Better Bars & Liquor Stores, Public Release
I've been irritated at how hard it is to incorporate Juice Fizzes and Seltzers into game play. Like, why can't you order one at a bar?
If you want to run a retail store that sells Juice Fizzes, it's pretty hard to manage unless you craft everything yourself. If you place them out of Build/Buy, the packages are empty, etc, since they need the crafting process to make them usable.
And to be honest, the only practical way to make a lot of Juice Fizzes is to become a farmer to grow all the stuff to have enough ingredients.
But what if you just want to have a fizz at the bar with your friends?
Bar Additions
First, I added some features to Bars. It adds all the Juice Fizzes and Seltzers to the Order Drink menu in commercial venues, as well as coffee and tea. NPCs will order these drinks as well, so you will see them drinking bottles, cans, etc. I also added some Whole Pizzas, so you can order and share a pizza at a bar, as well as some other bar-type food.
Plus a Carry-Out menu on Bartenders for "package sales" of bottles of nectar, 6-packs of fizzes, boxes of seltzers and whole pizzas. Note that prices from the bar Carry-Out menu are a bit more expensive than usual, since that's usually how that work. OTOH, you're covered for game night if you forget to plan ahead.
Retail Additions
You can't normally put Juice Fizzes or Seltzers in the Retail Fridge (they're missing the RETAIL_FRIDGE inventory type). So, I'm injecting the RETAIL_FRIDGE inventory type to all the Juice Fizz and Seltzer multi-pack tunings so that you can.
To make it easier to sell fizzes as a retailer without having to be a full-time crafter/farmer to make all the products, I inject a menu to the Retail Fridge to Restock it with Juice Fizzes and Seltzers (from a wholesaler...you know). If you own the store it's in, you pay the same as a restocking fee (80% list - perks modifiers).
And my favorite feature, if an NPC owns the retail store, you can visit the store and restock the retail fridge for free! You still need to purchase them from the retail fridge as usual to get at them (at retail prices), but at least you can get something to buy without having to play a retailer just to set the store up.
New Grapes for Dine Out Nectars
You can make all of the six types of nectar already found in the game:
House Red Nectar
House White Nectar
Von Haunt Estate Meloire
Soft Shadow Avornalino
Riverblossum Cranerlet Nuala
Monte Vista Reserve Renoit
Granite Falls Grappo Blanco
Each type of nectar comes from a particular strain of grape:
Grape
Green Grape
Meloire Grape
Avornalino Grape
Renoit Grape
Cherimola Blan
Seeds for the grapes are available randomly in the Starter Fruit Seed Pack.
Bulk Manufacturing
You can create bulk recipes using the Simsco Canning Factory, including
Kegs of Juice Fizz (Canning Factory recipes): requires 30 fruit, needs refrigeration, can be bottled to produce 6 6-packs of the corresponding Juice Fizz type. Can be sold to bars and restaurants at a higher price using my Food & Beverage Supplier mod.
Nectar Casks (Canning Factory recipes): requires 12 grapes of corresponding type, does not need refrigeration, gets more valuable with age. Can be opened to produce 4 bottles of wine. Can be sold to bars and restaurants at a higher price using my Food & Beverage Supplier mod.
Themed Bars
I've added some lot traits to create different sorts of patrons in different bars (and lounges, etc). It just causes more of the bar patrons to be a certain type. I think I put these under the lot challenges so that they didn't use up a primary lot trait slot.
Cop Bar
The bar gets full of cops, after work. I might create a version specifically for cafes...
Criminal Bar
The bar is frequented by sims in the Criminal career
Art Bar
This is a fun one. It attracts patrons that drink and paint. And drink. There was a Paint Bar around the corner from where I live before the pandemic, and it seemed to be a lot of fun (they sold supplies, etc). Anyway, now you can have one, just remember to place some easels around.
Sports Bar
This is basically a Bro bar. Make sure there are plenty of televisions.
Change Log
1.0.0b, 2023-02-12, Initial Patreon Preview
1.0.1b, 2023-05-08, Patreon Preview, added Nectar
1.0.2b, 2023-05-11, Patreon Preview, bugfixes, correcting labels and ingredient lists
1.0.3b, 2023-09-03, Patreon Preview, added NectarMaker recipes for DineOut nectar, modified nectar bottles to behave the same as Horse Ranch nectar bottles.
1.0.4b, 2023-09-24, Patreon Preview, color coded wine casks.
1.0.5, 2023-11-05, Public Release
1.0.6, 2024-10-22, Patch 1.110 Update
1.0.7, 2025-07-01, Patch fix for Enchanted by Nature
1.0.8, 2025-07-11, Additional fix after Enchanted by Nature emergency patch to fix exception while opening fruit seed packets
1.0.9, 2026-03-28, Pack filtering of injected products for bars, etc, additional bug fixes
1.0.10, 2026-05-18, Fixes for latent tuning errors, Pack specific recipes separated into separate package files.
1.0.11, 2026-06-09, Fixed missing nectar injectors, added grape seed packets
As always, suggestions and or bug reports are welcome. Thanks again for your support!
Comments (27)
Hi Simsonian. A few issues to report. The drinks are showing up twice in the menu list (duplicates) when using the "order drink" menu. The same goes for the "order food" menu where there are also duplicates. I think kebab pizza is showing up 4 times lol. Are there any known mod conflicts and/or is this happening for you as well?
Hello. I have not noticed that yet, but while I play with all my mods installed, I don't end up using all the features of all of them all the time. So it appears that my sims need to go to the bar more, lol. I'll check into it. I wonder if I'm double-injecting the recipes into the menus? It might have snuck in when I split the mod into pack-based .packages, but I don't recall seeing it before. I'll see. Thanks for the feedback!
Hi, I just downloaded this mod to try it out. When loading the save I have, BE reported an exception regarding a missing "recipe_Bar_ChickenYakitori-Single" tuning. From what I can tell that is a recipe from Snowy Escape, which I don't currently have installed. Can I ignore this exception for now? Also, should all of the PackExtras files be installed with the mod, or should I leave out the SnowyEscape one? The exception seems to happen whether I include that file or not.
Yeah, that's what that error means. It's generally something that you can ignore, since the missing file gets ignored once you load the save. You should remove the PackExtras files for packs you don't have. I'm not sure why you'd still get that error when the PackExtra one for SnowyEscape is removed, but I will test that directly. Thanks for the feedback! I'll look into that ASAP.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/nq7z024oiawcs8hdcylyu/Better-Bars-PackExtras-traductions-fran-aises-de-LuniverSims.fr.zip?rlkey=lrm62c67tsmjabzhsk9vkbk6n&st=abpnane6&dl=0 --> Hello, here’s the complete translation again. The folder includes the entire mod translated into French. It’s simpler this way. Thanks for this mod—I’ll write an article soon once I’ve tested it more thoroughly in-game. Just one thing: I’ve had this mod for a long time, and the Sims were leaving sparkling juice bottles on the floor. I don’t know if you’ve fixed that—thanks in advance, and thanks for sharing all this great content. Take care.
Thanks again! I will look into the Fizzy bottles problem!
i have the latest version of both this mod and the canning factory mod. the red/white wine functionality is not working anymore. when opening the canning factory (with a sim at lvl 10 cooking + mixology + lvl 5 nectarmaking) and navigating to the beverages section, there are only fizz kegs available to craft, no casks of any kind of nectar. the grapes also can't be found in seed packs anymore, i've been buying 30+ starter fruits packs and haven't gotten a single winemaking grape, only normal plain grapes and other fruits. this mod used to work for me so i know where/how everything is supposed to be, i crafted casks in the past using the canning factory, i had a line of wine grape bushes planted in my sims garden, they are still there but when hovering over them, there is no tooltip and when clicking on them, there are no gardening related options except "talk to plant", it's like the game doesn’t even recognise them as plants anymore. they bear no fruit either. when i try to buy the avornalino, meloire, green, etc grapes directly, instead of going to my sims inventory, they appear in the household inventory. when i place them on the ground and return to live mode, they cannot be planted. though they appear as grapes in the catalog/inventory thumbnail, once placed/dragged into the real world, they appear as flat light brown seeds (like the first growth stage of something planted in the vertical planter from eco lifestyle) i cant replant them or drag them into my sim's personal inventory. idk if it was a recent patch that broke this or a recent mod update that you made, but this no longer works for me. i have already ensured i have no duplicate files/older mod versions, the script files are not too many folders deep, etc. every other aspect of the canning factory mod is working fine, and i only downloaded the better bars mod to have the bulk wine crafting aspect of it. i have all necessary packs for these mods too. hope this will be fixed soon, i loved this mod
I just looked at that, and you're right. Darn! I did some rearranging in the build environment before the last release and added some pack tests, but it's acting like the objects for grapes and casks are missing or inaccessible. Sorry I missed this! I'll get a bug fix update posted as soon as I can. Thanks for letting me know, and sorry about the broken bit!
Oh, I'm going to try this out :D I don't have Dine Out, but the rest seems very interesting to include in my forever fantasy world :D Thank you for everything you do!
Oh, I see the error you posted in your other comment (which isn't showing up correctly here -- odd). In any case, yeah, that other error is due to needing DineOut. The nectar recipes were a problem with this -- I had to require HorseRanch for the nectar bottle objects, but the glasses of nectar that you can pour out of them require DineOut (eg, Soft Shadow Avornalino, etc). The game must look for the wine glass object referenced by those interactions, then fail with the pack missing error. I hadn't set up my pack test code to look for two packs, just one, so I require Horse Ranch for the nectar bottles. It looks like I need to modify that code so that it can require more than one and also require DineOut. Hmm, not sure if that would be enough -- I'll need to experiment. I'm trying to avoid needing to ship extra optional package files with the mod to include if you have certain packs (or are missing them), since that always seems a little complicated, but might be the only way. Thanks for the feedback, it's been super helpful!
Is there a possibility for a version without the need for all the packs? I do have Eco Lifestyle but not the Ranch, so it gave me LEs. It also gave me LEs for some types of pizzas that I'm not sure which packs are from, but I clearly don't own. It'd be nice if you added the info for the packs needed on your post. 🤍
The pizzas are from Discover University. Pack requirements have been a bit of a problem with me, since I tend to get all the EP and GP, and start assuming that they're 'just there'. In any case, I recently figured out how to better filter a lot of the additions/injections my mods do to add things based on pack availability. I've been working on adding this in Family History first, but this mod needs it as well (possibly more urgently than Family History). I have to write a little more scripting code to filter a few more types of additions by pack, then I should be able to get this one updated so that it 'just works' with whatever packs you have. This one might also need Dine Out for the restaurant wines, and a few of the bar food items also come from specific packs. I've been looking at sorting through those this morning so that I can put pack filters around the ones that require more than Base Game. In any case, apologies for the LE's and thanks for the feedback!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/143650441?collection=1836777
The post is full of love <3 I think I'm reading it for the 3d time now (rearranging my mods, trying what'd be best, etc), every time the easel bar and the personal story behind it makes me smile. An amateur theater where I used to act for a while had a post season gathering at such bar. I always thought to myself I'd get there someday to drink and paint, and drink. Anyways, I'm downloading the mod _again_ lol. Thank you!
hi is this still working?
Yes, as far as I can tell. I double checked it just now. The Carry Out Sales menu is on the bar and the extra food items are on the bar menus. I haven't tried all of the features since the patch, but Better Exceptions isn't showing me any errors related to it.
Hey! I love your mod! Unfortunately, I just installed "Better Exceptions" and it has a huge problem with your mod. :( From the report: Recommended Action There is bad tuning in this mod: \SCRIPT mod - SimsonianLibrary_BetterBars_1.0.6\SimsonianLibrary_BetterBars.package Delete it from your mods folder or see if the author has an updated version. If it is a multi-package mod make sure you update all of them. Possible Cause (Confidence: 100%) \SCRIPT mod - SimsonianLibrary_BetterBars_1.0.6\SimsonianLibrary_BetterBars.package Reason [cjiang] Error occurred within the tag named '_components' (value: U) (UnavailablePackSafeResourceError)
I'm taking a look at that. Given the last term in the error, I'm wondering if it's because it uses some packs you don't have. I'll see if there are any objects (which are what have _components tags) that use pack-specific components, and get back to you here.
Are you referring to this mod? https://www.patreon.com/posts/mod-order-at-bar-76373840 I'll try installing that today (need to head to work right now) and see what happens. It looks like it modifies a lot of the same things as BetterBars, so there may be incompatibilities. I'll install it and see if I can work through them. Thanks for the report, and I'll let you know what I find!
I just update my mods for the ss that I can order functional drinks and snacks at the bar with her mod and yours and I put better bar back in it still showing the same thing so I’m unsure what’s causing the mod to have issues
Just noticed this paragraph on the S&S bar mod: "The mod is a override of EA files such as bar_PushOrderDrink and bar_pushOrderFood (and other related files). We have not found a single mod that would change the same files - that is, compatible with all mods" If they completely overrode that file, it would probably break the injections that BB uses to add items to the bar menu. Looking at that. (they may not be compatible)
Basically my game saying when I go to a lot like the bar it saying that it’s broken and I try to purchase my sims some drinks it give me a error and the game was saying there is bad tuning
That's helpful! I'll go try ordering a drink and see what happens.
im getting last exceptions for better bars for my game saying this mod is broken in m game
I use the mod myself and haven't noticed any errors from it, so I could use some more information to look into it. Are you using MCCommand or any other error tracker that might be able to provide more details about the error? MCCommand generates an HTML file that contains all of this -- not sure about Better Exceptions. Otherwise, the lastException.txt file that gets generated in your game folder (next to Mods) might shed some light on it. Otherwise, are you getting the error when you enter Live mode or go to a lot, or are you getting it when you perform a particular interaction? Thanks for the report, and I'll look at it as soon as I can get more information -- actually, I'm going to look at it either way, but more information would help me find and fix it.
I absolutely love this mod! Seriously a game changer imo. My only feedback/ask is if there could be a way to opt-out of the dine-out grapes in the future? I love this mod but don't usually like playing with CC harvestables. Even if not, it's not a biggie b/c this mod makes bars and restaurants sooooo much better. Tysm again for all the amazing work you do!
Thanks! I'll have to ponder how to make those optional, but I'm curious. Do CC harvestables cause problems? (the ones in this mod are about the only ones I use).