The Bar Floor Standard

Once the bar is open, as The Bar Opening Standard sets out, photograph one laid table of each type and one counter place. Keep the photos at the station: every reset tonight must match them.

The head bartender gives each person a zone for the shift: a length of counter, a group of tables, the service station. Write the zones on the floor log, so every seat has an owner.

Stock a reset kit at every station: separate cloths for the counter and the tables, sanitiser spray, a dry tray, fresh coasters and napkins, spare menus, candles and a lighter, a brush and pan.

Check yourself against The Presence Standard before the first guest: uniform, name badge, hands, and tonight’s VIPs and regulars in mind.

Each time you lift or replace a glass in front of a guest, wipe the ring with the counter cloth and dry the spot. A wet coaster is replaced with a fresh one at once.

Clear an empty glass from the counter within one minute, when you offer the next drink as The Drink Delivery Standard sets out. It goes straight to the washer, never lined up on the counter top.

“May I take this for you, Mrs Laurent? Another one, or something different?”

Keep the guest side of the counter for the guest: their glass, coaster, snacks and menu. Bar tools, open bottles, receipts and your phone never rest on it.

Wipe a spill on the counter at once, first with a wet cloth and then a dry one, and offer the guest a fresh napkin. If the spill reached the guest, offer a towel and tell the head bartender.

Return every bottle to its place on the back bar after each pour, label facing the room. Cut fruit, used jiggers and open cans never stay on the back bar.

Every 15 minutes, wipe your station, empty the drip trays, change any bar mat that is wet, rinse the tools and cover the garnishes. Write the time on the floor log.

Keep dirty glasses out of the guest’s sight: in the washer rack below the counter, never stacked on top. Take full racks to the back as soon as they are full.

Empty the bins before they are full. Put empty bottles in the bin by hand, never dropped from a height: every guest at the counter hears it.

Keep the service station clear for the servers: trays stacked dry, the ticket printer free, nothing waiting there for more than one minute.

On every pass, look at each occupied table in your zone: empty glasses, used napkins, wrappers, wet rings, a candle out. Fix what you see on that pass, with a tray.

Ask before you take any glass that still has a drink in it. Take empties as you offer the next round, never in the middle of a guest’s sentence.

“Are you still enjoying this one, Mr Novak?”

Replace a wet coaster or a used napkin with a fresh one and wipe the ring underneath. Snack bowls are replaced as The Bar Snack Standard sets out.

Relight or replace a candle that has gone out, and put menus back in their holder when the guests have ordered, so the table looks as it did when they sat down.

When a guest leaves the counter, clear the place within 3 minutes: glasses, coaster, bowls, napkins. Wipe and dry the counter and wipe the stool, its seat and its footrest.

When a table is left, clear it within 5 minutes, everything on one tray in at most two trips. Never carry glasses by the rim or stack them inside each other.

Wipe the table top with sanitiser, then dry it. Wipe the seats and chair arms, and check the floor and the cushions for crumbs and anything left behind (see The Lost Property Standard).

Reset the table within 5 minutes of clearing, to match the set-up photo: candle, coasters, napkins and menu in the same places as on every other table. Straighten the chairs.

Look at the reset table from the entrance. If it does not look like its neighbours, fix it now, then tell the colleague on the door that it is ready.

Every 30 minutes the shift leader walks the whole bar: counter, tables, stools, cushions, floor, lights and candles. Fix what can be fixed at once, and sign the time on the floor log.

A stain on a seat, a table that wobbles or a light that is out is fixed this shift or reported to engineering before the shift ends, with the table number.

On busy nights, when guests are waiting for seats, turning a seat comes before any back-bar task that can wait. The shift leader moves people between zones to keep the times.

After a breakage, keep guests away, sweep with the brush and pan, never your hands, and wipe with a damp cloth. If glass fell near the ice well, empty it, clean it and refill it with fresh ice.