Stainless steel
The standard behind the bar and on the prep side. Prefabricated stainless units come with integral sinks and drainboards, and we fit our stone tops tight to them where the two meet.
Bar Tops and Service Counters for Taprooms, Brewpubs and Restaurants
Buncombe Custom Countertops is a specialist in restaurant and brewery bar tops in Asheville, NC, building countertops across Buncombe County and specializing in taproom bars, back bars and restaurant service counters. We offer stainless, quartz and granite surfaces chosen for spills and heat.
- Free in-home measure
- Slab approved before any cut
- Licensed, bonded & insured
Send your drawings for a bid
Or call (828) 470-1105. Calls only, we do not receive text messages.
About our restaurant, brewery & bar countertops
Our team provides solid surface pickup counters and host stands, delivering countertops made for constant wiping and heavy use for both residential and commercial projects. We lay out the seams away from the pour stations on a shop drawing you approve, and we template only after the bar die and equipment are set.
From the drip edge at the tap tower to the last seam polished before the first pint is poured, our team handles every detail. Serving Asheville, Black Mountain, Woodfin and Weaverville, we build the fabrication calendar backward from the date your doors open.
Why Buncombe Custom Countertops
How We Work
The crew that measures your kitchen is the crew that sets the tops.
Written quoteSlab, edge profile, cutouts and seams listed line by line
Slab firstYou approve the slab, or the quartz sample, before we cut
Templated on siteMeasured on your cabinets after they are set and level
Access checkedThe drive, the steps and the carry path looked at before install day
Bar top materials that survive a working bar
A bar top in an Asheville taproom or restaurant should be chosen for acids, heat and constant wiping first and for looks second. Beer, citrus, sanitizer and hot plates reach the surface every shift, and each material answers them differently.
Quartz
Engineered stone needs no sealing and sits among the surfaces most resistant to staining from foods. Its resin tolerates less heat than natural stone, so hot pans and pizza peels need a trivet, and it should stay under a roof rather than on an open patio.
Granite
Hard, dense and heat tolerant, granite suits the guest side of a busy bar. It is a natural stone, so its impregnating sealer is renewed on a schedule of years rather than weeks.
Marble
Marble is calcite or dolomite, and acids etch it. Lime, lemon and vinegar leave dull marks on a cocktail bar within a shift, so we steer marble toward display ledges and away from the pour well.
Solid surface
Nearly invisible seams and scratches that sand out make it a sound choice for pickup counters and host stands that take hard knocks.
Wood on the guest side
Butcher block gives a taproom warmth along the rail. The European Union prohibits wooden work surfaces in commercial food production areas, so we keep wood to the guest side and put stone or stainless where food is prepared.
Service counters, back bars and pickup stations
The bar top is rarely the whole package. A typical restaurant or taproom scope also includes the back bar, where bottles, glassware and the point-of-sale screen live, a server station, a pickup counter by the kitchen pass and restroom vanities.
- Back bars. Usually a shallower top, often with a backsplash to protect the wall, and cutouts for bar sinks or glass washers set by the equipment supplier.
- Server and pickup stations. High-traffic tops at standing height where plates are slid and stacked, so edge profile and chip resistance matter more than figure.
- Host stands and waiting counters. Short runs that set the first impression, often in a material that echoes the bar.
- Restroom vanities. Guest restrooms in a busy dining room see more use than any home bath, so a non-porous top is the practical call.
Pricing each piece as its own line lets an owner decide where the budget goes: the showpiece bar, or the stations nobody photographs but everybody uses.
How the opening-date schedule works
Fabrication for a restaurant is scheduled backward from the opening date, because every week of countertop delay is a week the health inspection, the soft open and the staff training slide with it. We start from the day you want to pour and count back through each step.
- Bid and award. Drawings, finish schedule and equipment schedule in, a priced scope back.
- Submittals and samples. Color, finish and edge approved by the owner and designer, with a shop drawing showing seams, overhangs and every cutout.
- Bar die and equipment set. The carpenter builds the bar structure, and coolers, sinks and tap towers are placed or located.
- Template. We measure the finished bar die and cabinets, never the plans, because a bar built on site rarely matches its drawing exactly.
- Fabrication. Tops are cut and edged in the shop.
- Install and punch. Tops are set, seams joined and sinks we were supplied are mounted, leaving time for the plumber and the final clean before inspection.
The template step is the one owners most often want to rush. Measuring before the bar die is finished saves a few days on paper and costs a remake in practice.
Taprooms, brewpubs and restaurant rebuilds in Asheville
Asheville is a four-time winner of the Beer City USA poll, and its brewing story runs from Highland Brewing, which opened in 1994 in a basement below Barley's Taproom, to the East Coast homes that Sierra Nevada and New Belgium built in the area. That trade creates two kinds of bar.
Taproom breweries
A taproom brewery sells a quarter or more of its beer on site, often straight from the brewery's storage tanks, with little or no kitchen. The bar is the whole room, so its length, rail and tap wall carry the space.
Brewpubs
A brewpub brews on the premises and runs a real food operation, so the job adds a kitchen pass, server stations and prep surfaces to the bar itself. Much of the current work is rebuild work. Hurricane Helene damaged or destroyed roughly 80 percent of the studios and buildings in the River Arts District, a riverside district of former mills that holds restaurants and breweries, and it put Biltmore Village under water as well. Operators reopening there are replacing counters that sat in floodwater, often while a landlord, an insurer and a design review all set the pace.
Estimating a bar top bid
A restaurant, taproom or bar countertop package in Buncombe County is typically estimated at roughly $10,000 to $60,000 per contract, with the length of the bar, the material and the number of stations moving it most. We build the bid from your drawings, piece by piece.
- Linear feet and depth of the bar, the back bar and each station.
- Material. In the trade ranges we price from, installed stone is typically estimated at roughly $40 to $100 per square foot for granite and $60 to $150 for quartz, while commercial stainless is generally estimated at $80 to $250 per square foot and up.
- Edges and overhangs. A deep guest overhang needs support brackets, and a thick built-up edge adds shop time.
- Cutouts for bar sinks, glass washers, tap drains and point-of-sale cable pass-throughs.
- Phasing and after-hours work when an operating restaurant stays open during the refit.
- Who sets the sinks and fixtures. We cut the openings and set supplied sinks; the licensed plumber makes the connections.
Every figure on this page is an estimate drawn from trade ticket ranges, not a quote, and it is subject to change with your drawings, your material pick and slab pricing on the day of release. Your written bid sets the final price. Send the drawings, finish schedule and equipment schedule for a bid.
Send your bar drawings for a bid
Owners and their general contractors send us the floor plan, bar elevations, the finish schedule and the equipment schedule showing every sink, cooler and tap tower. Tell us your target opening date. We return a priced scope with the fabrication calendar counted back from it, so you can see which approval has to land by when.
Same Cabinets, New Countertops
Drag the handle. The cabinets stayed; only the top changed.
BeforeAfter
BeforeAfterThe process
How a Countertop Job Runs
The measure
We come to the house, look at the cabinets, the walls and the way in from the driveway, and talk through materials and edges.
The written quote
You get the slab, the edge, the cutouts, the seam plan and the dates in writing. Nothing is cut until you sign off.
Template and fabrication
Once the cabinets are set and level, we template them, then cut and finish the tops in the shop to that template.
Install and walk-through
We set and join the tops, then walk the finished kitchen with you before we call it done.
Questions
Restaurant, Brewery & Bar Countertops: Common Questions
What is the most durable material for a taproom bar top?
Granite and quartz are the usual picks for the guest side of a taproom, with stainless behind the bar. Granite handles heat better, quartz needs no sealing, and the pour well and prep side belong in stainless.
Can marble work on a cocktail bar?
Marble can be installed, but citrus and vinegar etch it quickly, so a cocktail bar in marble shows dull marks within weeks. We suggest marble for ledges and display tops and a harder surface where drinks are built.
How close to opening can you template?
Templating happens once the bar die, cabinets and equipment positions are final. The dates are set in the bid from your opening date, and the schedule shows the last day each approval can arrive without moving it.
Can you install while the restaurant keeps trading?
Yes. Refits in an operating restaurant are phased around service, with installs before opening or after close and the dining room protected, and that after-hours work is priced as its own line.
Can you fabricate a top for a bar our own carpenter builds?
Yes. Your carpenter builds the bar die, and we template on it once it is finished and fixed, then fabricate and install the top to fit what was actually built.
Do you need the equipment schedule to bid?
It makes the bid accurate. Every bar sink, glass washer, cooler lid and tap drain is a cutout or a clearance, and pricing without them leaves those holes as change orders later.
Will quartz take the heat from a pizza oven pass?
Quartz tolerates less heat than natural stone, so hot pans and peels should never land on it directly. At a pass by an oven, granite or stainless is the safer surface.
Free in-home measure
Talk to us about restaurant, brewery & bar countertops
Free measures across Buncombe County. Builders, cabinet shops and property owners can send drawings for a bid.
Licensed, bonded & insured. Calls only, we do not receive text messages.