Back in the middle ages, if you were to go out for a bite to it there was pretty much only one type of establishment that you might have been able to go to. This establishment was called an inn, and it served a variety of different purposes all at once. Inns offered lodging to weary travelers and they also served as pubs that served alcohol to passersby. These inns became central locations where townsfolk gathered after a long day’s work, and they offered food as well thereby making them fulfill the role of restaurants among the various other services they made available to people.
This all happened a long time ago, and as time passed various establishments started to specialize in certain respects. What was once offered within a single enterprise was now made available through a number of different ones, with bars offering alcohol, hotels offering lodging and specialized restaurant offering food. There was a degree of cooperation among these kinds of establishments too, but for the most part the idea of a one size fits all eatery started to become a relic of a time gone by.
Hence, these days when you want to open a business that people would come to in their free time, there are quite a few options that you can choose from. You can choose to open a restaurant of course, after deciding on the restaurant niche that you want to service. Alternatively, you can opt to open a bar instead and the great thing here is that a lot of the same standards tend to apply. For example, you will still need tables for restaurants even if the bar label tends to be a bit more accurate with regards to how people might refer to your establishment.
That said, while tables are a must have if you want to offer sit down experiences for your customers, various other aspects of your furniture might differ if your investment of choice is a bar rather than a restaurant. Part of your bar will be more or less indistinguishable from a restaurant since it would have tables and chairs that people can sit on if they want a more communal vibe, and you can consider offering a few booths as well for those patrons that want to imbibe in relative privacy.
However, once that part of your eatery has been thoroughly design and decorated, you would be left with what is arguably the key component of your establishment: the bar itself. This is basically an extended counter behind which a team of bartenders would be mixing drinks after receiving orders from customers. Quite a few of your patrons would eschew the table and chair section to take a seat at the bar so that they can grab a drink or two and then be on their way, so optimizing this section of your enterprise can be highly useful for you if you want to take advantage of this highly profitable foot traffic.
You need to implement a rather different furniture design philosophy in your bar. Treating it like just another type of restaurant section would be a huge mistake since the type of experience that customer are expecting here differs greatly from what they might be after in a regular eatery. A pertinent example of this is that chairs might not work so well in this particular area mostly because they are not high enough and don’t offer the requisite mobility that a customer who frequents pubs and bars would come to expect.
Instead of chairs, it would be a lot more efficient for you to opt for barstools. They are named after this type of establishment after all, which means that they have become rather iconic over the years. You will find that there are countless benefits to using barstools rather than chairs in this regard. For one thing, customers would need to be able to adjust the height of their seating based on how tall or short they are, and people often have very unique preferences in this regard that you would have to adhere to.
Another advantage of barstools is that they can swivel from side to side. A big part of bar culture is that you can very easily strike up a conversation from someone that is on either side of you. Being able to swivel on your stool can facilitate this quite a bit. Chairs can be a bit restrictive in this regard which really isn’t a big deal if you are sitting down for a meal as you would be unlikely to need to turn around all the way in order to start talking to someone.
With barstools, mobility ends up being of paramount importance. There is also a very unique kind of comfort that can be found with barstools since the cushioned padding is something that most chairs just don’t have. The lack of a backrest has a very specific function to it as well, since you wouldn’t want people spending all day in your bar after all.
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As the owner of a bar, it is your responsibility to ensure that your patrons don’t end up overdoing it. Offering overly comfortable bar seating that includes a backrest might result in your customers spending an excessive number of hours consuming drink after drink, and while this might be beneficial to your profit margins it would be rather hazardous to their health. What’s more is that if your customers regularly consume too much alcohol they might become rowdy or aggressive which is another thing that you would need to try to avoid as much as possible.
