a week in the life of a pub owner

October 8, 2009 3:24 PM

Help-me-write-my-book-filter: Character is the current owner of a small (let's say it can hold 50 people at absolute maximum capacity, no food), family owned bar in a blue-collar but gentrifying neighborhood of a major U.S. city. What's their world like?

It's not a trendy bar but also not a dive, just a the local pub. What's his/her day like? How long is it? If the bar is open every day of the week, what kind of oversight would they have when they're not there? What kind of a work week should they expect? How many employees and what's the ratio of bartenders to doormen to barbacks to managers? What kind of "problem patrons" might exist? The bar is well-established (let's say it's been around for at least 25 years) and the only change is that the owner has taken over from a retired parent--what kind of ongoing/maintenance issues would come up?

Obviously I'm going to make a lot of this stuff up in the end, because it's fiction, but I would at least like to understand a bit of the reality before I launch off into imaginationland. I appreciate all insights.

If you need more information, well, that's all I've figured out yet. Just be hypothetical, offer scenarios, make suggestionsetc. and see what comes up.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Good lord! You have just described the local bar I have been patronizing for years. This bar, let's call it "Norm's", has A LOT of regulars. However, the regulars are broken up into 'shifts'. The morning crew is mostly made up of older people who have been regular customers since the dawn of time. They do not speak much, expect the bartender to read their minds and know the owner and owner's family. Norm's happy hour crew (more mid-afternoonish) are a bit younger (baby boomers and younger), show up when they get off work, tend to get a good buzz and leave before the night crew shows up. Norm's night crew is the younger crowd. Most of the regulars work in the service industry. However, at night, non-regulars show up too. Sometimes, this causes problems, as the newbies tend to not understand the bar "rules".

Typically, bartenders have a good working day. They know most of the customers, as 80% tend to be regulars (60% are everydayers). The owner tends to be there every morning to collect the money and take care of any ordering that needs to be done. But, she is usually gone before 11:00 am. She knows very little about the art of bartending and trusts her bartenders to handle the bar. There are 5 full-time bartenders who range in age from 25 to 60.

The biggest problems with patrons tend to come from the regulars who think they know everything and feel as though they have earned the right to tell bartenders how to better do their jobs. There are few physical fights (these tend to happen when newbies get way too drunk).

The building that houses Norm's is old, old, old. Plumbing is an ongoing problem.

Typically, there is one bar back (unless a busy night is expected), and this bar back is one of the regulars who wants to have his bar tab payed. On Fridays and Saturdays, a door guy checks IDs. On other nights, the bartender does it. When trouble erupts, regulars tend to quell the situation.
posted by AlliKat75 at 4:23 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

A lot depends on where the bar is. Local laws about operating days and hours will determine staffing to some extent. A place that size would have one bartender and one barback/busser/bouncer during the day, and up to three bartenders/servers and two bussers at night depending on volume. A place that small will be managed by the owner, who'll work a six-or-seven day week from about 10 AM (again, depending on what time they open) until close. During the day they'll deal with vendors and salesmen, go to the bank to make deposits and get change for the till(s), go to the wholesale liquor store for supplies, go to the restaurant supply store for smallwares, act as server and bartender while their employees are late/on break/busy, manage the place's money from their office computer, shoot rats in the dumpster with a BB pistol, shoo away people parking in their lot, etc.

When the owner isn't there they've handed the reins over to a head bartender. How responsibility for keys, money, inventory, etc is worked out is up to you. There are many different ways to handle it.

The issues that will come up might range from aging signage to complete plumbing meltdowns to wonky coolers to new commercial code requirements that involve retrofitting areas for wheelchair accessibility, non-smoking seating, or accommodating service animals. Broken dishwashers. Stopped-up drains. Roaches.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 4:27 PM on October 8, 2009

I won't share all my anecdotes from bartending with you because I am saving them for my own book. People have a tendency to treat the bar as a confessional and the bartender as a therapist. You hear some crazy stories from strangers. During the days, a lot of regular bar patrons can lean towards the mentally ill spectrum. I also met a lot of fallen stars, runaway brides, and good-hearted thieves. I always was fascinated by the married couples who would come in every evening right after work and drink most of the night, then go home and repeat the cycle the next day.
posted by pluckysparrow at 7:11 PM on October 8, 2009

I recommend The Last Fine Time by Verlyn Klinkenborg. It captures a lot of what you're after, albeit in the middle of the twentieth century. It's also a lovely nonfiction book.
posted by Eater at 8:38 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Might be worth thinking about potential fiscal pressures, especially considering the current economy in which many small, locally owned establishments are going out of business. In a gentrifying area, the bar owner may need to be worried about increasing property taxes, possible re-zonings, new regulations and restrictions on operating hours, property management, any many other local ordinances that may start popping up.
posted by suburbanrobot at 9:00 PM on October 8, 2009

I agree with BitterOldPunk that a place of that size is more likely to be managed and run by an actively participating owner, but there certainly are places with absentee owners who pretty much stay out of the picture, and even a fairly regular patron might not know them. I think you have a bit of leeway there depending on how you want your story to go.
Two obvious potential conflicts that your scenario brings up: The old-time regulars vs. the new gentrifying element, and the old time regulars vs. the new ownership/management.
AlliKat75's first paragraph rings very true to me.
Some places like this will still be cash only - many times I've seen a group of "newbies" come in and order a round of drinks only to be crestfallen at the refusal of their plastic.
One nice detail in some bars is markers to keep track of people buying each other drinks.
A place with no food is likely to allow patrons to bring something in or order delivery, and may have menus from local delis for that purpose. (Staff could do this as well.)
In non-smoking towns, patrons gathering outside to smoke, with a micro social scene constantly changing just outside the front or back door. Staff might run out for a smoke if they see that everyone is taken care of and there are at least some trusted regulars at the bar tacitly keeping an eye out for shenanigans.
Some blue-collar places open up early morning for people getting off third shift at factory jobs.
[I may be picturing more dive-bar type places than you want for some of the above. Those places tend to be more interesting anyway, though!]
posted by zoinks at 12:22 AM on October 9, 2009