La Barra Co. does not rent out bar furniture on its own. Renting a bar unit in Los Angeles runs roughly $150–$400 a day for a cart or portable bar and $600–$1,200 for a trailer or bar van, and that price is the furniture only — no bartenders, no ice, no mixers, no glassware, no setup and no RBS-certified staff. A full mobile bar service from La Barra Co. starts at $795 and includes the bar, the bartenders, all mixers, fresh garnish, the ice program, glassware, custom menu design, setup and complete breakdown. You buy the alcohol at retail yourself, which is where most of the savings actually come from.
If you searched for a bar rental in Los Angeles, a portable bar rental, a bar cart rental or a mobile bar trailer rental, you are probably weighing two different things without realising it. One is furniture. The other is a service. They are priced differently because they are not the same product, and the gap between them is where most event budgets go wrong.
| What you need | Bar unit rental | La Barra Co. service |
|---|---|---|
| The bar itself | Included | Included |
| RBS-certified bartenders | No | Included |
| Ice program | No | Included |
| Mixers and fresh garnish | No | Included |
| Glassware | No | Included |
| Custom menu design | No | Included |
| Setup and breakdown | Usually a fee | Included |
| Alcohol | You buy it | You buy it |
| Typical LA cost | $150–$1,200/day | From $795 |
The rental quote is rarely the final number. Delivery and pickup are usually billed separately. Ice for a 60-guest event is 80–120 pounds and someone has to buy it, move it and keep it from melting all afternoon. Glassware rental is its own line item and comes with a breakage deposit. Mixers, juices and garnish for a four-hour event add up fast at retail. And then there is the labor: bartenders hired separately in Los Angeles, plus the person who has to coordinate four vendors arriving at four different times.
None of that makes renting wrong. It makes it a different decision than it looks like at first.
There are real cases for it. If your venue already staffs a bar and you only need the furniture, rent the furniture. If you are running a dry event with self-serve drinks and no alcohol service, you do not need certified staff. If it is a small backyard gathering where a friend is pouring and nobody minds, a $150 cart is plenty. And if you want a specific look — a vintage trailer, a bar van, a themed cart — that is a rental product, not a service product, and a specialist rental company will serve you better than we will.
Weddings, corporate events and anything over roughly 50 guests tend to go the other way. At that size the bar stops being furniture and becomes an operation: queue management, pacing, pour consistency, running out of ice at 9pm. California also requires RBS certification for anyone serving alcohol, and most Southern California venues ask for that paperwork before they let a bar operate on site.
La Barra Co. publishes four package prices: Intimate $795 (30–50 guests, 3 hours, 1 bartender), Signature $1,495 (60–100 guests, 4 hours, 2 bartenders), Premier $1,950 (100–150 guests, double service point) and Grand $2,795 (150–200 guests, 5 hours, 3 bartenders). Every one of them includes the bar. See the full pricing page.
Yes. Party rental companies in Los Angeles rent portable bars, bar carts, bar trailers and bar vans without staff, typically $150–$400 a day for a cart or portable bar and $600–$1,200 for a trailer. La Barra Co. does not offer furniture-only rental — we provide the full service, which includes the bar itself.
A furniture-only rental excludes bartenders, RBS certification, ice, mixers, garnish, glassware, menu design, setup and breakdown. It also excludes the labor of running the bar during the event, which is the part most hosts underestimate.
Rarely, once you add it up. A $250 bar cart rental plus two bartenders at Los Angeles market rates, plus ice, mixers, garnish and glassware rental, typically lands close to or above the $795 La Barra Co. Intimate package — and you are coordinating four vendors instead of one.
Yes. Every package includes the bar: a 6-foot portable bar on Intimate, an 8-foot bar with backdrop on Signature, and a 12-foot double bar on Premier and Grand. There is no separate rental fee for the bar.
You do, at retail. That is the dry hire model and it is how California ABC guidelines work for private events. After booking, La Barra Co. sends a precise shopping list based on your guest count, event length and drink menu. Most hosts spend less this way than through a bar package with alcohol markup built in.
Not sure which side you fall on? Tell us the guest count, the venue and the date and we will say plainly whether you need us or whether a rental company is the better fit. Call (213) 752-1446 or text (415) 559-2981.
If you decided you need staff and not furniture, start at mobile bartender service.
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