Bar Manager: Job Description

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A bar manager oversees daily bar activities, tracks inventory, orders products, trains staff, prepares schedules and performance reviews, and ensures compliance with government policies. They must maintain professionalism while being friendly with customers to make them want to return.

A bar manager has a variety of tasks that he must tend to, most notably managing the general operations of the bar. Bar management jobs typically consist of maintaining content for customers and staff while overseeing daily bar activities. Maintaining a calm demeanor, the manager must overcome obstacles and ensure the bar runs smoothly in all respects during each shift.

Tracking, counting, and purchasing inventory is a big part of the job. The bar manager, possibly along with the assistant bar manager or head bartender, counts the inventory of the bar’s products. It is important for the bar manager to be on the lookout for dramatic drops or rises in stock as this could be a sign of foul play or carelessness behind the bar.

The most significant and expensive products to order are, of course, alcoholic beverages. Quantities of wine, liquor, and bottled and draft beer should be counted regularly in order to store the proper amount. The bar manager can place orders with one or more liquor representatives or merchants on a recurring basis.

Depending on the occupancy of the bar, these orders can be placed daily, weekly or even monthly. Since he is usually in charge of the bar rather than the entire restaurant, the bar manager typically builds relationships with the liquor, beer, or wine vendors with whom he deals frequently. Occasionally, these relationships can result in special deals, which can mean better stock levels for the bar.

This type of manager is also responsible for the staff behind the bar, such as bartenders and barbacks, or those who help the bartenders. He will normally train all the bartenders or the head bartender to train the new bartenders. Training usually consists of beverage handling, interaction with preferred guests, and cash handling policies.

The bar manager usually prepares schedules and performance reviews as well. He should be aware of local and federal government policies, as well as the bar itself, regarding the sale of liquor and its consumption. Such guidelines must be followed by the bar manager and his staff.

In a restaurant, the bar manager is considered one of the “front of house” (FOH) managers as he or she determines the operations at the physical front of the establishment. Regardless of whether the business is a bar, restaurant, nightclub, casino, cafeteria or other venue, this FOH manager must have a clear sense of how to deal with the general public. He must maintain professionalism while being friendly with customers, with the idea that he must make customers want to come back.




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