The furnishings for cocktail bar, much like a person’s attire, convey a great deal about the personality of the venue and its owner. There is no single way to furnish a cocktail bar; on the contrary, nothing is more misguided than uniformity or a lack of originality. A cocktail bar must have its own soul.
How to Choose the Furnishings for a Cocktail Bar: Tips for Finding the Winning Idea
The cocktail bar, a star of nightlife and social scenes, is a gathering place where people socialize and enjoy excellent drinks crafted with skill, originality, and creativity. Recently, the trend of pairing cocktails with specific food options, particularly gourmet offerings, has taken off.
New cocktail bars are emerging with enticing, increasingly varied, and original offerings, meeting the desires of a clientele eager to explore new flavors and combinations. To craft excellent alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks that cater to diverse preferences, it is essential to know quality products, carefully select spirits, liqueurs, aromas, and fruits, skillfully balance ingredients, and garnish the cocktail glass in a decorative way—all executed with skill, originality, and creativity.
Another crucial aspect is giving the venue a soul by choosing a unique style that reflects your personality. In short, you need to make the bar a welcoming, pleasant, and functional place from every perspective.
Choose Your Favorite Style for Your Cocktail Bar’s Furnishings
Incorporating décor elements and items that reflect your personality and passions can be a starting point for giving your business a unique touch.
If you love cinema and music, specific historical periods (like the Middle Ages or the Belle Époque), or exotic and Eastern cultures, you can create a themed cocktail bar or an original mix that references multiple themes, always paying attention to aesthetics. Remember, your venue must appeal to you but also to the public.
Here are some of the most popular cocktail bar furnishing styles of the moment, ready to be customized to your liking:
Other trending styles include vintage, shabby chic, and ethnic furnishings.
Workstation: The Professional Cocktail Preparation Area
Furnishing a cocktail bar professionally requires equal attention to aesthetics and functionality. The work area is therefore critical to a bar’s success.
This area is accessible only to staff preparing the drinks, so it must be designed for practicality and functionality, allowing staff to work swiftly and efficiently.
The workstation, or the professional cocktail preparation station, is structured to keep everything the bartender needs within reach and can be custom-built to fit specific needs. Generally, the cocktail counter includes:
- Bottle racks
- Basins for ingredient storage
- Mixer and soda gun
- Compartment for glassware stock
- Insulated ice compartment
It can be built into the main counter or used as a standalone piece for temporary events (parties, events, catering).
Counter and Equipped Wall
In any type of bar, the counter is essential—it’s where the cocktails are visually savored before being tasted. Watching the entire preparation process and the care with which drinks are made, and smelling the fresh scents of herbs and spices are all immersive and exhilarating experiences.
Behind the counter, an equipped wall is created for displaying bottles of spirits, liqueurs, and all the bases for preparing drinks. This setup ensures they are immediately visible to customers while also being easily accessible to the staff. Another essential element is the station for glassware, which must always be within reach in a cocktail bar.
The Public Area: How to Furnish the Guest Room
This choice must also be made beforehand. Is your venue suited for long stays or quicker visits? In both cases, you need to include resting points and seating, which should never be lacking. Here’s what to consider:
If space allows, it’s preferable to include comfortable seating, such as creating a private area with small sofas and low tables, separated from the main dining space.
However, if the venue’s capacity is limited, don’t worry. There are many successful small cocktail bars that have focused solely on product quality, preparation skill, and customer attention.
The important thing is to provide excellent service, even in a very small space.
Tables and high stools, strategically placed, can make customers feel at ease and are an ideal solution for small venues.
If you’re looking for furnishing solutions for your cocktail bar, trust the team at Cook-In, a company with over 30 years of experience in designing and creating custom furnishings for bars and restaurants of all kinds. Contact us for a free consultation.
