Buying a Pub a good investment?

[johnnybad1]

I'm looking at buying a bar in the foothills area. Anyone out there have any experience with ownership of a pub? Looking at issues around liqour license and liability insurance. For example, can a pub owner get sued by a drunk who crashes his car leaving the pub etc....

[barmanjay]

I owned a pub business in BC years ago,.. I would never do it again

yes you are liable for 24 hours after a patron leaves your bar,.. unless they venture into another bar.

there is also a dark side to the business no-one ever sees.

alcolohism, drug abuse,.. you see it all and sometimes become inadvertently involved.

I had my fill,.. and would never do it again.

[rinny]

Originally posted by barmanjay
I owned a pub business in BC years ago,.. I would never do it again

yes you are liable for 24 hours after a patron leaves your bar,.. unless they venture into another bar.

there is also a dark side to the business no-one ever sees.

alcolohism, drug abuse,.. you see it all and sometimes become inadvertently involved.

I had my fill,.. and would never do it again.

Dont forget the passing around of STD's from Cook to Waitress to Bartender! and whoever else decides to jump in the chain!

[HondaRice]

try a pub without alcohol. they are getting popular

[Quadrifoglio]

Originally posted by rinny


Dont forget the passing around of STD's from Cook to Waitress to Bartender! and whoever else decides to jump in the chain!

Haha always starts with the cooks!

[nbaker00]

If you just want to look at profits, and not the bad side of the biz, go for it.
My dad always had a saying; when the economy is down, booze sales are up!

[barmanjay]

You will have to have your licensee cert. not just a server.

If there are multiple owners,.. only 1 must have their licensee.

Liability insurance isn't cheap

There is a fine line for 'over service' and the fines are large.

starting at 500 up to 5000 per offence.

1 bad night with a pissed off cop and your weeks profits are gone.

not up to fire safety - safe exits and etc,.. fire marshall will shut you down

city hall doesn't like you,.. they can pull your license in a heartbeat.

Sometimes they purposely let you operate so they can use your establishment for sting operations and survielence - stressful

[Maddog55]

Wow thats really interesting, BarmanJay. I've always looked at a pub thinking is SHOULD be such a fun job. But the realist in me thinks it's more than likely: long hours, hard hard work, extremely stressful, and only very rarely a big money maker. Dishonest employees and the other things you mentioned. Also one of the most common type of business to fail within the first 5 years. where was your bar? My buddy was a bouncer in Pentiction for over 20 years...similar to Patrick Swayze but in real life.

he told me the real side of bar life..the dark side. was eye opening, but very interesting. That would make a good reality show!!

(sorry for the ramblings.....2nd bottle of dry french red....and some recent BC bud)

[barmanjay]

I was in partnership with a bar in Port Hardy

took over the seagate pub, aka the sleazegate and turned it into magoo's pub,.. was the busiest pub on the whole north isle while I was part of the ownership

(4 people,.. ex-wife and myself,.. another buddy and his ex-wife)

I was like tom cruise,.. minor bar flair,.. brought in the public when i felt like bartending.

long hours,.. yes
hard work,.. no
stressful,.. depends how much you've had to drink
money maker?,.. well 2 out of 5 tills were - no till tape
dishonest employees? only to the patrons

however the maintenance man for the hotel stole about 4k worth of change from us

failure only due to management - for us was dissagreement between the women

At the time we did what our ex-wives wanted,.. bloody women! LOL

I've probably seen more than 99% of the people that frequent bars have seen.

full out bar brawls just because one guy looked at another wrong,..
lost lots of cash on pool games
found lots of cash, strangly in rolls
found drugs
had the navy come by and trash every glass in the bar
plenty of dirty things too

the list can go on and on


hense the handle - barmanjay

came when i was just a lowly bartender with flair

[Redlyne_mr2]

Bars come and go, there is a reason for it. I would put my money elsewhere.