Donewell / Restaurants / Bar closing checklist

Bar closing checklist

A bar closing checklist covers the rails, the guns, the glass washer, the draft system and the drawer, in that order. It has 18 items in 6 sections — bar top, sinks and glassware, draft, garnish, cash and floor. Of those, one asks for a reading, two ask for a photo and two are notes; the rest are a tick. It separates the bar from the kitchen close on purpose, because the two finish at different times and blame travels between them.

Tick it here — nothing is saved anywhere but this browser — or copy it into Donewell and have your staff sign each item off on their phone.

What should be on a bar closing checklist?

The wet work first: rails pulled and washed, soda guns soaked with their holsters cleaned, ice well drained, three-compartment sink drained and sanitized, glass washer drained with the screens out. Then draft — drip trays washed, tap heads soaking, keg cooler reading 33–38 °F. Then garnish wrapped and dated, then the drawer, then the mats and the gate. The guns and the tap heads are the two that show up in a guest complaint a week later.

How long does closing a bar take?

Thirty to forty-five minutes after last call for one bartender, and most of it is soaking time that runs in parallel if it is started early. Putting the guns and the tap heads at the top of the list rather than the bottom is worth about fifteen minutes a night, which over a year is the difference between a close that ends at 2:15 and one that ends at 2:45.

Why photograph the bottles and the garnish?

Because facing bottles and dating fruit are the two items that are quickest to claim and slowest to verify. A photograph of a faced back bar and wrapped, dated garnish is the whole of tomorrow’s opening argument, and it takes four seconds. The two notes on this list — tips logged, and anything the day bartender needs to know — carry everything a tick cannot.

Last updated 17 September 2026