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The only bartenders I knew who liked working hotel bars were the older bartenders who enjoyed the job, couldn't work volume any more, and liked the job security.
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Aug 8, 2015 20:31
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I work barside and boh and at a small niche market boutique hotel that has a respectable restaurant/cocktail bar attached to it. I get full benefits, paid leave, 3 months for maternity leave. You're right in that they're run by oblivious managers, but that's the industry. Owners aren't great at BOH and bar poo poo at all, add a hotel to manage to that and you get a well payed, full benefits job that will eventually murder you with exhaustion. That's private hotels though. Near as I can tell, given my 15 years experience in the industry,corporate hotel work is the least stressful cook job I've had outside of a retirement home. There's a reasonable structure and better benefits than a bar or restaurant. I know I can't innovate something new and extreme and awesome, but I can kick rear end on a 15hr shift without complaining.If you get into an established hotel franchise you're golden cause they care about you a little. Less ego going around and poo poo. So tldr less artistry vs stable job. As for the record, you'd be surprised. I get turned away from jobs constantly when they run a background. I have to make my resume look more appealing so they ignore my past. Sometimes you just have to take what you can and hope the experience overcomes everything else.
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Aug 8, 2015 20:46
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I work at a place where we make our own muffins every morning and the way it goes is that the baker for the first day will come in at 5am, set up and do all the baking and then measure out the basic muffin mix that's going to go in the big industrial mixer the next day depending on how many muffins we've planned to bake. So the manager decides we need to 1.5x the amount of muffins we usually do because she figures it's going to be a busy day. Yesterday's baker measures out 1.5x the ingredients. No one thinks to update the bake sheet (the thing you check every morning that details how many of each muffin to make/how many in total are getting made) to reflect this fact. So I come in at 5am, check the sheet, dump the ingredients into the mixer - add the regular amounts of oil, milk, etc. you'd need for a normal amount of muffins, and leave things to mix while I get on with the thousand other things that need doing in the morning and then come back to realize something is very wrong. It's sort of my fault for not realizing something was different right away just from the look of it, but it's 5am and I was on auto-pilot. So that was fun trying to catch back up while we had the morning rush of old people and impatient workers!
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Aug 8, 2015 20:47
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So I was "asked" by a sous to work the breakfast/lunch shift on my station yesterday, instead of dinner. Same kitchen, but totally different menu, place, quality expectations, workflow, etc. The only other person on the station who could site me anything was the drunk idiot line cook who insists head only there for prep, and who refused to tell me anything about how to set the station up, give me direction, etc. This, of course, went to hell pretty quickly. The other line cooks, including my supervisor, are pretty sympathetic because they're tired of the other guy being the weakest link in the chain. The sous, on the other hand, is equally pissed at the both of us. They wanted me to just inherently know everything, I guess, and be able to replicate the work of a 3-year veteran while he's on vacation even though I've only been here for a month and don't know anything about the AM menu. This is unreasonable... Right?
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Aug 8, 2015 22:15
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Pretty unreasonable, yeah. Was sous there to ask? So I'm taking it as a compliment that my day for a double to cover for prep guy whole he's on vacation is Saturday. It's usually our busiest night, and lunch is always slammed on Saturdays, so I'll be covering pantry if our daytime pantry person gets hit hard. Fun! I need the hours, so I'm looking forward to it.
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Aug 8, 2015 23:25
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Omni is pretty hardcore about having innovation in our restaurants/bars. poo poo, I've started charcuterie, house infused everything, etc. And corporate is loving it. Helps that this property is considered the 'launch pad' for talented management. You go work at South Park, which is the oldest, smallest, etc. If you succeed, you'll be moving to a resort in no time. e: I think it's important that if you want to work for hotels, its a luxury brand. That's where you're going to get to be creative and grow as a cook/chef. The month of vacation I get every year is loving pro too.
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Aug 9, 2015 01:56
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Let me tell you all about a chain of events that leads to a store using black oil for a fryer and burning every fried order for five straight days, but no because who cares. What's really cool is we just won 1st place in a local publication for something I was not only personally involved in, the only difference between last year when we lost and this year when we won was my presence and involvement. I'm sure there are some other factors because I'm not that amazing, but still.
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Aug 9, 2015 04:36
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Omni is pretty hardcore about having innovation in our restaurants/bars. poo poo, I've started charcuterie, house infused everything, etc. And corporate is loving it. Helps that this property is considered the 'launch pad' for talented management. You go work at South Park, which is the oldest, smallest, etc. If you succeed, you'll be moving to a resort in no time. Omni now has partial ownership of where I work and my chef loves it. Omni is a great company, especially for us. They made a lot of good deals for us and quality of life for our cooks and managers has shot way the gently caress up. My chef is like a kid in a candy factory. He gets to do all these different features, gets all the protein he wants no matter what. We started doing some really cool things and my clientele loving eats it up. It helps me sell everything, hell I did a 7 course meal I built with chef for one of my regulars and they scheduled a private dining gig. Omni rules.
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Aug 9, 2015 04:45
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Hotel FoH is a particular hot mess when you have management cycling through every two years and union workers directly interfacing with guests. Best consulting job I ever had for experience, most disappointing for results.
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Aug 9, 2015 08:00
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Lol, two years if you're lucky. The most recent place that wanted me to take the bar director position had a new one every month for four months running when I started staging. And the kitchen was loving filthy.
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Aug 9, 2015 08:21
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Management cycled through rotating properties. We did a 9mo stint actually fixing things, took our pound of flesh and moved along. Consulting life best life (if you can live 90 days out from billing).
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Aug 9, 2015 08:32
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Fo sho, consulting is the best.
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Aug 9, 2015 08:39
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I grew up in a family restaurant for 13 years and have been working in hotels for the past 10 years. I doubt I'd ever go back to working in just a pure restaurant, terrible pay and long hours. I've worked for hilton, starwood, and currently hyatt. You really can't beat the benefits, and I'm not just talking about having great medical, dental and vision insurance. You get some decent pay, corporate benefits with other companies, paid vacations, paid sick time, super cheap hotel rates when traveling anywhere in the world, and on and on. You hear some pretty crazy stories and meet the occasional celebrity. Creativity wise you'll be handcuffed somewhat still, but still a lot of variety. Most hotels these days do realize having good food is a pretty big plus now.
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Aug 9, 2015 14:02
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bloody ghost titty posted:Management cycled through rotating properties. We did a 9mo stint actually fixing things, took our pound of flesh and moved along. Consulting life best life (if you can live 90 days out from billing). Why the hell does it take you so long to get paid?
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Aug 9, 2015 15:02
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Shooting Blanks posted:Why the hell does it take you so long to get paid? Most contracts are 30 or 90 days for payment
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Aug 9, 2015 15:06
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I've never seen or sold a net 90 contract. poo poo I sell net 30 and charge a 3% penalty if they're late. That's crazy, but ok, learn something new every day.
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Aug 9, 2015 21:08
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rayray00 posted:I've worked for hilton, starwood, and currently hyatt. You really can't beat the benefits, and I'm not just talking about having great medical, dental and vision insurance. You get some decent pay, corporate benefits with other companies, paid vacations, paid sick time, super cheap hotel rates when traveling anywhere in the world, and on and on. You hear some pretty crazy stories and meet the occasional celebrity. Being able to take a week long vacation somewhere and have the plane tickets be the most expensive part is the best. It'd cost me $300bux to stay in New York for a week. The plane tix are 500ea round trip.
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Aug 9, 2015 21:35
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How is everyone? Been a while
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Aug 10, 2015 05:50
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Follow up on my catering luck from like a month and change ago. I just got contacted to do another night of catering sorta. I'd do the prep work and poo poo, but when the event hits I change, and instead run a bourbon tasting. High end bourbon. I get another $100 and I get to take home the leftover bourbon ....Seriously, guys, get involved in politics becuase political catering is amazing.
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Aug 10, 2015 06:00
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slimskinny posted:How is everyone? Been a while Say hello to the thread superstar.
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Aug 10, 2015 06:08
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Let's be honest here.
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Aug 10, 2015 08:31
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Being able to take a week long vacation somewhere and have the plane tickets be the most expensive part is the best. It'd cost me $300bux to stay in New York for a week. The plane tix are 500ea round trip. Exactly! I'm headed to Toronto in 2 weeks, 2 nights comped and the rest at $79 a night plus 50% off food, can't beat that!
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Aug 10, 2015 15:16
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Guess who just misread the scale and portioned like 100 bags of fettuccine an ounce over? In my defense it's a poo poo scale cause all the good ones were in use.
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Aug 10, 2015 22:51
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A cheap digital scale has been part of my kit since culinary school.
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Aug 11, 2015 01:32
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Of all the ways we could have a fire in our big-rear end cafeteria, I would not have guessed that the first I'd witness would be in the dishroom. We stop serving at 6:30, then clean for the next 90 minutes. The cooks/army staff go home at 7:00, so after that it's just us 8 KP folks and one sergeant who locks the building behind us. I'm mopping the Big DR floor around 7:30 and I hear Shawna scream for Red, our shift supervisor, who's mopping the Small DR just outside dishroom. I'd never heard Shawna panicky like that, so I was worried she'd hurt herself or something, and hustled over myself. Here is an artist's rendition of what greeted me & Red:  She'd just opened the washer drains and then turned to cleaning our disposal while it emptied, until she smelled the burning... my best guess (which a firefighter agreed with) is for some reason the heat element stuck on, then with all the water gone, some gunk caught fire? Anyways, Red alerted the sgt and then hit it with an extinguisher, and then the firemen showed up and checked it out. An interesting way to end my 13 hour shift, to say the least.
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Aug 11, 2015 03:43
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Well, grandpa passed. Grandma's cremating him and doesn't want a service, so.... Why is family so bad at being family?
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Aug 11, 2015 04:03
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Whoa. I've seen one start smoking a bit once, but never on fire. That is definitely the last thing I would expect to catch on fire in a kitchen.
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Aug 11, 2015 04:03
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Well, grandpa passed. Grandma's cremating him and doesn't want a service, so.... I'm so sorry. You can arrange your own memorial with just family (minus Grandma if she wants to really be a grinch). It might just be that she feels overwhelmed by the whole public funeral thing - I did when my father passed. That and he had no goddamn friends so we figured it would be a waste of time since nobody but his ex wives/girlfriends would show up and nobody wants that shitshow. However, I do want to say that the sequence of the post above yours and then yours was loving hilarious.
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Aug 11, 2015 04:21
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Well, grandpa passed. Grandma's cremating him and doesn't want a service, so.... I'm sorry CDC. Nothing much more I can say there.
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Aug 11, 2015 09:29
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Pile of Kittens posted:However, I do want to say that the sequence of the post above yours and then yours was loving hilarious. Yeah, I checked back in for replies, and now I'm wincing so hard.  I'm sorry, CdC. Last year I lost my mom, who opted for cremation and no service. There's something to be said for a ritual or gathering, some poo poo for closure. I'm with Pile of Kittens: have a little ceremony of your own, by yourself or with friends. Maybe make a food/drink your grandpa liked? I invited friends over who'd met mom; made mom's lentil soup and knedlikes, and drank an obscene amount of Sutter Home white zin, the one drink she'd indulge in when my step-dad was out of town. (poo poo goes down like kool-aid, but christ what a hangover.) Again, my condolences. I also have family that's bad at being family.
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Aug 11, 2015 11:03
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Spoon I was joking with you. I'm a dumb rear end for letting this whole situation happen. But I enjoy my job and yeah my bad.
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Aug 11, 2015 15:28
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A Man and his dog posted:I'm a dumb rear end I think we can shorten most of your posts to this.
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Aug 11, 2015 17:26
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Well, grandpa passed. Grandma's cremating him and doesn't want a service, so.... Errant Gin Monks posted:I think we can shorten most of your posts to this. Yeah hey, let's keep piling on the easy target despite the fact that he's trying to apologize and acknowledge his errors; he clearly has a personality that doesn't easily allow for admitting fault, so it's not like it's a meaningful gesture on his part or anything.
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Aug 11, 2015 20:56
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Woo boy the 2nd job had it BAD today. Health inspector walked in during lunch rush and it was just a poo poo show. I'm only there 2 days a week. They got an 83 and I'm really surprised they weren't shutdown.
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Aug 11, 2015 22:39
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I'm curious, thread-- if someone takes a single sip of a drink and doesn't like it, am I waaaay off base for thinking they shouldn't have to pay for it? Assuming fairly normal priceline drinks, not edge cases like hundred dollar scotch shots or old vintages or that kind of thing.
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Aug 11, 2015 22:40
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Trebuchet King posted:I'm curious, thread-- if someone takes a single sip of a drink and doesn't like it, am I waaaay off base for thinking they shouldn't have to pay for it? Assuming fairly normal priceline drinks, not edge cases like hundred dollar scotch shots or old vintages or that kind of thing. Nope, comp it.
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Aug 11, 2015 22:44
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Trebuchet King posted:I'm curious, thread-- if someone takes a single sip of a drink and doesn't like it, am I waaaay off base for thinking they shouldn't have to pay for it? Assuming fairly normal priceline drinks, not edge cases like hundred dollar scotch shots or old vintages or that kind of thing. What's the drink? In general I'd agree, especially if it's a mixed drink where the recipe might vary wildly. Treat it like an entree - if someone takes a bite and hates it, either fix it or get them something else. Doing anything else will cost far more in bad blood than anything else.
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Aug 11, 2015 22:47
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Yeah If they just take a sip and aren't happy that's fine. Let's get you something else. They should ask for a sample but with mixed drinks or whatever that could be difficult.
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Aug 11, 2015 22:50
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Yeah, that's what I thought--if we can't afford to comp a seven dollar glass of house chardonnay I think we've got bigger problems than people "trying to take advantage of us." Guess that's just one more tally in the "paranoid bartender" column, maybe I'll bring it up with the boss next time he's in.
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Aug 11, 2015 23:02
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Shooting Blanks posted:What's the drink? In general I'd agree, especially if it's a mixed drink where the recipe might vary wildly. As a customer, that's surprising to me. I know your margins are generally pretty thin (maybe 20% profit on food costs?). Do you still make something off the customers thanks to drink orders and such, or are you just eating it for good will at that point?
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Aug 11, 2015 23:34
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