Thinking of starting a pub

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HH60gunner

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So I'm trying to convince the wife to let me start a pub when I get back from Afghanistan. At that point I will have all of my bills paid off, plus a good chunk of change saved up. I could apply for a veteran loan, that I hear is quite easy to get approved for to supplement my cash.

It won't be a brewpub for a few reasons. Mainly I don't want to not enjoy brewing my own any more, but I think I would be more than happy running a pub. The second reason mainly being the extra starting cost for all the equipment required for starting a brewpub. Third, being the fact that I'm not going to lie to myself in thinking that just because I can brew my own at home, does not qualify me for operating a full on brewery.

My idea is to kind of make a "geek bar". I'd like to have some old school arcade games, and some air hockey tables in the pub. Also since it would be close to a major university I would have free wifi and maybe even a whole set of computers set up for some LAN gaming that would be free for customers who come in during the non busy hours. The idea is that on slow days I could set up some gaming tournaments and what not, and on the weekends it would mainly just be a great pub with lots of micros on tap. I'm thinking of calling it something like either "The Armory Pub" or "Geeks: Microbrews & Barcade".

What do you guys think about this idea?
 
I really like the idea. I have talked to a "friend in the industry" about opening a pub and only serving good craft beer. He said you need something that will set you apart, and also don't be too snobby to serve Bud Light. You and I both know it is terrible beer, but it can keep the lights on and the bills paid so you can do the fun, cool stuff.

Also, if you do go forward with this you need to hire me to do your website. I love beer, I appreciate veterans, and I am almost as good at helping businesses grow as I am at helping yeasties grow!
 
I used to basically live at Barcade. They definitely did not seem to have spent much on interior design accoutrements, but two dozen+ vintage arcade games probably ain't cheap, either.

The draught selection at that bar was one of the best I've ever seen. Happy hour pints were $5, too, which is a DAMN good price for a craft beer in Williamsburg.
 
There are a couple of of similarly themed bars in Dallas that seem to do pretty well.
 
I immediately thought of Barcade as well as I was reading your post. I've been there a few times and love the selection, service and knowledge of the employees. And you can order in your own food, pizza seems to be the most popular.

Sheldon
 
I would drink there. :) I do not know how it is in Arizona but around here there are a few guys that deal with machines and games and stuff for the local bars. They will supply you with the stuff. Anything from pool tables to mega touch games. You dont actually own the stuff but you get a percent of what the machine takes in. You wont make as much money on the machines but you do not have to put up all that cash up front to buy them. Another nice thing is when they break down you just give them a call and they come fix it. Im sure there are contracts involved and what not but it might be worth looking into if the funds are tight.
 
i would ove a bar like this to open up somewhere near me. i used to go to a local laundry mat to play galaga. they kind of have some old school games at blueberry hill, but that's a little far for me.
i agree with whoever else said it too though, you need to have at least one BMC. i love great craft beer, but several of my friends don't, this way everyone can go.
 
frydogbrews said:
i agree with whoever else said it too though, you need to have at least one BMC. i love great craft beer, but several of my friends don't, this way everyone can go.
Click to expand...

Yes to this, but I would take it a step further, I think it would be foolish to open a bar and not serve bud, bud light, coors light, and miller lite. your opening a buisness to make money not shun 90+% of beer drinkers, plus you can charge the same amount for bmc as the craft beers and make a killing on them, or charge more to persuade the bmc drinkers to try the craft selection.
 
A retro arcade thing would be cool, but I would definitely skip the LAN gaming idea. Even if you're an IT guy that can fix/maintain all of the PCs yourself, you'll still have to be constantly upgrading them and sinking time and money into that aspect of the business. A bar should be a social place, not people hunched over computer screens shouting into headsets at someone on the internet and ignoring everyone else.
 
Yeah the thing about Barcade is that the games are all lined up unobtrusively around the outside edge of the bar space--the majority of everyone is at the bar & at tables, drinking and socializing, with groups of folks here and there gathered around the machines. That place strikes the perfect balance between a lame gimmick and a unique, well-executed idea. I also agree that having people hunkered down over individual terminals would be inimical to carousin'.
 
Not a national chain; there's one in Brooklyn and one in Jersey City. It's not really grungy at all, either; it's actually one of the best beer bars in NYC.
 
yeah I agree arcade games would be good, but the PC's (LAN Gaming) probably not so much

If you did arcade games, you should look into getting or buying a MAME.
 
I've been there, it's definitely grungy. Any bar that allows dogs that aren't working with disabled people is grungy. That's not necessarily a dig, but Barcade feels a lot more like a local dive bar than anything else. I don't remember their beer selection being anything spectacular, especially for that area of Brooklyn. Definitely not one of the best in the City unless you have a hipster thing going on... I've never heard Barcade mentioned as even one of the better bars.
 
whatsleftofyou said:
A retro arcade thing would be cool, but I would definitely skip the LAN gaming idea. Even if you're an IT guy that can fix/maintain all of the PCs yourself, you'll still have to be constantly upgrading them and sinking time and money into that aspect of the business. A bar should be a social place, not people hunched over computer screens shouting into headsets at someone on the internet and ignoring everyone else.
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Plus, beer and electronics are a hazardous mix.

I would certainly go to your bar (except that I live in Canada). I don't see a problem with having some BMC on tap, or even something like Heineken or Stella which is essentially an expensive BMC beer. You would also want cans of PBR for the hipster crowd.

I went to a bar in Cleveland that had a huge selection of craft beer on tap, including a bunch of beers which I can't find in Canada. I felt like I was in heaven at the bar, but I would guess that at least 75% of the orders were for Coors light or mixed drinks.

Location is probably your most important consideration.
 
Airborneguy said:
I've been there, it's definitely grungy. Any bar that allows dogs that aren't working with disabled people is grungy. That's not necessarily a dig, but Barcade feels a lot more like a local dive bar than anything else. I don't remember their beer selection being anything spectacular, especially for that area of Brooklyn. Definitely not one of the best in the City unless you have a hipster thing going on... I've never heard Barcade mentioned as even one of the better bars.
Click to expand...

Hilarious! Here's the menu from their Kuhnhenn event last week:
Do yourself a favor and join us on Thursday, September 15th as we welcome Bret & Eric Kuhnhenn of Michigan's Kuhnhenn Brewing and pour some extremely rare and unusual beers. This will be epic. On draft:

Double Rice IPA - 10.5% ABV - Imperial IPA brewed with rice
Extraneous Ale 2009 - 17.0% - Barleywine
Foreign Export Stout - 7.0% - Dark and malt-y
Fourth Dementia - 13.5% - Old Ale
Heather Ale - 5.2% - Scottish style Gruit Ale
Hefeweizen - 5.0% - German style Hefe
Olde Brune - 11.5% - Flanders style Red
Play in the Hay (Mango) - 8.5% - Wild Ale brewed with mango
Simcoe Silly - 8.5% - Strong Pale Ale with Simcoe hops
Solar Eclipse - 18.0% - A huge Russian style Imperial Stout
Timmy T's English Pale Ale (cask) - 5.0% - Nice and mild
Weiss Teufel (White Devil) - 9.5% - Weizenbock
Winter Wonder - 13.0% - Eisbock
Click to expand...

Blind Tiger, which is also one of the best draught houses in the city (and also incidentally allows dogs) should be so lucky. Spuyten Duyvil, just a few blocks from Barcade, has an amazing bottle selection and a very similar ambience. Not sure what you're looking for in a beer bar there, boss.
 
No problem here, boss. I find it strange you're taking the status of a Brooklyn bar so personal all the way from Ohio... although a lot of the hipsters.... nevermind...

I'm in Brooklyn right now as I type this and can go to at least 10 bars far better than that that one within walking distance of where I am. You made the strong claims about this bar; I merely off-handedly called it grungy. As a matter of fact, I don't even have a problem with their beer selection, it just doesn't stand out around here. I strongly question your NYC bar experience if that is one of your top bars. Hell there's 2 bars on Staten Island with over 100 beers on their menu, and that's lowly SI!
 
slothorentropy said:
Hilarious! Here's the menu from their Kuhnhenn event last week:


Blind Tiger, which is also one of the best draught houses in the city (and also incidentally allows dogs) should be so lucky. Spuyten Duyvil, just a few blocks from Barcade, has an amazing bottle selection and a very similar ambience. Not sure what you're looking for in a beer bar there, boss.
Click to expand...

You would have to be a pretty hard core Kuhnhenn fanboy to think that tops Blind Tiger, just sayin'.
 
That's okay, I wouldn't typically solicit bar reviews from someone who has such constant recourse to that played-out hipster strawman. I lived in that neighborhood for several years and am in NYC usually twice a month and can tell you that Barcade is one of the best beer bars in Williamsburg and, yes, the city. It's not about having a menu with hundreds of beers; it's about having a well-curated selection that's constantly changing and featuring rare and hard-to-find gems. Barcade is a great bar. DBA is a great bar. Mugs Ale House & Radegast are great bars. Anyone could make the lazy gripe that they are full of hipsters, but it doesn't mean anything.
 
remilard said:
You would have to be a pretty hard core Kuhnhenn fanboy to think that tops Blind Tiger, just sayin'.
Click to expand...

Blind Tiger's draught selection is awesome! They're one of the best in the city, but the special events at Barcade, like that one, are part of what gives it the edge in my mind. Also it's a bit cheaper, by and large.
 
And yeah I guess I take the denigration a little bit too personally because Barcade was my local for a long time and it's close to my heart. I think objectively though it's got a lot to offer. Despite my snarkiness upthread there Airborneguy I'd be interested to hear your thoughts re: the best beer bars in BK; despite what you might think I was (and remain) a keen observer of the NYC bar scene and would be curious to know where our tastes overlap.
 
slothorentropy said:
And yeah I guess I take the denigration a little bit too personally because Barcade was my local for a long time and it's close to my heart. I think objectively though it's got a lot to offer. Despite my snarkiness upthread there Airborneguy I'd be interested to hear your thoughts re: the best beer bars in BK; despite what you might think I was (and remain) a keen observer of the NYC bar scene and would be curious to know where our tastes overlap.
Click to expand...

Not sure I want to get into it considering simply saying "grungy" started a personal thing. With all due respect, however you identify yourself, I live here, work here, and easily identified why you took it so personally. Not all of that neighborhood's bars are hipsters bars, btw.

Radegast had a great mixed crowd going the times I've been there. We celebrated my birthday there once. Brooklyn Brewery draws a diverse crowd also. Hipsters earned their reputation and I know very few real NY'ers who have anything good to say about them other than they aren't scary to see in a dark alley.

Killmeyer's in SI is one of my favorites, and it routinely garners mention in media and on the net, despite its location. Ginger Man hands down has the best selection anywhere in the city. Spyuten Duvel (I never spell it right) is just below Ginger Man. Blind Tiger has the best events, IMO, especially their cask fests. Beer Table doesn't have a wide selection, but is almost guaranteed to have something you've never heard of anytime you go there. Burp Castle is a must for anyone who enjoys Belgians.

Barcade is somewhere in the middle for me. Their selection is decent, but the crowd and the design is lacking for me personally. It's grungy. There's dogs in there. I don't know what else to say. I have a dog. I rescued him right off the street and I love him to death. But I don't ever think about taking him to the bar and I don't think that's cool. It really turned me off both times I've been there.
 
i have a great dog who loves going to bars. he's a lazy hound dog though and he just sits there. i have never been to new york, nor have i met any new york dogs, so maybe they are different. around here, anyplace that allows dogs is a goodplace in my book. its really great to find a bar that allows dog but doesn't allow anyone under 21 (this includes babies, small children)
thankfully our hipster infestation in st louis is fairly small, it would be terrible to have a full blown hipster population nearby.
 
"hipster" = urban twentysomething in nice jeans. Means nothing!

I'd forgotten about Burp Castle, though! Last time I was in there we got booted because my friend was too sloshed to abide by the inside voices rule.
 
I thought this was about a guy wanting to open a pub, not a bitchfest about some place in NYC
 
Are there like really strict rules about getting off-topic here? Not asking to be a smart ass, either; the only other forum I post on is basically one long series of derails.
 
I'd strongly advise you not to get into the bar/resaurant business. I use to work in the industry as a bartender(92'-00'). I've always considered opening up my own Pub. the only thing that keeps me from pulling the trigger is the memory of all the pub owners that I've worked for. The unexperienced bar owners all go in with the same idea: It will be so fun to own my own bar!!!! Unfortunately it's no fun and is a lot of work. One thing that you need to consider is most folks who work in the industry like to party and will do so a the pub owners expense, which the bar/pub owner will sooner or later realize. Then the paranoia sets in. Then it gets wierd and you have to fire people. then you have to moniter the bar/pub/restaurant constantly and pretty soon you are working constantly and really stressed out, probably thinking what the f@#$ an I doing?
Then you get really sick of dealing with drunks and trust me it is an art form and you need experience on how to effectively and safely handle them without things getting out of hand. Trust me when you cut drunks off they get pissed to the point where they get violent. Getting back to the folks who make their living in the industry......they aren't the most reliable or stable crew in the world(as stated before they like to party and can bankrupt a bar).
The bar owners I've worked for who've been in the industry for a while were all alcoholics, jaded and not fun to be around or work for.
I don't want to pee in your wheaties but I'd be really bummed to see you come back from Afghanistan and lose all your money doing something that sounds fun but isn't.
I really did enjoy bartending. It was a social job and you got the chance to interact with an entire spectrum of people but in the end I didn't have to worry about people stealing from me and then making my nut every month by dealing with a bunch of a**holes.
Don't get me wrong there are good people who work in the industry but my experience is the majority of the folks who hang out at bars are drunks or are on their way to becomoing drunks and those folks aren't fun to deal with!
Good luck to you whatever you do and thanks for your service to our country!
 
Thanks for the input guys. Sorry if I hadn't posted back in a few days. I am after all working over in Afghanistan. I was busy at work so unable to even log in, and I hadn't renewed my crappy overpriced internet connection for when I'm in the tent this week.

I was kind of iffy on the whole lan gaming thing to, and think I will probably just stick to classic arcade games. I also found a pretty awesome 4 way air hockey game online the other night that looked like it would be awesome in a pub. As much as I love craft beer which will be most of what I serve, I'll still serve BMC just because of the fact that it doesn't bother me if others don't enjoy the same beer I enjoy. I'll just take enjoyment in the fact that I'll be offering a large selection of craft beers as well. I actually did run across "Barcade" when I was researching "geek bars" online, and loved the idea. What do you guys think about the name choices? Any other suggestions?
 
slogger said:
I'd strongly advise you not to get into the bar/resaurant business. I use to work in the industry as a bartender(92'-00'). I've always considered opening up my own Pub. the only thing that keeps me from pulling the trigger is the memory of all the pub owners that I've worked for. The unexperienced bar owners all go in with the same idea: It will be so fun to own my own bar!!!! Unfortunately it's no fun and is a lot of work. One thing that you need to consider is most folks who work in the industry like to party and will do so a the pub owners expense, which the bar/pub owner will sooner or later realize. Then the paranoia sets in. Then it gets wierd and you have to fire people. then you have to moniter the bar/pub/restaurant constantly and pretty soon you are working constantly and really stressed out, probably thinking what the f@#$ an I doing?
Then you get really sick of dealing with drunks and trust me it is an art form and you need experience on how to effectively and safely handle them without things getting out of hand. Trust me when you cut drunks off they get pissed to the point where they get violent. Getting back to the folks who make their living in the industry......they aren't the most reliable or stable crew in the world(as stated before they like to party and can bankrupt a bar).
The bar owners I've worked for who've been in the industry for a while were all alcoholics, jaded and not fun to be around or work for.
I don't want to pee in your wheaties but I'd be really bummed to see you come back from Afghanistan and lose all your money doing something that sounds fun but isn't.
I really did enjoy bartending. It was a social job and you got the chance to interact with an entire spectrum of people but in the end I didn't have to worry about people stealing from me and then making my nut every month by dealing with a bunch of a**holes.
Don't get me wrong there are good people who work in the industry but my experience is the majority of the folks who hang out at bars are drunks or are on their way to becomoing drunks and those folks aren't fun to deal with!
Good luck to you whatever you do and thanks for your service to our country!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the inside input. I'm still considering the pros & cons of it but am still leaning towards opening my own business. Also I'm over here as a civilian now. I got out of the service last June and went back to doing IT work on the outside.
 
HH60gunner said:
Thanks for the inside input. I'm still considering the pros & cons of it but am still leaning towards opening my own business. Also I'm over here as a civilian now. I got out of the service last June and went back to doing IT work on the outside.
Click to expand...
We still all owe you a debt of gratitude for your service to our country:mug:

Even if you got out last June:)
 
There is a bar in Madison WI that always had free hard boiled eggs to eat. I thought that was pretty cool.

Also order some posters from these guys.
http://popchartlab.com/
check out the video game controls.
 

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