Lesson 3: Setting Up and Stocking the Bar

Bar Equipment

These are the necessary tools every bar should have:

Openers:
There are two kinds of openers needed at the bar, the wine opener and the bottle opener.

There are several different kinds of wine openers; the three most common are:

The waiter’s wine opener, which is basically a retractable cork screw. This does require some manual strength.
The Rabbit is a lever that pulls out the cork in one stroke and removes the cork from the screw in a second stroke.
The Screwpull, my personal favorite. It’s never failed me and it’s about half the price of the Rabbit.

The second required opener is the classic bottle opener, often called a church key. Necessary for beer bottles, if nothing else.

Cocktail Shakers:
There are lots of designs for shakers, but these are all modified from one of two styles:

The Boston shaker is used by most professionals. It has two parts, each of which looks like glasses, but one is usually glass and one stainless steel. The glass one should fit over the stainless steel – if you drop it, you won’t break it.

The standard shaker has a large shaker part, a lid, and a strainer insert that fits in the lid. The primary disadvantage to this model is that often the strainer is too small and can get clogged.

Measuring Glasses:
You should have two types. The first is a standard one cup measuring cup found in every kitchen; the second is a specialized bar measuring glass called a jigger.

Jiggers come in two types:

The first looks like a small measuring glass, often with a lip. These have ½ ounce increments measured on the side.

The second is double headed, with one end larger than the other. The most useful size is 1 ounce and 2 ounce. If you need ½ ounce of anything, use 1 tablespoon.

Blenders:
If you like frozen drinks such as margaritas or daiquiris, or like a lot of crushed ice in your drinks, you will need to purchase a good blender. Many kitchen blenders are not strong enough to crush ice. The blender should be labeled as either a commercial or bar blender – Waring makes excellent blenders.

Ice:
You will need two or three ice related tools:

• Bucket. Your ice bucket should be a good size – enough to hold three dozen cubes and be insulated. My favorite bucket has a nice wood exterior with a removeable insert that can be washed easily.
• Ice tongs or scoop: It’s very unsanitary to pick up ice with your hands
• Manual ice crusher: If you don’t have a blender that can crush ice, there are manual ice crushers. You can also wrap ice cubes in a heavy kitchen towel and pound them with a meat pounder.

Knife and Cutting Board:
You just need a paring knife and small cutting board to cut up your fruit.

Citrus Reamer:
This is a device that allows you to get juice from half a lemon, orange, or lime. When you use it, make sure the juice drains through a strainer or your fingers to catch the pits.

Pitchers:
These are essential for holding water, pre-squeezed juices, or pre-mixed drinks.

Coasters/Napkins:
While coasters should be scattered about the house, napkins are also essential. They allow the drinker to maintain a good grip on the glass.

Muddler:
Professional bars all have muddlers, which is a masher used to crush sugar cubes, herbs, fruit, separately or together. It looks like a small mortar and pestle. If you don’t want to invest in a muddler, the back of a wooden spoon and a small bowl make a good substitute.

Silverware:
Necessary bar silverware includes long handled spoons for stirring and removing those pits you missed when adding the fruit juice as well as little forks or spearers to remove the olives and cherries from their narrow lipped jars. There is a special barspoon that is 11 or 12 inches long, flat headed and often has a twisted shaft.

Strainers:
The most common type of strainer is the Hawthorn. You will need this if you use the Boston mixer. It has a spring coil and fits inside the glass.