A wooden home bar counter at night, a tall glass being filled from a tap while warm lamplight falls across bottles on the shelf behind, photographed low and close from the customer side

Home bar and hosting

Set the counter, pour the round, keep the table busy.

A kitchen corner, a garage shelf, a proper built counter: the same questions come back. What glass, what tool, what game, and how you keep twelve people fed and laughing until one in the morning.

12 pieces listed on this page, newest first
6 sections, from bar tools to hosting nights
Jan to Aug 2026, the span covered by the feed below

The back bar

Six shelves, and what sits on each

What you pour with, what you pour into, what you play, and who you feed. Each section keeps its own running file.

A jigger, a bar spoon and a hawthorne strainer laid out on an oak counter beside a folded bar towel, top down, soft window light from the left

Bar essentials

The working end of the bar: tools, ice, a rail that drains, stools at the right height, light that flatters a pour. Most of it is about reach and cleanup, not about gear.

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A wooden shelf holding a pilsner glass, a tall wheat beer glass and a stemmed tulip glass side by side, backlit by a window, dust visible in the air

Glassware

Boots, mugs, pilsners, weizen glasses, tulips, shot glasses and the pitchers that feed them. Shape changes head, aroma and how fast a drink warms in the hand.

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A folding table in a garage set with two triangles of plastic cups, a ping pong ball in mid air, bare bulb overhead casting a hard shadow

Bar games

Pong tables, dartboards, poker nights, chess in the corner, a board game that survives a crowded table. Setup, dimensions, and what actually gets played twice.

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A deck of playing cards fanned in a broken circle around a pint glass on a dark table, four hands reaching in, warm overhead light

Drinking games

Rules written the way a table actually plays them, with the house variations noted separately. Kings Cup, Circle of Death, Anchorman, Quarters, Flip Cup and the rest.

Open the section

A two litre glass drinking boot full of pale beer standing on a scarred wooden table in a beer hall, benches and a crowd blurred behind it

Beer culture

Where the boot came from, why a head collapses, what the words on a label mean. Trivia that holds up, and history that explains the object in your hand.

Open the section

Six friends standing around a kitchen island covered with bowls of snacks and open bottles, laughing, evening light through the window behind them

Hosting

Planning a night that runs itself: food that holds for three hours, cocktails you can batch, seating for more people than you have chairs, and a cleanup that takes twenty minutes.

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The tab

Everything on the counter, newest first

Each entry carries its section and the day it went up, so you can see what is fresh and what has been sitting on the shelf a while.

Six bar tools arranged in a row on a grey linen cloth, jigger, muddler, strainer, spoon, opener and knife, flat overhead shot in daylight

Bar essentials

18/08/2026

The six tools that actually earn their drawer space

Most home bars own twenty gadgets and reach for the same handful. Here is the handful, what each one replaces, and the three that can wait.

Playing cards spread face down in a broken ring around a pint glass on a kitchen table, one card lifted by a hand, warm ceiling light

Drinking games

11/08/2026

Kings Cup: the rules, card by card

The full deck read one value at a time, the house variations that keep coming up, and how to run the game so nobody spends the night arguing about a seven.

A tall wheat beer glass with a thick foam collar standing on a marble counter, condensation on the curve, low afternoon sun raking across it

Glassware

04/08/2026

Why a weizen glass is shaped like that

The long waist and wide mouth are not decoration. They are there to hold a very active head and to keep the yeast where you want it.

A long wooden table set for twelve with mismatched chairs and stools, plates and glasses laid out, string lights above, dusk through the window

Hosting

24/07/2026

A twelve person night on a six person table

Standing zones, a second surface, and food that does not need a plate. How to double the guest list without doubling the furniture.

Hands adjusting a folding table leg with a shim on a concrete garage floor, cups already set at the far end, work light to one side

Bar games

09/07/2026

Setting up a pong table that does not wobble

Length, height, the shim trick for a sloping garage floor, and why the surface matters more than the table you put it on.

Two glass drinking boots of different sizes standing on a dark bar shelf, brass lamp reflected in the curve of the taller one

Beer culture

25/06/2026

The beer boot, from barracks bet to bar trophy

A soldier's wager, a glassblower's joke, and a film that put the shape back on every bar shelf. Plus the toe rule that saves your shirt.

Three empty beer glasses lined up on a windowsill, a straight pilsner, a nonic pint and a stemmed tulip, flat daylight showing their profiles

Glassware

11/06/2026

Pilsner, tulip, nonic: reading a glass by its waist

Three silhouettes, three jobs. What the bulge on a nonic is for, what a stem protects, and when a straight wall is the right answer.

A dark crusted loaf of beer bread cooling on a wire rack next to an empty bottle and a butter dish, kitchen counter, morning light

Hosting

21/05/2026

Beer bread, two bowls, one hour

Flour, a bottle, and a hot oven. The loaf that turns a bag of crisps into something people remember, with the three swaps that change its character.

A tight ring of playing cards laid face down around a single can on a coffee table, one card already flipped, lamp light from the right

Drinking games

30/04/2026

Circle of Death: a deck, a can, and ten rules

The ring, the break, and what each card asks of you. Close cousin to Kings Cup, with a stricter idea of when the game ends.

A back bar shelf lit from underneath by a warm strip, bottles glowing from the base, the wall behind left in shadow

Bar essentials

02/04/2026

Back bar lighting without the glare

Light the bottles, not the faces. Strip position, colour temperature, and the one fixture that ruins every photograph taken at your bar.

A bristle dartboard mounted on a garage wall with a taped throw line on the floor in the foreground, three darts in the board, side light

Bar games

26/02/2026

Darts at home: height, throw line, wall

The two measurements that are not negotiable, the surround that saves your plaster, and where to stand so the board is not in the traffic.

Close up of a pint glass with a dense white head, lacing rings down the inside of the glass, bright window light behind

Beer culture

14/01/2026

Head retention: what the foam is telling you

Lacing, collapse and the greasy glass problem. The head is a readout of the pour, the glass and the beer, in that order.

House style

Written from the bar side of the counter

Rules are written the way a table plays them, with the house variations kept separate from the base game. Measurements are given in the units people actually use at home. When a section covers a piece of equipment, it explains what the thing does before it explains what it looks like.