|
I have been talking with some friends for quite a while about the idea of opening a bar and last month I noticed the bar that was operating above the bar we usually go to has been vacated and is now available to rent. It is on the 4th floor of a 5 story building and there are bars on both the second and third floors. The bar on the second floor is more of a bar/restaurant but has a pretty solid crowd most nights of the week. The third floor is one of the most popular places on Saturday nights to the point that there are usually many people just hanging out on the stairs because inside is usually quite crowded and noisy. The fourth floor used to operate as a bar geared towards rugby fans but never did a good job of building their audience or trying to capture the overflow from the third floor bar and we have decided it looks like the best option for us to open a bar in the part of town that is considered the party district. We went to talk to the real estate guy yesterday and he showed us the location but the place is currently a mess and would need a lot of cleaning before it could be opened, but it could be operational with minimal investment beyond the cost of signing the lease. It also has a kitchen that needs a lot of cleaning but it seems to be big enough to serve a basic bar menu. The rent of the location is 250,000 yen a month which is slightly more than 2k USD for an 80 square meter space. Hard liquor is very cheap here and beer is not so cheap so we would like to focus on cheap cocktails rather than beer. The third floor bar was also renovated recently and was transformed into more of a club like atmosphere and has started charging a cover on weekends and I think that has alienated a lot of their existing customer base who would prefer to go a slightly more casual environment without having to pay a cover charge but right now there aren't any alternative places to go where they don't have to pay a cover charge. I have looked online for some communities related to running bars but I haven't really found anything of use so I was hoping I could get some opinions from people here about the feasibility of running a profitable bar. I'd be more than happy to document the process of opening the bar once we make the final decision.
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2015 07:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 08:06 |
|
|
How many businesses have you successfully run? How many of those were bars? How much experience do you have working within the local government on licensing, taxation, rules, laws, and regulations surrounding owning a bar in Japan? My mother owned several bars, in the US, and I worked there for a time as well. I'll add that working in a bar is not the same as hanging out in a bar, and the fact that you have several 'stops' before they get to your place isn't a good sign. I think you really need to detail the above before anyone can give you any solid advice.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2015 07:42
|
|
|
egoslicer posted:How many businesses have you successfully run? How many of those were bars? How much experience do you have working within the local government on licensing, taxation, rules, laws, and regulations surrounding owning a bar in Japan? The thing about bars in Japan is the regulations are quite minimal compared to the US. You don't need a liquor license or anything like that, just have to file the paperwork that says you are operating a drinking establishment. It is also relatively common for foreigners to run bars here so the local authorities are used to dealing with foreigners. I helped some friends open up a night club last year so I know the processes to open up a business but they had to go through a lot of extra hoops because they did the construction themselves and had to deal with the fire department and that wouldn't be needed in an established location. As far as the place being on the fourth floor I don't consider that to be much of an issue. The places that are the most popular in town right now are all on higher floors. I have done some work in bars but not much recently however I will probably get one of my bartender friends to work on the busy nights and hold things down on my own on the slower nights.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2015 08:00
|
|
|
How well do you know the owners/management of the other bars in the building and area? There may be more than meets the eye in terms of "expenses," especially in Fukuoka. Ask around if at all possible.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2015 14:19
|
|
|
zmcnulty posted:How well do you know the owners/management of the other bars in the building and area? There may be more than meets the eye in terms of "expenses," especially in Fukuoka. Ask around if at all possible. You talking about Yakuza? The majority of the bars in that area are owned by foreigners and I am on good terms with most of them and there isn't much Yakuza presence in the area. They have their own bars/clubs in the area they go to but as far as I know they aren't charging protection fees.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2015 15:42
|
|
|
Ned posted:I have been talking with some friends for quite a while about the idea of opening a bar and last month I noticed the bar that was operating above the bar we usually go to has been vacated and is now available to rent. It is on the 4th floor of a 5 story building and there are bars on both the second and third floors. The bar on the second floor is more of a bar/restaurant but has a pretty solid crowd most nights of the week. The third floor is one of the most popular places on Saturday nights to the point that there are usually many people just hanging out on the stairs because inside is usually quite crowded and noisy. The fourth floor used to operate as a bar geared towards rugby fans but never did a good job of building their audience or trying to capture the overflow from the third floor bar and we have decided it looks like the best option for us to open a bar in the part of town that is considered the party district. You mentioned that the previous owners didn't do a good job of capturing rugby customers and overflow from the 3rd floor - is this based on an analysis of what their marketing plan was, or is this based on seeing their bar empty? Do you have a timetable for opening up your bar, and do you think the customers currently alienated by the cover on the 3rd floor will still be looking for a new home bar by your opening day? If not, do you have a good plan for getting them to come back to the building and visit your bar? Are you planning on being the sole owner of the bar? What is the plan for financing your startup costs? Do you have a plan for additional financing if you start cleaning the place and realize there's actual damage that needs repair? How do you currently make a living, and will you be able to continue doing it for months or years if your bar is not profitable right away? Does anyone else depend on your income (wife, children, sick family member, etc)?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2015 17:49
|
|
|
A GIANT PARSNIP posted:You mentioned that the previous owners didn't do a good job of capturing rugby customers and overflow from the 3rd floor - is this based on an analysis of what their marketing plan was, or is this based on seeing their bar empty? In my opinion I feel like the rugby bar offered something that was incompatible with the other places in the building. The second and third floors are both international bars but the rugby bar didn't have any English speaking staff or females working there and most of the people who are interested in rugby in Japan are men so it was usually a sausage-fest up there. The town I live in has a very high female-to-male ratio and it is going to be difficult to be successful in the bar business if you aren't attracting female customers. The interior was also a bunch of tables with chairs rather than softer seating options like couches which I think isn't very appealing.  One thing to note with this picture is that the tiled area is raised about 3 inches above the part with the flooring. This concerns me a little bit but they probably had to raise the bar area in order to run pipes for the sinks. But those tables and chairs on the left would be removed and replaced with some couches and smaller tables. We are hoping we can open the bar within two to four weeks of signing the lease. The summers are very good for the bars and clubs on that street but in general the building it is in has a good number of people entering it on a regular basis. The people who were alienated by the changes to the third floor are still going but not thrilled with the changes. They are looking for a lively, international crowd and despite the changes it is the only venue that offers that kind of vibe right now. However, a lot of their core customers are friends of mine and I think they would be willing to spend time at my bar simply because they have told me that they are looking for something different. Also, the building is constructed in a way that the bathrooms are outside of the bars. So if you take the elevator to a floor the bar is on your right and the bathroom is on your left and in front of you are stairs. It is quite annoying to pay a cover for a place and then have to show your stamp every time you come back from the bathroom. This also leads to a lot of people just hanging out on the stairs as well. I am not going into this alone. I am going to set it up as a partnership with another foreigner who comes from a solid business background and he will handle a lot of the financial matters and I will be doing the labor and marketing. I have other people who are willing to invest but I would prefer to tap them for a loan rather than giving them equity. I think having too many people with a stake in the bar early on could lead to problems that could be avoided in a partnership. The plan for financing is to put in money equally and perhaps create a business entity that would allow us to get a business loan. He has permanent residency in Japan and I am married to a Japanese national so we have some options for financing through banks that others might not have. I can also tap my parents for money if needed. We think it should be possible to get the lease and be operational for less than 25k USD but our big concern right now is the kitchen. Although we don't really plan to use it we do need to have a professional come in and take a look and give us an idea of how broken it is. Right now it is incredibly dirty back there and needs a good cleaning but we want to know if there is any major damage that could cause headaches. Right now I am not working but I have traditionally worked as a web developer. If needed I could take on some remote development work to pay the bills. My wife is a nurse and we live pretty cheaply so our standard of living will not be changed by owning a bar. She will probably come help out on Saturday nights as well. I have also been doing an international event every week for the last 4 years on Thursdays that usually gets about 20-30 people to show up. We have done it at quite a few places around town and once the initial event is finished I take people who want to continue hanging out to another bar afterwards. Usually this has been the bar on the third floor and a lot of the people I have brought there have ended up as regular customers of the 3rd floor on weekends. I am hoping I can take this group and make them into regulars for my bar if we decide to open it so I think I have a decent customer base. I talked to the guy who used to bartend at the 3rd floor for two years about the possibility of opening something on the 4th floor and he seems to believe it is a good idea.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2015 21:36
|
|
|
Ned posted:I talked to the guy who used to bartend at the 3rd floor for two years about the possibility of opening something on the 4th floor and he seems to believe it is a good idea. Well if he said it's a good idea then it must be. With all of your research at the end of the day this is still going to be a terrible investment because of how high risk this endeavor is, especially with how little capital there is involved at this point. There's a lot ifs and whatever, and you're going into something that'll probably fail. I don't see any convincing you of this though, so why not just change the thread to "I'm opening a bar in Japan!". Unless the question mark is if everything works out I'm opening a bar in Japan? This entire proposition could work don't get me wrong, but it probably wont! Lets find out I guess.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2015 23:41
|
|
|
Veskit posted:Well if he said it's a good idea then it must be. I think he realizes that there is a lot of overflow crowd from that bar that would be willing to head upstairs if it was more geared towards the audience that goes to the third floor. It is quite common to have about 30 people outside the bar either on the stairs or in front of the building who are drinking something they bought from the third floor. There are no open container laws here so people are free to take their drinks outside if they choose to do so. quote:With all of your research at the end of the day this is still going to be a terrible investment because of how high risk this endeavor is, especially with how little capital there is involved at this point. There's a lot ifs and whatever, and you're going into something that'll probably fail. I don't see any convincing you of this though, so why not just change the thread to "I'm opening a bar in Japan!". Well, the idea is to open it with minimal capital expenses. We have access to more money but we are looking at something that is close to a turnkey operation. There are some other options that are slightly more expensive but need less work to get going, however, I feel like the current location is our best bet for attracting customers. There is another building slightly to the north that has some cheaper spaces available but that building doesn't have an international bar in it and people usually don't walk all the way up there - there are two major clubs to the north that get the majority of the late night customers. To the south there is a building with some open spaces and a bar that is essentially a turn-key operation available but the reputation of that building is not so good and the elevators are kind of broken so I think as far as locations go our current choice is the best bet. There is one more building that will probably be available soon but it is 3 floors and kind of narrow so I don't think it would be a good choice because there would be no way to operate something out of that location without renting all three floors. If we do sign the lease I will see if I can get the thread title changed so we can document the success or trainwreck. I do have experience with helping open a club that has turned out to be a trainwreck, but they did a very good job of alienating potential customers by having terrible policies regarding music and pricing, so in a way I have learned from the mistakes made by others. I am good friends with the previous owner of the bar on the third floor so I might reach out to her for her opinions. She ended up selling the place to the current owner for a decent sum of money about a year and a half ago because she moved out of town and the new owner bought the place because it is/was his main competition for his existing bar. He essentially turned it into an extension of his other bar by renovating it and changing the pricing structure.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2015 00:12
|
|
|
gently caress it, go for it. You'll probably lose Y10,000,000, but it'll be a great story.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2015 13:43
|
|
|
Dik Hz posted:gently caress it, go for it. You'll probably lose Y10,000,000, but it'll be a great story. So I am quite aware of the risks but what leads you to believe I will lose 10 million yen?
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2015 19:56
|
|
|
It's a combination of the fact that something like 60% of restaurants and bars fail within the first 3 years in the US and the fact that most people seem incapable of believing that running a successful business is within the realm of possibility on earth. The odds are definitely against you, so be careful.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2015 21:12
|
|
|
Ned posted:So I am quite aware of the risks but what leads you to believe I will lose 10 million yen?
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2015 21:28
|
|
|
DNova posted:It's a combination of the fact that something like 60% of restaurants and bars fail within the first 3 years in the US and the fact that most people seem incapable of believing that running a successful business is within the realm of possibility on earth. Here is quite a bit different from the US when it comes to food and drinking establishments. In places where liquor licenses are very expensive it requires a lot of capital just to open up a bar and then you have the cops always going after you trying to bust you for serving underage drinkers. In Japan you do not need a specific liquor license but just to get approved as a place of entertainment that sells alcohol and if you want to do food then you have to have someone who has taken a food safety course to be registered as the person in charge of food safety and displayed in the establishment. If you are doing new construction then the fire department has to sign off on the place being up to code and the fire-specific things like lighting and smoke detectors have to be installed by an approved technician. The place I am looking to do has a startup cost of about 20-25k USD and is in one of the more popular buildings in the district it is in. If this location doesn't work out after we take a closer look at the condition of the kitchen then I will put the idea on the backburner for a while until I feel like another location with potential appears. Right now I am looking at an outlay of about 3.5k USD a month to be in operation without making any sales at all but I think it should be quite possible to do 8k in sales per month. I think there is quite a bit more upside if I can get steady weeknight crowds but most of the places on the street make the majority of their money on Saturday nights. I have to ask my friend just to make sure but a good night on a Saturday on the 3rd floor probably used to pull in 4k. Right now I feel like I have a suitable location for offering something that has good synergy with other establishments in the area but not being a copy of what they are providing. I do not want to be a night club but instead a bar that operates with less overhead than the clubs and pass on those savings in the form of cheaper drinks to customers.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2015 21:29
|
|
|
Dik Hz posted:Law of averages. That's ~$80k, right? Yeah, but to me 80k is the cost of opening and running the place for 2 years with no customers.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2015 21:30
|
|
|
Ned posted:Here is quite a bit different from the US when it comes to food and drinking establishments. In places where liquor licenses are very expensive it requires a lot of capital just to open up a bar and then you have the cops always going after you trying to bust you for serving underage drinkers. In Japan you do not need a specific liquor license but just to get approved as a place of entertainment that sells alcohol and if you want to do food then you have to have someone who has taken a food safety course to be registered as the person in charge of food safety and displayed in the establishment. Surely that makes the market more competitive since anyone can get involved.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2015 02:46
|
|
|
Xandu posted:Surely that makes the market more competitive since anyone can get involved. The number of people who are capable of running a bar that appeals to foreign customers is quite limited though. Pretty much have to be bilingual and in a situation where you can legally own or work in a bar and most of the people here aren't in a situation where they can do it. If you want to run a bar or club that appeals to an international crowd then it doesn't really work out if you only have Japanese people working there. And I am not so concerned about competition. I think having lots of businesses providing the same type of thing in a concentrated area is generally a good thing. People are in that area because it provides them with the most choices for their entertainment but at the same time it is missing something.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2015 03:14
|
|
|
Xandu posted:Surely that makes the market more competitive since anyone can get involved. Japan is a place where there can be 3 bars on a floor, for 20 floors, and every place will be bonkers despite almost nothing making each place unique. I would say go for it, just remember you'll have to be there every day. Nobody is going to care about the day to day running like you do. When I worked in restaurant food supply, the places that failed were the guys who thought they could start up then kick back as the dough came in. The guys that succeeded would personally visit the food supply 3 times per day, 8am, 3pm and 11pm. Pretty much every single day. Its hard work, but the people who fail are incredibly lazy, which skews the stats I think.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2015 15:34
|
|
|
Have you worked out any sort of actual business plan yet? I mean with actual line item costs and expected profit and what not. I'm asking because I'm just curious as to the margins at these kind of places and how much money you think you will be able to make.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2015 06:40
|
|
|
GTGastby posted:Have you worked out any sort of actual business plan yet? I mean with actual line item costs and expected profit and what not. I'm asking because I'm just curious as to the margins at these kind of places and how much money you think you will be able to make. We've put together some stuff in excel to figure out how many drinks we need to sell at various profit margins in order to meet our basic goals. At a 65% profit margin for drinks we probably need to do about 1k drinks sold over a week in order to make a better than average living for this town. I think we should be able to get a big chunk of that done on Saturday nights but I am trying to think of ways to get people in to the place on the week nights. There is a decent number of English teachers and Japanese language students who don't have a lot of responsibility but a lot of places they go are too expensive for their drinking habits so we want to implement a 1,000 yen all you can drink special during the evenings like they have at some bars in Tokyo. We would prefer to focus on cocktails rather than beer and I would like to do simple well drinks for 300 yen and then have premium versions for 500. The cheapest liquors go for about 800 yen per bottle so if we do jigger pours for cocktails we should be able to get 15 per bottle which puts the liquor cost at slightly over 50 yen per cocktail. We will have beer on tap and that costs about 7,000 yen for 19 liters so if we get around 50 beers from a 19 liter keg then we need to make about 20,000 yen from those beers in order to make it worthwhile. For bottled drinks we will try to make about 200-250 per bottle. We also want to offer a bottle keep service but we have to figure out if we have room to store them properly. What I am hoping to accomplish is to have the weekday profits cover the basic expenses for the bar - largely rent and utilities and have the weekend profits pay for salaries. This might require some gimmicks but a good group of regulars combined with people coming in off the street should make it possible. Saturday night could be between 300,000 and 500,000 yen in revenue once we get established. I myself would be very interested in seeing what kind of profit a place like the Hub or 300 yen bar in Ginza turns. Rents are so much cheaper here yet we don't have anything that comes close to that price range. Our version of the Hub is 50% more expensive for everything and there is only one international bar doing an all you can drink special and it is 2k for women and 3k for men.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2015 07:10
|
|
|
Hub is listed on JASDAQ so their financials are public, FYI.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2015 14:14
|
|
|
Ned posted:We would prefer to focus on cocktails rather than beer FYI, with craft beer being such a big thing in the west nowadays, you'd probably be well advised to carry a good selection if your selling point is being a bilingual place that appeals to westerners. I'm guessing you want to focus on cocktails due to higher profit margins, but you can mark up good beer by a considerable amount. I see you're planning to have beer, so I don't know what you mean by "focus on cocktails rather than beer." Are you planning to just have one tap? As far as bottle keep, you can always just get a small beverage fridge and keep that under the bar, like this. You can save space and improve longevity of imported beer by using cans instead of bottles; many craft breweries are switching to cans instead of bottles nowadays for a ton of reasons.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2015 14:46
|
|
|
Actually craft beer is starting to take off in Japan. Some of the bars that sell it, you need to reserve a week in advance (for a bar, seriously Also you should definitely get some native Lang signs and stuff, no reason to eliminate 97% of the customer base off the bat.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2015 19:03
|
|
|
How would a Speak-Easy theme fair in that area? Don't know much about Japan, but the small section of Japanese I've run into are sure are into high-end clothing that's themed around that time 1910s-30's. Raw Selvedge denim and the likes. Some would say they are even crazier than us in the states about it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2015 23:55
|
|
|
Tree squid posted:How would a Speak-Easy theme fair in that area? Which planet's 1910s-1930s are you referring to?
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2015 00:18
|
|
|
Nail Rat posted:FYI, with craft beer being such a big thing in the west nowadays, you'd probably be well advised to carry a good selection if your selling point is being a bilingual place that appeals to westerners. I'm guessing you want to focus on cocktails due to higher profit margins, but you can mark up good beer by a considerable amount. Craft beer is taking off and there are quite a few places in town that are focused on that. On the street I am on there are two places that have it - one is very tiny and seats about 15 people max and they have 5 taps but a single beer is 1000 yen. The sports bar that opened last year has 10 taps and and I think they have been switching away from foreign macro-brews to craft beer but I haven't been there in a few weeks so I am not sure what their selection is currently. I would like to have some craft beer available but most likely it will be in cans or bottles because I don't think we will do enough volume to justify putting in an extra tap and freeing up space for the keg. I feel like there is a lot of competition in that market and it doesn't really appeal to the types of customers I am hoping to get. The population here skews a bit younger than the rest of Japan and their salaries are quite a bit lower compared to other major cities. Tree squid posted:How would a Speak-Easy theme fair in that area? That is the theme I am going for. I would actually like to call the place Speak Easy because it is a concept Japanese people don't really know about yet the name is simple for them to understand. But I don't know how many people are around that are into the clothing styles of that area. Fashion here is pretty casual and a lot of the guys who party in the area we plan to be in still love Hip Hop and Rap. But I think as far as the concept goes it could be quite good with a prohibition-era feel to it. Uncle Jam posted:Actually craft beer is starting to take off in Japan. Some of the bars that sell it, you need to reserve a week in advance (for a bar, seriously We will definitely be marketing to the locals. There are so many more of them! But foreigners in a place as customers usually bring in locals as well.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2015 00:30
|
|
|
Definitely, cocktails are much easier to do in Japan, kegs take up an enormous amount of room most places don't have. Even places I've been to that have multi-taps usually use half size kegs compared to the ones in the west. Plus its hard to get delivery of kegs, even in big cities still. One place I used to go had Guinness, and we'd go on the 16th every month because they only got one delivery a month on the 15th. Plus its no problem to get drunk off hard liquor because you usually aren't driving (I dunno the transit situation in Ned's area but it sounds like its not as well supported) Ned posted:We will definitely be marketing to the locals. There are so many more of them! But foreigners in a place as customers usually bring in locals as well. Yeah, I was mostly referring to those foreigner bars where there is absolutely no Japanese text anywhere and you get the weirder ex-pats hanging out there 24/7. I know what kind of style you're talking about and have had a lot of fun there. Are you thinking of hiring local staff?
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2015 01:38
|
|
|
Uncle Jam posted:Definitely, cocktails are much easier to do in Japan, kegs take up an enormous amount of room most places don't have. Even places I've been to that have multi-taps usually use half size kegs compared to the ones in the west. I am not sure about keg deliveries of Guinness but for normal Japanese beer and liquors there is a place about 5 minutes walk away from the location that does deliveries all night long. Basically you call them up and tell them what you need and the roll up about 15 minutes after that and take away your empty kegs and bottles as well. It is a very good system. The party district in Fukuoka is about 5 minutes walk from the subway station but most people live close enough that they walk or ride their bike to the area. Even taking a taxi home isn't too bad. I live about 20 minutes by taxi from the area and usually it costs slightly more than 2,000 yen to get home. So for most people that are out the last train doesn't really make a difference because they can get home without having to take the train. quote:Yeah, I was mostly referring to those foreigner bars where there is absolutely no Japanese text anywhere and you get the weirder ex-pats hanging out there 24/7. I know what kind of style you're talking about and have had a lot of fun there. Are you thinking of hiring local staff? I am thinking of hiring a local female bartender to make it more appealing to men and then another foreign bartender to work on the weekends. We don't have a ton of weird ex-pats here. Most of them are English teachers or students. We also have a decent influx of Navy guys from Sasebo on weekends as well and I would really like to get them as customers.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2015 02:05
|
|
|
I've never been to Fukuoka, so you'd know a lot better than me. If you get everything up and running I'll definitely make the trip to check it out, I really want to eat my way through that city one day anyway.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2015 02:14
|
|
|
Ned posted:
Awesome man. for some inspiration maybe with design and what-nots here's some links to a couple of my favorite speakeasies in Los Angeles. There's a Design brand that owns a good portion of them, No Vacancy, La Descarga, and Dirty Laundry are one's I enjoy, although the La Descarga place doesn't have any pictures up on their site. there probably the most hardcore of speakeasies with the secretiveness of it. They each have a special way of entering in different levels of design, No Vacancy has you walk into a room that looks like someone's apartment in 1920 where a girl is sitting on the bed. She explains the rules and then the bed slides over to the other side of the room to reveal stairs that you walk down and then viola. http://novacancyla.com/ La Descarga Has a tiny indication of it's existence outside, a room you walk up stairs to which is the same No vacancy except you walk through a Closet to reveal stairs, and a small square space with a balcony stage that runs around the whole top for Cuban music and Burlesque dancing. http://ladescargala.com/ Dirty Laundry just has a guy sitting outside by some stairs and you have to chat with him to give him the idea that your wanting to go to the bar, It's a lot more relaxed then most. http://dirtylaundrybarla.com/ http://houstonhospitalityla.com/ One of my absolute favorites, and probably more closer to your places space, is Sassafras. http://sassafrasla.com/news/, they got a balcony stage where they got different bands come play that era style music, and their thing is a lot of absinthe cocktails, there design is just really well laid out. Might have to take a trip over here to do some "research" in person. Tree squid fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Apr 22, 2015 |
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2015 20:08
|
|
|
Lol you can run a bar in Japan on 3.5k a month? wtf?
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2015 08:39
|
|
|
You know what this building with two bars need? Another bar!
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2015 04:39
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:You know what this building with two bars need? Another bar! That part, at least, is not at all unusual in Japan - most of them are incredibly tiny and fill up fast, so people will just fall over into another one. One of the buildings near my hotel had nine bars in it the last time I was there, and they were all always full.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2015 04:56
|
|
|
But then why did the previous bar fail? If this building is so overwhelmed by thirsty customers, would having a female bartender really make a difference?
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2015 12:13
|
|
|
The OP already made a case for why the previous bar failed and why his concept may fare better.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2015 13:16
|
|
|
Bisty Q. posted:That part, at least, is not at all unusual in Japan - most of them are incredibly tiny and fill up fast, so people will just fall over into another one. One of the buildings near my hotel had nine bars in it the last time I was there, and they were all always full. Also nobodies invites people to their house for a drink in Japan because houses are small, parking there is limited, and public transport to the 'burbs takes forever. It's easier for everyone just to meetup in a bar or similar.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2015 14:13
|
|
|
I'm going to check out the location with my wife on Thursday to get her opinion. I can take a bunch of pictures if people are interested but right now I am leaning towards no.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2015 15:30
|
|
|
Ned posted:I'm going to check out the location with my wife on Thursday to get her opinion. I can take a bunch of pictures if people are interested but right now I am leaning towards no. I am very interested but I understand if you want to keep things a little private. I'm excited for you.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2015 16:00
|
|
|
DNova posted:I am very interested but I understand if you want to keep things a little private. I'm excited for you. I am more than happy to share pictures but just leaning towards not going forward with this particular location right now. Hopefully I can get some opinions after posting pictures.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2015 16:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 08:06 |
|
|
Ned posted:I have been talking with some friends for quite a while about the idea of opening a bar and last month I noticed the bar that was operating above the bar we usually go to has been vacated and is now available to rent. It is on the 4th floor of a 5 story building and there are bars on both the second and third floors. The bar on the second floor is more of a bar/restaurant but has a pretty solid crowd most nights of the week. The third floor is one of the most popular places on Saturday nights to the point that there are usually many people just hanging out on the stairs because inside is usually quite crowded and noisy. The fourth floor used to operate as a bar geared towards rugby fans but never did a good job of building their audience or trying to capture the overflow from the third floor bar and we have decided it looks like the best option for us to open a bar in the part of town that is considered the party district. Have you or any of your partners worked in or managed a bar or other business in Japan? I ask because there may be a bunch of unexpected expenses you aren't accounting for. My family owns two restaurants in the U.S., and besides rent and labor and food/alcohol, you've got accounting expense, insurance, repairs, cable television, credit card fees, utilities (gas, electric, trash removal), advertising, and probably more. Repairs are a regular thing. The ice machine breaks down and costs $300 to repair, the health department comes in and makes you repair some broken tile in the kitchen which costs $350. The power goes out and you lose your saturday night sales and there goes $2000.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2015 20:38
|
|