Waynesboro martini bar surrenders license
As a reminder on the importance of following the law, this news story broke out today:
“WAYNESBORO— Once seen as a bright spot that could help lead Waynesboro’s downtown back to life, the 309 Martini Bar has lost its license to sell alcohol.
The Department of Alcoholic Beverages Control said owner Michael Dean Stanley surrendered his license, just before a hearing slated earlier this month to consider liquor law violations.
Stanley did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.
The department had alleged the 309 Martini Bar wasn’t selling enough food and didn’t keep good enough records.
State law says food sales at a restaurant with a mixed beverage license need to account for 45 percent of total sales.
The ABC charged that 309 had not met that standard.
The department also said between Feb. 1 and May 31, the restaurant didn’t keep complete, accurate and separate records available for inspection by ABC special agents.
The issues emerged as the ABC reviewed 309′s request to have its temporary mixed beverage license made permanent.”
Waynesboro is located in Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. Though it is a small town, let it serve as a warning for what may happen to any of us if the state says we fail to keep accurate records or are not following the law. What is your reaction to the news story? Do you think such laws as mandated food sale percentages are fair?
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You have until Wednesday to sign up!
We’ve been pretty busy here getting our product guide set up! While that does mean we haven’t updated the site much, that does imply you’ve already signed up for our e-mail subscription service yes? We send out an e-mail to all our subscribers once every week; the articles aren’t posted here, so you are missing on some valuable stuff!
So now to the product guide. We will have it ready by next week, but we won’t be releasing it immediately to all of our readers. So far a few have signed up for the e-mail newsletter. These people will have first dibbs starting next Friday the 23rd of September to browse and use the guide. If you want to have it, you only have until Wednesday to sign up for the newsletter!
The guide will be basic for its first release. It will be in PDF format (which requires Adobe) and will be about 136 pages. The topics will have products under each listing that most bars will require in order to run their operations smoothly. The topics include:
- Decor and Furniture
- Entertainment
- Dishes and Utensils
- Bar Tools and Accessories
- Bar Appliances
- Kitchen Cookware
- Kitchen equipment
- Legal and Office
- Food and Drink
Each topic will have one to several subtopics, and all are organized with bookmarks to allow you to jump from section to section with ease. The guide includes a page on how to get your best value out of it. The purpose is simple, to help you find the best equipment at reputable dealers using the internet. If you like what you see here, sign up for our e-mail newsletter now. If you sign up too late, then you’ll have to wait a few more weeks before I release it to the general public!
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How critical is your commercial restaurant furniture representative?
How should you shop for commercial restaurant furniture? Many customers search online for tables, chairs, bars and outdoor furniture. They look to see if the items match their décor, the other furniture pieces, and the style of their bar or restaurant. Good choices for your bar should reflect your personal style. However, there are many more issues to consider when purchasing commercial restaurant furniture. This article covers some areas where the assistance of an experienced representative at a reputable commercial restaurant furniture supplier can be invaluable.
Is the restaurant furniture commercial grade?
Some restaurant and bar owners may consider purchasing retail instead of commercial grade furniture. Restaurant furniture specifically manufactured for commercial use is a much better option. This is one of the key areas where the advice of a commercial restaurant furniture representative will be invaluable.
The biggest reason to purchase commercial restaurant barstools, chairs and tables is their durability. Bar and restaurant furniture will see much more use then retail furniture, which is made for much lighter residential use. Commercial restaurant furniture should last much longer than non-commercial furniture. Many restaurant owners who initially purchase retail furniture are replacing it with commercial furniture within a year. In some cases, the initial cost for commercial furniture is not significantly higher than for the retail furniture anyway.
Another reason to buy commercial furniture is liability. Most commercial restaurant furniture comes with a warranty on liability. That means if you purchase non-commercial furniture without a warranty and someone is injured when a chair or barstool breaks, the restaurant could be liable for damages for that injury.
An additional consideration when purchasing commercial is the design of the individual commercial chairs, tables or barstools. For instance, some retail chair styles are much taller than the commercial chair styles. These chairs then “hide” the restaurant tables, which makes it looks like there are too many chairs.
Does the furniture fit my layout?
Customers appreciate good ambiance in a restaurant, but more importantly, they analyze where they sit. This includes not only the comfort of the chair but also the size of the restaurant table top. Subconsciously, customers ask themselves questions when they are at your restaurant. Is there enough room for all the plates and other table top items? How close are the other people sitting to me? Can I get in and out my seat easily?
Consider this scenario — a group of six comes in your establishment and you only have one table for four. Wouldn’t it be great if you had one or two tables that could be flipped to seat up to six people. An experienced commercial furniture representative probably would have suggested this in your initial layout, design and commercial furniture purchase. It’s a great idea to involve your commercial furniture representative in the design phase. It’s easier to design the furniture for the space, than to try to appropriately fit furniture you’ve already purchased into your space. A good commercial furniture representative will be able to assist you with maximizing the use of your space, while ensuring the comfort of your customers.
Can the commercial restaurant furniture supplier meet my timeline?
Many customers considering opening a new tavern or restaurant aren’t experienced in purchasing commercial furniture. When a business owner plans a new restaurant or bar, there are hundreds of decisions and tasks to accomplish before opening. Purchasing restaurant furniture may be far down on the list.
A lot of commercial restaurant furniture is custom manufactured. This gives customers a wide variety of materials, colors and styles to choose from to match their individual themes. Some restaurant tables, chairs and barstools are normally warehoused and in-stock, but the vast majority is manufactured when purchased, and can have anywhere from a four to twelve week lead time. If you are dealing with a good commercial furniture representative, one of their first questions will be when you need your restaurant furniture.
Will the commercial restaurant furniture supplier work within my budget?
Most experienced commercial restaurant furniture suppliers work with a variety of individual buyers every day. They realize that each individual buyer has their own unique budget, and that this is one of the buyer’s primary concerns. There are many price levels of furniture options in commercial furniture. At Missouri Table & Chair, our goal is to provide the customer with the most durable restaurant chairs and tables at the lowest price to match each customer’s specific budget and needs.
Missouri Table & Chair specializes in commercial restaurant furniture manufacture and sales. MTC has been in business providing quality commercial furniture since 1978.
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Some changes are a-coming!
Bar Business Blog was started over two months ago, and since then we’ve grown to have over 40 articles on helping people start their bar. We’re going to be expanding as we push forward, but there will be some changes:
- Comments will be open for feedback on new posts. You will only get 7 days to leave a comment!
- Posts will be coming in fewer frequency. We want to increase the quality, and due to changes in our schedule, this unfortunately means less time to write the same number as before. Sign up for our RSS feed so you won’t miss a thing!
- We’ll be expanding into Social Media more. We have a Twitter account, follow us there to show your support, but we will be opening a Facebook Fan page within the next month. We also hope to get some guest posts in, if you’re interested in guest posting, contact us!
- We’ll be unveiling a free product to our readers, specifically, e-mail subscribers. We won’t give out too many details, but it will focus on helping you find the right equipment. E-mail subscribers will get the first dibbs on this product! Sign up for our e-mail newsletter, we’ll be sending this product out soon!
There’s also some other articles we only give out through e-mail.
We would like to hear from you on our progress we are at now and as we move forward. Let us know how we are doing, we can’t move forward without your help. Feel free to send us an e-mail via our contact-us page. We’ll get to you and we thank-you for your readership. Have a great day!
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Legislators listen to Michigan smoking ban complaints
“More than 100 bar owners, employees and vendors vented their frustrations to two state legislators Monday about how Michigan’s smoking ban has negatively affected their businesses.
They’ve seen drastic cuts in sales, were forced to lay off workers and are struggling to pay their bills. Those themes were repeated by those who attended the meeting at the All Around Bar in Taylor, where Rep. Douglas Geiss and Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, both Taylor Democrats who voted for the ban, spoke and listened to their concerns.
Dave Hahn, who owns Players International video vending company and Powell’s Pub in Ypsilanti, said he spent 90 minutes at the MotorCity Casino in Detroit before the meeting. Casino gaming floors are exempt from the ban.
The experience, he said, was “pretty sick” considering his vending business has seen sales go down 40% — and his bar saw sales drop 25% — since the ban took effect May 1, 2010. His house is in foreclosure.
“They can do anything they want to do and the law doesn’t affect them,” he said of the casinos. “It affects you and I. … It’s criminal and it’s sad.”
Read full article here.
Michigan is one of many states that has a smoking ban in public buildings. We’ve talked about setting a smoking policy here on BBb before, but we haven’t discussed the legal aspects of such a ban. Today, we’d like to hear your opinions! Do they harm your business? Write us a comment below on what you think about smoking bans. You can also send us a tweet on twitter to give us a shout out on your thoughts!
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“Getting a Beer in Iowa is Tougher than you think”
While browsing the internet over the weekend, I came across this article:
“As the Ames Straw Poll approaches, GOP presidential hopefuls are rolling up the sleeves of their brand new flannel shirts and scrambling to be “the guy you want to have a beer with.” But thanks to outdated regulations and onerous taxes, it’s tougher to get a beer in Iowa than you might think—no matter whom you’re drinking with.
Some of Iowa’s regulations are entertainingly anachronistic. Bartenders are prohibited from pouring water down the drain while serving an officer of the law. Don’t try asking your local bartender to put something on a tab—those are illegal, too. And if a tavern keeper is exhausted after a long day of following archaic laws? Well, he can’t open up a cold one; it’s unlawful for an owner to drink in his own establishment after closing. Candidates traveling with their families should be particularly careful in Ames—it’s against the law to have three sips of beer while in bed with your wife.
But some policies aren’t nearly as funny. Until last year, Iowa imposed a limit of 6 percent alcohol by volume on beer production, drastically circumscribing local breweries’ ability to compete in the growing craft beer market. The limit has been lifted to 15 percent, but Iowa remains in the minority of states that have a limit at all.
Small scale craft breweries are on the rise nationally as beer drinkers grow weary of big label beers. Many of these craft brewers have settled in Iowa for its excellent water sources. But even with the new rules on alcohol content, Iowa is unlikely to become a beer mecca. The Tax Foundation ranks the state’s business tax climate 45th. A combination of high local and federal taxes—including tariffs on everything from the hops to barrels—makes taxes the single most expensive component in beer, according to a Standard & Poor’s study. All in all, taxes constitute 44 percent of a beer’s average retail price, a larger share than ingredients and labor combined.”
Read the full article here at Reason.com.
The politics aside, for those of you readers who plan to open a bar in Iowa, it would seem that this state is very anti-alcohol when compared with other states.
So the question to you is: Do you agree with all these laws on alcohol regulation? Why or why not? Send me a tweet on Twitter, I’d love to hear your opinion on this issue!
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Why you should rent your bar out for events
I’m willing to bet that if you have a bar up and running, it is closed at least one day a week…most likely Sunday or Monday right? While not everyone has their bar closed, many do, so why not translate that closed time into more revenue? Why not earn more money by opening your bar up for private events?
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How to set up a bar marketing campaign
As a bar owner, you’re always on the lookout for an opportunity to expand your business! One way to accomplish this is through a bar marketing campaign; a set series of actions designed to increase your presence in the community, increase the number of customers, and bring in more profit! Setting up a bar marketing campaign won’t be easy, but it is manageable, just follow these steps.
Step 1: Pre-Launch Research
The first item to accomplish before your launch is to review your current marketing targets and strategies. When you first conducted marketing research for your bar, what data were you able to obtain? What demographics were you able to find on your target customers?
The research you had initially found may be out to date, so you must also look at who currently comes to your bar. Choose three days to observe customers, preferably on your slowest night, busiest night, and middle amount of traffic night. Don’t ask your customers directly for information, many will be turned off by this! Simply try and count how many people come in each hour, how many are male or female, and who spend the most (and least).
The information you gather will determine how to proceed to the next step…
Read the rest of this entry »
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Setting your bar’s smoking policy
It does not matter what your personal opinion on smoking is, as a bar owner you have to set your bar’s smoking policy. Setting your smoking policy is easy to do, it does not take more than a half hour to write it up and get the ball rolling!
What are the public smoking laws?
Before you can begin, do a quick search on the smoking laws in your state. Many states have, or are going to, ban smoking in any indoor public building. Few states allow exceptions for bars and restaurants. Others allow exceptions for all businesses if they are an independent building with their own ventilation system.
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How to check IDs at your bar
In order to serve alcohol to a customer, you must first check their ID. The age that a person may consumer alcohol varies, though it is 21 in the United States, and mostly 18 in Europe. Failure to check the ID of your customers can result in you facing closure of your business!
Know what ID is acceptable
What ID is acceptable in your state or country may be different from what is listed below. You must contact your state and/or city representative to know what is acceptable.
Government-issued IDs, such as Driver’s license, passport, and military IDs, are commonly accepted so long as it is current and includes several pieces of information such as birth date, age, and full name.
Have an identification policy
At some point, an underage customer will attempt to buy alcohol at your bar either with an altered ID or a fake identification card. Failure to check for identification can result in fine and/or business closing!
Common policy tips:
- Check the ID of each customer
- Check the birth date
- Check the expiration date
Check for possible alterations such as:
- Raised or depressed surfaces
- Glue lines
- Relative size of the ID
If you are unsure after checking the identification for validity, ask the customer for another acceptable identification card. If the customer is unable to provide one, politely refuse to serve them alcohol until they provide one.
Special Note:
Many police agencies use a decoy system to ensure that bar owners are properly checking the identification of their customers. In the decoy system, people who are under the age of 21 are sent to bar establishments to try and buy alcohol.
If you let a decoy in, you are in serious legal trouble! It is better to be safe than sorry with potential decoys, so check the ID of any person who appears to be at least under the age of 30 in order to protect your bar!
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