Bars come in all shapes and sizes and play a vital role in the success of the hospitality industry.

Whether in a stadium, down the block from someone’s home or even in a restaurant, bars continue to reinvent and market themselves as something much more than a dimly lit room to visit when the sun sets.

“Beverages are never going away. They are a tethered form of hospitality,” says Kristin Sedej, principal and owner of Chicago-based S2O Consultants, Inc. “Beverages have a much higher percentage of sales than food. And bars also create a sense of community. They always will be a gathering place. It’s not just about the beverage. It’s a place to meet and hang with your friends.”

For example, it may be a corner tavern or a cleverly named upscale distillery. And the person providing the beverages to you from the other side of the bar may be a licensed mixologist or simply a bartender named Nikki or Joe. That person works a couple of nights a week and knows what their regulars drink, be that the latest craft IPA or a good old domestic brew from the bottle. Or maybe the guest seeks a craft cocktail mixed with a handful of exotic and unusual ingredients that tastes like their favorite candy from childhood and is poured over special ice cubes into a specialized glass that they might even get to keep.

Indeed, bars mean different things to different operators and even different patrons.

Once the exclusive domain of the evening and late-night crowds, bars now have a much wider appeal. “In some hotels, for example, you see the bar getting used more during the day with customers using those spaces to have coffees, with these space providing more of a cafe experience. Some hotels will offer snacks and grab-and-go and using their bar spaces, too,” says Sedej.

Also playing an integral role in the versatility of the bars is the concept of the traditional breakfast or brunch being served with an alcoholic beverage. In other words, coffee, tea or mai tai?

“In the resort environments, for example, bars will open sooner than brunch,” says Steve Carlson, president and executive principal of Rippe Associates, a foodservice design and consulting firm based in Minneapolis. “In San Diego, we visited a place, and they had a bunch of breakfast cocktails. It was 9:30 in the morning and they served a rum punch. Guests may now choose to have that with their eggs Benedict or whatever.”

Then there’s the issue of the bar itself. With customers wanting more variety in their drink choices, the bar often needs to hold more ingredients. This could impact the size of the bar. “It all comes down to the number of people you’re serving, and the menu dictates what each of those stations for the bartender looks like,” says Sedej. “It really is population- and menu-driven, absolutely. You can’t have 600 people and one bartender. It’s really important to focus the size of the bar on the presentation and menu. You have to consider what it takes to make it work most efficiently.”

And today it seems there’s a greater emphasis on glassware to help sell the bar experience. For example, bars emphasizing their craft beer programs continue to lean toward using more specialty glassware to emphasize that experience. Or if the bar specializes in certain cocktails, it may go beyond the traditional rocks glass to showcase the ingredients and preparation.

Of course, that means the bar design will need to accommodate this glassware, which remains a perennial challenge. “We’ve been finding spaces under the bar top to create bookshelves for specialty glassware where we haven’t been doing stuff like that in the past,” says Mike Wrase, senior project manager at Rippe Associates. “We’re also doing some rack slides for glassware and different things like that. One bar even went back to hanging glassware.”

Speaking of storage, prebatching cocktails remains a prominent trend among bars and restaurants. This approach saves time for the establishment, which can enhance speed of service and, in some cases, create a pretty distinctive drink. “There are definitely a good number of places that are going to the straight tap. This includes keg wines, keg beers and keg cocktails,” says Matthew Anderson, associate principal with Rippe Associates. “Everything they have is basically on tap. They run everything through there and batch everything into kegs. Everything is done in the prep kitchen and then poured into the kegs.”

So how have consumers’ bar expectations evolved? Are they interested in an old reliable potable, or are they imbibing something completely different?

According to the 2024 “What’s Hot Culinary Forecast” by the National Restaurant Association, beverages drawing the most interest include botanical cocktails, hard coffees and low-alcohol cocktails. In the emerging category, the top three are sotol cocktails, pickle cocktails and low-sulfite, low-alcohol wine. (Sotol is a clear or amber-colored spirit distilled from wild harvested sotol plants.)

A bar’s location also plays a critical role in its design. “If you’re standing in the concourse at a stadium, you’re not expecting to have four different kinds of cocktails. They’re slinging drinks,” Sedej adds. “But if you walk into an upscale hotel, they’ll serve scotch on the rocks. Those are different places with different needs, and you need to think it out.”

Another variable to take into consideration is the person on the other side of the bar who is responsible for producing the beverage. If the bartender’s tasks can be made easier through the usage of equipment designed with craft beverages in mind, even better. One way is to create focused workstations for bartenders with an emphasis on speed of service.

“Have the bartender take the least amount of steps possible because a lot of time is wasted walking around. All the stations have everything around the bartender so they can make cocktails or pour beer without moving from that location,” Sedej says. “As consumers, if we wait too long, we’ll change our minds and not buy. If an operation wants sales, it has to increase the speed of service and efficiency. People want it so that wherever they walk up to the bar, they can get service. It’s all about efficiency and the customer experience.”

For many customers, placing the drink order is only one part of the experience. Many like to enjoy the theater of their cocktail being prepared. Therein is the importance of the customer actually being able to watch their cocktail being crafted. “I’ve always liked the showpiece factor. I’m looking at a really cool glass with really cool ice,” says Shelby Wurscher, a project manager at Rippe Associates. “There are a ton of different ingredients that are in there and popping out like flowers or cotton candy. Things like that I always find fascinating. You don’t care if the drink is $25 now because you’re going through that whole experience. You’re sharing it on social media and you’re spreading it. You’re making it work for the bar and their marketing.”