Courtesy : Diploma in Hotel Management and Catering Technology Examination

A bar, also known as a saloon, a tavern or tippling house, or sometimes as a pub or club, is a retail business establishment that serves alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine, liquor, cocktails, and other beverages such as mineral water and soft drinks. Bars often also sell snack foods, such as crisps or peanuts, for consumption on their premises. Some types of bars, such as pubs, may also serve food from a restaurant menu. The term “bar” refers to the countertop where drinks are prepared and served, and by extension to the overall premises.# ISO certification in India

The term derives from the metal or wooden bar (barrier) that is often located along the length of the “bar”. Over many years, heights of bars were lowered, and high stools added, and the brass bar remains today.# ISO certification in India

Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Bars that offer entertainment or live music are often referred to as “music bars”, “live venues”, or “nightclubs”. Types of bars range from inexpensive dive bars to elegant places of entertainment, often accompanying restaurants for dining.# ISO certification in India

Many bars operate a discount period, designated a “happy hour” or discount of the day to encourage off-peak-time patronage. Bars that fill to capacity sometimes implement a cover charge or a minimum drink-purchase requirement during their peak hours. Bars may have bouncers to ensure that patrons are of legal age, to eject drunk or belligerent patrons, and to collect cover charges. Such bars often feature entertainment, which may be a live band, vocalist, comedian, or disc jockey playing recorded music.# ISO certification in India

Patrons may sit or stand at the counter and be served by a bartender. Depending on the size of a bar and its approach, alcohol may be served at the bar by bartenders, at tables by servers, or by a combination of the two. The “back bar” is a set of shelves of glasses and bottles behind the counter. In some establishments, the back bar is elaborately decorated with woodwork, etched glass, mirrors, and lights.# ISO certification in India

History

A Depression-era bar in Melrose, Louisiana

There have been many different names for public drinking spaces throughout history. In the colonial era of the United States, taverns were an important meeting place, as most other institutions were weak. During the 19th century saloons were very important to the leisure time of the working class. Today, even when an establishment uses a different name, such as “tavern” or “saloon” or, in the United Kingdom, a “pub”, the area of the establishment where the bartender pours or mixes beverages is normally called “the bar”.

The sale and/or consumption of alcoholic beverages was prohibited in the first half of the 20th century in several countries, including Finland, Iceland, Norway, and the United States. In the United States, illegal bars during Prohibition were called “speakeasies”, “blind pigs”, and “blind tigers”.

Legal restrictions

Laws in many jurisdictions prohibit minors from entering a bar. If those under legal drinking age are allowed to enter, as is the case with pubs that serve food, they are not allowed to drink. In some jurisdictions, bars cannot serve a patron who is already intoxicated. Cities and towns usually have legal restrictions on where bars may be located and on the types of alcohol they may serve to their customers. Some bars may have a license to serve beer and wine, but not hard liquor. In some jurisdictions, patrons buying alcohol must also order food. In some jurisdictions, bar owners have a legal liability for the conduct of patrons who they serve (this liability may arise in cases of driving under the influence which cause injuries or deaths).# ISO certification in India

Many Islamic countries prohibit bars as well as the possession or sale of alcohol for religious reasons, while others, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, allow bars in some specific areas, but only permit non-Muslims to drink in them.

Types

Gunpowder Cellar of Tartu, a former 18th-century gunpowder cellar and current beer restaurant in Tartu, Estonia

SpåraKoff, the so-called “pub tram”, departing from Railway Square in Helsinki, Finland

Drinking at the bar, Raceland, Louisiana, September 1938

Example of a typical home bar in New York City, USA

A bar’s owners and managers choose the bar’s name, décor, drink menu, lighting, and other elements which they think will attract a certain kind of patron. However, they have only limited influence over who patronizes their establishment. Thus, a bar originally intended for one demographic profile can become popular with another. For example, a gay or lesbian bar with a dance or disco floor might, over time, attract an increasingly heterosexual clientele, or a blues bar may become a biker bar if most its patrons are bikers. Bars can also be an integral part of larger venues. For example, hotels, casinos and nightclubs are usually home to one or several bars.# ISO certification in India

A cocktail lounge is an upscale bar that is typically located within a hotel, restaurant or airport.

A full bar serves liquor, cocktails, wine, and beer.

A wine bar is a bar that focuses on wine rather than on beer or liquor. Patrons of these bars may taste wines before deciding to buy them. Some wine bars also serve small plates of food or other snacks.

A beer bar focuses on beer, particularly craft beer, rather than on wine or liquor. A brew pub has an on-site brewery and serves craft beers.

“Fern bar” is an American slang term for an upscale or preppy (or yuppie) bar.

A music bar is a bar that presents live music as an attraction, such as a piano bar.

A dive bar, often referred to simply as a “dive”, is a very informal bar which may be considered by some to be disreputable.

A non-alcoholic bar is a bar that does not serve alcoholic beverages.

A strip club is a bar with nude entertainers.

A bar and grill is also a restaurant.

Some persons may designate either a room or an area of a room as a home bar. Furniture and arrangements vary from efficient to full bars that could be suited as businesses.

Entertainment

Many sports bars sell food such as chicken wings.

Bars categorized by the kind of entertainment they offer:

• Arcade bars, in which the bar have video games on cabinets and consoles
• Blues bars, specializing in the live blues style of music
• Comedy bars, specializing in stand-up comedy entertainment
• Dance bars, which have a dance floor where patrons dance to recorded music. Typically, if a venue has a large dance floor, focuses primarily on dancing rather than seated drinking, and hires professional DJs, it is considered to be a nightclub or discothèque rather than a bar.
• Karaoke bars, with nightly karaoke as entertainment
• Music bars, specializing in live music (i.e. concerts). Piano bars are one example.
• Drag bars, which specialize in drag performances as entertainment
• Salsa bars, where patrons dance to Latin salsa music
• Sports bars, which are furnished with sports-related memorabilia and theming, and typically contain a large number of televisions used to broadcast major sporting events for their patrons.
• A tiki bar offers a fully immersive and entertaining environment, including tropical cocktails, tiki carvings, exotica music, a dark, windowless space with light fixtures lending a soft glow, and nautical brick-a-brac that hints at romantic travels to exotic lands.
• Topless bars, where topless female employees dance or serve drinks. In India, these bars are called dance bars, which is distinct from the type of “dance bar” discussed above.# ISO certification in India

Patrons

The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, is a designated U.S. National Historic Landmark and National Monument as the site of the June 1969 Stonewall riots and the cradle of the modern gay-rights movement.

Bars can categorized by the kind of patrons who frequent them:

• Bicycle messenger bars, where bike messengers congregate; these are found only in cities with large bike messenger communities
• Biker bars, which are bars frequented by motorcycle enthusiasts and (in some regions) motorcycle club members.
• Cop bars, where off-duty law enforcement agents gather.
• College bars, usually located in or near universities, where most of the patrons are students
• Gay bars, where gay men or women dance and socialize
• Hipster bars, where hipsters are the patrons of this bar# ISO certification in India
• Lesbian bars
• Neighborhood bars, a bar that most of the patrons know each other; it is generally close to home and is frequented regularly
• “Old man” bars, whose clientele are mainly long-time male patrons who know each other well; since most patrons are retired, they often begin drinking much earlier in the day, consume inexpensive beer/whisky and may spend much of the day chatting, reading the newspaper, and watching television
• Sailor bars, usually located in waterfront areas near commercial docks or naval bases
• Singles bars where (mostly) unmarried people of both sexes can meet and socialize
• Sports bars, where sports fans gather to cheer on their favorite teams with other like-minded fans. Sports bars generally have a dozen or more televisions, in order to display simultaneous games or sports
• Women’s bars

Bar (counter)

A row of liquor bottles behind a bar

Liquor and wine bottles displayed in a cabinet behind a bar in Baden, Austria

The counter at which drinks are served by a bartender is called “the bar”. This term is applied, as a synecdoche, to drinking establishments called “bars”. This counter typically stores a variety of beers, wines, liquors, and non-alcoholic ingredients, and is organized to facilitate the bartender’s work. # ISO certification in India

Counters for serving other types of food and drink may also be called bars. Examples of this usage of the word include snack bars, sushi bars, juice bars, salad bars, dairy bars, and ice cream sundae bars.