HOW TO DESIGN A NON-ALCOHOL BAR
Many refer to the non alcohol bar as a juice bar. Is there a defined approach for designing such a bar? What bar equipment is needed for this type of bar? In this article we’ll discuss the basic principles of basic bar design to unlock the answer to this question.
WHAT DEFINES A NON ALCOHOL BAR?
A non-alcohol bar is literally any bar where non-alcohol drinks are made. This includes fresh juice drinks and a house menu of “mocktails” – non-alcoholic cocktails. We recently completed such a bar design for Restaurant Le Paradou, a client who opened a restaurant in Algiers, Algeria in late summer, 2016 (photo courtesy of Restaurant Le Paradou). Although Restaurant Le Paradou will not be serving alcohol, they’ll be offering a complete menu of non-alcohol-based drinks that will include various mixers.
WHICH BAR EQUIPMENT SHOULD BE USED FOR A NON ALCOHOL BAR?
The drink menu at Restaurant La Paradou will include a range of prepared drinks. Like any other bar, these drinks must be prepared from recipes or its 250 patrons will be very unhappy. Many drinks will contain several ingredients, the same as any alcohol-based drink. However, in this case alcohol isn’t one of them. Given the above, what’s different about this bar? Nothing.Therefore, the bar design for non-alcohol applications must include the same equipment as that of most conventional alcohol bars.
BAR EQUIPMENT LIST
The bar equipment list includes the following (along with downloadable cut sheets):
OPTIONAL BAR EQUIPMENT
Not every bar requires every piece of bar equipment and I want to dispel what’s truly optional. The subject bar is in Algeria, where commercial CO2 is unavailable. This is common in many areas of the world.
- If your bar doesn’t have access to CO2, your ice bin won’t need a soda gun or a cold plate.
- Cold plates aren’t available as optional equipment from some manufacturers.
- For applications using CO2, order your ice bins (with cold plates) from a manufacturer that includes them.
- Never order soda guns or bag-in-the-box equipment! This equipment is normally furnished and installed free-of-charge by the syrups vendor.
A WORD ABOUT AUTOMATIC GLASS WASHER
Virtually every bar should have an automatic glass washer and we included one in the subject design. As I’ve written before, some health departments require a 3 compartment sink. This isn’t the deal-breaker some may think. Actually, there is a work-around to accommodate this requirement without losing space.
Downloadable:
Standard Universal Bar Clearnces
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GLASS STORAGE: A CRITICAL DESIGN FEATURE FOR EVERY BAR
Most bar owners and managers would agree that bars can’t have too much storage. The same is true for non-alcohol bars. Adequate glass storage is always a challenge. For Restaurant La Paradou, we included an underbar drainboard glassrack (see below for the cut sheet) to go along with the rack-style glass washer. This provides two racks of clean glassware handy while providing additional processing space.
Downloadable:
CONCLUSION
As seen in this example, the equipment for a non-alcohol bar isn’t different from that of most alcohol bars. The bottom-line is that, whenever designing a bar, efficiency is of the utmost importance.
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