DISPENSE BAR

The dispense bar differ from the usual public/ cocktail type bar in
that only staff approach the dispense bar. Which is normally out of
the sight of the guest. This bar operates to the waiters of room
service, restaurants/ coffee shop etc- entirely behind the scenes as
it were.
The dispense bar does not often deal in cash –although this is by
no means the rule. A cashier responsible for both restaurants and
bar will deal with cash. However that does not mean that control is
not just as carefully watched as elsewhere.
American terminology for dispense bar is a Service Bar.
Occasionally the service bar can be incorporated into a regular
bars and part of the restaurant but more often out of the sight. The
design of the service /dispense bar is usually smaller and simpler.
Instead of a back bar display there is room for bulk supplies of
beers, mixes, liquor stocks, and no need to camouflage or hide ugly
or noisy equipment. Mechanical dispensing system are becoming
more frequently used in preference to hand pouring, to increase
speed and reduce liquor loss –where in public bar there may be
customer resistance.
A dispense bar is like any other bar- basically it has the same
functions, uses the same kinds of equipments and performs the
same task of recording and controlling the pouring and selling of
drinks.

COCKTAIL BAR

It has the more interesting task for the bar tender unless he is very
busy. Bar tenders who works in cocktail lounges are required to
know how to prepare a wide variety of drinks. They can also
expect a great deal of customer contact from a variety of people.
Speed, good service and friendliness are essential in cocktail
lounges.
The atmosphere of the cocktail bar depends whether people come
to buy drinks from you, what kind of people come, how long they
stay, how much they spend and whether they come back? People
want to relax , to socialize, to meet with old friends or meet new
ones. Atmosphere should convey a message of hospitality and
welcome. Some of this will come from bar team and some will
come from guest. Physical surroundings are equally important.
They create the first impression, set the stage , strike the keynote.

What kind of the mood does the management want to set?

A sense of spaciousness, relaxation, restfulness, a place people
come to talk without having to shout, or is it a noisy, crowded,
stimulating, hyped up atmosphere that is wanted?
Soft colours and rounded shapes are restful. Bold colours and
patterns are stimulating. Noise is muted by carpets, curtains,
upholstered chairs, and fabric covered walls. High ceilings give a
sense of space. Low ceilings make a room seem smaller and more
intimate. Ceilings that are too low, and rooms that are too small
can give client a feeling of claustrophobia. Soft lights and candles
send messages of intimacy, romance and intrigue. Bright and
flashing lights go with crowds, noise and action.
Most Indian bars are the relaxed sit down variety. Some have bar
seating as well. Single guest prefer to sit at the bar rather than to
be at a table alone.
A good lay out of seating is also important as is the placing of the
bar itself. A bar with the quite, relaxed atmosphere will more than
likely have the bar as back ground . in some of the bar the
placement will be an island in the middle of the room, center stage
striking the note of fun and festivity.

All furniture should be chosen and laid out in relation to the total
bar concept. Remember that there is lot of traffic in a bar- guest,
bar waiters etc. chairs should be comfortable, easy to get in and out
of, and arranged around small tables.
The starting point for turning space into a profitable bar is the
clientele to be served. The next decision involves the product and
services to be offered. The third is to define a unifying concepts
with a special uniqueness or identity . Only then is it time to deal
with the physical facility. The goal is to make the bar an
environment that attracts the desired clientele, gives them pleasure,
and makes them want to come again.
Décor is a large factor in creating this environment. Colour, light,
arrangements of furniture and fixture, efficient use of space, and
the appearance of the bar itself all contribute. The bar should be
designed from the inside out beginning with the drinks list: its
décor should develop in partnership with functional needs.
In sum cocktail bar should be the result of total planning with the
market in mind- a basic step in merchandising the enterprise.

Before bar operation is feasible –the bar must exist. How does one
go about putting a bar into operation?

Here is the checklist of basics prior to setting up a bar operation….

 Target clientele( domestic/foreign, young or not so young)

 Services to be offered (will food and snacks also be offered)
 Overall concept( theme)
 Other hotel with which one has to compete
 Projected volume of business
 Types of beverages to be served
 Size and shape of bar area
 Activity with in bar area
 Entry/exit and relationship of bar to restaurants and service
areas
 Licensing regulations, state laws, dry days
 Décor, equipment, furniture and fittings
 Budget limits
 BAR EQUIPMENTS

NOW A DAYS MOST BARS ARE TO SOME EXTENT ARE

COCKTAIL BARS AND THEREFORE WILL BE EQUIPPED
TO MIX AND GARNISH COCKTAILS.BARS ARE EQUIPPED
WITH FIXED EQUIPMENTS, MOVABLE TOOLS AND
UTENSILS AND CONSUMABLE MATERIALS.
Beer panel: the beer panel is the dispensing point from which
beer is served or pulled. It has three main component (1) tap (2)
cooler or temprite (3) drip tray. It is used to bring drought beer to
the correct in glass temperature.
Sinks : with hot running water
Multi-mix or post-mix machines: used to make and dispense soft
drinks especially carbonated drinks.
The refrigerators
The ice machines
The glass washers
The espresso coffee machine: many bars sell coffee now a days.
The cash register
Blenders
Spirit dispenser: optic measure, posi-pour spirit measure are the
examples. These measure are permanently fixed to bottles and held
upside down in bar. Simplest is hand held spirit measure which
dispenses a 30 ml measure (called a nip).
Jiggers: are measure for liquors that are used in preparing drinks.
The most useful is double sided jigger 1 oz on one side and 11/2 on
other.
Speed pourer : all speed pourers are inserted into the tops of
bottles to ensure a steady, even flow of liquid. All speed pourer
have air rods which extend into the bottles about one inch. These
rods are connected to air vent in the top of the speed pourer which
allows air to enter the bottle as liquid is poured from it .
Bar utensils: a plastic cutting board, ice scoop, swizzle sticks, spirit
measure, bottle opener, water jug, waiter friend, tongs for
garnishes and ice, long and short blade knives, straws, coasters, a
range of suitable glasses ,ashtrays
Mixing glass: are containers made of heavy glass. These are used
for mixing and shaking drinks. They are usually about 16 oz.
Cocktail shaker, ice crusher, carafe, cigar cutter, champagne
stopper ,wine chiller, coaster , broken cork extractor, cocktail
sticks, decorative novelties for cocktail glasses, peeler, requisition
form, lemon zester, bar spoon, wine cradle, ice bucket, fennel and
strainer, cocktail strainer,
Consumable supplies and groceries:

LIQUOR LICENSES

L3 for serving liquor in hotel room

L4 for serving in restaurant
L5 for serving in restaurant with attached bar
L6 for serving in railway compartment
L7 for serving in railway dining cars
L8 for serving outside premises of the hotel
L12B for bar attached to cinema hall
L12C for clubs
L20 for outdoor catering, client has to obtain by paying
L23 to be submitted for monthly revenue receipt
 REQUISITIONING

 Separate requisitions are to be made for drinks/ grocery items ,

materials and supplies.
 Requisitions are to be made in triplicate, and signed by the head
bar tender and approved by the Food and Beverage Manager.
 Kitchen transfers are to be made out for fruits and vegetables
and other kitchen items for the bar. These forms are made in
duplicate; top copy to kitchen/control and the bottom copy to
remain with bar.
 Inter bar transfers are to be made out in duplicate when
transferring stock from one bar to another.
 It is the responsibility of the Senior Bar Tender to ensure that
items requisitioned are collected from the stores at the appointed
times.
 BEVERAGE REQUISITIONING FORM

SKY CHEF INCOR.

TO __________ REQ. NO._________

FROM _____________ DATE _________

ITEMS UNITS QUANTITY QUANTITY UNIT TOTAL UNIT TOTAL

BRAND REQUESTED ISSUED COST COST RETAIL RETAIL
VALUE VALUE

REQUISIONED BY DATE

FILLED BY DATE

DELIVERED BY DATE

RECEIVED BY DATE

BAR TENDER COMPLETES FIRST FOUR COLUMNS. STORE COMPLETES LAST FOUR.
 CELLAR CONTROL REGISTER

NAME OF LIQUOR- SCOTCH WHISKY(PEG)

DATE OPENING INDENT QUANTITY QTY RECD/ BALANCE

REMARKS
STOCK NO ISSUED PURCHASED

DAILY CONSUMPTION SHEET

BAR CLOSING TIME_______________

BARMAN SIGNATURE
DATE______________

ITEMS OPENING REQUISITION CLOSING CONSUMPTION ACTUAL REMARKS

INVENTO INVENTO IN PEGS SCALE
RY RY
 CHECKLIST OF CONSUMABLE SUPPLIES

A bar is also equipped with consumables supplies. Most

obviously of course there are
Beers,
Wines,
Spirits, and
Liqueurs, but there are also Soft Drinks, Syrups, Mixesrs
( such as Tonic water and dry ginger ale), nuts and cold
chips and fruits used in garnishes.
Angostura bitters, banana, cantaloupe, castor sugar
Celery, salt, cherries, cinnamon, cloves, cocktail onions,
coconut cream, coffee beans, cream, cucumber rind, eggs,
grape fruit juice, grenadine, ice, lemon, lemon juice, lime
juice cordial, nutmeg, mangoes, maraschino cherries, milk,
mint, olive, orange juice, oranges, pepper, pineapple,
pineapple juice, salt, strawberries, sugar, sugar cubes, sugar
syrup, tabasco sauce, tomato juice, tomato ketchup, vanila
essence, worcestershire sauce.
 INVENTORY AND CONTROL SYSTEM

Management needs to know the value and amount of stock

of liquor and other consumable items in a hotel or
restaurant both in bars and in hotel stores and cellars. The
bar attendant play a vital role in the control of stock in the
bar( and the bottle shop) and should be aware of the
principles of stock control throughout the hotel.

PURPOSE OF INVENTORY CONTROL

 To make sure that adequate stocks are available when

needed to meet the demand.
 To ensure that too much of stock, either overall or in
particular stock lines are not being carried. No business
can afford to have too much of its capital tied up in
stocks. Also some stock lines deteriorate if they are kept
in stock too long.
 To make sure that stock is rotated, with the oldest being
used first.
 To analyse market trend and changing taste, by seeing
which line are selling well and which are becoming less
popular, so that business can stay well tuned to its
market. Stocks of popular drinks will be increased and
very slow moving drinks will be eliminated.
 To check against theft and stock loss.
 To ascertain the value of stock sold and the value of
stock remaining, for the purpose of calculating profit and
 loss and the value of the business.
THE liquor inventory is of the central importance to the
purchasing function.
There are two reasons for keeping a constant check of
inventory. One is to pinpoint losses quickly in order to stop
them. Other reason has to do with purchasing. If you have
lost stock due to theft, breakage, error or whatever, you
must buy stock to replace it.

Inventory levels

Stocks available in the bar work stations have to be

checked daily by the bar attendant and now stock ordered
for issue from the store required.
The supervisor is responsible for ordering new stock from
outside suppliers, should therefore know for each stock line
the stock level, the rate of sale and where it is selling.
When deciding what stock to carry and minimum
maximum level following factors are to be considered:
 the availability of space and refrigeration
 special reasons for likely changes in demand or
supply( public holiday, major event, supplier’s strike
etc.)
 changing clientele in the area.
 Changing demand( eg. For heavily advertised new
product lines)
 Prices prevailing in the market( buying and selling)
 Stock control and efficient purchasing are among the
most important functions of any business. The bar
attendant must carry carefully whatever stock control
procedure are laid down by management.

Inventory control in the bar

Alcoholic beverages are considered to be highly perishable
although not being so, because they are stored in bottles,
highly fragile , extremely volatile, very easy to adulterate and
often vanish mysteriously. The main activity starts from cellar or
wine store, where such principles like Economic Order Quantity
are successfully applied for inventory control. The feed back
comes from dispense bar regarding replenishment. For running a
dispense bar two basic principle should be simultaneously applied
(1) that variety should be always available
(2) never over stock any item. Incidentally both are
contradictory but a compromise is struck by maintaining a
par stock which is the maximum amount of an item ever sold
at a bar.

Par stock: All stock in the bar must be maintained at the

level of stock laid down by the management. This is the par
stock level. Par stock if correctly maintained , should ensure
that the bar never runs out of any particular product line and
that too much stock is not kept in the bar. Each brand of
liquor will have its set par stock level a par stock can be
established from detailed sales record.
Par stocks can also be used to measure the daily
consumption. The bottles it takes to bring the bar stock to
par represents roughly the consumption of the previous day.
Par stocks is also one way of keeping up with your clients
tastes. One knows what brands are moving quickly because
one has par stocks as a measure of their popularity.

Requisitioning stock: exact practice is a question of house

rule usually at the end of the shift stock must be requisitioned
to bring bar stock at par. Requisitioning is done by using a
requisition form.

Stock taking: a count of stock , a stock take, takes place

regularly in all bars and bottle shops areas, and there is a total
stock takes of all the stock in the business at the end of the
financial year. Bar attendants are very much involved in the
process of stock taking.
Stock taking involves checking the actual stock against list of
the stock called stock sheets. Much time will be wasted if
stock on the shelves is not organized in the same order as
stock sheets. This is one reason that stock received is placed
in its proper place.
A team of two people, deputed to count and report are called
caller and penciller. All inventories must be taken at the same
time and must be done when the bar is closed, so that nothing
changes while the count is being taken.
When the inventory is complete one can get the rupee value
of the total stock. To do this the unit cost of each item is
entered on the liquor inventory. The next step is to multiply
the unit cost by the number of units to find the rupee value of
the stock for each item. Enter each total on the last column of
the form. Totaling the value of the items then gives the value
of the inventory. This figure is known the closing inventory
for the accounting period. The same figure becomes the
opening inventory for the next accounting period.
Opening inventories + purchase- closing inventory = cost of
liquor
The rupee cost for liquor used in a given period is usually
expressed as a % of the sales for the same period. To figure
this % divide cost by sales:

Cost =cost % referred as BAR COST

Sales

Now a days alternative electronic means are being used to

record stock with the use of bar coding. Information collected
in this way automatically transfer to central stock records.
Reconciliation: the consumption of stock in the bar as
recorded in stock taking will be compared with the sales
recorded by the cash register to make sure that they balance.
The money received from sales must equal the value of the
stock consumed. For this reason it is an important part of
stock control that sales and other issue ( including beer
waste and breakage) should be accurately recorded.
The cellar of a hotel must be ideally located with an
appropriate temperature control and other devices. The cellar
should have a large number of diaries, registers, and
performas to fulfill all legal, excise and internal control
system. Each type of liquor must have a BIN card with there
history and other details/features prominently displayed. A
register must also corroborate the bin card details. A hotel
cellar is fairly large and stores very high cost inventories. The
store is also under strict surveillance of custom and excise
authority. Any discrepancy in record may put hotel staff
subject to criminal and civil proceedings.
There are several items that need to be imported from various
countries either through single vendor or clearing agent. If it
has to be done economically directly from shippers with
separate permission from RBI, Ministry of Foreign Trade and
from custom department. The procedure is really complicated
and requires 3-6 months advance requisition from outlets to
replenish the stock to maintain sufficient stock of all items
all the time in good circulation. It requires meticulous
planning of ordering quantity. A data base has to be
maintained of consumption pattern .

INTER BAR TRANSFER: All inter bar transfers of stock

must be noted so that the giving bar may be credited and the
receiving bar charged with the appropriate value.

STAFFING A BAR

The guest who deal with the guest are a crucial element in the
profitability of any bar operation. It is they who represent the
enterprise to the public, who creates the human side of its
ambience, who sells its product.
The bar supervisor / manager should:
 Identify job for which staff are to be hired
 Write job descriptions
 Schedule staff to meet daily needs
 Recruits, interview and select appropriate staff
 Develop successful training program
 Supervise staff effectively
 Satisfy state /government licensing laws

One of the major ingredients in the atmosphere of any bar or

restaurant is the staff.

JOB TITLE: Bar tender

REPORTS TO : senior bar tender

Job summary: responsible for the day to day running
of the bar, standards of hygiene and
reporting of defective machinery
Duties :
 organizing the service in bar area and operating in an
efficient and hygienic manner.
 Maintaining the bar stocks in good order
 Handing over the operation to the next shift in a state of
preparedness
 Leaving the bar secure at the end of the day

Qualities : good appearance, courteous, reliable,

punctual
Sense of responsibility, accurate
Honest and tactful, positive and
energetic

Qualification : a good general education

Hotel school graduate and /or hotel
experience

JOB TITLE SENIOR BAR TENDER

Reports to : Food and Beverage Manager

Job summary: responsible for the daily bar operation,

standard of hygiene and cleanliness,
and proper control and storage of
liquor, juices and other drinks.

Duties :
 Maintaining and ordering adequate wet stocks.
  Controlling daily supplies of bar stocks
 Organizing Rotas and duties schedule for bar staff
 Maintaining discipline with in the bar and assuring
good bar services at all times.

Qualities : good appearance

Organizational abilities
Honest, reliable and sober, bright
personality

Qualifications: a good general education

Bar experience of international hotel
standard including knowledge of both
alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages.
Foreign languages an advantage