No Kitchen, No Problem: You Don’t Need Food to Run a Successful Bar

“Why would they build a place this nice and not have food?”

“Without food this place will never survive.”

“This place doesn’t have food? I give it three months.”

I’ve heard it all. Every time I build a new bar — and I’ve built and run over 20 outlets in the past 23 years — someone rushes in with the same tired prophecy: no kitchen, no chance. And every time, I smile and say: We don’t have food. We don’t want food. We don’t need food.

And not only do we survive, we thrive.

Let’s get this out of the way first: we’re not a dark, sticky dive bar handing out dusty peanuts. My bars are highly designed, cocktail-forward, and rooted in exceptional hospitality. We’re busy. We’re profitable. And we don’t serve a single entrée.

A food program can be great, if that is your vision and your business plan for your space. It will alter your margins and it will affect your payroll. But, it is not a necessity. You can run a great bar, with great service and a great vibe, and not having food won’t be a dealbreaker in its success or its profitability — the metrics we’ve seen in our bars are proof.

Here’s why not doing food might just be the smartest move you can make.

You’ve got 3,000 square feet. Try squeezing a kitchen in there. Suddenly your vibrant cocktail lounge starts to feel like a cramped diner. If you want to do food well, you’ll need 5,000–6,000 square feet minimum — and that upgrade comes with a monster lease.

A commercial kitchen build-out? Add $100K, easy. And now you’re also budgeting for grease traps, hoods, permits, and a whole new layer of operational hell.

Menus. Tastings. Plateware. Health codes. Equipment sourcing. Training cooks. Managing inventory. Redoing the menu when a fryer breaks.
All that time? That’s brain drain. And brain drain = money.

Every hour you spend obsessing over truffle fries is an hour you’re not spending on your vibe, your drinks, your people, and your brand.

Want to watch your payroll explode? Add a kitchen. Now you’ve got BOH and FOH staffing needs, scheduling headaches, and turnover that’ll make your head spin.

Compare that to my model: fewer bodies, better focus, tighter culture, and way more margin.

At my old bar-and-grill concepts we did it all: brunch, lunch, dinner, late night — our best years netted 10–12 percent. That’s with a 16-hour day and food running the show.

Now? My no-food bars net 17–36 percent. Prime costs are sub-43 percent.
That’s how you pay back your loan fast, keep your staff happy, and actually make money.

You know who’s not complaining about the lack of food? Our guests.

People go out to dinner, and then they want a scene. They’re not hunting for a second steak. They want great music, beautiful lighting, killer drinks, and a place that feels alive.

We’re that place. We’re the pregame, the nightcap, the no-pressure meet-up, the high-energy finale.

Don’t underestimate the joy of not having someone’s half-eaten nachos smell up the bar. Or the convenience of not needing a kitchen flip at 10 p.m.

I love food. In fact, my bars rely on the great restaurants around them to thrive. The more, the better. But I’m not in the food business, I’m in the experience business. And trying to be both waters down the magic.

There’s power in focus. When you strip away the distractions and go all-in on drinks, energy, hospitality, and design, you create something people remember. Something they return to.

Going food-free is scary. It goes against the grain. But that’s exactly why it works — when done right. If you build the right concept, in the right spot, with the right experience, you don’t need to serve a single bite.

Be the bar everyone wants to go to after dinner. Or before. Or instead of. Let the restaurants battle for brunch covers and ticket averages. You’ve got better things to pour.