By November a lot of the good function rooms are spoken for, and whoever was handed the office Christmas party a fortnight ago has usually found that out. The useful news is that you do not need one. Every idea below runs in the office, a showroom, a warehouse floor or somebody's deck, because the bar comes to you. We are a Brisbane team and we work these parties, so this is the version we would give a friend who has just been landed with it.

If you would rather skip to how it works for a business, our corporate bar hire page has the detail.

Start with the room you already have

An office party has two things a booked venue does not: nobody has to travel, and nobody is watching the clock to turn the room over for the next booking. What the space needs from you is short.

  • Light. Most of our set-ups need no power at all, but bartenders do need to see what they are pouring.
  • Water nearby. Not essential, but a tap close to the bar keeps things clean and quick.
  • A footprint. Somewhere flat, out of the main walkway. If the building already has a bar, a cocktail station can sit beside it rather than replace it.

We arrive an hour to an hour and a half before service to set up, and that time is never billed as service. When the last round is poured we pack down and leave the area clean, which matters more in an office than anywhere, because the same room is a workplace again on Monday.

Seven ideas, from a long lunch to a late finish

These are all formats we run, not a list of things you could theoretically try.

  1. A cocktail hour before the dinner booking. If the restaurant is already booked, bring the start of the night back to the office. Cocktails at the office before everyone walks down the road get the speeches done where people can hear them.
  2. A midweek long lunch. A Wednesday or Thursday lunch that runs into the afternoon is often a better party than a Friday night, and any event held Monday to Thursday is 20% off, applied to the quote automatically.
  3. A menu named for the year. We print branded cocktail menus, with signature drinks named for the product, the company or the year's wins. It adds no time on the night and it is the part people photograph.
  4. A cocktail masterclass in the boardroom. Our hosted class runs in rounds so everyone gets a shaker, for a group of any size. It works well for teams who would rather do something than stand around. See the cocktail masterclass page for how a session runs.
  5. A guided tasting. The Tasting Package is a hosted gin and whiskey, or rum and liqueur, tasting. It suits a leadership retreat, a staff reward or a client evening, and anyone who wants a quieter end to the year.
  6. A tower for the toast. A champagne or cocktail tower gives the speech a moment to land on, and then it is simply the first round.
  7. A cart in the foyer. For a small team, a cocktail cart fits through a standard doorway and one bartender is usually right. It turns a reception area into a bar without moving a single desk.

How much to buy if you are going BYO

Our packages are built BYO: you buy the drinks, we bring the bar, the glassware, the ice, the garnish, the non-alcoholic ingredients and the team. If you would rather not do the shopping, ask and we build a supplied option into the quote.

For the shopping list, the rule we plan to is two drinks a head in the first hour, then one an hour after that. A party drinks differently from a seated dinner, so the split we use is closer to 35% spirits and cocktails, 35% beer and 30% wine.

Turning that into bottles is where people come unstuck, so the three numbers worth knowing are these: a bottle of wine is about five glasses, a 700ml bottle of spirits is about 22 nips, and a carton is 24 beers. Divide, then round up. Running out at eight o'clock costs more goodwill than a spare carton costs money. Our drinks calculator was built for weddings, but set the event type to Private party and it does this arithmetic, on this split, for your guest count and run time, and what to serve at a cocktail party goes further on the split.

How many people behind the bar

Guest numbers, the drinks on the menu and the service style decide it. These are the starting points we use:

  • Up to 40 guests: one bartender, two once cocktails lead the menu.
  • 40 to 80: one to two, and two whenever cocktails are the main event.
  • 80 to 120: two, or two to three when a cocktail list runs all night.
  • 120 and over: two to three, and three to four when cocktails run all night.

Cocktails raise the number every time, because each one takes longer to build than a beer takes to open. Two service points also beat one long bar: the queue splits in half and nobody waits behind the person ordering for their whole desk. A 300-person end-of-year party is a staffing question, not a limit. We recommend the number that keeps waits short and never cut staff to hit a price, because an under-staffed bar is a slow bar.

Look after the people who are not drinking

At any office party some of the room is not drinking, and not all of them will say why. A jug of water and a lemonade is not a menu for them.

We put non-alcoholic and low-alcohol options on every menu, in the same glass, with the same garnish, listed the same way as everything else. Ask and we will build one to match whatever the signature cocktail is. Our cocktail menu has a non-alcoholic list to start from.

The two-week checklist

If the party is a fortnight out, this is the order that works.

  1. Pick the date and a rough headcount. December Thursdays and Fridays go first, so if your date is flexible, look at midweek as well. If the date is close, ask anyway; we would rather tell you quickly than have you assume.
  2. Send the brief. The date, the address and the headcount are enough for an itemised quote.
  3. Approve the quote and pay the deposit. The deposit is what secures the date. Purchase orders are welcome.
  4. Settle the menu and get the shopping list. If you are going BYO, our purchasing guide tells you what to buy for your numbers.
  5. Ask for the paperwork building management will want. Our bartenders are RSA and RMLV trained, uniformed and fully insured, and the documents are available on request.
  6. On the day, expect us an hour to an hour and a half before service to set up.

What it costs, and the two offers

The Barmen Plus, our full mobile cocktail bar, starts at $350 an hour for a cocktail party of up to 25 guests with the alcohol BYO. Every quote is built from there on guest count, hours and venue, with nothing hidden. Every package carries a minimum booking duration, set out in the quote.

Two offers apply to end-of-year parties this year, and they combine:

  • 2026 End of Year Deal: book a four-hour cocktail package for your end-of-year or Christmas party and the fifth hour is free. Mention it when you enquire and it is written into the quote.
  • 20% off Monday to Thursday: applied automatically to any midweek event.

A Thursday end-of-year party on a four-hour cocktail package gets both. Send us the date, the address and the headcount, mention the End of Year Deal, and we will reply with an itemised quote with the fifth hour written in. Or see how corporate bar hire works first.