The art of compromise: getting bar design right can be a challenge

Cheers, Sept, 2005 by Robert Plotkin

Wanna start a fight? Start a discussion about bar design with a group of restaurant beverage professionals and see what happens. It's a contentious topic that can bring serious folk to fisticuffs.

"I kid you not, I've seen people get so red-in-the-face angry about where a glass washer should go, or how many bartender stations are needed behind a bar, that I thought it would come to blows," says David Commer of Commer Beverage Consulting and former T.G.I.Friday's beverage director. "Listen, it's a passionate subject because so much is riding on every little detail. Bar design affects people's livelihoods and the viability of a business. It's not a subject for the faint at heart."

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While there's no such thing as the perfect bar, some are much easier to work than others. Every misplaced step the bartender takes can cost the bar operator money in lost productivity. Operational folks are passionate about the logistics of drink production--how the workstations are configured, where equipment is placed relative to the workstation and how the inventory is merchandised. They are, after all, responsible for ensuring that the facility is designed to operate at peak efficiency; anything less potentially reduces revenue and service.

TROUBLE FROM THE START

The debate starts to boil over the moment the design team enters the discussion. They'll contend that the bar is the central focus of the front of the house. The structure dominates the overall interior design and therefore falls within their purview. They are, after all, responsible for creating ambience and visually delivering on the promise of a restaurant's concept. Where the bar is placed, the shape of the structure and traffic flow around the bar are crucial design considerations.

All overlapping decisions are potential flashpoints, with the design team frequently championing one point of view and the operations staff the opposite. That's when upper management needs to intercede and strike a viable compromise.

"The management point of view really is the prioritized melding of both the operational and interior design perspective," says Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray, vice-president of food and beverage for Intercontinental Hotels. "Add a few curves to a bar for effect and you could wind up adversely impacting drink production, delaying service, increasing labor costs, detracting from the ambience, snarling traffic flow or undermining the concept."

Etcheberrigaray contends that subsequent decisions pale in importance to choosing the design and physical shape of the bar. "Nothing one does can overcome a poor choice in terms of design. The physical layout of the bar largely determines the placement of equipment, liquor displays and workstations, which in turn, dictates the speed at which bartenders can make drinks and provide hospitable service. A difference of three feet one way or another may not seem like much when you're deciding where to position a glass washer, but it can add up to hundreds or even thousands of extra steps for bartenders a week. That's a lot of wasted time."

What design is the most operationally friendly? Which best allows bartenders to make drinks quickly and service the guests efficiently? Which layout is most visually appealing and provides the most efficient use of space? Tackling the debate head-on, we polled beverage veterans regarding their take on these issues.

THE SHAPE OF THINGS

Scott Young is a celebrated bartender trainer in North America. Having spent the majority of his life behind bars, the Vancouver native (he's owner of extremebartending.com) knows a workable bar design when he sees it. "I think most bartenders would rather work a linear bar, one with a workstation positioned every 10 to 15 feet or so. This configuration allows unrestricted views of the guests and permits them to move freely behind the bar."

Young adds that the most effective bar design is one that guides guests to where he wants them, instead of forcing bartenders to constantly run back and forth wasting steps and precious time. He points out that efficiency of movement is crucial even behind slower bars. The time wasted on drink production is always better spent on service.

David Sarner is a highly successful operator of such popular New York haunts as Gauguin at The Plaza Hotel, the Spy Bar, Chaos and Cain at Cabana in Southampton. "As a bartender I preferred working linear bars. So-called straight bars are easier to work quickly and maintain tabs on what's going on. They have little impact on traffic flow and cost significantly less per square foot to build. Plus you can comfortably seat more guests per square foot at a linear bar than you can incorporating curves into the design."

Another proponent of the linear bar is Mark Grossich, CEO of New York-based Hospitality Holdings, whose portfolio of NYC contemporary cocktail lounges include The World Bar in Trump Tower, Carnegie Club in CitySpire Centre and the Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Terminal. "In addition to being faster to work, linear bars afford bartenders with optimal face-to-face time with guests. From my point of view, there's nothing more important than that."