You want to know about bar equipment? Whether you’re opening a bar or simply curious about how bars actually work, you’ve come to the right place.
Before I became involved in professional bar design, I remember standing at bars and studying what was behind them — all that stainless steel equipment — and wondering: What does it all do? How does it work together? Surely there’s a method to selecting and specifying it. What goes where, and why?
That curiosity is what ultimately drew me into bar design.
On the surface, bar equipment can seem fairly straightforward. Some components are obvious — and required — while others are optional, concept-driven, or volume-dependent. At the same time, the sheer number of available products can be overwhelming. There are countless configurations, competing manufacturers, premium options, value alternatives, and wildly different cost implications.
Beyond the equipment itself, the real questions become:
Who makes the best bar equipment?
Which manufacturers offer reliable value solutions?
What equipment is actually necessary — and what isn’t?
And how do these decisions affect layout, performance, and cost?
This page is designed to answer those questions from a professional, systems-based perspective — not as a shopping guide, but as an explanation of how bar equipment is selected, planned, and integrated into a working bar.
Most bar equipment can be understood as a collection of functional components, each designed to support a specific bartender task. Whether these components are purchased individually or assembled into pre-engineered bartender stations, they perform the same fundamental roles behind the bar.
Common bar equipment components include:
Bartender stations
Blender stations
Hand sinks
Dump sinks
3-compartment sinks
Ice bins
Liquor steps
Speed rails
Drink rails
Drainboards
Automatic glasswashers
Underbar refrigeration
Glass rinsers
Soda guns and soda gun holders
Dipperwells
Each of these components serves a distinct purpose within the bartender’s workflow. When properly selected and sequenced, they reduce unnecessary movement, minimize reach, and improve speed, consistency, and overall efficiency behind the bar.
As bar programs become more complex or service volumes increase, additional bar equipment components are often integrated around the same core element—the ice bin. When sinks, drainboards, speed rails, bottle storage, soda guns, and refrigeration are engineered together into a single assembly, the result is what most people recognize as a bartender station.
Pre-engineered bartender stations are designed to simplify specification by bundling common equipment components into standardized layouts. These assemblies are typically built around assumed reach zones and typical service patterns, allowing designers and operators to select a complete workstation without specifying each component individually.
For many projects, this approach can be effective. Pre-engineered bartender stations offer predictable dimensions, coordinated construction, and faster specification—particularly when bar layouts are straightforward and operational demands are well understood.
However, it is important to understand that bartender stations are not unique equipment categories. They are standard bar components combined in fixed configurations. The same sinks, ice bins, speed rails, drainboards, and bottle storage found in packaged stations can also be specified individually and sequenced deliberately to match the exact footprint, staffing model, and beverage program of a specific bar.
In professional bar design, the decision to use a pre-engineered bartender station versus a custom-sequenced assembly is driven by layout constraints, bartender workflow, service volume, and available space. In highly compact or irregular bars, or where performance demands are high, individual component selection often provides greater flexibility and efficiency than a one-size-fits-all solution.
In professional bar design, bartender stations are never planned in isolation. Before any workstation can be defined, there is a foundational step that must occur first: determining which bar equipment components are required fixtures.
Certain bar equipment items are not optional. These components are mandated by health code, plumbing code, or fundamental operational necessity, and they must be accommodated in the layout regardless of bar size, concept, or service style. As a result, professional bar design begins not with bartender stations, but with fixture validation and allocation.
One of the first determinations is whether a 3-compartment sink is required, and this is determined by the local health department. As I’ve written in a previous blog post, very few agencies require them – especially if a 3-compartment sink is already on-premise. This single decision has a significant impact on space planning and equipment layout.
Assuming a 3-compartment sink is not required, a typical bar fixture list still includes several non-negotiable components, such as:
Waste receptacles
Hand sinks
Dump sinks
Automatic glasswashers
Underbar glass storage units
Corner drainboards
The first mission in bar planning is to allocate these fixtures throughout the bar in a way that satisfies code requirements while supporting efficient bartender workflow. Only after these required elements are properly placed can discretionary equipment decisions be made.
Once required fixtures are established, additional bar equipment components are evaluated based on concept, volume, and operational goals.
For example, the decision to include soda guns is driven by beverage mix and service volume. In most high-volume or multi-station bars, a soda gun is required at each bartender position. In smaller or more specialized bars, soda guns may not be justified and alternative service methods can be used.
Similarly, blender stations are common in certain concepts—particularly fine dining and Mexican restaurants—but unnecessary or even counterproductive in others. These components are optional, but their spatial and utility requirements must be considered early if they are desired.
Only after all required and optional fixtures have been identified can bartender stations be planned effectively. In practice, this is where pre-engineered bartender stations often fall short.
Because packaged bartender stations assume fixed dimensions and standardized layouts, they rarely align cleanly with the real spatial constraints of commercial bars. In fact, in many professionally designed bars—including large bars—there simply isn’t sufficient room to accommodate pre-engineered stations once required fixtures are accounted for.
Because of their familiarity with standard bar equipment components, professional bar designers prefer to specify each component rather than relying on pre-packaged assemblies. This approach allows bartender workstations to be tailored precisely to the available footprint, staffing model, and service demands of the bar.
The smartest step most bar owners can take is to engage a professional bar designer early in the process. Equipment decisions are expensive to correct after the fact, and no operator wants to discover—after installation—that critical equipment doesn’t fit, doesn’t function properly, or limits performance.
If you’re new to professional bar design, it’s natural to ask: who actually makes all of this bar equipment? While stainless steel components behind a bar can look interchangeable, the reality is that bar equipment manufacturing is a specialized industry with meaningful differences in quality, system integration, availability, and long-term performance.
In the U.S. market, underbar stainless steel bar equipment manufacturers generally fall into two distinct tiers.
The top tier includes manufacturers such as Glastender, Krowne, and Perlick. These companies are known for producing high-quality, fully integrated product lines that allow underbar equipment to be planned as a cohesive system rather than a collection of individual components. Their offerings typically provide better dimensional coordination, finish consistency, and long-term durability—factors that matter when performance and longevity are priorities.
RELATED BLOG POST:
Whose Bar Equipment is Best: Krowne vs Perlick vs Glastender
A value-oriented tier is represented by manufacturers such as Advance Tabco and Eagle Group. These companies offer solid, widely-available solutions that can be appropriate for projects with tighter budget constraints or less demanding operational requirements. While these products may not offer the same level of system integration or refinement, they can still serve effectively when selected and sequenced carefully. There are additional manufacturers in the market, but many fall into more niche categories—either offering incomplete product lines, serving specific use cases, or lacking broad distribution and service support. For that reason, they are less commonly specified in fully-integrated bar designs.
This is one of the most common questions I’m asked — and today, it’s also one of the hardest to answer precisely.
I’ve been tracking the cost of bar equipment for many years, and since the pandemic, the cost of this equipment has more than doubled. While the pace of increases has slowed, pricing remains in constant motion, influenced by material costs, manufacturing lead times, freight, and availability. As a result, static price lists tend to become outdated almost as soon as they’re published.
For that reason, attempting to provide detailed, line-item bar equipment pricing in a general reference article is no longer practical or responsible.
What can be said with confidence is this: among the top-tier manufacturers — Glastender, Krowne, and Perlick — pricing is generally very similar. These companies compete closely with one another, and while individual configurations may vary, none consistently undercuts the others in a meaningful way. In professional bar design, manufacturer selection is far more often driven by product fit and features than by price alone.
When I need to sanity-check bar equipment budgets, I typically reference Krowne’s pricing as a baseline. Krowne’s product catalog lends itself well to high-level estimating because modular bar die, stainless steel underbar components. Refrigeration can often be evaluated on a cost-per-linear-foot basis. This approach provides a realistic planning range without pretending that exact numbers can be locked in early.
Ultimately, the cost of bar equipment is driven less by individual components and more by:
the total length of the bar,
linear footage of underbar stainless steel,
total footage and quantity of back bar coolers.
For bar owners and project teams, the most reliable way to understand bar equipment cost is to evaluate it within the context of a complete bar layout, not as a standalone shopping exercise.
For operators who are especially price-conscious, it’s often more productive to start by being value-conscious. One of the clearest examples of this is the use of modular bar die. Given the shrinking availability of skilled trades and increasing labor costs, modular bar die can shave one to two weeks off many bar construction schedules. These systems are fabricated in a factory environment and shipped to the jobsite in modular sections—often in lengths of up to seven feet—with bar equipment already integrated. The result is faster installation, fewer field variables, and more predictable outcomes.
Bar equipment includes the stainless steel components, fixtures, and systems required to support beverage service behind the bar. This typically includes sinks, ice bins, glasswashing equipment, underbar refrigeration, bottle storage, soda systems, drainboards, and other integrated components that must be sequenced properly within the bar layout.
To a professional bar designer, there is no universal or preset length for bartender stations. While many pre-engineered bartender stations are manufactured in standardized widths, those dimensions are based on average assumptions. They do not account for the specific footprint, fixture requirements, or circulation constraints of a given bar. In professional bar design, bartender stations are defined by the available space and required equipment sequencing. To me, they’re never defined by fixed, off-the-shelf pre-packaged products.
Required bar equipment varies by jurisdiction, but commonly includes a minimum of one hand sink, one dump sink and glass washing equipment—in some cases—a three-compartment sink. These required fixtures must be validated and allocated before bartender stations or optional equipment can be planned.
Top-tier U.S. manufacturers of professional bar equipment include Glastender, Krowne, and Perlick. These companies offer integrated product lines designed for commercial use. Value-oriented manufacturers such as Advance Tabco and Eagle Group provide widely available alternatives for projects with tighter budget constraints.
Among top-tier manufacturers, bar equipment pricing is generally very similar. Differences in final cost are more often driven by layout, total footage, required fixtures, and equipment configuration than by manufacturer selection alone.
Since the pandemic, bar equipment costs have more than doubled. Although the rate of increase has slowed, pricing continues to fluctuate due to material costs, manufacturing lead times, freight, and availability. As a result, static pricing guides quickly become outdated.
Bar equipment cost is primarily influenced by the total length of the bar, linear footage of underbar stainless steel, and the total footage and quantity of back bar coolers. Evaluating equipment within the context of a complete bar layout provides the most reliable cost understanding.
Bar equipment decisions are expensive and difficult to correct after installation. Professional bar equipment planning ensures required fixtures are properly allocated, optional components are evaluated appropriately. The equipment is sequenced to support efficient workflow—reducing costly mistakes and operational limitations.
