[spex x]

You've gotten a lot of great advice already, and you seem smart and competent enough. I just wanted to say that this proposition seems somewhat risky. I don't know about a bar, but my dad used to own a liquor store and his margin was 8%. You've gotta sell a hell of a lot of booze to live, get an adequate risk-adjusted ROI, etc. on an 8% margin. That amounts to constant work IMO. Dunno if thats typical or not, its possible that dad didn't know what he was doing.

Personally, I no longer get involved with partners. If I find a deal that I need a partner to pull off, I either look for investors that could take the place of a partner, or I pass. If you do decide to get involved with a partner you need to make sure the you get everything in writing, most importantly who has what responsibilities and how the cash will be split. I can forsee a major potential problem if you've each put in 50% of the cash, but your partner does 90% of the work. There WILL come a point at which he's tired to getting half the money for doing all the work. This is inevitable, so figure it out up front.