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I'm with you man. I promise. I count my lucky stars that I'm in that magical 1% where I can and do. Love hanging out with my regulars, love turning randoms INTO regulars by buying them drinks and shooting the poo poo. Love that my bar is the "other bar" that bartenders come to. I love love love where I work. There's bullshit of course but it's really all around the edges.
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Aug 11, 2016 22:17
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Yeah, it certainly can be done and it's awesome when it works correctly. I think part of the problem is that the people who are really in love with the idea of "owning a bar" instead of the idea of "making a lot of money" are exactly the sort of people who shouldn't be drinking at their own bar, and are most likely to drink at their own bar.
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Aug 11, 2016 22:59
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Hahaha. Yeah. Never ever drink in your own bar *eyeroll* Not to be a pedant, but I specifically said don't "party" there. I'm not the enemy of fun, but I expect there is probably a good correlation between number of drinks consumed on premise and failure rate. In other words, I'm talking out of my rear end anecdotally, but I stand by not getting high on your own supply.
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Aug 12, 2016 00:12
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PT6A posted:Yeah, it certainly can be done and it's awesome when it works correctly. No doubt. There's the "I've ALWAYS wanted to own a bar! Wouldn't it be a hoot?" and the "I have done this forever and want to take profits and not just tips" crew and praise Jah I work for the latter
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Aug 12, 2016 02:04
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The place I worked out west had an owner and his son who'd never worked at a bar, a GM who'd never bartended, and bartenders who told me that they didn't care what their regulars' names were. Insert the smiley blowing his brains out.
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Aug 12, 2016 02:06
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It also made money hand over fist; there is no god
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Aug 12, 2016 02:10
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I've seen bars where the owners partied there, but they were completely hands off on the actual day to day operations - most non-management employees couldn't even point them out unless they'd worked there for a year or more. I worked in one of them and it was wildly successful until the smoking ban hit Houston, and then it unceremoniously died due to that and a couple other things that all happened at once (I left about 5-6 months prior).
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Aug 12, 2016 03:37
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I smoke. It's a terrible, dirty, awful, life-killing habit. I do not miss smoking in bars.
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Aug 12, 2016 04:01
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BattleMoose posted:So firstly thanks to everyone who has been answering my questions, I really do appreciate it. I have been seriously flip/flopping on this whole idea over the past week or so. I've met a few former part owners who were now working as managers in another place. One guy ran a club in Houston and he said "Unless you've got a celebrity name backing you it just isn't worth it. Even then one person gets shot in the parking lot and the cops shut you down for a week and there goes your business." Another guy said it was a relief to just be managing a place again as when he owned one he was doing 100 hour weeks to keep it afloat. I also worked for a part owner that opened a club in Vegas and it got bought out by the casino it was in -- mostly the casino wasn't thrilled to have that many black people walking around in there and the contract would have had that going on for years. She said the group spent 1.2MM setting the club up and got bought out of the place like six months later for around 10MM. I don't know what her share was as there were at least three other people with major holdings but even if it was a tenth that's a decent year's income. There are also places like my home state where a liquor license is incredibly hard to get (you have to buy one from someone that owns it) and income is really low so you have to sell drinks super cheap. I'm talking supposedly 850k for a license for a place where you might be selling Pabst tallboys for 1.50 as a regular thing. A significant part of your "income" is actually value accruing in your license each year rather than actual profit. There's also always a risk that the dominant nightlife group in your city sees you actually succeed and opens a carbon copy of what your'e doing in one of the slightly better locations that they already own. It's a tough business.
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Aug 12, 2016 07:38
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Sheep-Goats posted:It's 1.5oz. Goats you never fail to astound. I KNEW there was a semi sciencey semi legal reason behind it, but my drug addled alcohol infused pitiful blob of a brain couldn't dredge it up. Just got offered management of the little divey joint. Again. But this time more for real. I said I'd think about it. I don't think I meant it. I just didn't have the heart to tell the guy outright no.
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Aug 14, 2016 19:19
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Just don't take a salary. Hourly only. Phone calls and texts are billable.
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Aug 14, 2016 20:57
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Also we have a 2oz pour 
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Aug 14, 2016 20:58
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I made the jump to manager at the start of this year. Hourly, get paid twice a year for cell phone, still bartend fri and sat nights with a lower hourly rate. I'm digging it for the most part.
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Aug 15, 2016 04:37
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The Maestro posted:I made the jump to manager at the start of this year. Hourly, get paid twice a year for cell phone, still bartend fri and sat nights with a lower hourly rate. I'm digging it for the most part. I'm not so sure I want it. Having only closing shift on Saturday nights right now is making me decently content, and the hourly would have to exceed what I'm making at my other job by a decent margin because I'd be losing insurance and other 9-5 benefits. (American system wooooooo)
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Aug 16, 2016 01:06
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mooyashi posted:Just don't take a salary. Hourly only. Phone calls and texts are billable. This so much. I've had endless friends go to management, and burn out in a fury because now they're working 60 hour weeks for less than they were making in 3 nights behind the bar.
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Aug 18, 2016 08:36
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Generally speaking, if you're bartending....do not accept a management position. You already make more than they do with a fraction of the headache and hours.
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Aug 18, 2016 17:32
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I mean I'm in it and hate myself, but the other option was to work underneath a total dillweed if I didn't step up. Every time I'm having a headache I just think about that tool telling me what to do and smile a little.
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Aug 19, 2016 00:38
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The servers already made more working less hours when I was full time bar tending. Now that I manage, I make about as much as I did just bar tending, but better hours and actual pay checks are bigger. Plus other perks. It is a restaurant/bar, not just a bar.
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Aug 19, 2016 06:29
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The Maestro posted:I made the jump to manager at the start of this year. Hourly, get paid twice a year for cell phone, still bartend fri and sat nights with a lower hourly rate. I'm digging it for the most part. This place is tiny, and I highly doubt I can get any of those perks. Ima ask, but my gut is saying it's most likely a bad move. In other news, I had somebody absolutely stoked that I could make them an old fashioned for $8. Basic ingredients, minimal labor, only premium part was the name on the whiskey, and even that wasn't top tier. I'm happy to make people happy on prices once in a while.
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Aug 23, 2016 01:07
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Ugh two great pride events in a row, and boom our laziest ex-employee of five years, on like a 65 dollar day shift, failed to card, then sold a beer to a what was described as "an obvious 12 year old dude in board shorts", and whoop ABC sting. Now every ten minutes I wake up from some nightmare where government agencies are raiding the bar or I'm some other way unemployed. At least he's gone I guess, I just hope we don't get hosed by the fine or shut down long enough to kill us.
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Aug 23, 2016 01:42
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In CO you get 3 strikes, and then they shut you down for 3 days, and take your liquor license for another infraction within a year.
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Aug 23, 2016 21:18
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Hi. I started as a barback in late February and got kicked up to bartender in a month. It's a small nightclub in Oklahoma and I've learned a lot from the entire staff. It's a great way to relax after a week of school. I love it!
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Aug 23, 2016 23:25
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Old Man Pants posted:In CO you get 3 strikes, and then they shut you down for 3 days, and take your liquor license for another infraction within a year. Also overserving is a low level felony  And I had to go up to patrons and ask them not to dance because we didn't have a Cabaret License
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Aug 24, 2016 01:52
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mooyashi posted:Also overserving is a low level felony I had to do the overserving dance with the Denver Vice Squad for about a year. My boss paid for my lawyer and I beat it handily once we got in front of a jury but it was no fun. Real talk. If you get pulled for over-serving, after they read you your rights, they will try to get you to justify why you served the dude. STFU! I shut my mouth and they had nothing to go on other than the videotaped interview.
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Aug 24, 2016 08:24
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navyjack posted:I had to do the overserving dance with the Denver Vice Squad for about a year. My boss paid for my lawyer and I beat it handily once we got in front of a jury but it was no fun. So it's just like any other offense, cops try to get you to talk? No way!
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Aug 24, 2016 14:55
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Yeah I remember learning about it, someone came up to me and said "hey dude has to go, he's drunk." I said "... Yeah, he's not hurting anyone, and it's a bar. Kinda the idea right?" Nope. Which is extra crazy, because bartenders can drink on the job in CO. Liquor laws across the country are proper stupid.
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Aug 24, 2016 23:59
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mooyashi posted:Yeah I remember learning about it, someone came up to me and said "hey dude has to go, he's drunk." I said "... Yeah, he's not hurting anyone, and it's a bar. Kinda the idea right?" Required by law to serve pregnant women, required by law not to serve people who are drunk, liable for the accidents people get into by lifting a glass of alcohol with their own hands to their own lips. Makes tons of sense.
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Aug 25, 2016 01:55
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mooyashi posted:Yeah I remember learning about it, someone came up to me and said "hey dude has to go, he's drunk." I said "... Yeah, he's not hurting anyone, and it's a bar. Kinda the idea right?" Kicking someone who is drunk out can also ultrafuck you if you don't make a reasonable effort to make sure they don't drive. Those laws are also why almost no bars have custom matches anymore. Edit: you also need to document it if you want to cya Old Man Pants fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Aug 25, 2016 |
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Aug 25, 2016 02:15
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mooyashi posted:Also overserving is a low level felony When I worked at a pizza takeaway place in college we had to continually ask people not to eat their pizza in the store since we only had a takeaway license (we were a franchise set up just around the corner from an independent place who were always on the lookout for anything they could report us for). Most licensing rules are loving stupid.
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Aug 25, 2016 02:26
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Deleted, pointless
Stunning Honky fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Sep 2, 2016 |
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Aug 25, 2016 08:10
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Weirdest requests you've got? Mine just this week: "Do you have a microwave? I like my Bloody Mary warm" "Can I get a strawberry rose margarita?" ...orders a Coors light Me: "no and I need to check your ID again" Old Man Pants fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Sep 8, 2016 |
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Sep 8, 2016 17:01
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"Bourbon straight, on the rocks" "Hot chocolate over ice" "Virgin sour, no egg white"
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Sep 8, 2016 17:42
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*looks at bottles behind me* "What drinks y'all have?"
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Sep 8, 2016 19:09
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"Can you get me some cocaine?"
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Sep 8, 2016 23:19
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Sticky Nate posted:*looks at bottles behind me* Aggggh We even have the taps barside and the packaged beer up top on display
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Sep 9, 2016 01:45
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Or "what kind of drinks can you make?" Well, it's a full bar...
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Sep 9, 2016 01:46
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I just tell them "well I can't make Gorilla Tits because we don't carry 99 Bananas" and let that one sink in
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Sep 9, 2016 01:47
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"You don't have patron/coors light/fireball/Chopin? What kind of place is this?"
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Sep 9, 2016 01:54
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The Maestro posted:"You don't have patron/coors light/fireball/Chopin? What kind of place is this?" We caved on Fireball and Patron, but as Dionysus as my witness Coors Light will never darken our door
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Sep 9, 2016 02:01
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The Maestro posted:"You don't have patron/coors light/fireball/Chopin? What kind of place is this?" I love when people get so affronted that we only have Coors Light and not their particular flavor of hillbilly pisswater that they LEAVE to find a bar that has it! I actually DO love this, as it gets them away from me.
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Sep 9, 2016 18:25
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