think that they’re going to simply hire someone to do each job and rake in the profits are kidding themselves. Such a bar might run, but it will show no profit for the first few years. Have some bartending experience first, of course, so that you can bartend effectively.
My favorite bar in town is such a place. I know the young guy who owns it got the place as a graduation gift from his parents, but he graduated with a business degree, so he has a clue about running it. Every single night, he’s there behind the the bar. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays* he’s got another bartender and a waitress, but he’s there every single day from five to one or two in the morning. There are karaoke nights, but he’s not the only one in town who has that. There is live music sometimes, but he’s not the only one who has that. His beer is cheap, but there are cheaper places. There is no obvious reason for this bar to survive while others fail; it’s outmatched in every department by at least one other bar in town. But the other bars fail and this one survives because the guy a) knows how to run it and b) runs it himself.
Yup, it’s Wolski’s (owned by a good friend of mine). No food (other then popcorn/peanuts etc). No bands (or very very rarely). During the day, it’s exactly like Moe’s. Just the same handful of old guys sitting around shooting the shit. At night it’s a jam packed college bar where you can barely walk from one end to the other. And yes, the stickers went a long way in making them famous. But you won’t be successful on stickers alone. They have a good atmosphere, good bartenders and people really like the place. It’s also walking distance from where a lot of people live since it’s smack dab in the middle of a residential street.