The Irish Pub Concept was created by Guinness (now Diageo) as the benchmark for developing quality Irish Pubs outside of Ireland. Yes, they did it to help sell Guinness beer, but never thought that twenty years later, some 6,500 pubs would have been opened as a direct result of their idea.

Creating an ‘authentic’ Irish Pub outside of Ireland is challenging, but the Irish Pub Concept comes as close as you can without actually getting on a plane to Dublin.

Pubs have a very different ratio of food sales to beverage sales than most restaurants. Pubs maintain high food sales while also developing very healthy beverage sales at times when most restaurants are quiet….afternoons, cocktail hour and late night, for instance. Because beverage cost of sales and beverage labor cost are lower than for food, this makes pubs far more likely to be more profitable.

Your first steps will be as follows:

Finding restaurant or pub financing is a challenge in 2018 because, rightly or wrongly, it is considered high risk. The main types of financing are as follows:

1. Bank, Credit Union, SBA (small business loan)
2. Personal Equity (your own money)
3. Investors (Family, friends, business partners, high net worth individuals)

Ideally, you are looking for an existing restaurant premises which can be renovated. That way, you have existing infrastructure such as HVAC, kitchen ventilation hoods, washrooms etc. and will save some money as compared to fitting out a building from scratch.

Please check with your local beer distributor to see what marketing support might be available for your pub.

If you have restaurant or bar experience, that is certainly an advantage. If you have small business experience, that is certainly an advantage. If you do not have restaurant experience but do have small business experience than you will need to hire management who can help you through the learning curve. The qualities you will need most are a strong work ethic, a very quality-focused approach and endless patience.