The bar itself

A bar is a workstation designed around not moving. Anything used constantly is within reach without stepping; anything used occasionally is behind you. The layout differs between venues because the building does, but the rules underneath don't.

• Glassware within reach of the station, so making a drink never means walking the length of the bar.
• Spirits on the back bar, facing out. They're the display as well as the stock, and the ones you pour most sit in the speed rail in front of you instead.
• Juices and perishables chilled and close. Anything that goes in a drink cold has to be cold before it goes in.
• Garnishes at hand and covered, prepped for the shift.
• Ice wells within reach of both hands.
• Everything tidy, constantly. It's a speed requirement. You can't find things in a mess at eleven on a Friday.

The trough of bottles directly in front of the station holds the pours that make up most of the night: the house gin, vodka, rum, whisky, tequila, triple sec, and the two vermouths. They're arranged in the same order every shift, so you can find them without looking. The usual order runs by how often each is poured and by category: vodka and gin first, then rum, then whisky and tequila, then the modifiers - triple sec and the two vermouths - at the far end. What matters is less which order than that it never changes.

The barback restocks, cuts garnish, hauls ice, changes kegs and clears glassware. It's the job that decides whether a bar can survive a rush, and on a busy night it's more physically demanding than making the drinks.

Opening. The bar is set before the first guest. Ice wells full, garnish cut and covered, juice opened and dated, the speed rail checked bottle by bottle against what it should hold, the till floated, the glass washer run once empty. The test is whether the first drink is as quick as the fiftieth.

Par levels. A par is what the bar should hold at the start of a shift - two of whatever spirit goes fastest in the rail, usually vodka, and one in reserve, a case of tonic, and so on down the list. Restocking to par is the barback's first job and the manager's last check. Without a written par the busy night is the one you run out on.

Closing. Everything washed, everything covered, everything open dated. Pourers off and washed, because fruit flies find them overnight. Ice wells emptied, never left full. Cash counted against the till, and the wastage written down before it is forgotten.

Wastage is drink that left the bottle or the keg and never reached a paying glass. Beer goes first, and usually at the tap: a pour that foams over because the glass was warm, the keg was warm, the tap is faulty or the person pouring does not know how, and the foam is tipped out and the glass filled again. Wine goes by the overpour. A 750 ml bottle is five 150 ml glasses and sparkling is usually poured at 120, so a heavy hand loses a glass a bottle and the bar pays for it. Cocktails go the same way, one over-measured spirit or liqueur at a time.

A stock system compares what sold against what is missing, and a good one allows for some of this. A gap is not proof that anyone is stealing. It can be the system's own recipes: if the Margarita is set to draw down generic triple sec when the bar actually pours Cointreau, the count is wrong every time the drink sells, and it shows up as a leak in the wrong bottle. Check the recipes in the system before you check the staff.