Home Bar for Leisure Recommendations

[Nick Kron]

Dear erBB, I want to put in a home bar; nothing too big. Thinking beer fridge, wine fridge, & cabinets. Debating sink & Ice maker. Have any of you installed a kind bar? What options do you recommend without completely killing the budget.

Regards,
NK

 

[Bob Dobbalina]

A bartender friend of mine highly recommended investing in an ice machine.

I told him he's out of his mind. He said he picked up a machine that makes dense, slow melting ice for $170. IDK

 

[casa_mugrienta]

I love when surfers talk about building a home bar.

It usually means they will be doing much less surfing.

In memory of OT, I <3 ex-surfers.

 

[Bob Dobbalina]

I've realized I really only drink bourbon, sweet vermouth, vodka, some tequila in the summer, or beer/wine. Maybe keep a bottle of bitter Amaro liquer (Campari, etc).

Keep some bitters and cherries.

I don't need anything else and I'm too cheap to buy a whole bottle of something I'm not sure about.

Like boats and longboards, better to have a friend with a well stocked bar than have one yourself.

 

[Mr Doof]

1 Think long term.

2 Mainly for self, self and partner, self and partner and friends? Choose one and gear towards that.

3 At parties, people will gather round a bar if you even give them half a centimeter of space to do so, this can be good or bad.

4 Themes......do it well if you want to. Less (theme) is more (function) for me.

5 (Used?) fridge with water and ice is nice, but a sink is a better option if you have limited funds; both are better.

6 Beverages generally require glassware. Get some reasonably inexpensive simple glassware. Don't go fancy.

7 Comfy seating, get some. Unless the bar is next to the workbench in the garage next to the kid's trike, then those stackable
stolen lawn chairs fenced on Craigslist is better.

8 Just realized that you may not have a whole room to dedicate towards this....that changes some of the above.

9 Are you sure you want to do this? If the primary drinking of delicious fermented malt beverages or sumptuous fermented fruit sqeezin''s for you and/or you and yours and one or three parties a year, maybe money is better spent on other things, like decent outdoor furniture, a high quality ice-chest, and a rolling cocktail cart*.



* - About 2 decades ago, we found an antique rolling cocktail cart from an estate sale near my dead racist great aunt's home in a suburb of Sacramento. Tight grain oak, quality castor wheels (if one can say such a thing about castor wheels), minimal signs of use, lots of evidence of cleaning/maintenance and rewaxing. Has expandable leaves on the side, storage area under the top, and now lives as a kitchen-nook companion to the a display cabinet Sweetie-pie got from one of her grannies (the cabinet stores things we rarely use).

 

[Autoprax]

Don't get a keg. That always ends badly.

I like having a nice liquor cabinet.

Like having gay sex, knowing it's there allows me not to partake.

 

[Autoprax]

I like having a nice liquor cabinet.

Like having gay sex, knowing it's there allows me not to partake.

 

[enframed]

Go to Goodwill/thrift shops for cocktail glasses. Lots of cool stuff. They'll be mismatched but that's charming.

Get the following:

2 x 18/28 shakers
2 x Mixing glasses (or pint glasses)
2 x measuring jiggers
2 x Stirring spoons
2 x Hawthorne Strainers
2 x Julep Strainers
2 x Mesh strainers
1 x muddler

Good ice machines are very expensive and require routine maintenance and can break down. If your home freezer makes good ice, just use it, or buy bags of good ice if you have a large enough gathering.

 

[Bob Dobbalina]

Some solid advice here.

A few key pieces of glassware and a few key liquors will do what most people need it to do.

 

[tsenn]

Ice is key to me...We have a pos Samsung fridge with "ice maker"...poor design, has been inop for a few years...

 

[_____]

First question would be - what is your budget?
You can get a pre-made one and shove it in a corner - https://mahoganymillworks.com/pub-bars/
Pops has a pretty elaborate bar at his place. Simi circular with 6-8 bar stools, maybe 15' across, but it mostly gets used by him, sitting in a stool trading stocks with the political show to the left on TV. The rest of the bar is used as a countertop for mail and the newspaper.

 

[Bob Dobbalina]

Should we hijack this into a cocktail recipe thread?

My go to is a simple manhattan, built in a rocks glass.
Rye (I just buy a handle of Bulleit at Costco.)
Sweet Vermouth (the kind you can get everywhere)
2x1 or 1.5 x .5
splashes of bitters
Stir in the glass with an oversized ice cube.
2 expensive cherries (also from costco).

maybe strain into a new glass with a fresh cube. Usually not though.

Or an old fashioned. Same construction. no vermouth. homemade simple syrup. Orange or lemon peel (whichever I have). splash of water. one cube.

 

[casa_mugrienta]

9) a rolling cocktail cart*.



* - About 2 decades ago, we found an antique rolling cocktail cart from an estate sale near my dead racist great aunt's home in a suburb of Sacramento. Tight grain oak, quality castor wheels (if one can say such a thing about castor wheels), minimal signs of use, lots of evidence of cleaning/maintenance and rewaxing. Has expandable leaves on the side, storage area under the top, and now lives as a kitchen-nook companion to the a display cabinet Sweetie-pie got from one of her grannies (the cabinet stores things we rarely use).

That's called a canarble wagon.

Outdoor bars are cool if you're in your teens or 20s and throwing ragers and looking to fvck young chicks.

Otherwise, carnarble wagon is the way to go.

 

[santacruzin]

Have a huge home bar. Fridge, ice maker, two wells, drink racks.

I built it during pandemic and it grew . I eat and paint on it more than its used for drinking now.

 

[santacruzin]

That's called a canarble wagon.

Outdoor bars are cool if you're in your teens or 20s and throwing ragers and looking to fvvk young chicks.

Otherwise, carnarble wagon is the way to go.

agree! I keep most of the booze on a counter in the kitchen now.

 

[Autoprax]

Ice is key to me...We have a pos Samsung fridge with "ice maker"...poor design, has been inop for a few years...

My girl loves ice.

My friends wife carries and ice chest full of ice and Mountain Dew when she drives.

I don't even keep it in the house.

I lost the recipe.

 

[Mr Doof]

Some friends of Sweetie-pie have a place in the Castro, a great old rickety home that is drafty and creaks when the wind blows hard. "Somewhen" in the 70's, previous owners rejiggered the kitchen to so it makes a decent enough " disco bar", complete with mirror ball and spinning color wheel....the high ceiling makes it work.

When they moved in during early 2000's, they kept it mostly the same: tall, skinny European freezer-fridge, narrow dual compartment sink, two cocktail tables that each can fit two tall barstools or take them out and 4 people each can stand and look out over the neighbor's roof and through some trees to downtown...view opens up in winter when the leaves drop.

Great for parties, not so great when it is just the three of them....more than once they talk about wanting more utility for the daily eating/seating aspect of that room.

I am not sure what the point of this story is other than to make sure you know what you want now and make the best estimate for the future use....if you are going to undo it in the future, see if stuff can be repurposed.

On the canarble wagon, hey, a new word! Thanks, Casa. I prefer the made-up name cocktail cart due to the alliteration. Yeah, have one all ready to go in a corner or in a closet, and wheel it out as needed to the:
den/sewing room/library/parlor/foyer/patio/stoop/family room/rumpus room/right next to the settee in the TV room/etc.

 

[ElOgro]

My house started its life as a palapa bar. Very rustic. Now its a screened bar with 2 bedrooms, kitchen, and bathroom.

When/if we ever get electricity the first purchase will be an ice machine.

 

[Chocki]

Jäger tap bro.
Jäger tap.

 

[sdsrfr]

don’t go installing this for anyone other than yourself.

if there is any movement in the value of your home as a result of this, it will be in the downward direction and something future buyers will look to rip out.

Can’t say how many NCSD houses I looked at with a random wet bar wasting the living area space. Now, a sink and fridge in the garage is something many could get down with.