After a month of comtiyplayion and reflection, we would firstly like to say a huge thank-you to all those involved with the making this Trial a reality, with special thanks to the Old Tollbooth Market for all their help, without them we would probably have lost all our hair by now.
The feedback we received was invaluable. We have read thought and collected it all and are now working on the future of A-Bar , what that looks like and how we can effectively and efficiently translate our vision of social enterprising business to aid the artistic community.
One of the main point that seemed to be raised was how to represent the projects and give out information regarding the projects in and engaging and interactive way, there were many ideas thrown around about possible alternatives to the paper, film , performance and presentations being a few to name. Nothing as of yet is the perfect fit, but with some creative thinking we will get there. We would like to say that as a new start up business one of our aims it to be where possible as environmentally friendly as we can , we are aware of the environmental cost of printing on paper and had discussed the best way to present the projects for the trial and with the reservation of technology in the space this was the most viable way to disperse the information ( though we also know there was too much text). For the next iteration of A-Bar we are looking into alternatives method to present the information about each project that do not use paper.
A-Bar aims to be a 100% transparent business model and in keeping with this we have created a spreadsheet with the nights coasting and the projected profits if everyone had paid the £30.
Along with this spreadsheet i would like to announce the final votes for the evening
Canary Girl Coffee 3
Joy rides 10
Living with Tress 4
The Cost of the night did exceed the revenue made, however this was a trail and we have learnt a lot from it .With this in mind a few things we will be editing for next time
1. The amount of food present was excessive for the evening. next A-Bar will be having a more refined menu that uses seasonal foods.
2. There will be more sharing. The aim for A-Bar has always been to create a shared immersive dinning experience and we believe that the sharing element is a key feature to creating such an environment. With the breaking of the bread to the sharing of salad, the next round will include a lot more sharing elements though out the meal, We will be considering it more of a a communal meal than a banquet. With this in mind we would also like to state that our menus will be focusing on using Scottish produce, using it in with in many different cuisines .
3. For future events we will be running a 0 waste policy. Waste is a big no no for us and any food that is left over at the end of the night will be given to staff , taken home in doggie bags or places in the composter. We aim to provide the right amount of food so that we do not have waste at the end of the night but if this does happen we will find a way to use it.
4. The amount of alcohol was also excessive for the price paid. We would like to state that the initial price of £30 included 2 drinks, as it was a trail and all in good spirit we topped over 4 glasses per head.
Once again thank you to all that where involved , for your time and feedback. A-Bar will be returning to a location near you soon.
For now here are some images from the night itself taken by Chris Scot