BarTeam
From The Star And Shadow Cinema Wiki
People interested: James, Jo, Polly, Becca, Iliana (interested in being a licensee)
Contents |
Meeting: Tuesday 28th March, 6:30pm at the Cumberland arms
Agenda(please add things that need to be discussed at the meeting)
- Get a date to visit breweries, Barefoot and Wylam
- Bar Prices
- What to stock and how to look after it (fridges/ kegs.
- Who we cash up
- where we store money
- How often we need to get change and take cash to bank etc.
- Systems for ensuring bar is staffed and or supervised?
HOT NEWS ABOUT WHISKY:
My friend Arthur works in Edniburgh and said we can get a single cask whisky with our own label on it. a star and shadow single cask clynelish or single cask mortlach. two v tasty whiskys coming in around 55%alcohol.
He said we could get 70cl for about £21 per bottle, or get these little 10cl ones to sell from behi8nd the counter - i think we would need to sell them at about £6.50 though, and buy them for about £4.25 per bottle. what do you think?
I know Jo has been looking into beer named after us too.
Also, I have estimated we would buy approx £3000 alcohol/soft drink stock a year and sell it for £6000 per year. I figured we could buy beer for £1per bottle and sell it for £2 (as long as it was nice beer?) Do you think that is fair or possible. Ideally we would want to buy alot more and sell alot more, but I wanted to be cautious.
Alan says:
The local & cheap soft drinks supplier is Waters & Robson in Morpeth (NE61 6JF), Tel 01670 513113. Draught beer can be a risky if its not tret dead nice and drank quickly. It might be worth considering getting bottled beers from Sam Smiths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Smith_(brewery)#Beers 01937 832225 is brewery tel no. Coffee. You can get organic Zapatista coffee cheapily from the Cafe Libertad Cooperative in Hamburg. It's cheaper in bulk and takes just a few days to arrive. There's a packet in the cinema office, if you want to try it. Info @ http://www.cafe-libertad.de
Minutes of Bar Group for Star and Shadow, Cumberland Arms 6pm Tuesday March 28th
Present:
- Caroline caroline (at) komododesign.co.uk
- Polly pollyhunter (at) hotmail.com
- Rory subverbia(at) aol.com
- Jo flow(at) imprecision.net
- Mat mat76(at) post.com
- Ilana im(at)ilanamitchell.co.uk
We discussed a lot of things as this was our first meeting. These minutes I hope represent the main points:
Structural issues and equipment for building the bar:
Sinks: A basic bar needs a sink behind the bar – we'd like a double stainless steel sink, one for washing up glasses and one for throwing waste and rinsing.
We also need a handwashing sink.
The sinks will be at the bar but running from the kitchen plumbing. Need to discuss with plumber – must be well plumbed in to prevent any blockages which could end in hygiene problems (as well as stinking). Handwash sink could be in kitchen as its v close. Fridges: Caroline advised that it's a v bad idea to buy second hand fridges (cost £50 each time to fix and there's a reason people get rid of fridges…). But we have two that have been donated, one we have already (domestic) and one with a glass front from Cumberland – it is very noisy but free. Glass front nice for display but not necessary if we can display our wares on shelves and buy cheaper if the ones we have are not good enough.
Freezer: have been donated one.
Coffee machine: we'd love one but needs to be plumbed in so need to talk to plumber.
Pumps: can get but needs lots of work installing. Can taps with casks from breweries so won't get these now. Caroline advised about brewery loans – where a brewery gives money to set up bar in exchange for selling their wares. Might be worth looking into if bar proves a success – but we need to see how well we do before can say how much we would sell.
Safe: we need one that is v secure. Caroline's suggested that she has previously had one bricked into a wall – this is something we should put to the building team. A safe is easy and cheap to pick up at an auction. EBay might be worth a look to.
Bar: should be as long as possible – possibly multi-functioning (e.g. have decks on the end like Cube does - for company and to allow bar to have room and not be cramped).
Heat/Cool: we need to be able to keep stock cool. Need to work this out when building where it goes.Might not be a problem if don't have heating at start!
Licensing:
Premise License wins:
We discussed the two main options, the club and premises licences. We decided that, unless there are any planning restrictions on the kind of license, we'll get a premises one. It means that we need a licensee on hand (either on site or on call – Jo will confirm exact details) and a named supervisor. But these are better ‘restrictions' than the ones of a club license which could cause problems (need to be a member which takes 48 hours and guest status could be difficult). Caroline advised that police will come by and check things and we should try to avoid getting closed down!
Getting the license: might take a while as applying for it and getting certificates takes a while, including 28 day notice on building. Possible we might not have it by opening – hope we will but if not we'll find a way until we get it. We need to check what this allows in other terms than alcohol (music, food). Jo will look into this. Jo, Polly and Ilana are all going to become licensees – we could do with one or two more. We can have as many as we like but it costs £150 each. There is a course (2 half days at Newcastle College) on 11th May. As there are a few of us we are looking into getting a private trainer if it works out cost effective and can get an earlier date.
Management/running of bar:
As we don't know exactly how popular things will be, we will need to be flexible about how we staff the bar. We need to have rota that is decided with a person who takes on the role of running the rota, liaising with programme to see when will be busy evenings. We need to have a plan to make sure shifts are covered. Suggestions: having a standby person in case main person calls in sick, who can be told an hour or two in advance whether they are needed. This entails rota manager being on call to arrange this. If Rota manager doesn't rota themselves in, they can cover shifts if can't get staff. We imagine we will have one bar person on a screening night, supported by the projectionist, door person and usher when they are done with their jobs. More staff when have big events/festivals and if serving food takes off. We will have to keep reviewing staffing as we get to know how the bar goes. Caroline has offered to put one evening a week towards this.
Stocking the bar:
We need to make sure we have enough stock to cover when we will be busy and make sure we have as little waste as possible. We should do an order once a week for perishables that someone is in charge of.
Fair trade: We will have as far as possible a fair trade and locally-produced policy on things we sell. This means we need to negotiate deals! We are looking into Traidcraft (fair trade company based in Gateshead) Suma and will ask advice from Green festival, Mono in Glasgow (vegan/fairtrade café bar) and Cube. We'll have feral trade coffee and probably some other coffee – Alan has one he'd like to sell. We can have cafetieres if coffee machine escapes our budget/plumbing capabilities. Pricing: We think a 50% mark up on stock prices will allow us to remain not too expensive but also bring in money.
Beer: Wylam or Barefoot are local breweries from whom we can get barrels (72 pints need to be drunk in 5-7 days) or slightly more expensive half-barrel (36 pints, 14 day drinking time). Barrel works out cheaper but need to see how much we sell. Supplied with a tap. Wylam also have bottles of beer. Need to do tasting! Prices on casks would work out 80-95p a pint and £1 per bottle. (£1.60-£2 a beer)
Whisky: we can get some single cask whisky with our own label through Christo's friend Arthur. £20 per bottle get 20 measures (£2 a measure)
Wine, spirits, soft drinks: need to do some research. Be nice to be able to buy a bottle for £6-7 which would mean sourcing well. Food: to do hot food need extraction which is v expensive. Need to do cold food research. Sandwiches, fruit smoothies made with frozen fruit. Can we make hot sandwiches?
Stocking all needs lots more research. We were tired and need to have a bar before we can stock it!
Actions:
Everybody getting on with it but specifically:
- Polly is getting information from Café Live where she works about equipment supplies, anything they can donate, also about a pub closing down sale in Northumberland v shortly.
- Caroline: looking into equipment sourcing.
- Jo: looking into all things licensing.
- Ilana: looking into stock research.
- Mat: liaising with building about plumbing, how long/where the bar will be.
Next meeting: Friday 7th at 6pm meeting at Tanners to go into building.
