The opening timeline
Concept through 90 days post-opening — the 16-week sequence ownership can actually schedule against. Full scope on the Opening Beverage Program.
Hotel bar consultant · F&B openings
Hotel bars that earn their keep — not lobby afterthoughts.
Hotel F&B directors and opening teams hire Andreas Sanidiotis to treat the beverage program as a brand decision: a 16-week timeline, a costed list, prep that survives banquet volume, and a team that can run it after the consultant leaves. World’s 50 Best #25, two Tales of the Cocktail nominations, programs in New York, Austin, Nicosia, and Abu Dhabi.
#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
What hotel F&B is hiring
One program. Three dayparts. One pour-cost target.
A hotel bar is not a cocktail bar with a longer wine list. Lobby hour, dinner, and late night are three different guests in the same room. The work is building one operation that can serve all three without three different teams inventing the menu every night.
The hotel list
Twenty to thirty cocktails, wine and spirits curation, and an NA program built to the same standard — every drink costed before it is named. That is bar program development, not a tasting deck.
The volume machine
Prep systems sized to banquet and à la carte, supplier setup while opening orders still have leverage, and train-the-trainer so hotel turnover doesn’t reset the room. Prep-lab design when the math justifies it; a house bottled line when minibar or banquet needs one: RTD cocktail consultant.
The public record behind this work is not a hotel awards slide. It is a World’s 50 Best #25 program run from the floor, two Tales nominations in one year, and a volume rum program opened in Abu Dhabi — Lost & Found, Here Nor There / In Plain Sight, Casa de Cuba.
Related consulting
Hotel F&B is the brief. These are the neighbors.
Each landing is a different hire. If you are not opening or running a hotel bar, use the page that matches the room.
Bar operations
Independent bars and restaurant bars that need the whole operation — pour cost, prep, staffing, suppliers — not a property opening. Bar consultant.
New York rooms
A NYC-based engagement with local floor time. Remote and on-site still available elsewhere. Bar consultant NYC.
Broader beverage
Hotels plus restaurants and independent bars, wine and NA included. Menu-and-technique work lives on cocktail consultant; the wider practice is beverage consultant.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
What does a hotel bar consultant do that a head bartender hire doesn't?
A head bartender runs a shift. A hotel bar consultant builds the program the property has to run after the consultant leaves: positioning for lobby hour versus late night, a 20–30 drink opening list with wine, spirits, and NA, costed specs, supplier setup, prep systems sized to banquet and à la carte volume, and train-the-trainer so turnover doesn’t reset the room.
When should a hotel bring a beverage consultant in for an opening?
Twelve to sixteen weeks before doors. Later is still workable, but you are no longer designing a bar — you are improvising one. The week-by-week sequence is in Opening a Hotel Bar.
Do you work on existing hotel bars or only openings?
Both. Openings run 12–16 weeks plus a 90-day optimization window. Running properties that have gone stale, lost a head bartender, or drifted off their numbers take a Program Refresh: a two-week audit, a re-costed menu, and team retraining in six to ten weeks.
Can you consult remotely for a property outside New York?
Yes. The practice is based in New York and built for anywhere — programs have been delivered in Austin, Nicosia, and Abu Dhabi. Work outside NYC runs as intensive on-site blocks with remote development between them.
What's included in a hotel opening beverage program?
Concept and positioning, opening cocktail menu, wine and spirits curation, NA list, supplier negotiation, prep-lab design and equipment specification, two weeks of opening-team training, four nights of opening-week floor support, and a 90-day costing and menu review. Equipment purchase and liquor-license consulting are not included. The itemized list is on Services.
How is a hotel bar consultant 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 property, the opening date, and what F&B has already locked — you’ll leave the call knowing whether the timeline still has room to design the bar.