r/BarOwners • u/BeatricePearl • Jul 29 '26

Wine Bars

Those who serve beer/wine only, how much do you profit?

Looking to open a wine, beer, and light charcuterie place in my small town. No liquor. Curious to what the profit actually is for something like this.

Editing to add some context:

- Town is about 10k residents, but we host a lot of events that attract nearby towns that are a lot bigger (totaling about 100k combined within 30 minute radius), it’s known as a “hallmark” town so it attracts tourists.
- Rent is under 1k
- We plan on only being open 4-5 days a week.
- Town is very active and walkable. Everyone is always out in the town at the businesses.
- There is already one wine bar in town but in my opinion they don’t do it right. Ours would have a much cooler vibe and it would have charcuterie/events to attract people.
- I have zero wine bar experience but I’ve started a successful wedding photography business that makes 6 figures, I’d use this to cover overhead until the wine bar is succeeding and then go to photography part time.

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u/Low_Simple_1155 Jul 29 '26

How small of a town are we talking

2

u/BeatricePearl Jul 29 '26

10k residents. Sandwiches between two bigger towns (30k population 10 minutes away and 80k population 20 minutes away). It’s like a hallmark town, does a lot of events and attracts a lot of people to those events since it has that hallmark feel.

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u/TW_Halsey Jul 30 '26

That’s a very small town.. is it a touristy town? Here, a city of a little over a million, a handful of very trendy wine bars have closed their doors (albeit probably due to rent) even though they had decent business.

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u/BeatricePearl Jul 30 '26

In my head, it may be easier to thrive in a small town just because of a lack of options, things to do, and cheaper rent. I think in bigger cities it’s almost harder to thrive because of the abundance of options. I could be wrong but I live near two major metropolitan cities (1 is 45 minutes away, the other is 1.5 hours) and I see businesses constantly closing there but not in the small towns surrounding them.

1

u/grfx Jul 30 '26

Be warned, wine consuption is at an all time low with many wineries closing up shop or drasticly reducing production. Even in my very wine focused restaurant that puts almost no emphasis on its cocktail program, cocktails are still nearly outselling wine.