Run a tighter bar.
Straight playbooks for independent operators, pour cost, labor, cash, menu pricing, and the weekly numbers, from people who have worked the bar. No filler, no theory, just what moves the money.
Why a Good Pour Cost Still Hides Big Losses
Every operator I ever counted for had the same first question. What is my pour cost? And if the number came back good, they relaxed. Good pour cost, no leak. That was the logic, and it is wrong in a way that...
Read →How to Weigh Liquor Inventory (and Why I Stopped)
I sold bar scales for years and I do not sell them anymore. Here is the part nobody tells you before you buy one: you will never weigh all of it. There is no tare weight for every bottle you carry, so you en...
Read →Catch Restaurant Overtime Before It Hits Payroll
Nobody schedules overtime. You buy it by accident on a Thursday and find out about it on payroll, which is the one place you can do nothing about it. By then it is wages. Wages are not a decision. They are ...
Read →Restaurant Bookkeeping Without a Bookkeeper
You know what is in the bank. You know whether last night felt busy. Ask what you made in March and you are guessing until your accountant gets back to you in May. Most independent operators live in that ga...
Read →How to Catch a Bartender Skimming Cash
The drawer is short again. Three dollars, maybe five. The bartender shrugs, says it got crazy tonight, and drops a couple bills out of the tip jar to make it right. You let it go, because on a busy cash bar ...
Read →Profitable but Broke: Where a Bar's Cash Actually Goes
You closed a good month. The P&L shows a profit. Then you go to make payroll and the account is scraping bottom, and you are moving money around to cover the vendor checks. You are not crazy, and the boo...
Read →Private Events and Bar Buyouts: The Revenue Stream Most Bars Leave on the Table Every Week
A guy calls on a Tuesday. Forty people, a Thursday in three weeks, wants to buy out the back room. You tell him you'll put something together and get back to him. Then it's Friday, you're slammed, and it sli...
Read →How to Audit Your Own Bar and Restaurant: The 30-Question Self-Assessment Every Operator Should Run
You don't need to hire somebody to audit your bar. You need to sit down for twenty minutes and answer a set of straight questions about your own operation. The ones you answer cold, you've got handled. The o...
Read →How to Increase Check Average at Your Bar and Restaurant Without Raising any Prices
You want a bigger check, but you're not about to raise prices and give your regulars a reason to notice. Good. You don't have to. The check goes up when each guest buys a little more, not when each thing cos...
Read →How to Build a Weekly Bar Management Review Process: The 45-Minute Meeting That Runs Your Numbers
Most bars don't have a weekly review. Problems get found when they're already three weeks deep and a few grand gone. The tight operators run it different. Same day every week, forty-five minutes, numbers on ...
Read →How to Price a Bar Menu: The Formula Most Operators Get Wrong and What It Costs Them
You priced your menu once. Maybe off a markup, maybe off what the place down the street charges, maybe off a number a rep threw at you. Then you left it alone while beef, liquor, and produce all crept up aro...
Read →Why Your Food Cost Is Too High and How to Break Down the Real Losses in Portioning, Prep, Waste, and Purchasing
Your food cost is running high, so you leaned on the kitchen. Tighten up, watch the waste, quit over-plating. A month later it's the same number, maybe worse. Food cost isn't one heavy plate or one bad line ...
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