|
Kaizoku posted:"...I'll take a coke, I guess." "We have Pepsi" "Then just water." Is this a thing that actually happens? I'm certainly familiar with "I'll have a Coke/Pepsi", followed by "we only have the other one", but I've never seen anyone care enough to change to something else.
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 03:13
|
|
Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 18:08 |
|
|
The Tiki bar I work in is the size of a shoebox, and our beer cooler is about 5'x3'. People complain that our beer selection is too small  We also have one beer on tap, Bud light. This is how the conversation usually goes:  What do you have on tap? Bud Light What else? Hold on, let me check........Bud Light.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 03:46
|
|
|
Tiki supremacy. I'm dipping off tomorrow to mothers because Bacardi is sponsoring the show. Where are you that tiki runs a whole concept?
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 04:18
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:Is this a thing that actually happens? I'm certainly familiar with "I'll have a Coke/Pepsi", followed by "we only have the other one", but I've never seen anyone care enough to change to something else. Where I live, all the time. I get the opposites too, but where I work now (coke restaurant), I get the same number of people leaving as when I worked at a Pepsi restaurant.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 04:23
|
|
|
People leave?
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 04:36
|
|
|
That's goddamn ridiculous, especially considering restaurants will switch every little while for better rates.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 04:51
|
|
|
Vegetable Melange posted:Tiki supremacy. I'm dipping off tomorrow to mothers because Bacardi is sponsoring the show. Where are you that tiki runs a whole concept? Is there a good tiki bar in NYC? Please don't say Painkiller because I've been there three times and the space is horrible and the staff has let me down two of those times even when I was willing to put up with the space. I've been to Reunion too but that's more surf than tiki and the crowd is a little bland.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 06:07
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:Is this a thing that actually happens? I'm certainly familiar with "I'll have a Coke/Pepsi", followed by "we only have the other one", but I've never seen anyone care enough to change to something else. Pepsi from a gun actually gives me the shits. From a bottle is fine (unless I'm in Norway, then ditto on the shits), and coke from a bag or a bottle is fine. So yeah. I'm a "pepsi? Nah I'll have water" customer myself. edit: Okay, maybe not water, but certainly not Pepsi.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 06:15
|
|
|
My brother wants to become a bartender and he's convinced you have to go to school. There's a certification you have to get in my state (WA) but you don't have to get it prior to getting a barback gig. You have two months to get it. How can I show him he's probably being taken for some money?
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 06:18
|
|
|
Animal-Mother posted:My brother wants to become a bartender and he's convinced you have to go to school. There's a certification you have to get in my state (WA) but you don't have to get it prior to getting a barback gig. You have two months to get it. How can I show him he's probably being taken for some money? Doing a course for the certification itself certainly can't hurt, as long as the rates are competitive. He'll have to pay it eventually anyway, and I personally wouldn't hire anyone without it despite any 2 month leeway if such a certification existed here. Why take the risk?
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 06:20
|
|
|
What I mean is that I think he's trying to go to an expensive "bartending school" that the OP advises one to avoid.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 06:30
|
|
|
Vegetable Melange posted:Tiki supremacy. I'm dipping off tomorrow to mothers because Bacardi is sponsoring the show. Where are you that tiki runs a whole concept? It's a Tiki bar on a beach "resort" in FL. It's tiny.  That's 3/4 of it
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 06:45
|
|
|
wanna switch for a week or so every now and then?
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 07:10
|
|
|
Animal-Mother posted:What I mean is that I think he's trying to go to an expensive "bartending school" that the OP advises one to avoid. Tell him anything that can be taught at one of those places can be learnt from this: http://www.thebartendersblackbook.com/ For like $15. The main thing with bartending classes is all they do is teach you cocktail recipes, and not much else. He'd be far better served barbacking or working as a server, getting a feel for the industry and what he likes (high volume, fine dining, pubs, etc.) and then making connections and networking...getting to know people in the industry as well as the regulars who frequent whatever joint you're working at. Bartending classes won't do that. If he has anxiety about learning how to pour, buy a bottle of vodka (or rye or whatever), get some pour spouts and practice timing (if you aren't in a place that legally requires jiggers) and gently caress around with recipes and poo poo. Go out and drink and learn. Figure out why he feels he needs to go to one of those places, and we'd probably be better able to articulate an argument against doing so. Unrelated, I've been working non-stop since last Tuesday and regularly coming home at 6AM in the loving morning. My next day off is next Monday (big festival up here that is basically our busiest time of year has us open 7 days a week from 11am-2am.) I'd love any recommendations people have on killing off workplace stress/anger towards customers, because I'm feeling I'm reaching my boiling point. Safety meetings 100% out of the question, as I work in a completely dry bar.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 14:04
|
|
|
Kaizoku posted:"I'd like to speak to your manager!" I do a full 360 literally and say, "Sir, I am the general manager here, my name is Kaizoku Lastname One of my favorite routines, but only for special occasions. Although, it gets a lot more use at the door. Still at a swanky cocktail bar, and there's nothing we can do when you don't have any ID at all.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 15:50
|
|
|
I've never left because a restaurant has Pepsi, but one of my peeves is ordering a Diet Coke and being brought a Diet Pepsi without being told they don't have Coke products. I hate loving Pepsi. It tastes like medicine, and I specified Coke for a reason. But if they tell me, I just get iced tea instead. Also, I'll never understand why any restaurant with a decent bar would stock Pepsi products. No one ever orders a Jack and Pepsi, or a Jack and Cola.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 16:48
|
|
|
Sheep-Goats posted:Is there a good tiki bar in NYC? Please don't say Painkiller because I've been there three times and the space is horrible and the staff has let me down two of those times even when I was willing to put up with the space. Alas, PKNY went seriously downhill after a while. Tonight (every Monday), Brian miller and his band of pirates takes over a place and runs tiki Monday with a guest bartender or two. Tonight it's the Bacardi crew, 6-8 pm. Plus no one needs to drink tiki more than once a week, and if you do, otto's shrunken head has your back.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 17:41
|
|
|
Luceo posted:I've never left because a restaurant has Pepsi, but one of my peeves is ordering a Diet Coke and being brought a Diet Pepsi without being told they don't have Coke products. I hate loving Pepsi. It tastes like medicine, and I specified Coke for a reason. But if they tell me, I just get iced tea instead. I actually prefer Pepsi, but the reason any restaurant I've been with has gone Pepsi is that, around here at least, if a Pepsi machine goes on the fritz the rep fixes it within 2 hours. Coke is normally 2 business days. If you want to see something hilarious, a rep from this company came around a few months ago trying to get us to switch. He was ignorant of the competitors prices, had no samples of product, was balding/overweight/early fifties, and sweating like a pig in 60 degree weather. I didn't know Willy Loman types got so accurate.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 19:52
|
|
|
Luceo posted:Also, I'll never understand why any restaurant with a decent bar would stock Pepsi products. No one ever orders a Jack and Pepsi, or a Jack and Cola. In my experience, because every place I've ever worked in Aus has used Pepsi, is that Coke wants complete control over how you sell the stuff. "Sure you can officially stock Coke! Here's a coke fridge to serve from, some coke signage for your new coke tables. God help you if we see a non-coke product anywhere near our stuff though!" Whereas Pepsi will simply say "sure! What do you want to order?", end of story. That and they're much cheaper.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 02:56
|
|
|
There are some places where it isn't about price, however. You'll rarely see anything but coke in Georgia, especially Atlanta, with the exception of chains that just don't know any better. Why? Because that's where coke is from and god loving help you if every Tom, dick, and Harry with coca-cola stock found out about Pepsi products. Big chunks of the southeast are like that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 03:25
|
|
|
So it looks like I'm going to be in Portland in two weeks; anyone care to recommend bar and their microbreweries I should check out?
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 03:25
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:So it looks like I'm going to be in Portland in two weeks; anyone care to recommend bar and their microbreweries I should check out? I haven't done it myself, but I've always wanted to do the Portland brewery tour.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 10:12
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:So it looks like I'm going to be in Portland in two weeks; anyone care to recommend bar and their microbreweries I should check out? What kind of bar are you looking for? Portland has pretty great bars of any sort. Dive bars, sports bars, "classic cocktail" bars, classic "cocktail bars", tiki bars, you name it. What's your poison?
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 15:39
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:So it looks like I'm going to be in Portland in two weeks; anyone care to recommend bar and their microbreweries I should check out? I remember finding Beaker and Flask pretty good in terms of cocktail bars, though afterwards I was sad I didn't go next door to Rum Club. My top recommendation for drinks in Portland is actually non-alcoholic, Pok Pok's Som drinking vinegars are amazing. One of those and a plate of their wings is 7 minutes in heaven right there. edit: Don't know how I could forget to mention Jeffrey Morgenthaler's place, Clyde Common. The Hebug fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Jul 9, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 19:42
|
|
|
Tigren posted:What kind of bar are you looking for? Portland has pretty great bars of any sort. Dive bars, sports bars, "classic cocktail" bars, classic "cocktail bars", tiki bars, you name it. What's your poison? I'm mostly looking for interesting beer I can't get at home (which I realize is probably the most boring thing for a bartender to deal with, but you guys do know your watering holes). Just places I can hang out for an hour or three, eat some food and drink some beer at the end of the day.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 20:57
|
|
|
If you drove consider going to Bend, which has what I think is the overall best brewery in Oregon, though there are so many in Portland alone that it won't matter if you just stay there. Here's a site that had several brewery crawls by neighborhood: http://www.portlandbeer.org/breweries/crawls/ I know it's summer but drink some dark beers. The West coast is all over those and I swear finding a good porter elsewhere is some loving Don Quixote poo poo. There are two places I always eat at when I'm in Portland. One is Taqueria Uruapan. I like to think I was the original white discoverer of the place back in 1999 when I wrote about it on a poster in front of the Reed library complaining about no good Mexican food in Portland. It's now a Reed College staple (they even bring a cart down for the big party at the end of the year) for Reedies with cars. Their food is perfectly done and I've never bright someone there who has not failed to admit that their chicken burrito is the best they've had -- this includes Austinites, people from New Mexico, and various Southern Californians (the few Mexican people I've brought there ordered tacos instead, which are very good as well). The other place is Nicholas, a very tasty Lebanese place. Their tabbouleh is how I judge other tabbouleh to this day (not to much goddamn wheat!). I live in NYC now and have eaten at the small Pok Pok here. Judging by that you should also go to Pok Pok in Portland (it opened after I had left but it's the original location). I lived in Thailand for two years and the Thai food at Pok Pok is very loyal to its origins, often incorporates very hard to find Southeast Asian indigents and herbs, and is a good value. Don't order Pad Thai. That's like going to Daniel here in New York and asking for a fried egg on a plate. Also Indie coffee darling Stumptown Coffee is from Portland. Their original location is on Division but I often stop by their Belmont Street store which is the only tone perfect coffee shop I've been in. Nothing will ever be more coffee to me that that place unless I go live next to a coffee farm in Ecuador for a year or something in the future. raton fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Jul 9, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 23:51
|
|
|
The Hebug posted:I remember finding Beaker and Flask pretty good in terms of cocktail bars, though afterwards I was sad I didn't go next door to Rum Club. My top recommendation for drinks in Portland is actually non-alcoholic, Pok Pok's Som drinking vinegars are amazing. One of those and a plate of their wings is 7 minutes in heaven right there. Beaker and Flask just closed. Anyway, Cocktails: Teardrop Lounge, Rum Club, Kask/Gruner, the Tannery, Hale Pele for tiki drinks. Beer: Apex, Bailey's Taproom, Belmont Station, Horse Brass Pub. Restaurant bars of note, generally more cocktail oriented: Clyde Common, Imperial, Oven and Shaker, Raven & Rose, Whey Bar (in Ox), Woodsman Tavern. There was also a really cool champagne and sparkling wine bar I visited last time; it may or may not be Ambonnay. Restaurants in general: Apizza Scholls (pizza), Le Pigeon (fancy French), Lucky Strike (fusion style Sichuan Chinese), Luc Lac (Vietnamese), Riffle (seafood), Tanuki (Japanese). Pok Pok is good, but get there early to avoid the lines; I liked my meal, but wouldn't have waited an hour for it. I also tried the other Andy Ricker concept, Ping, which was fairly underwhelming. Things to remember: places close early in Portland, a lot of places close on Sunday and Monday, a lot of places are small and notorious for long lines, so get there either really early or late if you don't want to deal with that. Also, Portland is a busy little town, and restaurants, bars, and high quality chefs/bartenders go through a revolving door. I last visited in December, and I hear the hot spots about town have rotated heavily. Find a bartender you like and ask for the details on how the current scene looks, as I imagine my selections may be slightly out of date.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 00:42
|
|
|
Oh man I'm trailing at my favorite bar to do coverage and I'm borderline giddy and probably going to be drunk because I'm opening and the head bartender cited getting trashed and walking off as a perk of opening shifts. I actually got an erection when I realized I'll get paid to work here.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 02:12
|
|
|
For the best bartending schadenfreude ever, I volunteer bartend at an outdoors club. We pay for the maintenace and upkeep of the property by selling beer to the public on certain weekends. Cash only, and goddamn if it doesn't feel good to tell people that the nearest ATM is a couple miles over the hill (and back up our brutally steep driveway).
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 02:20
|
|
|
That kind of just sucks, why not set up a square or just have signs?
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 03:15
|
|
|
It's up on our website, so it usually only happens to clueless morons. We're pretty out of the way, so if you're dumb enough to show up without cash then whatever. We also do insane, insane volume for the small amount of time we're open, so we aren't really losing much money. And last but in no way least, it's all volunteer-run and all the money goes back to the club, and most of our members don't want to deal with ATM stuff, even with the potential revenue losses. We have a few other basic rules, one of which is no dogs, and it's also pretty nice to kick out service dog fakers. There are a rare few that are valid, but it's amazing how stupid people are. Actually, I take that back. The vast majority of our guests on public weekends are under 30, and it's amazing how goddamn entitled all the fuckers are.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 07:30
|
|
|
Without any real knowledge of your situation apart from what you just mentioned, is it possible that people are just unaware of your particular setup? Because sometimes 'stupid people' are just uninformed people. 'it's on our website' doesn't seem to me like a legit substitute for non existent signage. Also, owning an ATM at a busy bar is basically a license to print money. Your club might want to look into investing in one.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 19:47
|
|
|
Most people are aware of it, so it really isn't a problem. And it's a pretty unique situation - we're a non-profit, and making too much money is actually an issue. The place is pretty old and we need to do some major upkeep (new foundations, roof work, etc), but we bring in enough to cover it. We've actually reduced our hours pretty significantly this year just because we've been so busy. Like I said, everything's run off of volunteer labor, and it's more important to keep our volunteers happy as long as we make enough to cover operating costs & capital improvements. I've talked about it with local bartenders before, and it's pretty funny because everyone has had a similar reaction as you - the place is basically a license to print money as fast as you possibly can, so why the hell wouldn't you do so? I don't even want to think about revenue if you ran it as a business and you were open every weekend. Tradition is pretty strong, though, and the history goes way back so it's a totally different mentality.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 20:14
|
|
|
idiotsavant posted:Most people are aware of it, so it really isn't a problem. And it's a pretty unique situation - we're a non-profit, and making too much money is actually an issue. The place is pretty old and we need to do some major upkeep (new foundations, roof work, etc), but we bring in enough to cover it. We've actually reduced our hours pretty significantly this year just because we've been so busy. Like I said, everything's run off of volunteer labor, and it's more important to keep our volunteers happy as long as we make enough to cover operating costs & capital improvements. The thing is though... Say you install an ATM and hire professional bartenders to work every weekend. And it makes tons of cash... You could then use that to have very cheap subsidized drinks for members. And fix the place up properly. And then invest in other cool poo poo for members. Eventually, you could just have even cheaper still food and drink for members, really great quality stuff, while "outsiders" fund it with their drinking.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 20:25
|
|
|
Buy an ATM for the place. I'm sure there's a goober somewhere that will put one in for you if your boss doesn't want to buy one.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 22:32
|
|
|
If I could afford one, I would be that goober
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 22:43
|
|
|
nrr posted:If I could afford one, I would be that goober 3.00 per for a beach bar sounds about right to me.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2013 23:58
|
|
|
Sheep-Goats posted:3.00 per for a beach bar sounds about right to me. I could viscerally hear that cash register sound after reading this
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2013 00:56
|
|
|
nrr posted:If I could afford one, I would be that goober Hell, I WILL be that goober. idiotsavant, where are you located?
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2013 01:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 18:08 |
|
|
There is no "boss". Everything's run with volunteer labor, and we have regular member meetings to vote on this or that. We actually rejected putting in an ATM last year. It's a cultural thing. Like I said, the bartenders I've talked to havn't been able to wrap their heads around it because it's a totally different mentality. Like the idea of sending someone off because of no ATM - for you guys that's a lost customer, a lost tab, and especially a lost tip. For us that's someone who couldn't bother to find out about the place before they came, and there are fifteen people behind them who did bring cash waiting to buy pitchers. Shutting down weekends was actually more about giving members time to use the place without having to deal with the hordes. We already have cheaper beer prices for members, and the volunteer thing is one of the most core cultural values of the club; I don't ever see us hiring bartenders. If any of you are in SF for the weekend and want a gander send me a PM, it's a trip to see.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2013 01:18
|
|