Back in the "70"'s, we knew a half a dozen homes with a bar .
Either in a finished basement or in the finished garage area.

But today, I don't know anyone with a bar , either wet or dry.

They give them away on The Price is Right frequently.

Question:
So, what's up with that?

Choices:
I don't have one, but know people that do
I've never seen on in a residence
Everyone I know has at least one
I wouldn't visit anyone that did not have one
We got rid of ours
I want one, will be putting one in
Too many guns , no room for booze, ( priorities)

 

My parents old house (built mid-80s) had a wet bar off the dining room & another in the upstairs living room.
Have see a few guys that have had one put in, or brought in a small freestanding unit for theirs.

Didn't participate in the poll as there's no selection relevant to me.

I have a dry bar in the basement, but, the basement has been nothing more than a disaster area for random storage for years, with the bar being buried under a mound of drek. That changed several months ago when I decided to build my own home gym.

I'd planned to keep the bar, but, now I may want One More Piece Of Equipment, for which there may not be adequate room if I want to keep the bar.

I'm reluctant to get rid of it, but, truth be known: Even had it not been buried for years it wouldn't have been used much. I don't drink that much, my wife drinks not at all, and we hardly ever entertain.

One of my best friends, since departed, had a very nice wet bar in the walk-out basement of his home. Near as I could tell it was never used for any more than the storage of spirits.

quote:

Back in the "70"'s, we knew a half a dozen homes with a bar .

My house was built in the "70"'s; we have a bar.

quote:

I still know plenty of people who have bar-type areas in their house, but not one you get behind and actually serve from.

That's the type we have. You walk up to it; you don't stand behind it. It's along the wall and it's just a small fridge, a sink, and a place to keep booze and glasses.

It was a big trend to out a wet bar in a house between the kitchen and living room in the late 70s and 80s. It has definitely fallen out of favor to have that sort of area in a new house, but part of that is because of how open floor plans are now. I still know plenty of people who have bar-type areas in their house, but not one you get behind and actually serve from. I know of a few of those, mostly in basements or secondary entertaining areas.

A buddy of mine has the ultimate in home bar. They bought their house while it was under construction and it already had a huge oversized 2 car garage, they added a third bay to it and made it into a bar. We have monthly poker games there and this month's game actually had a live band that wanted to practice their set before their formal gig.

So what makes it the ultimate bar? Well there's the bar itself which is set with a sink and a back bar, a kegerator, autographed picture of Elvira, rotor blade from a Huey hanging from the ceiling, mustard yellow row of seating from an old Southwest Airlines 727 complete with ashtrays in the armrests, Kinky Freidman for governor poster, panoramic photo of the moon setting over Denali that I took on his birthday, table top from The Great Alaskan Bush Company, table base is an aircraft tundra tire, taxidermied Musk Ox head, etc.

I know a few folks with a basement bar. Fully finished, lined up with booze as far as the eye can see, frig, and ice makers.

I have a small dry bar in the kitchen and we mostly use it for storage and papers. We don’t entertain.

No option for me here either.
I recall them being common during the '70s and '80s.
My wife had a bar/wine room built during Covid times, and we have been using it regularly since.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TSE,

My first house I bought in 1990 was originally built in 1945.

When we were looking at it before we bought it it had a bar in the finished basement. Looking at the way it was built(style and materials) it looked like it had been there almost since the original owners moved in.

The house had been empty for a while before we bought it so the entire house including the basement needed to be completely remodeled.

When we redid the basement my intent was to eventually rebuild the bar however we never got around to it.

Our home we bought in Florida is to small to build a bar however, hopefully our retirement home if we build or design it will have a bar.

No option for me either. We put in a “bar back” downstairs. Others have added “dry bar,” and so is this. It has cabinets for liquor storage below the counter, and above for glassware. We have a wine refrigerator there, as well as a good sized rack for room temperature storage of wine. Now, I couldn’t imagine not having it.

In homes a lot doing estimates back when I worked and recall finished basements with the obligatory dark paneling, bright multi colored carpeting, and of course the bar. Later years they painted the paneling light, changed flooring, and many took out their bars.

Personally I keep a couple bottles of bourbon and wine in the living room cabinet and call that it.

The home bar went out of style when Dean Martin died.

No poll option fits exactly for me.

My house was built in the early 70's and the original owner put a bar in the finished basement.
We don't really use it as a bar, for us it's just a place to store what little booze we keep on hand.

I just have a cabinet in the kitchen that is full of booze…

So is my kitchen a bar ?

I put this in in my house when we remodeled.

If we are pouring drinks, it is at the kitchen counter. So I guess you could call that a temporary bar, but it is far from dedicated to that function. We have a piece of furniture in the dining room that is called a "bar" but it is used for storage of lots of things including a few bottles, a corkscrew, etc. Mostly it holds batteries and chargers.

One side of my finished basement is set up more like a sports bar and then the other half is home theater. None of the poll choices really applied though so I didn’t vote.

We had a wet bar in our kitchen and the washer and dryer were in the basement. Since we did laundry a lot more than we hit the sauce, I converted the wet bar to a closet for the washer and dryer.

We know a lady who fell going downstairs with a basket of laundry and broke several bones. No bueno.

My parent's put in a small wet bar in the basement in the 90's. It's still got vodka from the 90's in it. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that uses it and thats just to fill up the dog's water bowl when I visit.

A buddy of mine has a super nice setup that actually gets used. Full walk behind bar with sink, ice machine, Beverage Air commercial fridge and diswasher, multiple TV's, games, sports and beach memorabilia on the walls, nice sound system. Large selection of bourbon and scotch on the wall behind the bar. He has people over all the time and its the default place to hang out.

I've had a dry basement bar for 30 years. Looking remodel it and go with something similar to what xantom did.