Why Bars Should Think Twice Before Changing A Winning Formula
I’ve seen great bars change the very things that made them popular, only to watch their customers disappear along with them. From a favorite Toronto bar to a legendary San Diego Sunday scene, here’s what can happen when management messes with a winning formula.
Sometimes, bars don’t know when they have a good thing going.
Like Facebook, they are always tinkering. Making changes, though not necessarily improving. Adding things that people don’t like while taking away things they do like.
Sometimes, it’s smart just to leave well enough alone.
How Al Frisco’s In Toronto Changed A Winning Formula
Which brings me to Al Frisco’s my favorite bar in Toronto.
Or at least it was my favorite bar in Toronto.
It was the prefect combination of pub and club, had the best patio in the city, some of the best food, the friendliest and best staff, and combined it with a happening bar upstairs. It was classy but also casual, had no picky doorman, no lines around the block and no cover charge.
I went there every day during my days during “the Indy,” often for lunch (it had a spectacular dish called Chicken Milano) and certainly for beers at night. It was prefect. And it was always packed. The patio, in fact, was Toronto’s social hub; just about everyone in the city was walking by it, on it, or waiting to get a table.
Then, the place apparently got tired of making money. It did a makeover, changed the menu (removing the Chicken Milano!) and tried to the upstairs bar into a South Beach or Vegas lounge. Its attitude changed along with the decor, turning from friendly pub to high-brow club.
The result? The patrons started disguising themselves as empty barstools.
In my last trip to Toronto, I was so eager to get back to Al Frisco’s, I could hardly stand it. My friend who lives in that great city resisted, but eventually succumbed. We went there, but the place isn’t even called Al Frisco’s anymore; it’s Jack Astor’s and is a poor third to other more happening JA’s in town (Dundas Square has the top spot now). I was disappointed to the highest degree.
It was one of the biggest bar bummers I had ever encountered.
When San Diego’s Barefoot Bar Changed Its Winning Formula
The all-time colossal bar screw-up is in San Diego. The Barefoot Bar was a great spot, right on the water and the undisputed “playa del rey” in the city on Sundays. People could come up in paddleboats across Mission Bay and hop onto the deck. Their destination was inside, a room that resembled an igloo that had sand on the floor. There was a shelf at the door where people put their sandals and they danced barefoot all afternoon and into the evening.
It was crazy, it was fun and it was profitable for the bar.
Then one day, a new owner took over, decided he wanted to make it “more for families” and, well, at last report there were three people sitting at the bar wondering why they were there rather than someplace else.
Know Why Customers Love Your Bar Before Changing It
So here’s a message to bar owners and managers: If you’ve got something good going, understand why it’s working before changing it. Improving a successful bar is one thing. Changing the very things that made people love it can cost you customers — and much more in the long run.
The Nightlife Blogger is the bar columnist for PubClub.com, An award-winning journalist, Kevin Wilkerson has spent more than two decades covering bars, nightlife, destinations and events around the world, always searching for the stories and experiences most travelers overlook.
Great comment! You brought back some very good memories of Al’s. Just loved that place. Yeah, another Jack’s!
I completely agree on your tribute to Al’s. I used to Dj there from around 1996 to 2000. I had a blast – people were awesome, and there was very very little attitude in that bar. Whether it was from management, the bartenders, the buskids, the clientele, or the door staff – everyone was cool and fun to be with. I enjoyed the wide range of music that people were into there. (Yeah sure, some people stuck their heads in the usual ‘wedding party favourites’ but when Caribana was happening, things would be so heated in the bar. It was just humid and sticky and primal and fun! I miss those days, but you know Al’s wasn’t going to last if it continued a track that didn’t promote a worthy change, and the change was to be more selective in the market that the management wanted. I remember, after I left, that the manager in charge at that time went to a fully R+B/rap playlist, then eventually the re-model was done to become Al’s Brasserie(you might be able to see the results in images online, but very VIP club/lounge feeling), and then…this. Another Jack’s – as if we didn’t have enough of them already. Oh well….It’s an awesome location, the buildings themselves were rowhouses that were gutted with only the stonewalls remaining (as told to me by the brewmaster who worked on Al’s in-house beers), there was also a secret way to the rooftop! Ah memories..and thanks for sharing! I’m glad you enjoyed the experience too!