Bar Caddy

The past eight months have been a roller coaster ride for me. My life has been turned upside-down and back again more than once. Now that ride is almost over, and I want to polish off a few unfinished posts before I say goodbye.

As I mentioned before, my last big creative spree happened in preparation for Con on the Cob, which took place this past October. This is another build from that event. Con on the Cob is one of the small conventions that my game group, Rogue Cthulhu, has become regulars at. It is a bit of a party con for us, as alcohol is not only acceptable, but multiple parties take place there and are scheduled as regular events (which is not to say it doesn't have a great kid friendly atmosphere too!). Last year (2014), we ran a party after hours called the Friday Night Speak Easy. It was a huge success. With little to no planning, we entertained around 60 people well into the wee hours of the morning, and got kicked out of two different rooms! This year, we put a lot more preparation and planning into our parties, and we ran two of them, The Friday Night Speak Easy, and the Saturday Costume Party with 2D6. 2D6 is a local nerdcore rap group (and yes, that's a thing) we hired to headline the Saturday night party.

Both parties were the stuff of legend! Both nights were packed. We lost count at somewhere north of 100 people each night. And an absolutely INSANE amount of alcohol was consumed. I went a little overboard with all the different kinds of alcohol I brought. I got it into my head that I wanted to make cocktails, since it was a 1920's theme for the Speak Easy, but that means a lot of different liquors and a lot of mixers and garnishes. That means we needed a more efficient way to store and present this stuff. Enter the Bar Caddy v1.0

The Bar Caddy was designed to sit on top of a 6 or 8ft long banquet table. It provides a raised platform for perching spigoted coolers, boxed wines, and drink dispensers, allowing you to put your cup under the tap without having to set the cooler on the edge of the table. It also had several cubbies underneath the platform that are the perfect size for plastic shoe boxes, which can be used to store bar towels, garnishes, condiments, giggers and the like. There is a small back stop across the rear of the cubbies to prevent the bins from being pushed through and off the back of the table, in case the table is not up against a wall.

There are two removable stops at either end of the caddy. They bolt on with small bolts and nuts. This creates a wall to keep containers from tipping over and falling off the end of the caddy. There is also a detached sliding stop that is not fixed to the caddy, but can but up against one of the containers on top, like a book end, to also help keep things from tipping over. I created these stops because wine boxes are tall and narrow, allowing for possible tipping, and because I have several stackable 2 gallon dispenser containers that I wanted to make sure didn't topple over if stacked.

The caddy was constructed from 3/8in plywood, the same as was used for the new lighting rig, posted about previously. It was stained dark brown and given several heavy coats of polyurethane to protect it from spills and drips. I took a lot of pictures during its construction, but didn't take many of it at the party. I had other things on my mind!