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I understand that the NEC requires GFCI outlets in kitchens. But how does it define a kitchen?
If a room has a wet bar, that's not a kitchen, right? What if we add some more appliances (maybe a stove or dishwasher) next to the wet bar? At what point does the room become a second kitchen for the purposes of the NEC?
The issue of whether a room is a "kitchen" or not is only marginally relevant to GFCI requirements, as NEC 210.8(A) point 7 requires GFCI protection within 6' of any sink in a dwelling unit, including those found in wet bars:
(7) Sinks — where receptacles are installed within 1.8 m (6 ft) from the top inside edge of the bowl of the sink
However, your question does matter as it determines whether your space requires its own small appliance branch circuits. For that, we turn to the NEC Article 100 definition of "Kitchen":
Kitchen. An area with a sink and permanent provisions for food preparation and cooking.
A wet bar has a sink, of course, and also has "permanent provisions for food preparation" in that it has countertop space. However, the lack of provisions for a permanently installed cooking (food heating) appliance is what makes it "not a kitchen" under the NEC.
So, adding a built-in cooking appliance such as a cooktop or hardwired oven would do the trick. What else would make it a kitchen? A "hutch" for a microwave or toaster oven or other such provision obviously intended for a cooking appliance to be left connected/installed 24/7, would also push it over that line. Simply plugging a hotplate/portable induction cooker or other such portable cooking appliance in and leaving it on the counter wouldn't be "permanent" enough in my eyes, though, since someone could readily unplug it and put it away if they needed to use the counter space for something else.
Of course, nothing in the NEC stops you from dropping a pair of dedicated 20A branch circuits to the countertop receptacles on your wet bar, even if there isn't a microwave hutch or other "kitchenette" feature planned there.
From the 2017 edition: "Kitchen. An area with a sink and permanent provisions for food preparation and cooking." This definition will usually lead to the next question, what is permanent? The NEC doesn't define this as a technical term. You and I both know hardly anything called permanent is ever truly permanent. Even stone tablets carved by the hand of God have been reduced to pieces. Permanent could include even a microwave depending on how it's designed or how it's viewed by local authorit(ies) having jurisdiction.
Be aware there may be different rules for residential dwelling kitchens vs commercial kitchens, depending on the code cycle being used, and your local and/or state codes.
