When it comes to creating an establishment that customers love, the smallest things often matter the most. If you are looking for a bar for a New Years Eve Party Shoreditch, Here are 7 key factors bars need to up their game in to become great venues:
#1 Seating
I can say with confidence that when I’m older if I’m unlucky enough to be struck by back problems, I am going to hold bad barstools one hundred percent responsible. No lumbar support, wobbly, clunky, and cumbersome; I know many folks who would rather spend the entire night standing than try to make bad barstools, posing as seating, work for them. Yet, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that there are bars around the world that get their seating right, like DBGB in New York’s East Village. I also love bars that have modern stools featuring under-seat storage options. After all, no one wants to deal with looking after their coat hanging from the smallest between-leg hook all night.
#2 The Bar
A bar is so much more than a slab of material installed at something approaching average elbow height. For many establishments, however, the bar is still an afterthought. I don’t care if the bar is made from reclaimed wood, organic forest wood, rich walnut, or futuristic materials (think space-age, lit-up glass), I just want adequate room for my food, beverage of choice and elbows. Don’t make the bar too large though, or you’ll hear me complaining about not being able to reach the condiments.
#3 Drinks List
There is nothing worse than entering a bar and asking the bartender for the drinks list only to be told to refer to a badly inscribed chalkboard located over a hundred feet away on the other side of the lounge. Trying to decipher badly written chalk text under dim lighting gets frustrating fast. Luckily, The Pony Bar, based in Manhatten, as well as many other bars, does provide customers with readable drinks lists of what’s available.
Finding that perfect pub or bar is tricky but once you find it, it will become your regular haunt.
#4 What Menu?
Did you know that there are still some bars that have no menus to speak of? I’m looking at you Drink Boston. Of course, I understand that keeping up-to-date with large wine collections and liquor stock can be tough, not to mention the fact that beer taps are always being changed. Still, a business can buy a quality laser printer for less than 50 bucks, the cost of just 2.5 fancy cocktails in many joints, in Best Buy, so lack of menus will always annoy me.
#5 Glasses
Rum and coca-cola? Shaker pint. Gin and slimline tonic? Shaker pint. Vodka lemonade? Shaker pint? Vodka lime soda? Shaker pint. I’m confident it’s similar in bars in your neck of the woods. I might have mocked glassware snobs in the past, but now I understand the importance of the right bar glassware for aesthetics and aromatics.
#6 Ice Cubes
Dirty, fast-melting, sludgy ice in your drink can be ultra off-putting. I know many will say I’ve reached a new level of pretentiousness now I’m talking about ice at bars, but it matters. The size, shape, quality, and texture of bar ice can alter your enjoyment of a drink. The bar with far and away the best ice is South Carolina’s The Gin Joint. The venue has the latest ice machines designed to create ice blocks for ice sculptures; bartenders break up the blocks to create the most perfect slow-melting, crystal-clear ice spheres for fancy cocktails and other drinks.
#7 Bathrooms
If you’re a regular on the bar scene, you’ll know those bar bathrooms can often resemble scenes from your nightmares. Some bar bathrooms are so dirty, smelly, tiny and understocked with essentials, like soap, that they make you want to avoid going out ever again. The best bar bathroom I’ve encountered? Hands down the bathroom in Den Dyver, Brugge, Belgium. In Den Dyver there is a self-cleaning toilet featuring some insane high-tech. Be sure to check it out the next time you’re in Europe.
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