Spec against throughput
Rotovap, centrifuge, sous-vide, ultrasonic, Spinzall, vacuum sealer, walk-in batching, glycol chiller — only if the minutes and the menu pay for them. The itemized engagement is on Services.
Prep-lab design & build
Stop doing commissary in a kitchen corner at eleven at night.
Hotels and multi-unit groups hire Andreas Sanidiotis to design the production room the bars should have been drawing from: equipment spec sized to throughput, architect-ready layout, HACCP batching SOPs, and a team trained to run it. Eight to fourteen weeks. You buy the kit. We do not mark it up.
#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
The hire
A lab is not a rotovap. It is a production line.
Most groups buy a piece of kit and park it next to the ice well. That is not a prep lab. A lab is the room, the load calculation, the SOPs, and the people who can run a batch without inventing food safety at 1 a.m. The public record behind this practice is a World’s 50 Best #25 program and rooms that held volume — the lab work is how that standard scales past one stick.
Drawings the GC can use
Room layout plus electrical and plumbing requirements, delivered as architect-ready drawings. We work alongside your general contractor. We are not the contractor, and we do not pull permits.
SOPs the night team can rerun
Batching protocols, HACCP-compliant production, two-day on-site training, 30-day troubleshooting. The labor argument is in Your Labor Problem Is a Prep Problem.
A single bar with a prep problem usually needs a refresh, not a room: bar consultant or Program Refresh. A hotel opening that will need commissary from day one belongs on hotel bar consultant with this engagement attached. Bottled lines that outgrow an in-house lab: RTD / bottled cocktail consulting.
Related consulting
The lab is the room. Not the whole practice.
Hotel F&B
Property openings and running hotel bars — including when the opening needs a lab. Hotel bar consultant.
Bar operations
Pour cost, prep inside an existing bar, suppliers, training. No new room required. Bar consultant.
The program around it
Menus, openings, refreshes: bar program development. The category hire: beverage consultant.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
What is a bar prep lab?
A dedicated production room for the work that should not happen on the stick: batching, clarification, infusions, syrups, and anything that needs HACCP-compliant process. Service bars draw from the lab. Bartenders stop doing commissary in a kitchen corner at eleven at night.
Who needs a prep-lab build versus a menu refresh?
Groups with three or more outlets, and hotels with centralized commissary potential. A single room with a prep problem usually needs a Program Refresh — workflows and batching inside the existing bar. A lab is for throughput that no longer fits behind one stick.
Do we have to buy a rotovap?
No. Equipment is specified against throughput, not a brochure. A rotovap, centrifuge, sous-vide, Spinzall, or glycol chiller that does not earn its keep in menu impact or labor minutes stays in the catalog. You buy direct from suppliers at invoice; we do not mark up kit.
What does the prep-lab engagement include — and exclude?
Site walkthrough, current-state assessment, equipment spec, architect-ready layout with electrical and plumbing requirements, batching SOPs, HACCP-compliant production protocols, two-day on-site team training, and 30-day post-launch troubleshooting. Not included: equipment purchase, general contracting, and permitting. We work alongside your GC. The itemized list is on Services.
How long does a prep-lab design and build take?
Eight to fourteen weeks, design through build supervision. Timeline moves with your GC and lead times on specified equipment — those are outside this scope.
Next step
Fifteen minutes usually answers it.
Tell us the outlets, the current prep corner, and the throughput you are missing — you’ll leave the call knowing whether this is a lab or a workflow problem.