Bars, Restaurants and Breweries

Bars are the one setting where the plumbing is usually right there. If your build has a dump sink at the well, most of this is already solved and you don’t need convincing otherwise.

The gap is everywhere else in the room. The service end where floor glassware lands. The dining side where a bus tub sits until someone has a free hand. The path from table to dish pit that runs across a floor guests walk on.

Behind the bar

During a rush a bartender doesn’t leave the well. That’s the whole job.

So when a server drops a rack of glassware at the service end, it sits. It’s holding melted ice, backwash and citrus. Nobody empties it until there’s a gap, and gaps are exactly what a rush doesn’t have.

A station at the service end takes those returns without anybody crossing the well or breaking a pour. Two of the four casters lock, which matters behind a bar where things get knocked and a unit that wanders becomes a trip hazard in a tight space.

The footprint is what makes this workable. Roughly 14 to 16 inches across the front and 8 to 10 inches deep, in a tall upright shape rather than a wide tub. Behind a bar, the only floor that’s genuinely free is a narrow strip, and a squat container gets pushed somewhere useless.

The restaurant path

A restaurant has lower drink volume than a bar and a much longer path.

Glasses go from a table to a bus point to the dish pit, holding liquid the entire way. Every one of those legs is a chance to drip on a floor guests are walking on, and the tub that arrives at the dish pit is heavy for no reason.

The win is at the bus point rather than the pit. Empty there and the tub that travels is light and dry, the dish team gets glassware instead of glassware plus soup, and the dining room floor stays clean without anyone mopping mid-service.

Breweries and taprooms

Taprooms have a specific version of this. High pour volume, a lot of partial pours, tasting flights that come back mostly full, and often a bar built into a production space where the drainage was designed for the brewery rather than for service.

Sample glasses and flight paddles produce a lot of small volumes fast. The station takes them at the point they come back rather than accumulating in a tub behind the taps.

Closing

This is where the bill arrives.

Everything service deferred is waiting at the end of the night. Racks still holding liquid, a parked bus tub, cups on a back counter, a bin somebody poured drinks into that’s now too heavy to move without splitting.

The order that works is liquid first, then solids, then floors. Most rooms run it in reverse because the liquid step has no home. Give it one at the point of collection and it stops being a closing task at all.

At the end, the station itself is the last thing handled. Roll it to a drain, twist the drain plug at the base of the narrow end, and it empties where it stands. Rinse both compartments and lift the lid off if it needs it. No filters anywhere in it, so nothing traps residue overnight.

What the unit is

Two compartments with a fixed perforated HDPE separator. Ice, citrus, straws, stirrers and cups stay on top. Liquid drains into a lower reservoir that holds up to 21 gallons.

It stands 36 inches tall, roughly waist height, which is the difference between a one-movement empty and a bend repeated a few hundred times a shift. Staff route around low containers. They stack glasses on a counter instead, and that’s how a slow close starts.

The transparent Liquid Level Reader on the front shows whether it needs draining before the late rush or whether it holds to close.

How many

One at the service end covers most single bars. A room with a separate dining side wants a second at the bus point. A multi-floor venue or a group of bars under one roof needs one per service point, which is what the 3-Pack, 6-Pack and 12-Pack exist for.

Common questions

See the range and volume packs at the shop, or discuss a multi-site order on the wholesale page. For other settings, see all venue types.

Further reading