What Speakers to use in a bar/restaurant environment

Forget the amps and buy a set of newer (series II) powered Mackies maybe. They're the smoothest (much sweeter than the JBLs) and most musical for the money (QSCs are also great but cost a lot more) and the 10" 2 ways weigh 20 lbs or something with readily available mounting gear. They're able to play VERY loud or just stay in the background, and if you have entertainment blowing through them, or an out of control employee party (the best kind) you can SHREAD a small room with these. I have a pair of the unpowered C200s and they are amazingly well voiced for monitor purposes, and built like a tank. You can run a balanced line to 'em for miles with no loss, and almost hose 'em off when they get dusty. I know somebody who covered a pair with black cloth to hide 'em when hanging in a bar ceiling. Very wide and smooth dispersion in the horns so everybody can hear you annnounce LAST CALL.

Genelec sound great, very clean with huge soundstage. Professional studio stuff though that can get expensive. Mackie also make some nice gear.

Over the years I've seen a lot of bars with Bose 901s hung from the ceiling. They go loud and are pretty durable, and you can get an older system fairly cheap nowadays.

I was at Chipotle last night and I saw that they had quite a bit of Mirage Omnisat V2 speakers mounted upside down high up on the walls and in the lower ceiling joists. The volume level was fine but I don't know how loud it could have gone.

i second the mirage omnis--i've heard 'em in (acoustically challenged) restaurant environments and they sound damn good. the real advantage to them is that they have that 360 degree dispersion--they really don't have dead spots. they're also seemingly impervious to placement. i'm seeing 'em in more and more national chain stores, which suggests that they do have commercial application.