When we first started The Bedford Bar, there were not many resources around. We pretty much had to learn thing the hard way- through mistakes and experience! Plenty of people see mobile bars around, they look great, they look easy and they absolutely look like they could be knocked up in a weekend by a few friends and someone who’s a bit handy. Now I’m not saying that’s not likely, but what I am saying is that as experienced mobile bar builders, who have built out multiple rigs from literally the ground up, trust me when I say there are a few things we’ve learnt.
So I can speak from a lot of experience when I say that there are plenty of mistakes that first time mobile bar owner builders make (and learn from!) Here are my top 5. Take them as you will and maybe, just maybe you might learn something too!
Not leaving enough empty space. When you’re building your rig, you’re looking to squeeze in all your equipment- fridges, packing boxes, barware, eskies (and SO much more!) Most rigs also require service space (ours do not though- win!) but if you’re building a caravan you’ll need to leave some space to stand too. Just hear me when I say, leave some empty space, and don’t fill every gap with cupboards- you’ll thank me later.
You’ll need more ice than you think you need- and that means more eskies so see point 2 again… No one likes warm drinks.
Quick pack down and set up is going to save you $$$. In our first vehicle we packed our service tables right at the back- safely secured so they didn’t get damaged. BUT that meant that on arrival at every event we had to unpack everything from the vehicle before we could start the set up. I won’t even go into details about pack down, what a mess! We’ve learnt the hard way now though, and we can pack up at the end of the night and be out of there in 30 minutes or less.
Not thinking about the glass washing. Hey, I bet you’d love to spend your Sundays, the day after a big day at an event cleaning 250+ glasses right? Nope, no one wants to do that. We have a glass washer, it’s controversial in the mobile bar industry but I am going to tell you, I love that glass washer and ain’t no one gonna change my mind on that. I’m not saying you have to have a glass washer, but maybe just factor in the washing of hundreds of glasses in advance, with a dedicated glassy, priced accordingly or even just avoiding glassware all together.
Make sure you build your rig with enough space for at least 3 bartenders to work simultaneously otherwise you will either be very squashed, have enormous queues for drinks during the high traffic times of the evening or just have to turn down the large events (oh and that’s where the $$$ is!). Our big bar has room for more that 6 bartenders to work at once, we know it’s a lot but we’re a bit extra like that.
So go forth and build your mobile bar! Or are you now feeling a little uneasy? No drama, we build bars too ;)
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