5 Creative Ways to Refurbish an Old Building Into a Bar or Brewery

If you want to venture into the alcoholic beverage or the craft beer industry, you could have several options when choosing a spot to set up shop. For most people, the first option is getting a rental space already designed as a bar or brewery.

But you can also lease or buy a cheap old building and refurbish it to serve as your bar or brewery. Remodeling an old building into a bar will be slightly different than renovating it for personal use.

This guide offers creative ways of transforming an old building into a bar or brewery.

Renovations

When opening a new place for customers, you must satisfy your state’s safety standards for public spaces. A major problem with old buildings is that they are usually in a rundown state.

So, you want to ensure that you take care of everything that would compromise the integrity of the house structure or that would not pass the inspection test. The most critical areas to pay attention to would be the walls, the floor, the plumbing, and the roof.

Modify the Doorway

Traditional buildings may have slightly smaller doors than modern houses. Even if the building you want to transform into a bar or brewery has standard home doors, they may not be ideal for a bar.

So, you may consider adjusting the doorway to accommodate the increased traffic. An ideal type of door for a bar or brewery would be double swing doors.

The door will be the first thing your customers will see on arrival. So besides accessibility, you must consider the aesthetics. First impressions matter, so ensure you use your doors to create an excellent first impression.

Pay Attention to the Bathrooms

A recent Harris poll survey on how restroom cleanliness affects facility perception found that 75% of people would not return to an establishment with a dirty or not-so-nice bathroom. So, you have every reason to keep the bathrooms clean.

Besides keeping it clean, you must ensure that your bathroom complies with industry regulations. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires all establishments to be accessible to disabled people.

Additionally, you may want to make your bathrooms as convenient for users as possible. So, you will want to consider things like the accessibility of paper towels after hand washing, hand dryers, lighting, and mirrors, and ensure that they have sufficient privacy. You will also want to have separate spaces for all genders.

Bar Area Décor

After renovations, your interiors will need some sprucing up to create the ambiance you want in your establishment. One area you will need to pay attention to is the bar area’s colors, art, seating arrangements, lighting, music, and everything in between.

The atmosphere of your establishment will be determined by the type of clientele you wish to attract. The best approach when designing the interior of your establishment would be working with an interior designer specializing in bars and brewery décor.

Opening Up Your Doors

After you have done everything right, it is time to open your doors. But opening the doors to your establishment will take more than renovations. You must ensure that you abide by federal and state requirements for an alcoholic beverage establishment which may vary by state and whether it’s a bar or a brewery.

Also, you will need to hire some workforce to help run your business. If it’s your first time running a brewery business, management can be challenging.

The good news is that resources such as getollie.com can help take care of the taxing management duties. These include managing production, order processing, customer relationships, payments, and inventory on one platform, to make your work much more manageable.

Final Words

The craft beer industry is among the fastest-growing sectors and among the best areas to invest in. However, the speed at which you grow will depend on how well your establishment attracts and retains patrons. The refurbishing ideas listed in this guide can help you create the perfect place where patrons will want to keep coming.