They don't distribute liquor licenses haphazardly and they don't just give them away. Liquor licenses are a coveted commodity that can decide life or death for a restaurant. Once you have secured a license, you should sing praise to the restaurant deities and promise to use it only for good and to its fullest, for you have been granted the great equalizing power.

Without getting too complicated, you should realize that most restaurants have two profit centers: one is the floor and the other is the bar. If you are using the name "restaurant" then what you are about is selling food to the hungry masses. The high failure rate in the restaurant industry should caution you to the pitfalls of that endeavor. But, if you are lucky enough to have that second profit center-a bar-you have a better chance at salvation.

To take advantage of the power of the bar, one needs to learn the simple arithmetic. "I want my beverage costs to be under 25%," says restaurant consultant Jack Schoaf, principal of Culinary Assets. Years of making the numbers work, from running his own restaurant to seven years as corporate beverage manager for the Vinny Testa's chain, has taught him, he says, that "It's not magic. It's paying close attention to a lot of little details that add up to something big in the end."

1. Price right. "You're targeting your clientele when you set your price. You get the crowd that is willing to pay that price for that drink." Pricing needs to reflect more than your style of service or your neighborhood. More than economic forecasts and market reports, you need to know how much does it cost you to make a drink. "Account for everything that has a cost on it."

2. Buy right. "Once you set your cost-to-price ratio, you'll know how much you'll make from every keg and bottle. Then you can look at how much product you're going through and take advantage of volume discounts, promotions and anything that will save you money. Find good deals-make salesmen work for you. Buy appropriate amounts, but remember, you usually have sixty days to pay for your order. If you can use it by the time you have to pay for it, it makes volume discounts especially worthwhile."

3. Watch waste. Make sure you get to serve everything you purchase. "Opened wine goes bad. Warm and old beer goes bad. Liquor in unsecured storage walks out the door. You need to minimize those losses any way you can."

4. Control portions. Set up standardized pours and recipes for all drinks. "All drinks served have to be consistent-for the customer and for you. Then you can tell if bartenders are over-pouring, not ringing in the right drinks or not ringing them in at all. When you look at what you've sold, you'll have a good idea of what your inventory should look like."

5. Record everything. "Have a good POS system and a thorough system for recording spills, breakage, returns, buy-backs, everything. If you can't record the information, you can't make sense of it."

6. Receive properly. "Check everything in. That sounds simple, but if your manager is busy and the busboy signs for a delivery and something goes wrong, you don't know where it happened. I've been shorted, and I've returned extra cases that I've received. And cases can just disappear."

Keeping your costs in line is just the beginning of being successful, but it is an important place to start. Consistency and close attention to your bar program can provide a solid, thriving profit center to bolster your entire business.