“We Should Open a Bar” Bar

Here’s a terrible idea.

Every once in a while on one of my favorite shows, How I Met Your Mother, the gang blurts out in unison, “We should open a bar!” The running joke is that every fretful 20-something has a moment when they want to do something cool for once, and naturally the answer to that inclination is to open a bar.

There’s even an episode where they get to take over their bar for a night. It does not go well.

My idea is a bar that switches management once a week. So if you’ve always had that dream of running a bar, you get to do it for a week. You get some buddies together to decide the name, the theme, the setup, the menu, the music. You serve the drinks. You open and close every night (the bar would be open whenever you want it to be, but probably just at night since people have daytime jobs).

For one week you get to live the dream.

And then you’re done. No risk. In fact, if you love running a bar for a week, you could sign up to do it again sometime in the future. You’re not limited to one week.

One of the cool elements about it is the clientele the bar would attract. Every week you’d have friends of the temporary managers coming out to support them and feel like they’re VIP, and you also have people who want to see what different bars do differently. It would be a good mix.

As for how to split the profits, I’d have to figure out those logistics. I think each group of temporary managers would put down a deposit so they don’t destroy the bar and to make sure they actually show up. And I think the alcohol would have to be measured in some way to make sure I’m covering my costs. If they want to give away shots for free, that’s fine, but that should hurt their profits, not mine. I think there should be some reward to the temporary owners if they do really well on their week.

I could record the various bars and experiences on video and post them to a website, and perhaps have an annual contest based on profits and popularity.

What do you think? What would you do with your bar for a week?

2 thoughts on ““We Should Open a Bar” Bar”

  1. A timeshare business! I like it. What would be the break in between to get it clean and possibly change out the decor though?

    Reply
    • Exactly! I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that’s a good way to put it.

      As for cleaning, I’d have a crew come through to clean once a week. Maybe the bar would be closed on Mondays. In fact, the model could work with the bar being closed several days of the week. But I think a week is a good amount of time to get the idea of owning a bar out of your system (and still have fun with it).

      Oh, and changing out the decor–I think people would change the layout, but they wouldn’t be bringing in entirely new decor. They could if they wanted, but it would be expensive for them to do that for only a week’s worth of use.

      Reply

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