Irmelin

My husband have a dream of having a bar to sell Belgian beers. We are looking to rent a place in Javea port, there is one quit nice available in busy area. It is smallish, but it is the size we want. Does anyone done similar from scratch, I do not know if place has license to sell alcohol, so if not where do we get one? What would we need to open the bar? This will not be a life support job, we have other business and a bit of spare time now, and the bar was a dream of his for some time, of course it will be nice to make it profitable, but it is just one of those thing that you had to try or you'll regret all your life that you didn't my main concern is that we do it within Spanish law and don't got into trouble for something we didn't know about, so if anyone can share experience that will be much appreciated.

EMR

I would have thought that your first step would be to go back to basic business principles.
Is there are market in the area you are looking for a premium product such as Belgian beers.
What is your customer base , will they still be around in the depths of winter ? Etc etc.

mikelincs

One thing you will need is a lot of optimism, the reason that bar is up for rent is that the previous tenants couldn't make it pay, maybe because of all the other bars in the area. What you will need is a lot of money you are prepared to lose, because, unfortunately, that is what most of them will do. You will need the proper licenses from the town hall, and some good advice from someone in the area as to why the previous owner decided to leave.

Irmelin

The place wasn't a bar it was a pizza place. Javea has half a population that are British, German and Russians, so I trust there is market there for quality beer, there are spanish bar just across the road but they only have 2 taps of Spanish beers on and as we not planning on selling Spanish beers then they are not a competition and may pass some traffic to us we are aiming for people who want to have a nice choice of quality beers and prepare to pay for it...as I sad the area is busy, but we want know until we open how much of that traffic will stop at our place

EMR

In Portugal where we have our second home there is a bar owned by a couple from Belgium.
They too thought there was a market for premium beers.
The Brits, Dutch, Belgians who are most of his customers want local beer on draught and do not want to pay at least double for an imported product.
In the winter when the tourists leave he does not even stock them as the price is prohibitive for the locals and tourists are thin on the ground.

cricketman

Belgian bear and heat do not mix. They are way too heavy. Lovely winter beers

Cruzcampo (from Seville) has absolutely no body so it cools you down when its 40c outside. Same reason why La Guita manzanilla is so good when its really hot

bob_bob

You clearly know nothing about Belgian beers, there are many at 5% abv or less, they are not all in the high abv bracket.

A specialty bar like this would struggle, but thats only a guess on my part. Tourists want 'value for money' overall (real or perceived).

Fred James

Absolutely! The cheapest pint on the street wins the customers. If you can't offer high profit addons such as good food it won't work.

The Brits want cheap San Miguel and the locals won't touch the "foreign rubbish".

cricketman

I know plenty about Belgian beers thank you

"Heavy" doesnt mean high abv, it means it has a weighty body - it makes you feel heavy after drinking it.

The best beer in Spain imo is Alhambra Reserva 1925 which has a high alcohol content 6.4% but is light as a summer's day

EMR

One of our supermarkets which in season caters for the tourists trade had a display of Belgian beers.
With prices ranging from 4- 15euros for a bottle I cannot see how with a decent mark up any bar could attract the average customer.

bob_bob

No, you really know nothing, have you tried the lighter Belgian beers, similar in strength and taste to a British pale ale?

CM, you really need to take a break from here, your posts are becoming more unbelievable by the day

VFR

Deep pockets (very deep from what I have read over the years) and luck.

BTW good luck.

Irmelin

I don't know perhaps our love for Belgian beer fogs our judgment I know if I see la chouffe or blanche de bruxelles anywhere in the bar I'll buy it without looking at the price, I will drink Spanish beer during the day as it is as water and actually not as cheep here, price for small glass is between 2.30 to 3.50 euro, but in the evening when I get a chance to go out I won't more, something I would enjoy to drink. The area we ended up in quite different to any our holiday destinations, to start with I saw first time in my life que to beach restorants, not all of them but at least 7 out of probably 20 we have on beach front an another 20 in second lane, it is not unusual to see tables reserved for lunch time and in the evening at those places, so they must be doing something right and people come back

LibertyE

There's a bar specializing in hundreds of different international beers (not just Belgian) where I live and it has been there for donkeys years. I've lived here for 15 years and it has been there longer than I have.

Business appears to be going well for them as the bar is always packed at weekends, but I think that their success is at least in part due to location. They are city centre and not in a tourist area so protected from seasonal ebb and flow, & meaning they have plenty of 'regulars'.

It's quite far from my house but I am more than willing to take a trip into the city centre from time to time to have a decent beer that isn't Shitcampo. Again. And I don't suppose I am the only one.

I don't really know anything about the bar business at all, but it seems that if you get all the ingredients right there is no reason why you can't have a long standing successful business. Just need to figure out what those ingredients are!!

Good luck anyway

Mitzyboy

Thats not actually strictly true. I drink Belgian beers regularly, after having travelled in Belgium and visited breweries over there, especially Bruges and the Brouwerij De Halve Maan (ZOT). There are plently of light Belgian beers. What I do notice though is that even in the specialist off licences we have here, there are very few of the beers that we actually drank in Belgium available. Maybe thats the same in Spain, I dont know.

As regards starting a foreign beer bar in the Port area of Javea, well ..... You'd have your work cut out. There may well be a lot of Germans there, but Belgian Beer isn't cheap, and once you have imported it to spain and added the costs, you would struggle to compete with the Spanish Beers of choice in what is a cost driven market