Guest Post: How to Set Up the Perfect Bar

Hello all you The Hip Soiree readers, I’m Tanya Ponce from ItSweetandSavory. Recently Lizzie and her very dear husband whom she bragged about here worked together on a party that my friend Stephanie and I threw. She did all the décor, which was amazing. See it here.

I’ve thrown quite a few small parties, baby showers, bridal showers, but this was really a first big adult party. Amongst a few things, I was in charge of the bar. I have wanted to challenge myself to set up a nice bar, so this was my chance.

First off, I must say setting up a full bar for 50 guests is not cheap. Go in with friends and recruit as many as possible to bring liquor. Also know your area and what drinks people are really in to. This helps you determine what you need to stock more of. You’ll see why below.

I did my research before the party and shopped all over for cool barware. I must admit before this, I used a shot glass to measure my drinks, but I thought I should grow up and look for a proper Jigger. Which is a funny word in itself. But let me tell you it was hard to find something cool that was worthy of my bar. I picked up a Muddler too, but that didn’t really get used, it sure is pretty though.

I found these at Crate and Barrel, Jigger and Muddler.

One of our CFO friends had already done a great calculation on how much Liquor you’ll need for a party. So here’s how it broke down:

For Mixed Cocktails:

40 Drinks = 1 (1.75l) bottle
17 Drinks = 1 (750ml) bottle – normal size
6 glasses of wine = 1 (125ml) bottle of wine

This crowd was full of Gin, Bourbon and Whiskey drinkers. I bought a huge bottle of Kettle One Vodka and came back with it barely touched. My friends who live about 35 minutes North of us said that Vodka would have been the first thing gone in their area and Gin barely touched. So KNOW your crowd. I already knew this and heavy upped on the Gin.

As for soft drinks, pop, soda, whatever you want to call it, depending on where you live here’s how I calculated that:

For Approximately 50 people:

12 Large Sparkling Waters (I bought a case of 24 Individual waters and came back with half of it)
50 Water Bottles (might need to add about 25 more, this went quick)
50 Soft Drinks (Individual sizes of Ginger Ale, Tonic, Club Soda, Coke)
1 Bottle of Juice (Cranberry or whatever people in your area like to mix)

Another thing I learned is that this crowd liked Ginger Ale with their Jameson. I thought I was the only one that secretly drank that at home. So with that said I did NOT buy enough Ginger Ale. I had bought a Ginger Liqueur with the intentions of typing up a recipe for a Gold Rush. I recently went to a party and had these, so I’m kind of addicted. What ended up happening is everyone used that instead of Ginger Ale or just took shots of it. Oh well. You can find FruitLab Ginger Liqueur at Whole Foods. This crowd wasn’t big on Rum and Coke or Cranberry and Vodka, so I didn’t buy much of either, but had them on hand just in case. I came back with all the Cranberry Juice and half a small bottle of Coke was left. Again…KNOW your crowd, or at least try to predict.

Then comes all the fun garnishes:

Cherries, our friend Peter made some MEAN Manhattans that had these in them, if I had time I would have searched out Brandied Cherries or made my own.

Lemon and Lime wedges, Orange and Lemon garnishes (I peeled the oranges and lemons with peeler and sliced these really thin.)

Olives for martini’s. I stashed the martini juice as I knew one of our friends loves Dirty Martini’s, but I couldn’t figure out a cool way to put that out on the bar, so when I saw her come in I told her, “I have a stash of dirty martini juice for you, let me know when your making your cocktail.” Next time I’ll find a fancy jar that I can display.

Last thing, ICE, make sure you have a bucket of ice. I had a bucket of ice for Prosecco and white wine and another for cocktails. In the back I had a cooler full of ice to replenish the bucket.

Friends brought all their glassware and we set it up like above. Soft drinks where on the shelf below the glassware. Once the glassware started disappearing everyone used the top surface for mixing drinks. Another thing I learned, give some clear space for mixing cocktails and have on hand a bar towel for clean-up.

This was a self-service bar, so let’s just say we made sure we had plenty of food. The guys took the lead on mixing the cocktails, which was a fun thing to watch and great conversation piece, I jumped in on one session and nabbed me that great Manhattan. Next time I might try mixing a few pre-made cocktails and definitely buy more Ginger Ale. Hope this was helpful, no matter what enjoy the evening with great friends. We sure did.