A cocktail bar website that sets the mood and books the booth
Guests deciding on a bar want a feel for the room, a look at the drinks list, the hours, and a way to book for a group or a birthday. A bar website should give them all four quickly, mostly on a phone, often on the way out. Anticode's per-slot booking suits small bars and bookable areas such as a booth or the snug; bigger venues with many tables need a reservation system.
Mood first, but not at the expense of facts
People choose a cocktail bar on atmosphere: a candlelit speakeasy, a bright aperitivo bar, a loud tiki room, a hotel bar with a pianist. The site should show that in two or three real photos of the room at night, with people in it. Then, immediately, the practical layer: today's hours, the address with a link to a map, whether you take walk-ins, and how to book.
Generated bar sites tend to bury those facts under full-screen video, neon glows and a cocktail shot from a stock library. A heavy page that takes ages to load on a phone outside in the cold is a reason to go somewhere else. Anticode's published pages have no scripts and its design checks flag coloured glows and other generic effects, which helps keep the page fast and specific to you.
Choose a design system that matches the room. Luxury (Jost) with a gold or black action colour suits a hotel or speakeasy bar; Brutalist (Archivo) suits a loud, playful natural wine or punk cocktail bar; Swiss (Inter Tight) suits a minimal aperitivo bar. Auto, Light and Dark themes are available; dark suits most bars, but check the drinks list is still easy to read.
The drinks list
Write the list as text on the page, not as a photo or PDF. Group it the way the bar thinks (signatures, classics, low and no alcohol, wine, beer, spirits), and for each signature give the name, the main spirit, two or three flavour words and the price. Say whether the list changes seasonally. Keep it in a CMS collection so the bar manager can add the new season's drinks from the dashboard. A thoughtful low and no section is worth the space: plenty of guests are choosing a bar for the whole group, including people who aren't drinking.
Booking tables, booths and areas
Anticode's booking calendar asks for a service, a day and a time, then the guest's name, phone and email, and gives each slot to one booking. Its times are fixed (six a day from 09:00 to 17:30, Mondays skipped), so it suits daytime and early-evening bookings better than late ones, and you confirm each one yourself. That works when each bookable thing is a single unit: the booth, the snug, the chef's counter, the private room, or every table in a very small bar where a slot is effectively the whole bar. Set each area up as its own service so the booth and the snug can be booked for the same evening. It doesn't count covers, so it can't manage twenty tables of different sizes; larger bars should keep their reservation system and link to its booking page.
The calendar takes no deposits. If you charge one for booths or groups, send a payment link from Stripe Payment Links or PayPal after the booking and state the policy (how long the table is held, minimum spend, cancellation) next to the booking form.
Private parties and events
Birthdays, work parties and exclusive hire are a large part of many bars' takings. A custom form collects what you need: date, occasion, number of guests, area or full hire, budget or minimum spend, food, whether they want a cocktail masterclass, name, email and phone. Send each enquiry through a connector to Slack or Telegram so the events manager sees it the same day. Publish the options clearly: capacities for each area, hire fees or minimum spends, packages and what's included.
For regular nights (live jazz on Thursdays, guest bartenders, masterclasses), an events collection gives each a page. Ticketed masterclasses are best sold through a ticketing service; the account has one payment link, which your booth deposits may already use.
Door policy, age and accessibility
- Age policy: the minimum age and that ID may be checked, stated plainly.
- Dress code, if you have one, in concrete terms rather than "smart casual".
- Walk-ins: whether you keep space for them, and busy times to avoid.
- Accessibility: steps, toilets, lighting levels, seating heights.
- Responsible drinking: what your licensing conditions and local codes expect you to say.
Limits
Questions people ask
Can guests book a table on my bar website?
For single bookable areas, yes: each booth or room as a service, one booking per slot. For many tables, link to a reservation system.
Should my drinks list be a PDF?
No. Text on the page reads better on phones, loads faster and can be found by search engines.
Can I take a deposit for a booth?
Not in the booking itself. Send a payment link from your provider after the booking and explain the policy beside the form.