I've been a DJ and a Karaoke host for over 15 years. I've seen bars ran well and bars ran into the ground. I hope that I have been observant enough over the years to know what it takes to be successful.
I have saved money over the years, and was really hoping to do to do this without going over my head in debt. But as I've always heard what you think it will cost will double, so far that is holding true. I don't think I have saved enough money after all.
I have a great bartender that will be my manager and the backbone of the operation. We have searched for a place to buy or rent for awhile. We've debated back and forth on buying a small place that was key ready, buying a small place that needed some electrical work, or leasing a place. We had a great placed lined up with space to do what we wanted inside and out. But, the gentleman backed out on the lease.
We have since found a place to lease in a small strip mall, it's actually the old bar where I started my DJ journey. The strip mall has been taken over and renovated. We were suppose to sign the lease yesterday, but the building inspector threw a monkey wrench into our plans by requiring a fire sprinkler system if we opened up the wall, a grease hood and fire suppression in the kitchen. So we are back to the drawing plans on how to arrange space. I think we have found a way to arrange things so those requirements won't be necessary, but we are still being required to install a 1000 gallon grease trap.
The thing is in our state, we are required to serve food in order to qualify for a liquor license. You're only required to have 21 cubic square foot of kitchen space in order to get a liquor license, but with a kitchen that small our floor space is over the occupancy limit and it will require a fire sprinkler system. We're in a catch 22 situation.
I have found some greaseless fryers that don't require grease hoods or fire suppression systems. I've already spoken to DHEC about their regulations on these greaseless fryers, they referred me to the building inspector and fire marshal. The fire marshal had already referred me to DHEC so I'm in another catch 22 situation. There is no way around a 1000 gallon grease trap which seems like overkill for the amount of food we will serve, we won't have any grease from cooking. The hand sinks, 3 compartment sinks and utility sinks have to be plumbed into this grease trap just in case we have grease on dishes. In order to install the grease trap, the septic system has to be dug up and moved in order to make room for this 1000 gallon monstrosity.
So far this has not been as easy as I was expecting. I knew we would run into unexpected problems along the way, but I wasn't expecting so many in the beginning phase. I'm beginning to doubt our decision and worried if we are in over our heads.
