Cost of booze for you bar in 2010 ?

[303jewels]

Sorry for the 'how long is a piece of string' type question but, we'd like to add a bar to our camp in 2011.
We probably cant afford to be as generous as we'd like to, though - we'll have a go!
We'll run 8 hours a day, 4pm - midnight, be playing music and hopefully on a 'spoke' @ B or C ....so hopefully a busy, but small enough to be intimate, cool little bar.
Got any ballpark figures ?

Regards from England
& cheers for '09 and '10.

[Lassen Forge]

Depends how big the bar, what kind of booze, etc.
That will determine whether you spend $1000 or $20000 on your booze budget.

I run a small small SMALL bar and prolly was around $2000, give or take, plus beer donations from our campers. Biger bars can easily do 5 digits, depending on what you're serving.

[Dustdevil]

We spent around $3500 for Tequila and margarita mix this year. We only serve frozen margaritas. Because of the colder weather we served fewer drinks than previous years. We are open from whenever we turn the machine on in the morning until Black Rock Diner runs out of grilled cheese sandwiches to trade for margaritas. That usually happens pretty late. We were closed all day Friday to set up the Megatropolis burn. We shop around for the best prices. Costco for the mix and Ben's Liquors in Winnemucca has the best price on Tequila, $11.00 for a 1.75L bottle. Our bar is not obvious from the street, but after 5 years, people seem to find us anyway. We do ask for ID if the person appears young. I don't think we have ever had an under cover approach the bar, but I guess there is no way of knowing for certain.

[thisisthatwhichis]

The Booby Bar probably spent around $2000-$2500 for the 8 days. But we split the cost between our 30+ campers, and also were gifted contributions............

I'd say that's a good target number...............

[ConnieH]

We require all our campmates to bring booze & mixers for the bar. Personally, my boyfriend and I spent $150 on liquor (mostly cheap vodka). I know other campmates probably spent close to the same, some more, some less, some not at all...it's an honor system. Our camp is pretty big, about 75 people, so we were pretty well stocked. When we ran low on liquor, our Megaphone Mistress made the rounds through camp asking for donations. The bar was always open if a campmate was willing to tend bar and we had booze - we served pretty much 24 hours a day all week with the exception of Friday night when most of camp was gone, and a couple wee morning hours when some of us need to sleep. Judging by the large bags of smashed plastic bottles we had to haul out, I'd guess we went through at LEAST 100+ bottles of booze (1/2 Gallons of vodka were $10.99 each in Winnemucca).

Our drinks aren't anything special (oftentimes all we had was vodka and powdered drink mix) but everyone got ice, everyone got a good pour, and everyone got a drink (unless they forgot a cup )...I think it's cool that some bars do special drinks and are only open at certain times, but we aren't that organized and enjoy promoting the neighborhood bar feel - a place you can come to at any hour and hang out - some folks stayed all day (and/or night) and we made many many many new friends

[303jewels]

Thanks
x

[gaminwench]

Bring a good ratio of mixers to alcohol.. 3 bottles of mixer for each bottle of alcohol... by the end of the week, it's mixers we lack...

[illy dilly]

Bring a good ratio of mixers to alcohol.. 3 bottles of mixer for each bottle of alcohol... by the end of the week, it's mixers we lack...

If that happens next year, come find me.
I was told my first year that a pound of sugar and a handful of kool-aid packets could very likely save your burn. We did have to tap into the koolaid my first year (09) but we didn't need to this year.

[goathead]

hmmmm appx 70, 5 gallon kegs of home brew.....

if we thought about it we probably wouldn't do it.

[ConnieH]

Bring a good ratio of mixers to alcohol.. 3 bottles of mixer for each bottle of alcohol... by the end of the week, it's mixers we lack...

If that happens next year, come find me.
I was told my first year that a pound of sugar and a handful of kool-aid packets could very likely save your burn. We did have to tap into the koolaid my first year (09) but we didn't need to this year.

A big tub of instant Strawberry Lemonade saved us mid-week

[Eric]

Bring a good ratio of mixers to alcohol.. 3 bottles of mixer for each bottle of alcohol... by the end of the week, it's mixers we lack...

People came by towards the end of the week asking if we'd like booze or mixer. I always took mixer.

And, thank you whoever gifted us the frozen pink lemonade concentrate. That was turned into the best Saturday morning refresher ever. I just wish I could remember what Brandi put into it, she just kept tasting & adding until it was heaven.

[The Governor]

For the Dogfish Artcar/bar and all the people that come visit us after 12 years, we spend 4,000 dollars and mixers another 150. We have found the best and cheapest way is to get the powdered lemonade and fruit punch in liguid concentrate and mix them in the 5 gallon water containers that have little spout. We had 4 5 gallon containers on the Dogfish every night and would almost last the whole night. We also serve Jose Cuervo Margaritas Authentic it has the Alc and mixer already mixed in bottle. Its good and comes in Strawberry too.

[HandJamMasterC]

We served about $ 1500.00 - $ 1800.00 worth of champagne and wine at Camp D.O.A. But we are a small bar - 12 seats and room for 25 people at a time. What we served was good stuff though !