The rooftop already trades. It caters weekday lunch and functions for tenants of the Mercedes building, so the venue, kitchen, facilities contract and building services are in place and running. The weekend is a separate business that transforms the same space Friday through Sunday.
Three questions to settle with the building operator, and they unlock most of this board. First, whose liquor licence covers Friday to Sunday trading to 02:00, and what conditions and hours does it carry — a separate business cannot trade liquor on another party's licence without that being arranged properly. Second, whose insurance responds to a 400-pax weekend event, and does the building's cover extend to it or does the weekend business need its own. Third, which staff, equipment and services come with the space and which the weekend business supplies — that answer drives the labour model and the equipment audit directly.
Ordered by the date each decision has to land. The menu is the gate everything downstream hangs off — nothing gets ordered until it's locked.
Friday and Saturday 10:30 to 02:00, Sunday 10:30 to 21:00. Built on the lean crew model — the overlap between day and late shift sits across golden hour, which is the busiest ninety minutes of each day.
| Time | Action | Owner |
|---|
Cut everywhere except the bar. Bar staff are the only crew who directly generate revenue — understaffing six stations creates a queue, and a queue at peak costs far more than the wages it saves. Everything else runs at the bone.
| Function | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bartenders — 6 stations × 2 Protected | 12 | 12 | 10 |
| Barbacks & stock control | 5 | 6 | 4 |
| Waiters & runners | 9 | 11 | 8 |
| Cabana hosts | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Kitchen — chefs, sushi, line, stewarding | 8 | 9 | 7 |
| Door & security | 8 | 9 | 6 |
| Cash & POS | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Cleaning & ablutions (via building) | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Medics Fixed | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Management | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| On duty at peak | 54 | 59 | 44 |
| Total shifts (day + late) | 68 | 78 | 52 |
Down from 290 on a full-service model. At an 80% show rate on casuals, confirm around 240 people to land 198 on the floor.
At the R30.23 minimum wage including Sunday premium, late-shift overtime and night transport. Budget R105k–R130k at real market rates for skilled bar and kitchen.
The entire saving comes out of floor, support and management. Not one bartender was cut to get it.
840 drinks an hour capacity against roughly 600 an hour at peak demand. Drop below ten and the queue forms.
Three lines that cannot be cut further. The two medics are effectively fixed — 400 people, alcohol, heat and a rooftop. Door and security at nine on Saturday is already thin for a ticketed 400-pax event with capacity counting and ID checks. And the twelve bartenders are the revenue engine: every one you remove takes roughly 70 drinks an hour off the top line, which is far more than the shift costs. Cut floor, cut runners, cut management before you touch any of those.
Stations that each try to serve everything are what create queues. Specialising each station by drink type roughly doubles throughput for the same headcount, which is exactly how a lean model still serves 400 people.
| Stn | Serves | Why it sits there | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beer, cider, RTD, water | Nearest the entrance. No build, no ice work — pure speed, absorbs the arrival rush. | 2 |
| 2 | Beer, cider, RTD, water | Mirror of station 1 at the far end so the crowd splits instead of funnelling. | 2 |
| 3 | Spirits & mixers | The workhorse. Speed rails, pre-cut garnish, one-touch pours. | 2 |
| 4 | Spirits & mixers | Second workhorse. These two carry about 30% of all volume. | 2 |
| 5 | Cocktails — four only | Whiskey Sour, Mango Aperol Sour, Negroni, Espresso Martini. Batched in bulk and poured, never built to order. | 2 |
| 6 | Wine, MCC, bottle service | Doubles as the brand house activation point and the pickup for cabana runners, so hosts never queue at a public station. | 2 |
Modelled on 1 080 pax-days at a 45% food attach rate — roughly 486 covers and 1 070 individual items across the weekend. Quantities are raw purchase weights with yield allowed for. Order fresh protein in three daily drops, never one bulk delivery.
| Item | Portions | Raw qty | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire — 320 portions | |||
| Beef mince (kofta) | 90 | 13 kg | 140g portions. Skewer the day before. |
| Chicken thigh (satay) | 75 | 12 kg | 160g. Marinate 24h ahead. |
| Rump (espetada) | 70 | 13 kg | 180g. Trim yield allowed. |
| Chorizo (espetada) | 70 | 3.5 kg | 50g per skewer. |
| Lamb ribs | 50 | 13 kg | 250g. Braise ahead, finish on the grill. |
| Prawn / mussel / linefish (brochetta) | 35 | 2 / 2 / 3 kg | Daily delivery only. Does not hold. |
| Sushi & raw bar — 270 portions + 960 oysters | |||
| Salmon (sushi grade) | — | 14 kg | Three daily drops of ~5kg. Cold chain logged. |
| Yellowfin tuna (sushi grade) | — | 10 kg | Three daily drops. Highest-value waste risk. |
| Prawn (sushi / poke) | — | 3 kg | |
| Sushi rice (raw) | 270 | 12 kg | ≈32kg cooked. Cook in batches through service. |
| Nori sheets | — | 300 sheets | |
| Oysters | 160 orders | 1 000 pcs | Three drops of ~330. Keep supplier tags. |
| Edamame, pickled ginger, wasabi, avocado, cucumber, carrot | — | Per prep list | Avocado ≈15kg — order firm, ripen on site. |
| Platos — 160 portions | |||
| Fior di latte mozzarella | 105 | 9 kg | Caprese and Malfy. |
| Tomato (caprese) | 60 | 9 kg | |
| Beef fillet (carpaccio) | 55 | 4.5 kg | 70g sliced. Freeze lightly to slice clean. |
| Grana padano | 55 | 1.5 kg | |
| Parma ham | 45 | 3 kg | |
| Melon | 45 | 12 kg | Whole fruit weight. |
| Brunch — 107 portions | |||
| Eggs | 107 | 240 eggs | Benedict and Saffa, plus breakage. |
| English muffins | 55 | 120 | |
| Smoked salmon / Parma (benedict) | 55 | 3 kg | |
| Boerewors | 52 | 8 kg | |
| Bacon | 52 | 5 kg | |
| Roosterkoek | 52 | 60 | Bake or buy in. |
| Dulce & pantry | |||
| Vanilla gelato | 53 | 5 L | Freezer capacity needed. |
| Biscotti, espresso beans, grappa | — | Per prep list | Grappa 2 × 750ml. |
| Produce — lemons, limes, oranges, mint, pineapple, peppadew, red onion, chilli, coriander, basil | — | See bar stock | Bar and kitchen share one produce order — combine to avoid double-buying. |
| Sauces & dry — spicy mayo, teriyaki, ponzu, aji, soy, satay, hollandaise base, tartar, sofrito, tempura flour, sesame, togarashi, olive oil, balsamic | — | Per prep list | Batch all sauces Thursday. Squeeze bottles at every station. |
The raw fish is the number to watch. Twenty-four kilograms of sushi-grade salmon and tuna plus a thousand oysters, on a rooftop, in late September heat. Split it across three daily deliveries rather than one, log temperatures at every handover, keep the supplier tags, and set a written discard rule before service rather than deciding at 22:00 on Saturday with a full fridge. If refrigeration is at all marginal, cut the raw bar before you cut anything else on this board.
Modelled on roughly 6 600 drinks across the weekend — 400 pax Friday and Saturday, around 280 effective on Sunday's shorter day, at six to seven drinks per guest over a long session. ALBA carries the core; brand houses add on top.
| Product | Qty | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Beer, cider & RTD — 2 310 units · 96 cases | ||
| Mainstream lager | 53 cases | ×24. Stations 1 and 2 only. |
| Premium / craft lager | 19 cases | Corona and Stella already named as event partners — push the cost onto them. |
| Cider | 14 cases | Skews heavily to the day-party crowd. |
| RTD / hard seltzer | 10 cases | |
| Spirits — ≈157 bottles (750ml) | ||
| Brandy — Richelieu & Klipdrift Premium | 35 | Both are on the bottle service list. Strong Pretoria seller — do not under-order. |
| Vodka — Absolut | 30 | Bottle service plus mixers plus espresso martini batch. |
| Gin | 25 | Mixers plus the Negroni batch. |
| Whiskey — Jameson + bourbon for sours | 25 | Split roughly 15 Jameson / 10 bourbon. |
| Tequila — El Jimador Reposado | 18 | Served with pineapple and Tabasco per the menu. |
| Rum | 12 | |
| Aperol | 8 | Mango Aperol Sour batch. |
| Campari | 4 | Negroni batch. |
| Sweet vermouth | 6 | Negroni batch. Refrigerate once open. |
| Coffee liqueur | 8 | Espresso martini batch. |
| Shooters | ||
| Jägermeister | 9 bottles | Menu sells 8 × 20ml dinkies at R245. ≈40 sets. |
| Kleine Keller Cherry | 8 bottles | ≈40 sets at R265. |
| Mixers & soft drinks — 2 640 units · 110 cases | ||
| Coke / Coke Zero 300ml | 45 cases | Bottle service packages include 6 per bottle — build that in. |
| Tonic | 25 cases | |
| Soda water | 15 cases | |
| Lemonade / lemon-lime | 12 cases | |
| Ginger ale | 8 cases | |
| Juice — pineapple, cranberry, orange | 5 cases | Pineapple also serves the tequila service. |
| Water — 1 620 bottles · 68 cases | ||
| Still 500ml | 50 cases | Free water stations are the cheapest medical risk control available. |
| Sparkling 500ml | 18 cases | |
| Wine & MCC — ≈165 bottles | ||
| MCC / sparkling | 55 | Cabana and celebration service. Order the sparklers to match. |
| White & rosé | 65 | Rosé over-indexes hard on a sunset rooftop — skew the split toward it. |
| Red | 45 | Lowest mover of the three on a day party. |
| Cocktail batching — 990 cocktails | ||
| Fresh lemon juice | 18 L | ≈60kg lemons if pressed fresh. Consider part-bottled to save labour. |
| Fresh lime juice | 6 L | ≈20kg limes. |
| Sugar syrup | 15 L | Batch Thursday, decant into station bottles. |
| Mango purée | 8 L | Mango Aperol Sour. |
| Espresso | 6 L | Brew and chill ahead. Never pull to order at volume. |
| Foamer / egg white substitute | 2 L | Safer than raw egg on a hot rooftop. |
| Garnish & produce (bar) | ||
| Lemons / limes / oranges | 40 / 25 / 20 kg | Combine with the kitchen produce order. |
| Mint, pineapple, peppadew, olives, cucumber | Per prep list | Cut fresh each morning — pre-cut citrus dries out by afternoon. |
| Ice — 4 400 kg | ||
| Cube ice (service) | 1 700 kg | Three scheduled drops daily, aligned to the 10:30 open. |
| Block / bin ice (cooling) | 1 800 kg | Chilling stock at six stations on a hot roof. |
| Crushed ice (raw bar & buckets) | 900 kg | Oyster display and bottle service. |
| Disposables | ||
| Cups — 400ml tumbler | 6 000 | Includes 25% for breakage, replacement and double-cupping. |
| Cups — 200ml short / shot | 1 500 | |
| Cups — wine / MCC | 1 000 | |
| Cups — specialty / cocktail | 500 | |
| Straws & stirrers | 6 000 | |
| Bar serviettes | 8 000 | Separate from food serviettes. |
Cups: nine thousand, not twelve hundred. The figure of ±1 200 in the earlier plan is the headcount across three days, not the cup count. At six to seven drinks a guest the real requirement is around 9 000 units. Worth confirming that with whoever places the order before it goes out — running out of cups mid-Friday on a rooftop has no recovery.
Roughly 4 500 card transactions across the weekend, 233 of them in Saturday's peak hour. That sets the terminal count, and the acquiring rate you negotiate before the weekend is worth more than most line items on this board.
| Model | Speed | Shrinkage | Cash flow | What it actually means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and card | Slowest | Highest | Immediate on cash | Six stations each need a float, a count and a cash-up. Change-making slows every transaction, and cash on a rooftop is the easiest thing in the business to lose. |
| Card only (cashless) Recommended | Fast | Lowest | 1–2 business days | No floats, no cash-up, no cash-in-transit, clean audit trail. The one risk is connectivity — if the network drops at peak you take nothing, so failover is not optional. |
| Prepaid top-up | Fastest at the bar | Low | Collected up front | Guests load credit and bar staff only pour. Fastest service, money collected before the drink is made, and unspent credit is margin. Needs a top-up system and enough top-up points not to create a second queue. |
Across the weekend, at an average basket of about R170 — roughly two drinks.
Saturday golden hour. This is the number the terminal count has to survive.
Six to cover peak — one per bar station — plus two spares. A terminal that dies at 20:00 on Saturday cannot be replaced that night.
Between the cheapest and dearest rate on the same volume. That is what one phone call to negotiate is worth.
| Provider | Rate ex VAT | Fee on volume | Device | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yoco — standard in person | 2.30% | R20 184 | Khumo 2, R699 | No contract, no monthly rental, no settlement fees. Payout 1–2 business days. |
| Yoco — volume tier | 1.20% | R10 531 | Khumo 2, R699 | Yoco's rate falls toward 1.2% as volume rises. Call them before the weekend with the projected volume and ask for the tier up front — after the fact is too late. |
| iKhokha — standard | 2.75% | R24 134 | iK Flyer Lite, R999 | Tiered from 2.75%, plus a R2.50 payout fee per settlement. |
| iKhokha — R80k–R100k tier | 2.50% | R21 940 | iK Flyer Lite, R999 | Tiers assess on monthly volume, so one big weekend may only earn the better rate afterwards. |
| Bank merchant account | ≈1.50% | R13 164 | Supplied | Usually cheapest at volume, but provisioning a new merchant account takes weeks — unlikely to be in place for this event. |
The POS question comes before the terminal question. The rooftop already trades weekday catering, which means it already runs a till system. Find out what it is first. Using it means one system, one reconciliation and one Z-read at the end of each night; bringing in a second means reconciling two sets of numbers at 03:00 on Sunday morning with tired people. If the existing system can carry six bar stations and a separate weekend menu, that is the answer. If it cannot, Yoco's terminals are POS and card machine in one and deploy in days — which is the realistic option at this notice, because GAAP or any full restaurant POS is a weeks-long install.
Two things that will hurt if nobody checks them. Settlement lands one to two business days after the transaction, so Friday's takings are not available to buy Saturday's stock — the weekend has to be funded from working capital, not from the door. And if you go card-only, connectivity becomes a single point of failure for every rand: an independent failover on a separate network, backup power for terminals and POS, and a printed manual docket fallback that has actually been briefed. Deciding how to take payment at 21:00 on Saturday with a dead network is not a plan.
Every piece of crockery, cutlery, glassware, utensil, bar tool and item of kitchen equipment the weekend needs. The rooftop already caters weekday, so much of this exists — walk the site with this list and mark each line. Everything left on NEED becomes the hire and purchase order.
Every action item, de-duplicated and owned. Filter by owner to hand someone just their list.