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Are there any red flags when going in for interviews for a new place? New bar opening up, my fiancee is going in for an interview for a waitress job. It's owned by some people that own two college bars, and it's supposed to be a more "classy" place. I think that's young person classy, dancy classy rather than old rich people drinking high end liquor classy.
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Mar 17, 2013 19:36
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Red flags about the place or red flags that keep you from getting hired?
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Mar 17, 2013 19:52
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Red flags about the place, but hell, I'll take red flags about getting hired too. She's a 23 year old mixed race woman, we're in a college town in Colorado. I really have no idea what factors matter, so let me know if I'm missing something obvious.
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Mar 17, 2013 19:58
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Denver?
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Mar 17, 2013 22:18
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Fort Collins, actually. We've got a ridiculous amount of bars per capita. At least 20 in the 2 busiest square miles. And 8 breweries aside from that.
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Mar 17, 2013 22:31
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16 hours yesterday, and about to go back for a bit more. Ran out of green beer by 4 or 5 PM (opened at 11), out of Guinness just about the same time. Hilariously lovely ordering, but it did mean I didn't have to clean the scum out of a bunch of car bombs beyond the 7 hour mark. Just the usual drunks, stupid plastic green bowler hats, a guy I had to throw out for ogling and then deciding to grope one of our regulars, a guy that got thrown out for punching his best friend in the face despite the friend's protestations that "we just haven't seen each other for a long time, and it's cool!" and the like, and an ultra shittitly dirty bar floor. Nothing too far flung, but it was a god drat grind. Around the 11 hour mark I was screaming out at the top of my lungs "suck my BALLS" to no one in particular as I was making change at the register, delirious.
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Mar 17, 2013 23:17
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Sheep-Goats posted:What does it do? Some kind of goddamn heated blender? Near as I can tell, yeah. I don't get it but no doubt it's of critical importance to the arcane rituals they use to produce all of their crazy stuff. I don't think I could work anywhere without a proper kitchen for the sole reason that access to freshly churned gelato is worth way more to me than my tips.
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Mar 17, 2013 23:26
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Der Luftwaffle posted:Near as I can tell, yeah. I don't get it but no doubt it's of critical importance to the arcane rituals they use to produce all of their crazy stuff. I don't think I could work anywhere without a proper kitchen for the sole reason that access to freshly churned gelato is worth way more to me than my tips. Apparently it can cook, weigh, stir, emulsify, chop, knead, mill, steam, blend, and melt  http://www.thermomix.com.au/what-is-thermomix/functions.aspx Though frankly, if it actually did all of that well, it would be a really interesting device. I'm sure it costs 2 grand, though.
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Mar 18, 2013 02:40
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Perdido posted:Just found out our new GM has experience in New York. Quite excited to be working with him and getting a sense of American protocols. Guess I should be asking about 'regime changes.' Anyone been through one at the place they worked at? I know that some of the manager types have been brought in to revitalize things at bars, so I'm curious what you guys are looking at from existing staff besides obvious poo poo (are they stealing, getting drunk/too drunk on shift, etc.), how common clearing house is, that sort of thing. The GM I was talking about above is basically revamping everything and we're all getting fired and re-hired and 'starting from scratch.' He's made comments that are making me worry that it's going to be a wholesale slaughter, as he seems to be skewing towards bringing in Ken and Barbie doll types. For background, our previous GM (who is part of the owner's family) is still hanging on, but is moving to admin. New guy seems awesome and I'm really interested in wanting to learn from a guy with the wealth of expertise that he's got, but I'm worried as hell that I'm on borrowed time.
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Mar 18, 2013 14:25
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I'm taking it from the "American protocols" part that you aren't in the USA? In which case all fired is probably illegal. Cleaning house then rehiring in the UK would be a pretty obvious breach of employment law. Go talk to citizens advice if you are on these shores. Beyond that, if the old guy is being promoted and the place runs well, cleaning house would be dumb as hell. When my new GM took over last summer it reset any chances of promotion and she said people had a clean slate and all that, but the poorer staff were slowly pushed out after being given several chances and written and verbal warnings about what they were doing wrong and still offered a transfer to a less busy part of the chain if they wanted. And the good staff just carried on kicking names and taking rear end. If you are one of the good workers your new boss will need you to train the Barbies and Kens who come in, and to keep the standards up. What's more likely is a shift in hiring practices where only the Barbies and kens get a look in when hiring new staff and the godawful wastes of space every team gets every now and then get pushed out slowly. The good but non-pretty people there now will become the veteran core that holds up barbieville.
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Mar 18, 2013 14:38
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You're in Canada, right? I don't know anything about employment law in Canada, unfortunately, but that sounds shady as hell. If he just said everyone is starting from scratch, that would be fair - but the "fire and rehire" sounds discomforting at best, and illegal at worst. Do you have to reinterview and reapply for your current job? If so, that's a bad sign, even if you are absolutely guaranteed employment. If the situation is more along the lines of "Everyone can consider yourselves fired and rehired as of this moment, your past means nothing, nor does it matter how long you've been employed here," that's less worrisome. I would ask the new guy for clear, consistent direction from day 1 on what he expects, and that he notify you of anything he is or becomes aware of that needs to be corrected. Bringing in Barbie and Ken types is drat common, for better or worse (better if they are also competent bartenders and replace current, less competent employees, and worse if they are incompetent bartenders). Something else to be aware of is that a lot of GMs who are new to a place need to make their impact felt immediately, or at least give off that impression to bring back in line any good staff who have strayed due to lax standards under previous management. Be cautious, keep your head down and do your job. Oh, and above all else - DO NOT get stuck in a knitting circle of employees gossiping about what each of you has heard about/from the new GM WRT what he'll do, or what will happen. Only the worst rumors come out, and it will sour you on working under him, whether or not it's justified.
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Mar 18, 2013 17:03
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Yeah if he's just using it as a way of saying "There's a clean slate, if you've been a slacker in the past I don't care, all I care about is now onwards" then it's fine. Otherwise, red flags all over, speak to your local equivalent of citizens advice to find out your legal position.
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Mar 18, 2013 17:07
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Work hard, don't complain about anything, clean when you're idle, you'll make it through. If you're asked for suggestions just say "I'm not a big complainer but if you like I can think it over tonight" but don't actually give any suggestions unless you get asked for them again.
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Mar 18, 2013 17:48
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Shooting Blanks posted:You're in Canada, right? I don't know anything about employment law in Canada, unfortunately, but that sounds shady as hell. If he just said everyone is starting from scratch, that would be fair - but the "fire and rehire" sounds discomforting at best, and illegal at worst. Do you have to reinterview and reapply for your current job? If so, that's a bad sign, even if you are absolutely guaranteed employment. If the situation is more along the lines of "Everyone can consider yourselves fired and rehired as of this moment, your past means nothing, nor does it matter how long you've been employed here," that's less worrisome. Right now he's in 'observation' mode and is going to be redoing all of our training manuals and stuff. I get that, part of the issue with the place I work at is that we (as a group of employees) are not the greatest with customer service. Some people are pretty comfortable with their positions (having been working at this particular bar for 8+ years, or having been really cozy with the previous management crew) and have a don't give a gently caress attitude towards their job. I'm positive he wants to put his own flourishes on things and nail in some specific customer service stuff -- one of the things I notice when I'm down in the States is how great service industry staff is compared to similar staff in places I go in Canada. Some of the 'red flags' have been things like his comment about the firing/rehiring thing, asking for everyone to send their resumes in, saying that he wants us to get gym passes for everyone (the implication that I took being that some of our staff are overweight...which is true) and some of his new hires are essentially pretty faces that have been through our joint before. quote:Oh, and above all else - DO NOT get stuck in a knitting circle of employees gossiping about what each of you has heard about/from the new GM WRT what he'll do, or what will happen. Only the worst rumors come out, and it will sour you on working under him, whether or not it's justified. It's amazing how negative a lot of the staff are getting about things. I'm trying to be positive (while still saying I'm nervous as hell) but everything the new GM has asked of us (to submit a mandatory 10 person guestlist for last Thursday and asking people to send their resumes to him) has been met by a rather 'who the gently caress is this guy and who does he think he is?' reaction from a small contingent of staff.
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Mar 19, 2013 01:04
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Perdido posted:Right now he's in 'observation' mode and is going to be redoing all of our training manuals and stuff. I get that, part of the issue with the place I work at is that we (as a group of employees) are not the greatest with customer service. Some people are pretty comfortable with their positions (having been working at this particular bar for 8+ years, or having been really cozy with the previous management crew) and have a don't give a gently caress attitude towards their job. I'm positive he wants to put his own flourishes on things and nail in some specific customer service stuff -- one of the things I notice when I'm down in the States is how great service industry staff is compared to similar staff in places I go in Canada. Is he paying for gym memberships for everyone, or just saying he wants all current staff to get gym memberships? If the former, that's awesome, but I'm assuming it's the latter, in which case gently caress this guy. Reviewing everyone's resumes is a little weird...I'd make sure it's polished up, and be ready to bolt if things turn south. In general, people react negatively to change if it requires more effort on their part, or it takes them out of their comfort zone. That's to be expected. Telling the staff to lose weight or get fired is unacceptable, telling the staff that they're getting free gym memberships because it's good for their health and will help them be more successful in the long run is great. Mandatory guest list is just completely hosed up - that tells me he's expecting his bartenders to draw a crowd, and that he's going to be measuring performance based on how many people from your guest list actually show up. This is happening more and more, and lots of bars are advertising that they hire bartenders based on the crowd you can draw. That's one thing. To make it a new requirement for continued employment is a little hosed up, if it's not explained to you beforehand. That said, you should always be advertising and trying to get people into your bar. From what you've said, play along for now but be ready to change bars at some point in the forseeable future, unless the money just starts rolling in.
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Mar 19, 2013 02:12
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Perdido posted:Right now he's in 'observation' mode and is going to be redoing all of our training manuals and stuff. I get that, part of the issue with the place I work at is that we (as a group of employees) are not the greatest with customer service. Some people are pretty comfortable with their positions (having been working at this particular bar for 8+ years, or having been really cozy with the previous management crew) and have a don't give a gently caress attitude towards their job. I'm positive he wants to put his own flourishes on things and nail in some specific customer service stuff -- one of the things I notice when I'm down in the States is how great service industry staff is compared to similar staff in places I go in Canada. Haha, he wants everyone to get a gym pass? Yeah, that's definitely not a business practice that will stand up in BC. It smacks of discrimination. You're in AB right? I doubt it will there either. Also there is no way you can just 'fire' everyone without reason, even if you're rehiring them immediately, your new GM is insane. And as an aside, for that 10 person guest list thing, gently caress employers that want their bar staff to be promoters as well as rank-and-file.
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Mar 19, 2013 03:19
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The bad news is that that's all annoying and more work. The good news is that he knows what he's doing and if no one else is doing that stuff in your city yet in a little while you'll be making a lot more money than you were. All textbook Murray Hill semi corporate bar stuff so far. My suggestion is to roll with the punches, learn what you can from him, but of course if it turns into poo poo then bail. His American bar background means he will ignore any labor relations until the third or forth lawsuit so don't try to call his bluffs on anything that's technically illegal because he most likely doesn't give two shits. Many (probably most) bars in NYC literally pay their staff nothing, it's tips on take home only. That's how little they care. He promised someone he was going to take the bar to the next level. The problem for you is that it's very possible he knows what he's doing. Give him a chance and take the same attitude he has: show me money or I walk. If he ruins your bar the only comment you'll be able to make when your leave that he will hear is that you were making more money before he came in. raton fucked around with this message at 04:18 on Mar 19, 2013 |
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Mar 19, 2013 04:04
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Clarification: he's wanting to get some perks for employees, including health/dental coverage and gym passes. The unspoken implication I took out of his comment is that some of the people aren't that great looking...especially since every girl he's hired (or wanted to hire) was a bleached blonde, faux tan big tits type. And I'm surprised that the guestlist thing is being met with negativity on here. I think it makes sense -- you want to be drawing in people who are spending money at your bar and are filling up your bar. I do think it's a little unreasonable to expect people to bring people in on weekdays specifically, but having a weekly guestlist quota isn't unreasonable, in my mind. I try to promote my bar and get people to come out when I can. I'm no Doug Quinn, but I've built up a smallish following with our crowd by networking. Also, Sheep, I PM'd you, but just got an empty quote bounced back.
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Mar 19, 2013 04:29
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I can see both sides of this. While I hate a manager who comes into a new place and ignores everything that works about it and tries to do things his way, no matter what, I also have been to some places that reeked of staff attitude and were in desperate need of someone to come in and drag people out of their comfort zone. When I got off the plane in Vancouver from Sydney, at 2pm the second bar I walked into when I asked for a recommendation on a good beer on tap, the answer I got was, "Draft beer is for faggots and foreigners." Are you loving serious? Since I've been working here, I've noticed that same sort of air about a hell of a lot of bartenders who think they're King poo poo of Turd Mountain and honestly need to be smacked around the head and shoulders and reminded that they have one of the best jobs in the world and people literally throw money at them to do it. Maybe you should take a little bit of a reality check for a second and stop being such a smarmy rear end in a top hat. For a side story, a few weeks ago a local bar in town got a new GM who has managed other places around town, and knows his poo poo. Within a couple of weeks, I see some bullshit on FB about "ok we're officially boycotting this bar because they think they can just gently caress over bartenders and get away with it? not likely, pass this on to everyone in the industry that no one drinks there anymore!" acting like drinking there would be like crossing some sort of picket line. I look a little further into it and turns out the new GM told the bar crew that ok, I'm not going to take away your promo tabs, I just want everything rung in now so we can account for it. Fair enough. So every day for the next week, he tells me that he had serious amounts of missing booze and tills were out up to and over $100. So he fired 3 of them and suddenly they're pissing and moaning all over town that this new GM is on some bullshit power trip and fired these guys for "no reason at all" and is bringing in his own friends to work the bar and loving blah blah blah, shut the gently caress up you got caught stealing when you were given free booze to make money with anyway. Own up to it and quit being such monumental pieces of poo poo. So Perdido if this guy is actually going to try to give people gym passes and get them re energized and focused again, then that's a hell of a lot better of a deal than a lot of other new GM's would give anyone. I'm not saying that your crew is lazy and shifty but I think we're all a little guilty of getting caught up in the egotistical/attitude side of this gig from time to time and it can be easy to forget just how lucky we are to be doing what we do. Full disclaimer now that I've said that though: I refused to do promo for a job and got the boot for it, so you have to make those kind of decisions yourself as to what you think you can/should do. I was there for 6+ years and honestly, getting kicked out of there was one of the best things that's happened to me because I never would've left myself and I had no idea how stagnant I'd become.
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Mar 19, 2013 10:25
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Free gym membership? Yes please. Health/dental? Fuckin' A yes please. Fire me and then rehire? Only believe that one if I have it in writing, pal (which won't happen). Require me to submit a guest list and evaluate me based on their (non)attendance? Fuuuuuuck you. That one really irritates me, because I work in a dive rear end bar, and people are known to become regulars for a month, being in every single day at the exact same time, and then disappear for a year at a time without warning. Being evaluated for the potential flakiness of people you think you have some rapport with / animal magnetism effect over is horseshit and a policy I've really hated about this industry since I started. I get that he wants to revitalize the place with some harder and better moneymaking strategies, but dude, your staff will clear itself out in time if they don't like it. I do like that he's being upfront about changing poo poo though. A lot of lovely managers will not say that they expect different attitudes/behaviors out of their staff until after the fact.
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Mar 19, 2013 21:00
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nrr posted:I can see both sides of this. While I hate a manager who comes into a new place and ignores everything that works about it and tries to do things his way, no matter what, I also have been to some places that reeked of staff attitude and were in desperate need of someone to come in and drag people out of their comfort zone. When I got off the plane in Vancouver from Sydney, at 2pm the second bar I walked into when I asked for a recommendation on a good beer on tap, the answer I got was, "Draft beer is for faggots and foreigners." Are you loving serious? Since I've been working here, I've noticed that same sort of air about a hell of a lot of bartenders who think they're King poo poo of Turd Mountain and honestly need to be smacked around the head and shoulders and reminded that they have one of the best jobs in the world and people literally throw money at them to do it. This was one of the many things that amazed me about working in Canada as a fellow Sydneysider. Bad attitudes combined with a generally low standard of bartending (in my opinion, and my apologies to Canadaian bartenders that know their poo poo). Some of the basic cocktails I had at supposed cocktail venues in Vancouver .... ugh. Certainly no Baxter's Inn or Shady Pines level of venue that I could see anywhere. Also getting a decent job can be a nightmare, even with a high level of experience and skills.
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Mar 20, 2013 04:50
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Maybe the varios Oz bartenders can answer a question for me, the last 2 times I've been to Australia several of the bars I've gone to don't seem to stock sweet vermouth; is this a common thing? I wanted a manhattan in Manly and the swanky little beachfront restaurant bar didn't have it. I can understand that I guess, although they had a pretty varied cocktail list, but another couple fairly large bars right in the center of Sydney didn't have any either 
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Mar 20, 2013 04:56
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I haven't worked back in Sydney for 8 years now, but unless something's changed, there's no reason for a decent bar to not be able to make you a Manhattan. I was going to say that maybe you weren't in the right type of bar, but even the lovely pubs I used to work in had a bottle of rosso somewhere around (even if no one who worked there knew how to make a proper manhattan. ) That just sounds strange to me. Kial posted:This was one of the many things that amazed me about working in Canada as a fellow Sydneysider. Bad attitudes combined with a generally low standard of bartending (in my opinion, and my apologies to Canadaian bartenders that know their poo poo). Some of the basic cocktails I had at supposed cocktail venues in Vancouver .... ugh. Certainly no Baxter's Inn or Shady Pines level of venue that I could see anywhere. I first got here in 2005 and when mentioning that I was a cocktail bartender from Sydney and I was looking for a job, I got practically laughed out of almost everywhere I went. The cocktail culture didn't even exist back then in Vancouver but it has really taken off in the past few years and now there are some absoloutely fantastic bars/bartenders there. I'm not sure how things are now as far as looking for a job, because I live a couple of hours north of Van, but I would assume that if you know your poo poo, it would be miles easier to get a job now than it was back then. Things like experience and extensive drink knowledge don't really mean poo poo when there's no cocktail culture around to actually appreciate it and the majority of bars are either nightclubs pumping out lovely, juice filled shots and mixed drinks in plastic "glassware," or pubs selling flat draught beer. I very quickly figured out that 99% of bartending jobs were got not because of what you know, but who you know. The tipping culture in north America makes life gravy for a lot of bartenders, and it means that decent jobs are very hard to come by because it's rare that anyone gives them up. This in turn creates hilarious scenarios where a lot of bad managers fall into the trap of severely overvauling the bartending position, which leads to imposing stupid laws like, "you have to work here for 2 years, minimum, before you get on the bar." Obviously anyone with actual bartending experience will never bother hanging around to get those jobs and the level of bartending is going to get very stagnant and be average at best. Which works if your entire city is only drinking lovely mixed drinks and watered down shots that are half juice, because nobody needs any actual bar knowledge to pump those out anyway. Thankfully, the scene has changed dramatically and a lot of really cool places have sprung up all over the city that have a major focus on the finer side of drinking, (instead of just how many jager bombs we can sell in a night,) and as such it should be a hell of a lot easier for a bartender who knows his poo poo to be able to get a job.
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Mar 20, 2013 06:32
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Vent incoming. I work events at a catering hall. There are usually DJs there. The catering hall will give them food and we'll give them a drink or two if they want. No big deal. Except today, a DJ brought his three friends as his help to work a wedding here. The amount of equipment he had did not warrant this amount of help. I imagine it was the DJ, his friend, and their girlfriends, judging by the way they were interacting with each other. The two girls were coming up to the bar for the drinks. Three drinks every round. They came up four times. Before the party was halfway done. AND they didn't tip a dime. On the fourth time I had to tell them, "Hey, listen, we give the DJ and his help drinks just as a courtesy. If you guys are going to be working, you need to slow the hell down, or stop." And to me, they say, "Oh, alright. No problem." They go up to the god drat bride and ask if it was okay to get a drink from the bar. Within earshot of me. "Hey, we wanted to know if we could just get a little something to drink from the bar, maybe?" The bride comes up with them and they all order, and one of the girls gives me the loving smuggest grin I've ever seen, and it infuriated me. I make the bride's drink first and calmly tell her that we usually give out a couple to the other workers, the DJ's help already had a number of drinks, and I think they're abusing the courtesy. She asks how many, and I point to the back area where he DJ cases and poo poo is where they were hanging out. She could see from where she was that there were about 12 glasses back there. So the bride looks back at me and says loudly, "Well then water will be fine for them." So basically gently caress you, haha, you jerk. The DJ himself didn't know how much they were drinking until they'd been cut off, because his help went and complained to him. This was just his help that was doing this crap. During the cake-cutting and first dance and such, which was almost directly after they were cut off, the DJ was on the floor, and he had one of the help behind the big, black, felt trapezoid working the music. They obviously had cues for when the songs should change, and the help couldn't get it right. The DJ had a little bit of a micro-meltdown on the help, and I honestly felt a little bad for him. But later on, the help was walking past some children and one of them said loudly, while looking at me, "Yeah, there's way too many CHILDREN here." And it really pissed me off and I don't know why it got to me. What pisses me off more is the fact that it pissed me off in the first place. I don't feel that I overserved his help. But they were going at a ridiculous pace and I had to stop that poo poo. I'm just pissed that the one person got under my skin. I'm not the one getting indignant about being cut off at a wedding that I'm supposed to be working at. I told the maitre de pretty much as soon as it happened and of course I got backing on that. I'm just. Pissed. Less of a rant and more of a thing that happened at work that got to me. Rotten Cookies fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 04:56
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gently caress gently caress gently caress gently caress. A few weeks ago I saw a facebook group for a new venue that was advertising they'd be taking over the downstairs lounge of the pub I work in. Not having heard anything about this from my boss, I called her immediately and pointed out the facebook group. She knew nothing about, and the management company that leases the pub from Heineken knew nothing about it either. I went on holiday to Switzerland (where I am now) with my boss saying she'd let me know as soon as she found out anything more. Cue today, she writes me on facebook saying that the takeover is on the 10th of April and none of the staff is being kept on. I'm livid. I've been working there for over a year and even kept the place going as manager for a month during a badly handled takeover last year for the same lovely minimum wage; it was me and one other staff and I was pretty much working 7 days a week to keep it going. Doesn't look like we're getting any kind of severance package or anything. I've written to the new managers asking about my job, but from what I know they seem intent on getting in their own staff, and I am pissed off to all hell. gently caress's sake. Worst case scenario I'll apply for a job where my girlfriend works.
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Apr 1, 2013 14:45
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Sorry to hear that man. If it makes you feel better that's par for the course here in Barbaria. Get in contact with the new owners or whomever if you can and stress that you have a good relationship with the distributors and know which of your clientele are worth keeping and which are not, and that you're absolutely ready to take the place in a new direction if that's what they're looking for. Still, they may see you as part of the old failed enterprise and you may be hosed. Great time to take a month and visit Thailand at least!
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Apr 1, 2013 20:15
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I've been Reading this thread for some time and I guess now is as good a time as any to contribute some of my own stories. About six years ago I was bartending at an extremely busy bar in a popular Mexican restaurant. With the exception of the bar staff, everyone else was Latino and barely spoke any English. Most of them were cool, but our general manager was a bona fide psychopath who drank scotch from seven a.m. until close and would regularly scream at me in front of every customer at the bar in Spanish for little or no reason. About two years into this job, this white fellow that was married to one of the manager's daughters gets promoted from kitchen expediter to bar manager (don't even try to reason through this, it will make your brain parts hurt). His first night with his new title and absolutely no idea how a bar worked or what bartenders and barbacks do, he decides to start pushing himself behind the bar and in our way to serve drinks to customers. At the end of the night as we're dividing tips (three people and two barbacks generally divided about $1300US a night) he saunters over, counts out two hundred and fifty dollars out of our total tip pool and pockets it, claiming he kept having to "bail us out." He managed to pull this little stunt about four nights in a row before he mistakenly decided to go drinking by himself at our watering hole after work one night. I don't think I need to tell you how this one ends. My next job was running a bar for a very... Um.. Eccentric catering location owner. He had this really cool village setup on the outskirts of town for weddings and whatever Louisiana's equivalent of bar mitzvah is. He had never owned or operated a bar and had some very interesting ideas about how to manage inventory. When I first took over for the last guy, he had me measuring bottles at the end of the night with a measuring tape and writing down measurements and somehow he magically thought he could determine what the disparity was between cash intake and product accounted for in this manner. To a laymen this might almost sound sensible, but anyone worth their salt knows bottles at all different shapes and sizes and an experienced bar man can eyeball account pretty accurately. One night, when I'd gotten sort of fed up with this nonsense, I sarcastically told him that we should just start pouring every bottle into a measuring pitcher at the end of the night and count it that way! (most states don't allow product to be transferred from one container to another and back again but this is largely irrelevant) The next morning he called to tell me what a great idea he thought this was and I spent the next hundred parties counting 300+ bottles like this at the end of every night. No amount of desperate bridesmaid sex was worth this.* I've got some stuff to do today but I'll gladly post more stories if there is any interest. *who am I kidding it was worth every minute
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Apr 2, 2013 22:59
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Benny D posted:I don't think I need to tell you how this one ends. I would like to hear how this one ends, honestly.
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Apr 2, 2013 23:52
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JawKnee posted:I would like to hear how this one ends, honestly. Our barback that night was a very polite young fellow who also happened to play backup left tackle at LSU. Working with him behind the bar was a tremendous pain in the rear end (from counter to bar rail was only three feet, and the beer wells took up almost a third of it), but he could carry six cases of beer or four full trash cans all by himself. He was also our go-to guy for troublemakers when our off duty cop wasn't around. Anyway, he felt more slighted than anyone that this little cocksucker was basically stealing from us, as it costed him about 20% of what he was used to taking home. We were piss-drunk on Bayou Bombs (Jäger and Abita Springs cane sugar root beer) when he came in into the bar. At first we tried to ignore him but I could tell my barback was getting more and more steamed by the moment, and as badly as I felt I should diffuse the situation before it got worse, I hated the guy too. Within the hour our barback had the guy basically chest-pinned against the bathroom door, calling him every name his mother didn't christen him. Needless to say we were goading it on from the sidelines. The next afternoon when we showed up for work, they had waiters behind the bar and we were all let go. Louisiana is a right-to-work state, so there was nothing any of us could really do. Six months later we heard on the news that the place had been knocked over when he decided to walk out of the restaurant by himself after two am from a place that is known to be filled with cash (rookie mistake). He got pistol-whipped and tied up in the office. I would never wish this on anyone but goddamn if I didn't crack a smile. A Word About Hiring Practices I'd like to expand on what James said about basically having to lie your way into your first job. My first bartending job was working an officer's party while I was enlisted in the army. This was a pretty swanky event at Fort Bragg, celebrating the birthday of the 82d Airborne and some silly Department of Defense thing that I don't really remember. There were four of us behind a giant mahogany table serving wine and champagne in our dress blue uniforms. We weren't really "bartending," but it was enough to make me think I could handle the job when I got back to the real world. Fast forward about a year to when I'm finishing my ETS paperwork in a very lovely place called Kandahar. I had been looking for jobs back home for weeks but no one would give me a shot as a real bartender without solid experience, so I did the rational thing and lied. I lied my rear end off. I built a resume that showed me working at the NCO Club on base for all four of my stateside enlisted years, with made up references and everything. No one will ever, ever, ever call a military installation nine states away to try and confirm your off-duty work history. Two interviews later I had been hired at a fine-dining joint as a bartender by a manager who liked to hire vets. Fortunately, both the guys I worked my first few shifts with knew I was full of poo poo basically right away but they had also been soldiers and went to work right away teaching. I got military style drillings for ten hours a night, six nights a week, for almost two months. I owe everything that I know to those two guys. Being a man in the bar business is not easy. It is rough and can be very, very degrading and, if you do not possess skin the thickness of Kevlar, you will spend your first few nights depressed and angry. What makes it even more difficult is knowing that, much like the acting business, no matter how good you are at your job you are still one new pretty face away from being unemployed. I have been trying to find a new job as a bartender to hold me over until I move to Florida in September, and I have had seven different managers look over my resume and tell me they're only looking for women. It is like that everywhere in this town. What is the opposite of penis envy? A quick rant about classic cocktails. Even the younger bartenders I meet today that consider themselves learned in the finer arts still have a very hard time with nuance. When I was working in New Orleans, if I tried to make a Sazerac with Angostura bitters I would get called out on it by any of ten old men sitting at my bar as soon as I touched the bottle. If I was in a hurry and used simple syrup in my old fashion instead of muddling raw sugar (I don't know if this is considered an ok shortcut elsewhere in the world, but in the Crescent City it's considered a loving sin) the customer would always say something about it. And they were right, every single one of them. Shortcuts are for blenders and bullshit shots. When someone orders a classic cocktail, show them the respect they deserve and make it right, every single time. Later tonight or tomorrow I'll type up some of my good stories from New Orleans. Seriously, if your bucket list should contain one place to bartend in America, it is the big easy. Just not on bourbon street. But we'll get to that later.
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Apr 3, 2013 02:38
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Benny D posted:I've been Reading this thread for some time and I guess now is as good a time as any to contribute some of my own stories. Death to all thieves (who steal by virtue of their position)
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Apr 3, 2013 03:14
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Most of the time guests walking in right before you close sucks But sometimes it's the Harlem Globetrotters and you hang out and talk to them for an hour  (I'm in the server uniform)
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Apr 6, 2013 06:43
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I'll be really disappointed if they didn't offer you flair tips and demos.
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Apr 7, 2013 01:08
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I either made it to the next round of world class or I told a random woman from diageo WAY too much about my dick
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Apr 9, 2013 12:24
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MC Eating Disorder posted:I either made it to the next round of world class or I told a random woman from diageo WAY too much about my dick Or? Why does it have to be or?
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Apr 9, 2013 15:51
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MC Eating Disorder posted:I either made it to the next round of world class or I told a random woman from diageo WAY too much about my dick That suntory training sounded like alot of fun then. Had a few popped in after, ended up 86'ing one of the boys. Have you heard back about world class yet? I recieved a mysterious call at 11:30am that I'm hoping was from Sydney, but I don't wanna kid myself. Here's to drinking the remainder of my world class premix!
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Apr 9, 2013 19:47
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What's you guys opinions on barsmarts. I found some codes for their smaller class, and am thinking about signing up. However, I do know spirits and "mixology" very well, but beer and wine, less so. Is it worth it, has anyone done it?
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Apr 10, 2013 23:31
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doginapot posted:What's you guys opinions on barsmarts. I found some codes for their smaller class, and am thinking about signing up. However, I do know spirits and "mixology" very well, but beer and wine, less so. Is it worth it, has anyone done it? Tell ya what, I did the Certified Cicerone course online a while back, and it was pretty good basic knowledge for beer. Styles, descriptions and histories of the styles. It's done me a world of good in just mastering vocabulary in using proper terminology for the explosion in local craft we've seen around here. I actually go back to my notes from the course fairly often, and the suggested expanded readings I always keep a bookmark on to check out. Does not cover wine at all though. e: \/ I believe it was. Ally McBeal Wiki fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Apr 11, 2013 |
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Apr 11, 2013 00:09
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Was it Barsmarts online test that someone posted that was supposed to be a 4 week course that most of us aced in under an hour?
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Apr 11, 2013 01:09
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nrr posted:Was it Barsmarts online test that someone posted that was supposed to be a 4 week course that most of us aced in under an hour? I think that was B.A.R., but I remember rushing through that one as well. I don't think ANY of us aced it - I know I didn't because there were more than a couple questions that were worded really weirdly, at least a couple that I flat out disagreed with, and one portion had a ton of really obscure historical poo poo that few people will ever know unless they actually go through the full length course. And AFAIK, none of us did the final - which was basically a paint-by-numbers behind the bar. "Make a cosmo! Click your glassware, chill it, click your liquors and amounts, how you're going to mix it, how you're going to garnish it, and serve. Repeat 50 times."
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Apr 11, 2013 04:54
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Shooting Blanks posted:I think that was B.A.R., but I remember rushing through that one as well. I don't think ANY of us aced it - I know I didn't because there were more than a couple questions that were worded really weirdly, at least a couple that I flat out disagreed with, and one portion had a ton of really obscure historical poo poo that few people will ever know unless they actually go through the full length course. And AFAIK, none of us did the final - which was basically a paint-by-numbers behind the bar. Desktop barmaster  That is seriously weird as gently caress.
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Apr 11, 2013 05:15
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