Rebeca Harbert: Toast Bartending

time and during holidays variously as a
waitress, receptionist, host and bartender.
During the work experience year of her
course she worked as the manager of a
student oriented café bar. Despite all her
work commitments Becky always found time
to keep fit. She frequented the gym on a
regular basis, setting herself exercise goals
and was careful about what she ate.
Becky had originally known Justin at school.
They had met up again six years ago and hit
it off immediately, developing a shared
dream of eventually owning their own
restaurant. They had decided that they
should work towards it sooner rather than
later. Justin was a fully trained Cocktail
Mixologist, with distinction passes awarded
by the Training School, London. He had also
been a finalist in the 2005 Millers Gin ‘Invent
a Cocktail’ competition. Justin had been
involved in the opening of two of the new
generation of bars in Oxford and had
managed one of them. Currently he was
manager of one of the best ‘style’ bars in
Oxford. Justin and Becky had set up Toast
as a partnership, with the idea that they
would manage it together, each bringing their
own particular skills to the venture. In terms
of technical expertise, Becky believed that
even at the young age of 23 they had both
gained lots of technical expertise relevant to
running their own venture. This had given
them the confidence to start their own
events-focussed bar based business.
Becky considered that she was creative up to
a point, but that she was best at building on
her eye for detail; spotting opportunities to do
things better and think through how to put
them into practice. This is how she had
developed Toast. Becky had been to many
social events where the bar had been purely
functional and boring; she had also come
across several London operators that were
specialising in making the bar a notable
event feature, both visually and operationally.
She had talked things through with Justin
about the idea of making a different type of
bar available for events in and around
Oxford, which is how the idea of Toast had
come about. They had wanted it to be a truly
fast growing and expanding business, but it
hadn’t happened that way yet.
This didn’t cause Becky too much concern.
She had been impressed by the David Levin
(founder of the Capital Group) case study
that they had used on the course. He had
never been worried about taking a risk
because he never thought about failure. She
felt like that too. Although taking on debt to
start Toast could be viewed as a risk, she
had been very confident that although the
idea of such a service was new to the Oxford
market, she would be able to persuade
people that they wanted what she had to
offer. She still believed this, even though the
business was yet to take off. Overall, Becky
concluded that she definitely did have what it
takes to be an entrepreneur and,
furthermore, she thought that Toast had real
potential.
Toast: The Concept
The customer proposition is that Toast
provides a complete cocktail bar service for
any type of event, celebration or social
gathering. Toast’s brochure points out that
while people pay great attention to food at
parties, the range of drinks offered is often
limited and unexciting. Toast promotes the
bar as being the heart and soul of any social
gathering, providing the ‘fuel’ for enjoyment
and a central meeting place focus. The aim
of the Toast service is to provide each and
every guest with a memorable quality drink
every time. Becky and Justin therefore insist
on using reputable premium brand spirits and
freshly squeezed or additive free juices.
The Business Model
The ‘look’ and style of service is tailored to
suit the event. Toast asks for a 30% deposit
Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Network, September 2005 2