There is something inherently glamorous about peddling booze and loud music for a living–it seems simple enough, really. Instinctive.

The clinking of glasses, the steady flow of alcohol, the booming music, the hot chicks, the epic stories being created and shared and everyone knowing your name… Ah, to own a bar. Who hasn’t, in their dreams? Who hasn’t walked out of a bar, his head spinning with grand ideas of how he can one-up the one he’s just been to?

This is why the dream of starting a bar is so attractive to so many people, most especially to men. It’s a chance to extend our reckless lifestyle beyond the mortality of our student lives. Before any of us learned the finer points of business, we learned the subtleties of taking a few shots one night and not remembering it the morning after.

Free-Flowing

What we do remember, however, is the feeling of dissatisfaction, however small, that leads to the genesis of an idea. What would make that bar better? What could I do to improve? “You see something, and you say, I know how to make this better,” says Raffy Galvez, a junior with designs on putting his stamp on the night scene. “You think of ways to make your bar the ‘perfect bar.”

This pursuit is a difficult one, with many possible roads. Cheap prices can be a simple focal point, but it should not be your only draw. “We wanted a place of our own, where we could enjoy our foreign beer at a cheaper price,” says PJ Castro, owner of Pivo bar. He didn’t even expect success at first. “Starting up Pivo was a gamble, and it just so happened that it worked out,” he shares.

Freshman Stefi Barbers says that opening up a bar is a different experience. “At first, we were really excited,” she says about Hierarchy, a bar in the Fort owned by her family. “Everyday it was jam-packed, and people would bring their friends.”

Raffy says that the need to stay unique is inspiring more and more creativity in the bar scene. “A bar has to have an X-Factor, it’s got to be more than just a dark room with music, for example. There’s this one bar in the States that has a stock market theme,” he shares. “Over the bar itself is a big stock market board with all of the drinks on it. When no one’s buying a drink, the board updates itself and the drink’s price drops.” When asked how he plans to make his own bar unique, he stays mum. “Can’t reveal that just yet,” he says coyly.

Last Call

As tempting as it may seem, you can’t view running a bar as an endless torrent of booze, women, memories, music, dancing and fun. Running a bar is still a business. And as with any sort of enterprise, there is the possibility of failure, of closing up shop, of that last Last Call.

This can be brought about by many factors. You might lose that X-Factor, for example, as other people copy what you do and do it better. PJ refers to this as being a “guinea pig” for the competition.

“We paved the way for the foreign beer market,” he says. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, as these new bars can adapt and be much better. “Eight months in, other establishments selling foreign beer started to come out.”

With this loss of novelty or of “newness”, comes a loss of customers, and inevitably, a loss of money. “After about a year, the bar started to die,” Stefi says. “We had to cut down costs. There were some months when we didn’t even break even.”

Bars are especially prone to bouts of dead time–between the lack of business during the weekdays and in the afternoons, most prominent in the months surrounding the holidays, it can at times be a little difficult to turn a profit. And there’s also that chance of the simple fact of burnout–you could get tired of it, eventually.

“You have to be up at night, and sleep during the day because of all the work that needs to be done,” Stefi frets. “Even if you own it, you have to work your butt off.” Even the starry-eyed, would-be owner agrees. “At some point, I think I’d get tired of partying every other night,” Raffy says, shaking his head. “There’s probably going to come a time when I can’t party anymore.”

Inspiration

At the end of the day, the reasons people have for wanting to own their own bars are as varied as the people themselves. Some want to share a vision, or to share culture. “We started Pivo because we wanted a place to drink our beer and educate people about the different kinds of foreign beer,” says PJ. “And now it’s steadily working, with our customers coming in and trying out new flavors.” As it stands, Pivo already has more than a hundred foreign beers on its menu.

A few are masters of impeccable timing and seizing opportunity. The Barbers’ family has plans of finding partners and opening up several new bars in various locations over the next few years, and then closing them on a high note–just as the initial stupor over them has worn off and a market has already been established. “Open it for six months, then sell it, then open up another,” says Stefi. Whether such a deft business strategy will pay its dividends is another question entirely, but nobody can deny their ingenuity. “You know how it is for bars. [You] have to change up the image.”

For others, it’s much simpler than that. “My friend, who I’m planning on opening this bar with, man, he wants to be famous,” Raffy says. “We want this to be the best bar ever.” Add to that a uniquely egalitarian point of view. “We don’t like those clubs where the celebrities and VIPs get in first; we want an equal playing ground. The bar’s going to be so popular, that everyone will want to come.” And just like that, you have a unique concept ready for liftoff.

Ultimately, whatever way people choose to live out this fantasy is their decision. It is far from an easy translation into reality, business can be brutal after all—but nobody can deny the charm in walking into a room full of people having the time of their lives, and knowing you are making a living off of it.

In the end, that elusive feeling of satisfaction kicks in when you know that those long formative years in college have led you right back into the thick of a good party. And at the end of the night, maybe you’re even taking a swig of that signature drink that you’ve always dreamed of concocting, in a place that you’re only more than elated to call your own.

*Pivo Bar is located at Ortigas Home Depot Food Walk