Nine drivers is a framework until you use it on a specific bar. This lesson is the procedure: what to observe, what to ask, and what arithmetic to run on the answers. It takes about an hour per venue, most of which is sitting in the bar having one drink.
Step 1: what you can see without asking anyone
Go in once, at a time the room is supposed to be busy. Order something. Watch.
- Menu format and prices. Cocktail list with specs, or beer and shots? Is there wine by the bottle? Is there food, and are people eating at the bar?
- Capacity and stations. Count bar seats. Look for standing room. Count how many bartenders are working and roughly how the bar is divided between them.
- Is there a barback? If there is not, that work is yours, on top of service.
- How people pay. Cards and tabs, or cash? Watch two or three transactions and you will see the tipping norm of the room directly.
- How many servers are on the floor. A large floor team means service-bar volume and a tip-out web. No floor team means everything comes across the bar.
- The pace. Is it a steady hum or a wave? Do people sit for an hour or turn in fifteen minutes?