Are drinkers turned off by bar dress codes?

Two bar group managers discuss whether imposing a dress code is necessary to create the ‘right’ image, or if doing so comes at the price of alienating customers.

Flip flops: Should this style of contentious footwear cost a bar customers?

It’s every imbiber’s worst nightmare, when off on a night out with friends, or even worse, on a first date, you get turned away from a venue simply because your shoes are too white, or not the right style, or your shirt is not trendy enough.

It’s a bar’s prerogative to have a dress code, its owners can choose to lead the venue in which ever direction they please, but does it make business sense when style comes at the cost of footfall? Most groups of consumers will simply go somewhere else if at least one is turned away.

On the other hand, high-end hotel bars frequented by the affluent and well-to-do risk upsetting their existing guests by allowing baseball caps, scruffy jeans and flip flops.

A dress code may be appropriate for some venues, but how do operators go about getting it right, and avoid upsetting potential guests?

Two respected bartenders – Chris Edwards of Salts of the Earth, and Randy Greenstein of Big Night Entertainment discuss the dilemma.

Which of our judges do you agree with? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Chris Edwards, Cocktail counsellor and director, Salts of the Earth, UK

I don’t think bars should have a dress code; we are just about to open a new bar in Brixton and we haven’t got a dress code and, if I’m honest, I don’t think we ever will.

In such a cut-throat industry where you have more bars opening than ever before, you’ve got to be accessible to everyone. You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, so to speak; you have to look at every customer as a big spender and then take it from there.

Our new venue will be a local cocktail bar situated next to a park, so we are expecting locals to come direct from work but also straight from the park, most probably in flip-flops during the summer. You have to make yourself open and, to do that, I think you have to let everyone in regardless of what they’re wearing.

I’ve been turned away by a hotel bar before even though I was wearing a smart pair of shorts and a shirt, but for an establishment like that I suppose to an extent I can appreciate why they would do it.

However, what I see quite often is bars placing themselves in higher esteem than they deserve. There are many speakeasy bars around that don’t allow people in due to what they’re wearing when, personally, I think they should be more openminded and have less prejudice towards certain clientele. If you discourage people from returning to your venue, ultimately you risk creating a bad reputation for your bar and brand.

I haven’t seen many people who look a bit untidy go on to rack up a huge bar tab, and I think part of that is because a lot of people don’t go out dressed in scruffy clothes and trainers any more; it’s all about skinny jeans and smart shoes. People make a conscious effort to dress smarter when they go out, so even if they do wear trainers, more often than not they’re a smart pair.

You just can’t predict what the customer is going to be like or how much they plan on spending based on their clothing. At the end of the day, we just want people to make an effort to visit our bar and enjoy what we’re providing for them, not focus on what they’re wearing.

Randy Greenstein, Co-owner, Big Night Entertainment Group, US

For me, no matter what kind of venue it is, you have to establish some sort of dress code. Even at our more casual venues such as the sports bars, we don’t want people coming in tank tops or completely ripped jeans in which you can view body parts you don’t want to see.

A lot of people don’t like it and they’ll ask: “Why can’t I be a customer like everyone else inside?” Unfortunately, we have to disappoint a few to make thousands happy. Nobody’s excited about not being able to get into a place, but they’ll go away and change into nice shoes rather than their not-nice sneakers.

When they come back, we are still very hospitable and treat them with the upmost respect because they have been respectful in abiding by the rules. We love to see them come back dressed appropriately and we don’t hesitate to invite them right in because, at the end of the day, we want to have them as customers.

We do get gentlemen who get very angry, yell, curse and scream but, from our point of view, if you can’t handle the fact that you’re not in the right attire, you probably can’t handle having a couple of beverages inside you.

We run high-end establishments so most of our customers dress up in the first place. However, you have to treat each venue differently.

Some of our places have a stricter dress code such as no hats, no tank tops and no sneakers. Usually, the bigger the venue, the stricter the dress code. We don’t allow people to just walk in from the beach in flip-flops or athletic wear; there are 10 other places nearby that you could go to for that. Our company name is Big Night Entertainment and we really look for everyone to have a big night out every time they go out.

It’s a luxury to go out and, when you do, you’re probably not going to want to be next to someone dressed in flip-flops and shorts if it’s not that kind of place.

So there’s always a certain dress code to keep things at a certain standard.