What to put on your home bar menu (with examples)
How many drinks to list, how to group them, what to call them and the small touches that make a home bar feel like a proper pub.
A menu changes how a home bar feels. With one, it is a bar. Without one, it is someone asking ‘what have you got?’ while you stare into the fridge. You do not need much to make a good one.
Start with what you actually have
Write down what is in the fridge and the cupboard, then cross off anything you only have one of. The menu is for drinks you can serve all evening, not the bottle someone brought back from holiday.
Group it like a pub would
Three to five sections is plenty. A typical home bar menu looks something like this:
Beer and cider: whatever you have in bottles and cans, or on tap if you have gone that far.
Wine: a red, a white and something sparkling.
Spirits and mixers: G&T, rum and Coke, a whisky.
Cocktails: one or two you can make without looking anything up.
Soft drinks: a proper section, not a footnote.
Add a Food section if a barbecue or pizza oven is involved.
Keep each section short
Five or six drinks per section is about right. Any more and people scroll past them and ask you what is good anyway. If you have a big collection, list the ones you would recommend and keep the rest as a surprise.
Give it some personality
This is the fun part, and it is what makes the menu feel like your bar rather than a price list.
Name the bar. The Rusty Anchor, The Shed, Steve’s Bar. It ends up on the menu, the sign and the group chat.
Name drinks after people. Dad’s Best Bitter, Nan’s Sherry, Mum’s usual. Everyone knows whose is whose.
Write one-line descriptions. ‘Pint, well kept.’ ‘Patience required.’ ‘Umbrella included.’ Short and slightly daft works best.
Answer the questions up front
Every bar gets the same follow-up questions. Ice? Lemon? Pint or half? Which mixer? Put the options next to the drink and you skip the back and forth. On a printed menu that can be a line underneath. On an ordering menu like Orders Up, guests pick their answer as they order.
Make the soft drinks worth ordering
Drivers, children and anyone having a night off should get a section they would actually choose from. A few that work:
Alcohol-free beer, which has got genuinely good.
A jug of homemade lemonade or iced tea.
An alcohol-free version of your cocktail, in the same glass with the same garnish.
Lemonade in a fancy glass with a straw, for the children.
Cross off what has run out
Nothing deflates a menu like ordering something that has gone. Cross it off on paper, or hide it on an ordering menu so nobody can choose it.
An example to copy
Here is a complete menu for a small garden party. Change the names and you are done.
Section | On the menu |
|---|---|
Beer and cider | Garden Lager (ice cold, obviously) · Dad’s Best Bitter (pint, well kept) · Apple cider |
Wine | House red · House white · Prosecco (for toasts) |
Spirits and mixers | G&T (lemon or lime?) · Rum and Coke · Whisky (ice or water?) |
Cocktails | Pimm’s by the jug · Espresso martini (patience required) |
Soft drinks | Homemade lemonade · Ginger beer · Alcohol-free lager · Fancy lemonade (umbrella included) |
For the practical side of the evening, there is also how to run a bar at a house party and how to make a QR code drinks menu.
Questions people ask
How many drinks should be on a home bar menu?
Five or six per section across three to five sections. That is enough choice and still short enough to read on a phone.
What should I call my home bar?
Something that sounds like a pub. ‘The’ and a noun works (The Shed, The Rusty Anchor), or name it after whoever runs it.
Should a home bar menu have prices?
Usually not. If you want help with the cost at a bigger do, a kitty jar on the bar is less awkward than prices.
What non-alcoholic drinks should a home bar have?
At least three: an alcohol-free beer, something homemade like lemonade and an alcohol-free version of your cocktail, plus water out all night.
Make your menu
Set yours up in about ten minutes, in one of eight pub-style looks.
