Editorial
How to open a bar is one of the most-searched questions in hospitality, and the answers available online range from useless to actively dangerous. We have spent considerable time talking to bar owners at various stages of the process — from those still in planning to those who have been running successful rooms for a decade — and we have distilled their collective knowledge into the guide we wish had existed when they started.
Every first-time bar owner believes the first step is finding the right location. It is not. The first step is understanding your concept with enough specificity that you can answer, without hesitation, who your customer is, what they are doing in your bar, and why they are choosing you over every other option within walking distance. This sounds obvious. It is not. Most failed bar openings can be traced to a concept that was never specific enough to survive contact with a real neighbourhood.
A concept is not a vibe. "A relaxed neighbourhood spot with good cocktails" describes approximately 60 percent of bars opened in any given year. A concept is a specific answer to a specific question: what does this bar do that nothing else in this postcode does? The most successful openings we have tracked all started with an answer to that question that could be stated in two sentences, and stayed true to it through every subsequent decision — menu, decor, pricing, staffing, and hours.
Licensing is where most timelines collapse. The process varies dramatically by city and state, but in every jurisdiction we have researched, the timeline given by the licensing authority is optimistic by a factor of two. Budget for it taking twice as long as they say and you will be close to right. Budget for it taking the time they say and you will be in trouble.
In New York, a full liquor licence through the State Liquor Authority typically takes four to six months from application to approval, assuming no objections from community boards. In California, the ABC process for an on-sale general licence can run six months to a year. In Texas, a mixed-beverage permit takes three to six months. The cost of the licence itself is one part of the picture; the cost of carrying a lease on a build-ready space while you wait is another, larger part. We have spoken to owners who burned through their operating reserve waiting for their licence to come through.
Most bar owners who fail cite staffing as the primary cause, or at least the accelerant. The hospitality labour market is tight, bartender retention is historically poor, and the difference between a staff that creates loyal regulars and one that drives them away is enormous. The best-run bars we know treat their hiring process with the same rigour they apply to their menu development. They articulate the values and standards of the bar clearly, hire for those values above technical skill, and train the technical skill in-house.
Pay matters, but it is not the only retention factor. Bartenders stay at bars that invest in their education, that treat them with professional respect, and that have a clear internal culture. The bars with the lowest turnover are almost always the ones where the owner or head bartender leads a weekly tasting or training session. This costs time and money and pays back many times over in reduced recruitment cost and consistent guest experience.
The bars that survive their first three years — the notoriously difficult period in any bar's life — are not the ones that opened with the largest budgets or the best press coverage on opening night. They are the ones that stayed specific about their concept under pressure, hired and retained people who understood what the bar was trying to do, and treated licensing and operational planning as the unglamorous work that actually determines outcomes.
If you are planning to open a bar, spend more time on concept clarity and staffing philosophy than on fit-out and menu design. The drinks and the room can be improved after opening. The fundamental question of what the bar is for, and who it is for, needs to be answered before you sign a lease.
Tom spent eight years in bar operations before switching to writing about the industry. He covers craft beer, whisky, and the unglamorous economics of hospitality for several trade and consumer publications.