Definitely agree with this! The initial pitch included a subsystem that allowed you to take drinks to patrons to get leads on quests, so you could essentially haggle with folks by getting them drunk or trying to eavesdrop on their quest threads. Unfortunately, we only had two weeks to work on the game, so we ended up scrapping that for the simplicity of the board, since the meat and potatoes of the experience is assigning folks to the right quests.
I think for a longer experience, I'd definitely want earned gold to be paid down like a currency. You can invest in your bar and get ammenities or upgrades with it. What kinds of things would you like to see upgraded by spending the gold on it?