So I’ve had this dream since I was out of college, to start up a combination bar & arcade. Logistically somewhat simple. A bar that serves beer & liquor, some arcade machines & pinball tables, and a lounge area. Nothing too new. Just stuff from the 70’s through the late 90’s. If I had anything too new, people can just play that at home. So why bother.
Have events like “High Score Heaven” where people can try to beat the high score on a couple of different games and can win free drinks or discounts on drinks…that kind of thing. Have fighting game tournaments for games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II. Have events whenever we add new games.
I want to stay away from serving food if I can…but a lot of bars at least offer something like wings or house chips. But I want to keep things simple. Alcohol has huge markup so that’s where the money is. All the arcade games would be set to free play. But in order to play you’ve gotta have a drink.
What do you guys think? What would it take for you to frequent a place like that?
Food - Better check your local laws. Where I live you have to sell a certain percentage of food to alcohol sales or they will take your license (Unless it is a private club, they don’t have to serve food)
Bar- Have you ever worked or owned one? Working in one is bad enough. Owning one is a whole other headache.
Overall I think it’s a great Idea but an expensive idea. I also know what it takes to run a bar as I have worked in many and owned a pub. It’s extremely hard work. Your family will never see you. If they are seeing you it means you aren’t at the bar and your employees are taking advantage of you to get higher tips. Giving away food and alcohol.
Another thing to think about will depend on where you live. Here you have to skirt around the law to make money on alcohol. My family cared about our money and freedom to much to do that so we didn’t make as much money as we could have. If you have no problem serving drunks over and over and letting them drive then you will make a fortune.
Edited to add:
Make sure you get auto pours for your liquor or you will loose money.
Good idea, but the up front costs are what will get you. Beer and wine liquor licenses are usually manageable, but like Dig said, you’ll have food to back that up. Full blown liquor licenses are crazy expensive and if you don’t have the food to back it up, it’ll be fairly hard to earn and make profit. My entire family except myself had worked in the hospitality industry with my brother running 3 places with full bars in Utah, my other works for Margaritaville, and my dad is a chef.
So really what I could do is instead of it being a open establishment, make it a club. So there’d be membership fees or door fees or something like that?
Yes. That is what has to happen to be a private club.
I would check you local laws first. Some places are more lenient than others. Like in New Orleans they have drive through mixed drink places.
The biggest thing to think about when opening a bar is
Do you have a family that needs you at home at a normal hours? Or better do you have family that like to work.
Do you like working 12 hours days?
Have you ever been in trouble with the law. If so you will have a hard time getting a liquor license.
How well do you handle drunk people?
Do you have eyes in the back of your head? Employees in the bar industry suck. Ours made over 50k a year and still stole from us.
The most important - do you like cleaning up puke and shit?
You will really have to love your work. You also will need to be prepared to not make money the first 2 to 3 years you are open. Depending on loans, expenses, etc. Most startups rarely make money the first 3 years much less make it through the first 3 years.
Going private will reduce some of the issues. You will know your customers and if they cause a problem you just end their membership. You also can have more flexible schedule as you may not need to be open at lunch time.
There’s a small chain of these in the metro New York area, and they all do very well. I go to one of them semi-regularly, they have an extremely limited menu of food, but they have a great selection of beers from around the country. That said, listen to D.C. there, bar ownership is very, very hard. Add on needing a tech for your 30+ year old electronics, and I think my head would explode.
The worst part about running a bar was the people working there. I remember I was the assistant manager at a bowling alley, and the bar manager was a complete thief (and a slut, but that was another issue). She had her fingers in the till as often as her boyfriend had his fingers in her (and both seemed to happen by the register a lot, for some reason). And somehow I was the guy that had to explain why the bar was short every stinking night.