The bar is a very important part of any event. Whether only soft drinks and fruit juices will be served or you elect to have a full-scale alcoholic bar, it is vital that you have enough bar staff and beverages to handle your guest numbers for the entire duration of your event.
Generally speaking, a ratio of one bartender to 75 guests is sufficient. If there are 50 or fewer guests, one bartender should be able to handle the event alone. However, this depends on several factors, such as:
- The arrival time of the guests – if all of the guests are arriving at once (as is the case when being transported to the venue by bus, for example), they will all make their way to the bar at the same time. In this case, you will need more bartenders to handle this rush. Usually, guests will filter in over 20 or 30 minutes if they are required to get to the venue by themselves.
- The types of drinks being served – the more complicated or time-consuming the drinks, the more bartenders will be required. Therefore, if you are only serving wine and beer, fewer bartenders will be required than if you are serving cocktails, for example.
It is important that the available beverages are displayed visibly so that bar staff do not spend too much time explaining the range of options to the guests. If applicable, display the cocktail menu and wine list in several locations around the bar, so that guests have plenty of time to decide what they would like while freeing up the bar for other patrons.
When deciding where to position the bar, you will have to consider the shape of the room, the traffic flow and patterns and how many people will be attending. The bar and food areas should always be placed far away from the entrance so that this area is never unnecessarily congested with people. In addition, the bar should also be placed near the food, but with adequate space around each of the service sections so that the service area is accessible and easy to use. This is, of course, only if the venue is large enough to accommodate both food and beverages in one area. Generally speaking, about five feet (or 1.5 metres) of bar space is required for every 100 guests.
With plenty of time to spare before your event, conduct a venue inspection, which should include walking around both the food and bar areas to ensure that they are far away enough from one another to allow easy movement and traffic flow, while still being close enough for convenience sake.
Employ experienced, friendly and helpful bartenders, so that their service is professional and efficient. Ensure that they are appropriately dressed well before the guests arrive. Service staff play a large role in the face of an event, and will be remembered for a long time afterwards. Do not let unprofessional, inexperienced staff jeopardise the success of your function.
Photo Credit: Trek Earth
