Openings
Concept through 90 days post-opening for hotel bars and ambitious restaurants — the 16-week timeline, executed. Full scope.
Bar program development · New York
Bar programs built to outlast the consultant.
From opening concept to the 90-day review — menus, margins, prep systems, and training delivered as one working operation, by Andreas Sanidiotis of Drinks By Neat.
#25 in the worldWorld’s 50 Best Bars, 2018 — a program built and run from behind the bar
9 straight yearson the World’s 50 Best lists, 2015–2023
2× Tales Top 10Spirited Awards nominations in one year — Cocktail Bar & Bar Team, 2018
3 continentsprograms in New York, Austin, Nicosia, and Abu Dhabi
Bar programs
Built to outlast the consultant.
A bar program is everything behind the menu: the prep systems, the costings, the supplier accounts, the training, and the standards that hold when the founder isn’t watching. That’s what gets built here — and handed over.
Refreshes
For programs that have gone stale or drifted off their numbers: audit, new menu, costing pass, retraining. Six to ten weeks.
Prep labs & production
Centralized prep for groups and hotels — lab design and build — through to bottled cocktail lines with co-packer relationships.
Programs built this way made the World’s 50 Best list nine years running and turned an Austin opening into a Spirited Awards honoree within twelve months — Lost & Found and Here Nor There / In Plain Sight show the brief, the work, and what changed. Hotel openings: hotel bar consultant. Operations hire: bar consultant.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
What does a complete bar program include?
Concept and positioning, a costed cocktail menu, wine and spirits curation, prep systems and batching workflows, supplier setup, equipment specification, HACCP-compliant SOPs, and team training — plus a 90-day post-opening optimization window. A menu alone is not a program.
How long does bar program development take?
A full opening program runs twelve to sixteen weeks before doors plus ninety days of post-opening optimization. A refresh of an existing program runs six to ten weeks end to end.
Can you fix an existing bar program without a full rebuild?
Yes — that's the Program Refresh: a two-week audit across live service, a re-costed menu of ten to eighteen drinks, and team retraining. Most margin problems are program problems, and they're fixable in weeks.
Do we need expensive equipment for a serious bar program?
No. Equipment is specified only when the math justifies it — a rotovap that doesn't pay for itself in menu impact stays in the catalog. Programs are designed to your space, volume, and staffing reality.
How is bar program development priced?
Fixed project fees scoped before work begins — openings, refreshes, and prep-lab builds — or a monthly advisory retainer. You'll know the full cost up front; every recipe, costing, and SOP is yours at the end.
Next step
Fifteen minutes usually answers it.
Tell us the room, the timeline, and what’s not working — you’ll leave the call knowing what your program needs, whether or not we work together.