The Bar Opening SOP
The bar ready 30 minutes before the doors open: room, menus, fridges, glass, ice and garnish checked, a signature drink tasted and the team briefed on the night.
- Who
- The opening bartender, checked by the bar manager
- When
- Every day, from 30 minutes before the doors open until the first guest
- You need
- The closing handover, menus, a probe thermometer, fresh ice, today’s garnish
- Time to train
- 45 minutes, with one supervised opening
What this SOP achieves
When the doors open, everything a guest will see, touch or taste at the bar has been checked that day: the room, the menu, the glass, the ice, the garnish and the first drink. The first guest is served from a bar that is ready, and the team starts the night knowing what to recommend.
Measured by
- Opening starts 30 minutes before the doors, every day
- Closing handover read before any other task
- Room at 21–23 °C and music under 65 dB at the nearest table
- Every menu handled; texts and prices reread after any change
- Bottle fridges at 2–5 °C, read and logged at opening
- No glass served with a chip, a crack or a lip mark
- Citrus cut within the hour before the doors open
- Signature drink made to spec and tasted before opening
- Every bartender knows tonight’s two recommendations
- Room temperature and music level logged every hour of service
The procedure
27 steps in 7 phases, in the order they happen.
Phase 1 Read the night ahead
- 01
Start 30 minutes before the doors open. Read the closing handover first: stock that ran low, anything broken, guests expected back and incidents in the log.
- 02
Read the day’s notes: VIPs and returning guests who use the bar, private events, table reservations, and any outlet closed tonight that will send its guests to you.
- 03
Count spirits, mixers, beer and the alcohol-free range against the par sheet, and order what is short before service, so nothing runs out at the busiest hour.
Phase 2 Set the room
- 04
Set the room at 21–23 °C and open or close the air so the room smells of nothing. Read the thermometer and write the figure in the opening log.
- 05
Set the music for an empty room at the level you want for a full one, then sit at the table nearest a speaker: under 65 dB on the meter, and two people talk without raising their voices.
- 06
Walk every table and stool: tables spaced so a guest passes between chairs without touching a back, stools aligned, no crumbs on the rail, the bar top dry with no rings.
- 07
Face the back bar: labels forward, bottle shoulders dusted, every pourer clean, and cloths and tools kept where the guest cannot see them.
Phase 3 Check the menus
- 08
Pick up every menu in the room as a guest would. Replace any that is sticky, stained, creased or curled at a corner before service, never next month.
- 09
Read the menu for drinks you no longer make or cannot make tonight. Take them off, or tell the team which ones are out and what to offer instead.
- 10
After every menu change, read the new print twice before it reaches a guest: every name, every price against the POS, the spelling, and the allergen and strength notes.
- 11
Check that the food menu at each station matches what the kitchen will cook tonight, with the time the bar kitchen closes written on the briefing sheet.
Phase 4 Fridges, glass and ice
- 12
Read every fridge with the probe and log the figure and the time: bottle fridges at 2–5 °C, the glass freezer at −18 °C or colder. Wine fridges follow The Temperature and Glass SOP.
- 13
Report any fridge out of range before opening and move its stock to one that works. Beer, soft drinks and mixers are never served warm because a fridge failed overnight.
- 14
Chill the glasses each spec calls for (coupes, Martini and Nick & Nora), and hold every glass to the light: no chips, no cracks, no lip mark the machine left and the cloth missed.
- 15
Empty the ice well and refill it with fresh ice, and smell it: ice takes on the smell of whatever sits beside it. Have each format ready: block for stirred drinks on the rocks, cubes for shaking and long drinks, crushed for juleps and swizzles.
Phase 5 Garnish and the station
- 16
Cut citrus within the hour before the doors open, enough for the first two hours. A twist cut yesterday has no oil left, and the oil is what the guest smells.
- 17
Stand herbs stem-down in cold water, never loose on the board, and keep the garnish tray covered and cold until the first order.
- 18
Check every syrup, cordial and juice for its date label. Anything undated or past its date goes in the bin; nobody tastes it to decide.
- 19
Lay out jiggers, strainers, tins and bar spoons washed and dry, in the same place on every shift, with the separate set kept for alcohol-free drinks. See The Low and No SOP.
Phase 6 Taste and brief
- 20
Make one signature drink to the written spec and taste it. If it has drifted (a new bottling, sharper lemons), adjust it and tell the head bartender before the spec is changed.
- 21
Brief everyone on shift in five minutes: tonight’s two recommendations, drinks that are out, VIPs and returning guests, reservations, and who owns the door each hour.
“Tonight: the Bergamot Spritz and the Garden Collins. No Ramos Fizz, we’re out of cream. Marco has the door until nine.”
- 22
Ask each bartender to describe tonight’s two recommendations in one sentence, without the menu. Anyone who cannot tastes them before the doors open.
Phase 7 Open the doors
- 23
Check yourself and the team against The Presence SOP before the first guest: uniform, name badge, hands, and tonight’s VIPs in mind.
- 24
Walk in once through the guest entrance and look at the bar from the door. Fix the first thing that catches your eye before you unlock.
- 25
Run the pre-service check on the desk card with the opening bartender, and fix anything not ready before the doors open.
- 26
Unlock at the published time and take your place facing the room. From the first guest, The Bar Welcome SOP applies.
“Good evening, welcome. Please take any seat you like.”
- 27
Read the room temperature and the music level every hour of service and log them. Keeping the counter and tables in order during service follows The Bar Floor SOP.
What to record
The room
- Room temperature at opening
- Music level at the nearest table
- Hourly readings during service
Fridges and freezer
- Each fridge: reading and time
- Glass freezer reading
- Fridge out of range, and what was done
Menus
- Menus replaced today
- Drinks out tonight, and alternatives
- Last menu change: date, checked by
Stock
- Shortfalls against par, and orders placed
- Syrups and cordials thrown away
- Breakages from the handover
Taste and brief
- Signature drink tasted, and by whom
- Change made to the spec
- Tonight’s two recommendations
- Door owner for each hour
Sign-off
- Checklist signed, with the time
- Doors opened at
- Anything left for the bar manager
What could happen
- A fridge reads above 5 °C
- Move the stock to a working fridge, log the reading and the time, and call engineering before the doors open. Chill bottles in ice and water if no fridge is free.
- The signature drink tastes off
- Find the cause before opening: a new bottle, the citrus, the dilution. Correct it, taste it again, tell everyone on shift and record the change for the head bartender.
- Citrus arrives late or poor
- Take the affected drinks off tonight’s recommendations, adjust the sour mix by tasting, and note the delivery for the bar manager to raise with the supplier.
- A private event in the bar tonight
- Read the event order: start time, numbers, drinks package, alcohol-free choices and allergies. Set the event area first, then the rest of the bar.
- Fewer staff than the rota
- Call the bar manager before opening. Agree which tables open first, who owns the door and which drinks come off the menu if the bar cannot make them in time.
- Doors due, checks unfinished
- Open on time. Do menus, glass and garnish first, since guests meet them at once, then finish the rest and log what was done late.
Common mistakes
- Assuming the menu is fine because it was printed well a year ago. Guests notice the stain and the drink you stopped making in spring.
- Polishing glasses for looks and forgetting the freezer. The drink is warm by the third sip, and the guest blames the recipe.
- Treating ice as equipment. Old ice tastes of the fridge, and it goes into almost every drink you make tonight.
- Prepping garnish for the week. The twist keeps its shape and loses the oil that gave the drink its smell.
- Trusting the recipe card. The card has not changed, but the vermouth batch, the lemons and the bartender have.
- Setting the music in an empty room. By ten o’clock it is too loud for a full one, and guests lean in to hear each other.
Check your team
After training (45 minutes, with one supervised opening), each person answers these without the sheet.
- How long before the doors open does the opening start, and what do you read first?
- What should the bottle fridges and the glass freezer read?
- What do you check in a new menu before it reaches a guest?
- Which ice formats do you prepare, and what is each one for?
- Why is citrus cut within the hour and not the day before?
- What happens when the signature drink tastes different from the spec?
- What is read and logged every hour once the bar is open?
The Pre-Service Check
Ninety seconds, before the first guest. Print it, laminate it, tick it.
- Menus clean, current, no discontinued drinks
- Back bar faced, labels forward, no dust on shoulders
- Glassware chilled and polished under light
- Ice fresh, clear, no odour, correct format ready
- Citrus cut within the hour
- Herbs in water, not on the board
- Syrups dated and in date
- Jiggers, strainers, tins clean and to hand
- Bar top dry, no rings, cloth out of sight
- Signature drink made and tasted to spec
- Garnish tray covered and cold
- Stools aligned, no crumbs on the rail
- Music under 65 dB at the table nearest a speaker
- Everyone on shift knows tonight’s two recommendations
Brief two lines a day at the pre-service meeting for a week. The opening bartender runs the check before every service, and the bar manager walks it with them once a week.
The SOP Library.
No. 77 · Bar
The Bar Welcome SOP
Every guest seen within a minute, seated with the drinks and food menus within two and asked for an order within three, with a house cocktail and a brand choice offered.
No. 78 · Bar
The Drink Delivery SOP
The first drink at the guest within 4 minutes at the counter and 5 at a table, bottles poured in front of them, the next round offered within a minute of an empty glass.