We are now entering stage two here at the new place. It's finally time to begin the bar buildout. Just had a new back bar cooler delivered last night. And after we get through Thanksgiving, we'll be shifting toward the draft beer system. This place doesn't have any of that so we are starting from scratch.
That means we are putting in a walk-in keg cooler, running beer lines upstairs and installing an 8 tap system, and rebuilding the entire "bar" that's in there and putting in a custom wood bar top and shelving for liquor.
Just last week we had to build a separate counter/bar thanks to Indiana's ridiculous alcohol laws that say the bar area has to be physically separated from the rest of the dining room. It's not ideal, but it also allowed us to expand the bar area by 5 more seats so we can comfortably fit 10 people in the 21+ area.
Again, we're not cutting any corners and this project will probably be another $25k investment, but that cost should be recovered very quickly. With our current volume alone, not even taking into account staying open late for typical bar hours, we're projecting about $3,000/week in alcohol sales.
Obviously, there's a lot more potential in alcohol sales, but staying open past 7pm to capture a lot of that potential has been troublesome due to the high demand. So, what we're looking at doing is creating a late night bar menu. Sure, we might not have brisket or ribs at 9pm, but doing things like our smoked wings, jalapeno poppers, pulled pork nachos, soups/chili, and other items like that will still allow people to come in, grab a beer, catch a game, and get a bite to eat.
Still a lot of work to be done and the logistics are complicated trying to do all of this without having to shut down for a few days, but it's a new adventure to be sure. It's an exciting time!
