Revision 3 · spec dated 14 September 2026
Friday 25 to Sunday 27 September 2026. Four service points, no cabanas, festival service. Tick items as they close — everyone watching this page sees it within twelve seconds.
VIP Cabana at R10,000, Sunset Table at R500pp and Celebration Package at R900pp are live and bookable on albarooftop.com. There are no cabanas at this event.
Three things follow. Every booking taken on the WhatsApp number has to be found and contacted — that phone is the only record there is. The packages have to come off the site before the weekend. And the revenue model changes shape: pre-sold tables were the guaranteed, pre-paid, high-margin line, and without them the weekend earns on the day, at the door and the bar, weather permitting.
The building's main bar is a fourth trading service point, it is on the roof, and it has refrigeration. The sushi cut-to-order station sits beside its fridge. No transport leg, no holding gap. What remains is discipline: small batches, a two-hour discard rule at the station, a written temperature log, and physical separation from bar service.
Cold storage confirmed on the roof: two undercounter fridges across 2.5 doors, one single-door ABI front loader, and a small chest freezer in the scullery behind the bar. Dedicate the ABI to sushi alone — raw fish should not share a cabinet with open drinks, garnish or ice. The undercounters take main bar stock, and the chest freezer becomes a rooftop ice buffer.
Four service points. The main bar is fixed and refrigerated; the three mobile bars run on ice. Depth per bar, not the number of bars, is what sets throughput.
| Service point | Bartenders at peak | Refrigeration | Drinks / hour | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main building bar | 3 | Yes — 2 undercounter, 1 ABI, 1 chest freezer | 195 | 3m × 2m. Three working positions. Also the sushi station |
| Mobile bars 1–3 | 6 | No — lug boxes on ice | 390 | Two barmen per bar |
| Total | 9 | 585 | Against 610/hr peak demand — 4% short |
585 an hour against 610 at the Saturday peak. That is inside modelling error, but it means zero cushion on the busiest hour of the weekend, with agency staff who have never worked this rooftop, in hour ten of a fifteen-and-a-half hour shift. Three extra barmen for the 18:00 to 22:00 window on Friday and Saturday is 24 extra hours in total and takes capacity to 780 an hour.
The rest is queue geometry. Four counters for four hundred people jams on the floor even when the maths works, and the main bar is only three metres of frontage. Pre-batch everything batchable and build nothing to order in the peak hour. Cans and RTDs beat mixed drinks — a can is a four-second transaction. Cap the peak menu at four to six lines with a slow lane to one side. Put one Yoco operator per bar on payment so the bartenders never stop pouring. And keep sushi orders out of the drinks queue at the main bar: separate counter, separate staff.
The three mobile bars have no refrigeration, so ice is doing two jobs — chilling the stock and filling the cups. On an open rooftop in late September the boxes lose ice to the sun faster than to the drinks.
Up from the 4.4 tonnes in the original plan, which assumed some refrigeration.
Early morning, late morning, mid-afternoon, early evening. Not three.
Nine per mobile bar, 15kg each, refilled four times a day.
Sixty per cent of drinks served iced, 150g each.
The chest freezer in the scullery gives you a buffer on the roof, which is the first real answer to the 01:00 Saturday problem. It is small, so treat it as a reserve for the last service push rather than bulk storage.
Bulk holding still belongs to the downstairs tenant, who is not party to this event. Needed in writing: how many kilograms, who holds the key, what the access hours are, and what happens after that tenant closes.
Every person comes from an agency. No staff from any FNDRY shop — month-end, long weekend, all three already on minimum complement.
Every day, open to close. Down from 87 in the original plan.
24 people across three days. The unit an agency invoices on.
24 on the floor plus four standby. A fixed crew cannot absorb a no-show.
Statutory floor is R42k. Plan a band of 10–15% either side.
| Role | Peak | Source | Note |
|---|
Friday and Saturday run 15.5 hours. The BCEA daily ceiling including overtime is 12 hours, and the weekly overtime cap is 10 hours against the 13 this crew would work. Both are hard limits, not guidance. A relief pool that caps every person at 12 hours closes it, or a late-start second crew covering the back half of Friday and Saturday. Meal breaks are the same issue in miniature: an hour after five continuous hours, with no relief, drops the bar below nine barmen.
Separately, eleven days out on a month-end long weekend, the experienced crews go first. Approach three agencies in parallel, get budget authority in writing before anyone commits, and start with the sushi — that is the scarcest skill on the list. Build the 24 September induction into the booking and pay for it.
Two built-in char grills and one sushi station. Everything on a stick, plus sushi that can be pre-rolled and cut to order. Plastic cups, takeaway boats, serviette and a wet wipe.
| Item | Where it's made | Price |
|---|
Off the menu: brunch dishes, all plated cold starters, oysters, poke and Los Bochas bowls, any sushi made to order, and both desserts. No kitchen, no crockery, no cutlery, no cold chain for plated cold food.
The original plan's "1,200" was the headcount, not the cup count.
Revised down from an earlier 2,500 estimate.
Plus 1,200 heavy-duty liners and scheduled sweeps.
Fourteen in service, three spare. Cashless only.
Two sets. The statutory ones are the ones an inspector asks for, and several of them have to be up before doors open on the Friday.
| Sign | Qty | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Liquor licence, displayed | 1 | Gauteng Liquor Act requires the licence on display at the premises |
| No alcohol to under 18s | 4 | Statutory notice at every point of sale |
| Age restriction at the door | 2 | 23+ after 18:00. Must match the Howler listing, which currently says something different |
| Emergency exits and escape routes | 8 | Fire by-law. Illuminated where the route is used after dark |
| Fire equipment location | 6 | Extinguishers and blankets at both grills and each bar |
| Occupancy notice | 1 | Maximum persons, per the population certificate |
| No smoking / designated smoking area | 6 | Tobacco Products Control Act. The designated area is capped and must be marked |
| Roof edge warning | 6 | Supports the guards, does not replace a barrier |
| Allergen notice at food points | 2 | R638. Sushi, prawn, mussel and sesame are all on the menu |
| Hand wash signage | 3 | R638, at each station |
| House rules and right of admission | 2 | Dress code, no weapons, no illegal substances |
| CCTV / POPIA notice | 2 | If the building records, or if we do |
| Menu boards | 6 | Four bars and two food points. Prices must match Yoco exactly |
| Cashless entry notice | 2 | R100 entry, card only, no cash anywhere on site |
| Wayfinding — bars, food, toilets | 8 | Four service points is only an advantage if people find the quiet one |
Linda is putting three officers on the roof perimeter, which is the right instinct. But 400 people, fifteen and a half hours of trading and full bar service against an open edge needs a physical barrier as the primary control, with the guards and the signage supporting it. Confirm what is actually there — height, continuity, and whether anything can be climbed or leaned over.
Against the South African festival compliance calendar. Three windows have already closed.
| Requirement | Lead time | Status | Note |
|---|
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| What is needed | What it blocks |
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