Who wants to invest in a bar?

FatTony · Mar 4, 2007

I'm pretty nauseous from hearing this. They had their St. Patrick's day parade in Hoboken, NJ yesterday. (which is complete insanity from all the kids out drinking.) A guy who owns two decent sized bars in town did a total of $150,000 for both places yesterday.

hno:

G.MONEY · Mar 4, 2007

Fat Tony said:
I'm pretty nauseous from hearing this. They had their St. Patrick's day parade in Hoboken, NJ yesterday. (which is complete insanity from all the kids out drinking.) A guy who owns two decent sized bars in town did a total of $150,000 for both places yesterday. hno:

Probably did twice that much....Its a cash Buisness as you know, and Bars are good for taking much of the top............G.

FatTony · Mar 4, 2007

G. MONEY said:
Probably did twice that much....Its a cash Buisness as you know, and Bars are good for taking much of the top............G.

I'm sure. They had either a $10 cover or $20 to get in the places.

Anti-liberal · Mar 4, 2007

There's more than what meets the eye in the bar business. It's probably one of the toughest businesses to succeed at. The ones who do succeed are PROFESSIONALS who have talent for that biz. Amatuers will lose their asses, just like any other business.

VaultedTreehouse · Mar 4, 2007

Fat Tony said:
I'm sure. They had either a $10 cover or $20 to get in the places.

Decent ass, lower left.

Rude · Mar 4, 2007

Anti-liberal said:
There's more than what meets the eye in the bar business. It's probably one of the toughest businesses to succeed at.

So true. You can be the "IT" place this year, and next year the kids are going to some new place. What then ?

Unless you can build a solid customer base, your chances of cashing in, are slim to none.

Location, Location, Location ... and What you offer that no other Pub does are what separates those who are in business 2-3 years or 10+

:toast:

FatTony · Mar 4, 2007

Anti-liberal said:
There's more than what meets the eye in the bar business. It's probably one of the toughest businesses to succeed at. The ones who do succeed are PROFESSIONALS who have talent for that biz. Amatuers will lose their asses, just like any other business.

I use to own a bar 15 years ago. I know. My brother and I had a college bar and lost our lease. We use to make great money there.

Anti-liberal · Mar 4, 2007

LOL...then I'm preaching to the choir. Everyone tries to steal...from the bartenders right down to the condom vending machine salesman. I'll take being a customer sitting down and ordering a Samuel Adams over being the owner any day of the week. The thing that sucks when a business starts going down hill is the point you get to where your employees and making more than you and you are working for free or less.

xpanda · Mar 4, 2007

I used to co-own a bar. You couldn't pay me enough to do it again.

Anti-liberal · Mar 4, 2007

xpanda said:
I used to co-own a bar. You couldn't pay me enough to do it again.

Isn't that the truth. Owning rental property is so much easier and such little risk. As I was posting, my tenants came over with the rent check. What's better than that? No employees and dealing with all of their problems, no customers' asses to kiss, no dealing with constant cut-throat competition, etc.

Rude · Mar 4, 2007

Anti-liberal said:
Isn't that the truth. Owning rental property is so much easier and such little risk. As I was posting, my tenants came over with the rent check. What's better than that? No employees and dealing with all of their problems, no customers' asses to kiss, etc.

Aside from the 5-7 good weekends you have each year (IE. St Pats, Long Weekends, Kids home from sschool etc..) the rest of the year is a crapshoot.

FatTony · Mar 4, 2007

It all depends on where you operate. Hoboken is great because even if you're business fails, you recoup your money on the sale. Nobody even looks at the books in this town when they go to purchase a business. It's crazy, but it's not even a factor. The only way you can open up down there is if you buy an existing business. There aren't new liquor licenses issued.

I looked at a place that was going for $200,000 6 years ago. It had a horrible lease. Someone bought it and failed with it. They sold it for $500,000 last year. It's the same story for every place.

BASEHEAD · Mar 4, 2007

A friend of mine who owns the Varsity Club in my hometown says there a number of constants to buliding a good business in this field.

Obviously LOCATION is #1 then......

Big, numerous TVs

Decent entertainment area (for bands,DJs and dancing etc)

And the secret ingredient (at least for a sports bar)...fine looking ladies pouring the drinks.

Hes got a kickass kitchen as well but that was all gravy after he was already a fixture in the city.

Anti-liberal · Mar 4, 2007

Fat Tony said:
I looked at a place that was going for $200,000 6 years ago. It had a horrible lease. Someone bought it and failed with it. They sold it for $500,000 last year. It's the same story for every place.

If there is a bad lease attached to a business, it becomes virtually worthless, except for the value of the used equipment, furniture and stock. Some people might get lucky and get miraculously bailed out, but it's increasingly difficult to find idiots and large sums of money that have found each other.

FatTony · Mar 4, 2007

Anti-liberal said:
If there is a bad lease attached to a business, it becomes virtually worthless, except for the value of the used equipment, furniture and stock. Some people might get lucky and get miraculously bailed out, but it's increasingly difficult to find idiots and large sums of money that have found each other.

This town is the exception. There's about 60 bars in town and no one sells!!! It's crazy. I was close to closing a deal on a place about three months ago, the guys who were backing me sat on the fence forever because of the price and another guy came in and overpaid by $150,000 and got it. Realtors laugh when you ask them if there's anything for sale in town.

Eli Manning lives there. So does Shockey. A-Rod just bought a place on the water. The town is a mile square and major league money. This is the only place I would consider opening up.

joeyfitzclick · Mar 4, 2007

If you ever find yourself in Newport, RI.............

www.5eri.com

slick69 · Mar 4, 2007

I believe if you have a descent location and are creative you can do very well. Throw in some kind of theme every now and then (Mardi Gras, 80's, whatever) also try to get them in there on Saturday afternoons with some sort of promotion. If you can get hot girls to get loose, everything else will fall into place.

Anti-liberal · Mar 4, 2007

Fat Tony said:
This town is the exception. There's about 60 bars in town and no one sells!!! It's crazy. I was close to closing a deal on a place about three months ago, the guys who were backing me sat on the fence forever because of the price and another guy came in and overpaid by $150,000 and got it. Realtors laugh when you ask them if there's anything for sale in town.

Eli Manning lives there. So does Shockey. A-Rod just bought a place on the water. The town is a mile square and major league money. This is the only place I would consider opening up.

That sounds nice, but I sure as hell wouldn't pay an extra 100 or 150 dimes for a place because a couple of sports figures live around there. You can still only get $1 or $2 for a beer.

Anti-liberal · Mar 4, 2007

A lot of middle class bourgeous money is willing to pay too high of a premium for a chance to rub elbows with celebrities once-in-a-while. My masseuse who pays $600 a month to work out of my gym almost got suckered into a $2200 a month lease for a 10 by 10 foot room just because Grant Hill had an office on the same floor. She was excited about it until I explained to her she'd be close to working for free. Now, the same guys can't get $1000 a month for the same room. Tiger Woods works out in my gym with his wife now and then. It's still only $40 a month, same as anywhere else.

Anyways, it sounds like there's a high premium on the liquor license in that Hoboken location. That seems to be the intangible that is commanding such high prices. You have to meet a huge ante just to get into the game, and nothing's guaranteed after that. I think the owner of the liquor license has the best of anyone's end in that business by far.

SHACK · Mar 4, 2007

New people in office could also mean more liquor licenses issued in the future, you never know, risk in just about everything.

Who wants to invest in a bar?

"I like ketchup. It's like tomato wine."

New member

"I like ketchup. It's like tomato wine."

Rx. Veteran

New member

New member

"I like ketchup. It's like tomato wine."

Rx. Veteran

hangin' about

Rx. Veteran

New member

"I like ketchup. It's like tomato wine."

Living...vicariously through myself.

Rx. Veteran

"I like ketchup. It's like tomato wine."

" Thanks for tip Bricktop "

New member

Rx. Veteran

Rx. Veteran

New member

Forum statistics

Share this page