If you’re planning to either start or purchase a bar as your new business, the location is one of the most important considerations that you need to take into account. Every detail about your bar will be decided upon based on your bar’s location, and it should be based on the demographics of your customers and around the schedule that most of them eat and drink. If you’re considering a bar amidst downtown office buildings, then that means you’re targeting lunch and happy hour above all else.
One of the big benefits of choosing an office building as your location is that there’s a built in market for you product. Hundreds, or even thousands, of employees will be working your building, plus there are likely other office buildings nearby that can be a source of repeat customers. However, capturing this demographic in the market can only be accomplished if your know how to target your business properly, so we’ve put together a list of things to consider to make sure you get on the right track.
Bar Theme
One of the most important parts to having your downtown office building bar generate profits is the bar theme. Since you’re going to be targeting the lunch and happy hour crowd from the local office buildings, having a bar theme that won’t get old and boring to your customers in crucial. Try to avoid locking yourself into one specific food genre such as Italian or Asian and instead try to focus on good quality American food like burgers, sandwiches, steak, and seafood. Having some great lunch options can drive a lot of repeat business, and this is literally the only way for a bar to succeed at this type of location.
Lunch
Lunch may seem like a pretty narrow window of time to make the majority of your profits in a given day, but you can actually move a lot of plates and drinks very quickly if you design your menu appropriately. The key for dealing with commercial lunch customers is that they have a very limited amount of time available for lunch. Most office workers will have a maximum of one hour for their lunch period, and that includes getting all the way down to your bar and restaurant and back to their office. This means that you need to get your customers in and out in less than 30 minutes for your bar and grill to be considered a viable option for lunch on a regular basis. Focus on fast menu items to give your kitchen staff the edge while providing top quality food for a fair price.
Happy Hour
Besides lunch hour, your only real source of revenues will be the happy crowd that comes in after work and the occasional business meeting over dinner and drinks. This means that your 4:00pm to 8:00pm menu needs to be focused on delicious finger foods like appetizers and sandwiches in order to bring in the largest crowd possible. You also need to have a great drink special so people will remember to come in for a fast one after their work day. By creating delicious signature drinks that you can’t find anywhere else and offering them at a great price, you can give the office building employees something to look forward to after a long day at work, particularly on Friday.
