Bar Station Setup Plan for Your Bar
The kitchen has its station plan. The floor has its section plan. The table has its setting plan. The bar has nothing — and the bar is the one place where the whole system lives in a single person's head. Everybody new finds out where the vermouth lives by hunting for it, on a Saturday, with six people at the rail. This tool lays your bar out by reach, works out how many glasses have to be in circulation, and says what will not fit within arm's reach.
How it works
- 1
Say what you pour
Ten categories. Skip cocktails and the shaker, the syrups and the coupes drop out of your plan — and the bottles that were only there for them move to the back.
- 2
Give your volume and your wash cycle
How many drinks cross the bar in a peak hour, and how long a glass takes to come back clean. Almost nobody counts that second number, and it is exactly what the glass par turns on.
- 3
Your bar lays itself out
Every bottle gets a reach: how often somebody grabs it during a service. The busiest go in the speed rail, then the well, then the back bar. Anything that no longer fits is named.
- 4
Untick what you do not carry
Every line is a tick box. What you do not pour drops out — and the bottles that remain get busier for it, because the drinks have to come from somewhere.
- 5
Print the bar map and the setup sheet
The map goes up behind the bar. The setup sheet goes to whoever opens, with boxes to tick — or print it blank and fill it in with a pen.
Speed behind a bar is a layout problem
A drink is six reaches. A bottle in the wrong zone costs two steps, twice, on every round. You never see it in your numbers, because whoever laid the bar out is fast precisely because they laid it out — the cost only appears in somebody else's hands. These are the four distances.
Within arm's reach
The speed rail and the fridge under your working top. Zero steps, no turning around. Only what is grabbed on more than one drink in twenty-five belongs here — and that is rarely the bottle you are proudest of.
One step
The under-counter or the fridge beside your station. One movement, no turn. This is where the second half of your gin and tonic lives: the tonic belongs next to the gin, not at the other end of the bar.
Back bar
Two steps and a turn. Fine for what you reach for a few times a service, and it doubles as your display. The mistake is not that something stands on the back bar — it is that something stands there that has to come down every round.
Store
Cellar or store room. What stands here you do not fetch during service. If something you genuinely need mid-service is down there, that is not a stock decision — it is a walk you take again every night.
The four zones, and how much fits in each
The layout below is an ordinary bistro bar: draught beer, wine by the glass, spirits with mixers, aperitivo, coffee and soft drinks. What lands in your own zones depends on what you pour.
| Zone | How far | How much fits | What usually stands there |
|---|---|---|---|
| On the taps | Fixed: a keg does not move. | — | Lager (keg) · IPA (keg) · Wheat beer (keg) |
| Within arm's reach | The speed rail and the fridge under your top. Zero steps. | 6 | Prosecco or cava · House red · House white |
| One step | The under-counter beside your station. One movement, no turn. | 10 | Soda water · Coffee beans · Milk |
| Back bar | Two steps and a turn. Also your display. | 16 | Dessert wine · Tea · Apple juice |
| Store | Cellar or store room. Not during service. | — | — |
What the words mean
Five terms this sheet turns on, briefly.
- Speed rail
- The open gutter of bottles on the inside of your counter, at grab height, with no need to turn around. In practice it holds four to eight bottles: anything else you cram in costs you the speed it was supposed to buy.
- Reach
- How often a bottle is grabbed during a service, as a share of every drink that crosses the bar. It is the only honest reason to put something near or far — not the price of the bottle, and not how well it displays.
- Glass par
- How many glasses of one type have to be in circulation to survive a peak hour. It does not depend on how many you own; it depends on how fast a dirty one comes back: par = drinks per hour × that glass's share × wash cycle in hours, plus headroom.
- Wash cycle
- The time between a dirty glass leaving the table and that same glass standing clean and dry back on the shelf. Clearing, washing, the machine and the cooling are all in it. In most venues it is three quarters of an hour to an hour, and almost nobody has ever timed it.
- Bar mise en place
- Everything that has to be ready before the first guest: ice, cut citrus, syrups topped up, batches pre-mixed, milk cold, beans at the grinder. In the kitchen this is written down; behind the bar it gets shouted across the room at ten to seven.
Frequently asked questions
How many bottles belong in a speed rail?
Four to eight, depending on the length of your counter. More bottles does not mean more speed: past about eight you have to look for the one you want, and that looking costs exactly the time the rail was meant to save. This tool asks how many slots your rail has and then says honestly what no longer fits.
How do you work out how many glasses you need?
Multiply your drinks per hour by that glass type's share and by your wash cycle in hours, then add headroom. A bar doing sixty drinks an hour on a forty-five minute cycle needs about forty-five wine glasses in circulation — not the twenty-four standing in the cupboard. That is why you run dry every Saturday at half past nine.
So do I have to buy more glasses?
That is one of the two cures, and the expensive one. The other is shortening your wash cycle: clear earlier, run a second rack, stop letting glasses cool on top of the machine. This tool prints both, with the number of minutes you would have to get under to manage with the glasses you already own.
Why is my most expensive bottle at the back?
Because this sheet reckons in distance, not in price. A bottle poured once an evening does not belong in the slot of something that goes on every round, however well it displays. If you want it seen: the back bar is your display, and that zone costs you nothing as long as nothing standing there has to come down every round.
Does this work if we mostly pour beer and wine?
That is exactly what it is built for. In an ordinary bistro bar the wines and the beer are the busiest and the spirits a long way behind — the other way round from a cocktail bar. Anyone who laid their bar out as though it were a cocktail bar sees that here in one screen.
Is this the same as my floor plan?
No. The floor plan is about the room and where the bar stands; this is about what belongs on which shelf inside it and what has to be ready. They do not compete: draw the room with the floor-plan maker and lay the bar out with this sheet.
This is a house document, not a statement of law. What may be poured, in what measure, what has to be labelled and what you must record differ per country and per licence. Always follow your own licence and house rules.