Bar (counter)

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A bar at the coach terminal, Udine, Italy

A bar is the counter at which drinks are mixed by a bartender, mainly in hotels, taverns, and pubs. This term is applied as a synecdoche to drinking establishments called bars. Bars may also be found in restaurants, private homes, offices, and cruise ships.

Bars typically store a variety of liquors and other nonalcoholic drink ingredients, and are organized to facilitate the bartenders' efficiency. They may also have areas for the storage of snack foods.

It has been suggested that the method of serving from a bar was invented by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the great Victorian engineer, as a means of more quickly serving the sudden rush of customers caused by passenger trains arriving at the terminus of the Great Western Railway. It has been claimed that the first bar was installed at the Great Western Hotel on Paddington station, London. However, it should be noted that the word "bar" in this context was in already use by 1837 at the latest^[1], a full fourteen years before the construction of the Great Western Hotel in 1851.

Counters for serving other types of food and drink are sometimes also called bars. Examples include salad bars, sushi bars, and sundae bars.