I'm in an entrepreneurial management class and I'm doing a business plan about starting my own beer bar. I'm having a rough time finding suppliers for the big ticket items (bar itself, kitchen equipment, other furniture). Just wondering if anyone out there runs their own bar (or restaurant) and could recommend some places to get commercial bar/restaurant furniture and equipment. I just need to get a pretty solid idea of costs for my financial section.

Thanks!

Yellow pages / Google

I looked up "useless" on Google and found your post...

Anyone who has been a member of this forum over the last 10 years should know I am not going to ask for help with something that I could easily find on my own.

Craigs list has a bunch of lighting fixtures, and cool hang up stuff. Also use Craigslist to locate bar stools.
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/clt/


You can save yourself a substantial amount of money by using CL to locate people who are selling their bars or even their equipment
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/sear...min&maxAsk=max

Your alcohol suppliers can also stear you in the right direction.

Also try:
BROOKLYN BOB'S
612 N. Water St.
Milwaukee, WI 53202

They do auctions of industrial and restraunt equipment.

id suck at running a bar, id drink all the profit and not to mention the stock shortage

No, but I love going in them! Good luck.

There's a lot to know with running a bar...I was going to buy one last year, but the extras that went with it weren't worth it. In PA if you have a liquor license, you always have to have food available at all times for at least 30 people. Because of the food thing there is a separate license for food, as well as the board of health thing. There was the Sunday license, the entertainment license, early and after hours license, business license, inspections, zoning and rezoning (on an already existing business), holiday licensing. Plus PA keeps a tight leash on alcohol based businesses whereas you can sell beer and wine but not hard liquor in the same venue. They're two totally different licenses. There's the whole underage thing which is a big deal out here...Plus about 9 billion paragraphs outlining what you need to know, as well as up to a year waiting to be approved for the liquor license transfer, for which there is a fee...You have to be there all the time, otherwise the help will rip you off. I wouldn't want my wife there late at night which means I would always have to be there. And of course you would have to be the bar owner screwing over bands for their nightly pay, which seems like a conflict of interest for a musician. I even started, prematurely I might add, writing up some entertainment contracts with my lawyer.

I was way too old and lazy to get involved in something like that...but it did look good in my head when I thought about it! It still does too, one of those unrealistic fantasies for me anyway! If you're young enough, or have the support of your family I think it could totally be a very cool business...Good luck with everything...

When I bid on a constructing a bar or provide a budget to an owner, I contact millworkers for the seating and the bar and any other architectural woodwork. I contact architectural metalworkers for brass, stainless, aluminum requirements (railings, counters table legs etc.).
If you are thinking of putting a stone countertop on the bar and tables, you might have to contact a stone supplier.

Most of the time, these articles are custom fabricated to suit the space and the architect and owners tastes.

As for the equipment, there are commercial kitchen suppliers in almost every city that provide this equipment.

If you are looking for one lump sum number, you can probably contact a local design firm, and they might help you out with a price/square foot for past similar projects they have built.

If you want to break the number down even more and have a design in mind, you can contact millworkers to get a budget price per linear foot of bar, bench seating, table etc. Do the same for the steel work.

In my market, the cost to architecturally, structurally, mechanically, and electrically fit up an existing space for commercial development can run in the $100 to $300/square foot, depending on the finishes (flooring, ceiling, walls, millwork, glazing, metals etc). This does not include the kitchen and service equipment (usually the owners do this with a contract outside the building contract).

Don't forget the arhcitectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical design fees (run around 8-10% of the total price in my market).

My Brother owns his own bar butit is in Ireland so I don`t think that would be any use to you lol