Bar Rezcue

Curious if anyone else has seen this new show and if anyone who was/is in the bar business has anything to say on it? Not sure how long it will hold my intrest as like many of this type of show it eventually always plays out the same. Then again, most shows are like that anyways. So far the "rescued" owners seem pretty oblivious and dense to what is going on in their place. The "remodeling" they do is also beyond what a business near failure could do.

OTOH, I really like seeing the "science" of running a good bar and good bar foodservice. I know what I like in a bar and bar service and what drives me crazy. What is interesting is not how obvious some of it is, but the things you might never have thought of.

Anyone else been watching it? Man can't watch "Pawn Stars" only.......

I also enjoy the show, they seem to have experts in each area which I like. Many bars I frequent could learn a lot from the show !!

I have not seen it. Some times neighborhoods change slowly and the bar owner doesn't realize it. Or the bar owner sees "familiarity" whereas others see photos on the wall with autographs of people they've never even heard of.

One bar owner I know discovered an "inventory shrinkage" of a massive amount and strange if it wasn't the boxes of expensive booze that got lost. His manager got canned that day but it was too late.

Some bars are neighborhood joints and some have real "draw" based on the barmaids or something. Owners tend to get set in their ways and not realize that the paint is faded and the posters are out of date and that jukebox hasn't had a new song in eons. One bar manager was allowing the karaoke machine to be cranked up full blast because a big tipper liked it that way but the customers were being driven out by it and the owner usually got there later in the evening and didn't know why the place was so sparsely populated.

One bar owner put brighter lights in his parking lot and truly scrubbed and scrubbed the women's rest room ... females started coming back and then so did the male customers. Another bar owner in the middle of the block paid two building owners to install exterior lighting from the corner to his doorway. After that business started booming. Sometimes it doesn't take much. Often a coin box on the pool table is the most expensive mistake a bar owner can make. One guy built a double door without a building permit. None of his neighbors reported it, they loved the peace and quiet of the inner door being closed when the outer door was open.

In an oriental owned place you often walk in and find a barrier of some sort. And everything is bordello red. That is not always good business, though it might be in the orient.

Quote: FleaStiff

Some bars are neighborhood joints and some have real "draw" based on the barmaids or something. Owners tend to get set in their ways and not realize that the paint is faded and the posters are out of date and that jukebox hasn't had a new song in eons. One bar manager was allowing the karaoke machine to be cranked up full blast because a big tipper liked it that way but the customers were being driven out by it and the owner usually got there later in the evening and didn't know why the place was so sparsely populated.

Having managed a business I can sympathize with burnout. Customers want everything, employees want everything, and if you have a boss they want everything. At some point you get glad there when there is a day with no or at least few fires to put out. When you interview for other jobs (if you do) your burnout probably shows. And the cycle continues. When I was let go my boss was more upset than I was. He was stammering and I was like, "OK, I need to turn in the company car, how can I get home?" Threw out or donated anything I had with the comopany logo and moved on.

yeah, sometimes Henry Ford had the right idea. You can any color you want so long as its black. No special requests. No interruptions in the routine. Just keep the line moving and every seven seconds a black car rolls out the exit door. That one guy who couldn't sing anyway but liked it real loud was costly but really the problem was the owner was not there in the late afternoon or early evening. And never realized what was happening. The manager didn't care. He was getting free drinks and pocketing those tips.

One locals place has these great big water filled vases and you drop a quarter in hoping to win a prize if it lands in the tiny little thigamajig at the bottom. Usually no one really wins but every now and then they empty out the quarters and all the regulars can play all the various machines in the place with free quarters that night and there is a tray of free microwaved burgers. Often it really does not take much for a simple shot and beer bar to do well.

Quote: AZDuffman

The "remodeling" they do is also beyond what a business near failure could do...

Often those design and renovation shows and the business owners make "matching" contributions but the show totals up the materials, not the labor involved. And even the materials are priced at a discount of fifty percent or something because the local store gets some publicity out of it.

Sometimes its a situation of invest in the remodel or file for bankruptcy. No ground in between at all.

Quote: FleaStiff

One locals place has these great big water filled vases and you drop a quarter in hoping to win a prize if it lands in the tiny little thigamajig at the bottom. Usually no one really wins but every now and then they empty out the quarters and all the regulars can play all the various machines in the place with free quarters that night and there is a tray of free microwaved burgers. Often it really does not take much for a simple shot and beer bar to do well.

I do wonder what it would take to keep a small bar going and keep the owner in a good living. $1,500 a day would make it a half-million dollar a year business. I have seen some of those small bars that fill up once a week and the rest of the time mostly regulars. They last forever.

Quote: AZDuffman

$1,500 a day would make it a half-million dollar a year business.

Many bars can do well on Friday and Saturday and the rest of the time seem to operate marginally. Sometimes entertainment is a factor. I saw one bar go from blue collar shot and beer bar during the day to young student and young workers at night due mainly to the bands they brought in. They got the blue collar crowd to leave by putting up signs of inflated evening prices.

I've seen otherwise profitable bars fail when they lost their parking lots.

Look at that strip mall in Oregon where its really a unified lottery machine parlor but ostensibly separately owned stores selling a variety of merchandise as loss leaders. Some bars can be real estate and liquor license vehicles and don't really have to make much money because the owner is focusing on real estate prices and the fact that licenses are restricted.

Quote: FleaStiff

Some bars can be real estate and liquor license vehicles and don't really have to make much money because the owner is focusing on real estate prices and the fact that licenses are restricted.

Met a guy on a cruise had that all figured out. He owned 6 bars in several cities. Was on his 4th or 5th cruise that year. Explained to me when you own 6 places you hire managers and just pull say $500 a week out for yourself. After that you give the owner a bonus if it does well. Even if he is skimming you are still making nearly $200 grand a year. And then there is the real estate and booze license.

His issue was he became an alcoholic after being around it so much on his way to ownership. Told me if you work in a bar you must not drink or you will become a full-blown alcoholic. I don't but that totally, I can drink heavy for periods then stop. But I am not normal and I can see where most people would fall into that trap.

Quote: AZDuffman

Explained to me when you own 6 places you hire managers and just pull say $500 a week out for yourself. Even if he is skimming you are still making nearly $200 grand a year. And then there is the real estate and booze license.

That is what a great many people seem to be doing. Five or six businesses, a little time at each of them then let the money roll in. Alot of people realize that a manager can make more and better decisions than the owner can because the owner is really buying "freedom from burnout" with his manager's salary. An owner can go through two or three managers who each get sick of it all but the owner remains happy because all he really does is hire managers and hire a CPA and have a few friends of his drop in and report back to him from time to time. Some owners only show up to take the money out of the till on Friday and Saturday nights, the rest of the time the manager deposits it in the bank on his way home.

>His issue was he became an alcoholic after being around it so much on his way to ownership.
I knew one guy whose bar got a very young crowd. Lots of fights. He could never leave the premises if the bar was open. Insurance premiums? Forget it.

Quote: FleaStiff

His issue was he became an alcoholic after being around it so much on his way to ownership.
I knew one guy whose bar got a very young crowd. Lots of fights. He could never leave the premises if the bar was open. Insurance premiums? Forget it.

Bar ownership seems to burn the heck out of people. Seems like people think it is a full-time party at age 22 so they get into it. By age 30 they are "trapped" and would drive a truck for Jerry Logan to get out of it. But they have a hard time of it for many reasons. If nothing else it destroys sleep patterns and social life outside the bar.

I would have misgivings about being a bartender or a bar owner. You are a drug supplier to people, basically. (Yes, I know that is a matter of opinion). Yes, you will get the fun-loving crowd, sometimes, but more likely more than a few alcoholics.

Quote: teddys

I would have misgivings about being a bartender or a bar owner. You are a drug supplier to people, basically. (Yes, I know that is a matter of opinion). Yes, you will get the fun-loving crowd, sometimes, but more likely more than a few alcoholics.

Owner of a bar, owner of a coffee company, owner of a bordello ... its all feeding addictions of various sorts. You think all those gun stores in the South didn't know their Saturday Night Specials were headed for Northeast cities for holdups and murders?

Sure caffeine is a less violent "cold turkey" than heroin but its still catering to an addiction.