Coolest features of a Bar

Chocoholic84 · 29-01-2013 10:13AM

Have to say I love the Leopardstown Inn - it has a revolving bar, which I find really cool!

Dravokivich · 29-01-2013 10:15AM

Pinball machine, Pint, for anyone that beats the top score.

Trend Setter in Training · 29-01-2013 10:22AM

A snug with an open fire, good stout and good finger / bar food.

Once you get people in they won't want to leave.

BraziliaNZ · 29-01-2013 10:27AM

You don't want to isolate anyone so you can't make it too "quirky" or only certain people will go to the bar. Where is this place? I mean if you opened a hipster dive bar in Roscommon that only sells organic IPAs you're hardly going to do any business.
Suss out the clientèle you'll most likely get, and take it from there.

empacher · 29-01-2013 10:31AM

its in Galway already part of a nightclub, but as a second secluded room with its own street entrance. I'm tasked with changing it so that it can be opened from 6pm before the nightclub does.

thanks everyone for the suggestions. Just gauging what appeals to people.

bnt · 29-01-2013 10:35AM

Some of those things above sound lovely, but if this bar's going to be in an urban area, there are going to be limits on floor space. It's all about filling the floor space with paying punters: any space taken up by booths or a pinball machine is space that won't be occupied by a person holding a glass.

Me, I wish more bars kept the music low and had decent acoustics. The top bar in the Guinness Storehouse is a classic example of how not to do it. (Or was - I was there once over 5 years ago.) It has a low metal roof that reflects sound straight back down at the customers. The result is that fewer than 50 people can create a noise level hazardous to health, since they're all shouting to try to be heard over everyone else. And that's before they turn up the "music". Half an hour in such a place, I just want to find a hole and crawl in to it. Going out for a drink shouldn't be like going to a rock concert.

Feisar · 29-01-2013 10:37AM

Don't know if it got mentioned but good quality drinks sound as funk bartenders is all you need.

SEPT 23 1989 · 29-01-2013 10:44AM

Lap dancing and bands playing behind chicken wire

Buford Tannen · 29-01-2013 11:19AM

Putting a urinal along along the bar or a bar along the urinal will save valuable drinking time.

GiftofGab · 29-01-2013 11:20AM

Put a bowl of water with a full lemon in it at the bar. If punters can balance a coin (any coin) on the lemon with it dropping they get a free shot. If the coin drops to the end of bowl the barman keeps all the money at the end of the night as a tip. Sounds easy it aint.

gobnaitolunacy · 29-01-2013 11:21AM

iDave wrote: »

Why do bars need to be 'cool', 'funky' and 'trendy' these days.
Some of us still like traditional bars.

Very hard to find an untouched traditional bar...the trend in the 70s was rip all the old features out and replace with formica and carpet...bloody carpet everywhere.
Then came the 90's and all the plaster got chipped off to exposed stone walls and all sorts of old rubbish was hung up on display.

finbarrk · 29-01-2013 11:25AM

empacher wrote: »

Hi Folks.

At the moment I'm refurbishing a Bar I work in. I've being trying to find things to make the Bar unique and unusual in most aspects.

What I'm looking for is any Unusual, Cool, Wacky furnishings for a Bar. It can be any part, from the Furniture, Signs, Roof, The Bar itself, Toilets e.t.c

I've being trawling through pages on Google but alot are completely wacky. But any more would be appreciated.

Things I found on Google get as crazy as the floor being made from plexiglass and there being sharks underneath.

Cheers

This wouldn't be the best place to come for serious advice.

kaimera · 29-01-2013 11:27AM

coolest you say?

Orim · 29-01-2013 11:27AM

By the sounds of it, I wouldn't go too funky. It's presumably not somewhere people will be all night. It's waiting for the night club and I'd say that's the way your boss wants it.

Decorate it nice and simple, keep the music relatively low and get a rake of books in. Get down to the local charity shop and you'll a get a good boxful for a score or so. Now they might get ruined but they're cheap and if you get a good, diverse selection then poeple can flick through them while waiting for people. Go for collections of short stories or anything else that can be fully read in same chunks.

connollys · 29-01-2013 11:47AM

No TV

CardBordWindow · 29-01-2013 11:59AM

A 50% discount for boards.ie members is always an attractive feature!

Rhys Essien · 29-01-2013 12:01PM

I was in an Irish bar in Rotterdam a few years back that had an indoor golf putting green.Good craic with a few pints.

Lil' Smiler · 29-01-2013 12:07PM

really comfy couches, like you're in your own sitting room

Multivitamin The 7th · 29-01-2013 12:15PM

Get a pinball machine.

hardCopy · 29-01-2013 12:22PM

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

If such a bar was over here, people would just steal all the cool stuff or write/gob/puke all over them.

This is why we can't have nice things.

The Black Sheep on Capel St has jenga and board games, they're pretty popular too. If it works in the north inner city it'll work anywhere. You just can't let gougers in.

frozenfrozen · 29-01-2013 12:29PM

Design the toilets so they can be powerhosed from top to bottom. Then powerhose them. Regularly. Reasonably priced pints so people actually have a reason to go to this bar while they wait for the nightclub. Don't play the same music that will be played in the night club. The top 40 songs are repetitive enough as it is.

Lots of seats, lots of snugs, the people are going to still be quite sober and would probably enjoy actually being able to talk to the people they're meeting up with before the club.

As has been said before, no pricks should be employed, especially bouncers, they're there to tell 15 year olds to politely stop chancing their arms, and to stop scumbags from getting in. They are not there to harass everyone unless they've got boobs.

Oh and sharks. There needs to be a lot of sharks