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Nice perk to management...all the TVs are on Shark Week for lunch/happy hour today and no one can stop me!
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Aug 16, 2012 19:10
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Rotten Cookies posted:What is mind boggling to me is that the liquor, wine, and beer is completely not regulated where I work. I don't know if we just make enough money where it's not an object, but there are basically no cameras and no REAL inventory on our liquor cage. I've seen a sheet where the liquor is counted by the case. Not bottle, or parts of a bottle, but by the case. I know the guys I work with are straight-laced and wouldn't rip off our employers, but if we wanted to, we could fill our bags full of bottles, waltz out, and nobody would know or probably even care. You ever go to your manager's place for a barbeque and notice that all the booze he has is the same stuff that you serve?
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Aug 16, 2012 19:13
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Coldfire posted:Out of curiosity; what are your go to shots? Someone got their scowl on at me the other day for enjoying a shot of Jim Beam White, and I realized it was a bit of a guilty pleasure to drink well spirits over back bar during service. Any heavy amari. We have a house bottle of Amargo Angostura Vallet that I brought in right now. Sometimes Wray & Nephew. We have a house "bomber" shot at my bar that we reserve for special occasions. The Jamaican Bobsled. A shot of Smith & Cross, and shot of Wray & Nephew, and half a pint of any sort of porter, though thematically Guinness. Take the shot of Smith, drop the shot of Wray into the beer, and polish it off. Can be taken in teams of four, and always with the accompanying chant of "Feel the rhythm, feel the ride, get on up, it's bobsled time" Coldfire posted:I'd also be interested to hear about how many of our cocktail bartenders on SA have won/ entered/ are entering competitions, whether global, or brand based. I do more class teaching and event attending than I do competing. I won my regional Don Q contest this year, that took me to MCC. I was selected for both PDX and Camp Runamok as well this year. Leading up to PDX my business partner and I, the other bartender at our bar, are going on a cocktail tour, hosting guest spots up the west coast in Phoenix, San Diego, LA, SF, PDX, and Seattle if time permits. Though, a couple dates will probably have to be removed this time around since I have a second book to finish, a new rum bar to open, and did I mention our bar is just the two of us?
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Aug 16, 2012 19:33
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That's pretty awesome Coldfire! Your bar looks very cool. Classy outfits too.  The only competition I know of is that 'worlds best flair' thing that takes place in Vegas. Any of you guys enter that?
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Aug 16, 2012 19:45
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My experience with cocktail contests is that they're more marketing shows for "mixologists" than drink contests for "bartenders." The people who focus on those and do well (a lot of the results really come down to whose bar moves the most of X product, whose bar has been cozy with the distributor, or which "well-known" bartender's turn it is to win something) are more the types who are chasing a brand ambassador/corporate mixologist route rather than people who are focused on the industry or the craft. Nothing wrong with that, but I rarely bothered with contests because I was too busy managing the bar I worked at. The old joke we have is that the bartenders who would probably serve up the best drinks never make it to contests because they're too busy actually bartending to keep taking time off for events.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:00
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odiv posted:Wow, this seems nuts to me. Yeah, they're either making "enough" where they don't care about inventory (which is really sloppy, even when you are profitable) or someone higher up is skimming. I brought this up to my friend who has been at the place longer than me. The inventory apparently always matched pretty well to what we were reporting, so the food&beverage guy didn't think it was necessary (he's the one who does inventory). So now he just inventories by the case to see what needs to be ordered when. Which explains why the liquor cage is a complete mess with a bazillion boxes of poo poo. It's like the Food and Bev manager just peeks in and goes "ahhhhh, I guess we could use some more JD. We're running low on Goose, too." And the next week we're swimming in the stuff. And the BBQs at the manager's place are a once a year thing where everybody who attends pitches in like $10 to get a bunch of booze. And no, it's not the stuff from where we work. If he is sneaking it, he's hiding it behind a bunch of other poo poo we don't carry. v  v
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Aug 16, 2012 20:04
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Tom Rakewell posted:My experience with cocktail contests is that they're more marketing shows for "mixologists" than drink contests for "bartenders." The people who focus on those and do well (a lot of the results really come down to whose bar moves the most of X product, whose bar has been cozy with the distributor, or which "well-known" bartender's turn it is to win something) are more the types who are chasing a brand ambassador/corporate mixologist route rather than people who are focused on the industry or the craft.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:27
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Contests are a living? What if you don't win or place? It sounds like fun but I couldn't afford to take time off to find out.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:33
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That's not the important question. The important question is: Are the women at these contests sluttier then the woman at the bars? edit: The Malibu Inn is hiring barbacks. It's a pretty good restaurant/bar. The open interviews are tomorrow though, which is when I work. It's not even that far from me, maybe 20-25 minutes max by car. Deep Thoreau fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Aug 16, 2012 |
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Aug 16, 2012 20:53
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nrr posted:ahaha i wish i couldve seen how this turned out Moving swiftly/quickly behind the bar? Sure. Full on running, though? That's a recipe for disaster and I ended up eating poo poo and getting drenched in Clamato because he was going full speed ahead and there was literally no goddamned room for me to move. The other issue with running is it gets our bouncer's dander up if they see a staff member sprinting somewhere. We're told not to run as bouncers will follow whoever is running. Jogging, etc. is fine, but full on running like you're Usain Bolt is Not A Good Idea at my joint. I say this as a former BA. I can't think of a time where I've needed to run, unless it was a one time situation where like my bartender had just run out of Jager and was pouring 10+ shots and needed it right away. Generally, I can do my job without sprinting.
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Aug 16, 2012 21:18
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leica posted:Why is it so hard for people to figure out who's next? Sorry, I'm busy making drinks so I don't see when everyone walks up to the loving bar, I don't have eyes in the back of my head, and I don't hear your inside voice so speak the gently caress up. The important thing is to be systematic, which gives the illusion of order/fairness, which is more important than actual order/fairness. My spot was the corner of the bar nearest the door ("point") and I would work in a circle (counterclockwise because I'm a contrary fellow) grinding away at the neverending two-deep that formed there any time we were remotely busy thanks to the poor general flow in that place. This is in NY too where everyone will always cut in line at a bar (or in traffic) given the opportunity.
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Aug 16, 2012 21:23
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Coldfire posted:Out of curiosity; what are your go to shots? Someone got their scowl on at me the other day for enjoying a shot of Jim Beam White, and I realized it was a bit of a guilty pleasure to drink well spirits over back bar during service. Depends on who is ordering, Burt Reynolds Shaken marshmallow vodka Porn Star For myself, I enjoy either Bulleit Bourbon or Honey Jack/regular Jack. Don Julio reposado for Tequila.
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Aug 16, 2012 21:27
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Perdido posted:Moving swiftly/quickly behind the bar? Sure. I am firmly with nrr on this one, I just wish I would have seen it happen.
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Aug 16, 2012 21:56
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Perdido posted:Moving swiftly/quickly behind the bar? Sure. Well that does make sense. Also I'm sorry but that sounds like it was hilarious. I think it's the clamato that does it. Of all the poo poo to get drenched in, it was tomato and clam juice. I wish that open interview wasn't tomorrow. Can't risk my current(under the table paid) job for it. Basically there could be like 200 people there, and my boss said if I'm late or poo poo one more time, I'm fired. Ugh. edit: Vvv that's true. But I basically went 5 years without work before I got this. My aunt and cousin might be moving in with us, so I can't go without a job. Plus this is L.A, the job market here is so bad that I need to stick with this until I can be sure I won't go another 5 drat years without work. edit 2: To make it better, I'm not 'officially' on the payroll, I get paid cash. So I can't put this poo poo on my resume. So it'd look like I'm still unemployed. Deep Thoreau fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Aug 16, 2012 |
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Aug 16, 2012 22:11
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Bash Ironfist posted:Well that does make sense. Also I'm sorry but that sounds like it was hilarious. I think it's the clamato that does it. Of all the poo poo to get drenched in, it was tomato and clam juice. Hey man, there's no motivation for getting a job like not having a job.
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Aug 16, 2012 22:14
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navyjack posted:Nice perk to management...all the TVs are on Shark Week for lunch/happy hour today and no one can stop me! I'm glad I'm not the only one! A bunch of us were drinking at a place across the street a few nights ago and raised a little hell about the lack of Shark Week in this particular establishment. In other news, gently caress interviewing cute girls with bartending experience for my one open barback spot. If I hire you as a barback you'll quit in less than two months when you find something better. And if I even mention hiring you straight to bartender my staff will mutiny. But gently caress if tips wouldn't be so much better if I did.
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Aug 17, 2012 01:04
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There are no cute girls with *no* experience applying? Bars here are regularly drowned in resumes - the service industry in Vancouver is entirely an employers market right now.
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Aug 17, 2012 01:07
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I have read all the story from the op and  Only thing I can say is I want more. They way you tell your story is so easy to read I love it!
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Aug 17, 2012 01:15
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JawKnee posted:There are no cute girls with *no* experience applying? Summer in a college town, ain't nobody applying. Students move back in this week though so I'll be buried in applications soon enough.
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Aug 17, 2012 02:18
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What other jobs could I look for with Restaurant/Bar manager skills that is not in the retail/food service industry? A friend of mine suggested working as a CSR for Zappos or an airline company.
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Aug 17, 2012 03:53
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Hotel hospitality, sales. See my post on the first page.
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Aug 17, 2012 05:09
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Respekt posted:What other jobs could I look for with Restaurant/Bar manager skills that is not in the retail/food service industry? I really don't feel like my management skills would transition into other fields very well. I manage a staff of a dozen unprofessional, sticky fingered, gently caress everything that moves, raging alcoholics. I am a glorified babysitter when it comes to both the staff and the crowd. So.. babysitting? 
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Aug 17, 2012 05:15
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RE: Other jobs, I know a ton of folks who have gone over into real estate. Shooting Blanks posted:I am firmly with nrr on this one, I just wish I would have seen it happen. You guys expect your BAs to be flat out running? I'm not saying they shouldn't be moving, but running full tilt is dangerous. quote:Well that does make sense. Also I'm sorry but that sounds like it was hilarious. I think it's the clamato that does it. Of all the poo poo to get drenched in, it was tomato and clam juice. At least it wasn't a bus bin full of urine! Which we did once, to a server that was universally hated. Perdido fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 05:21
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Managing difficult employees is much more valuable experience than managing model employees. Surely you can see that. I've said this before (in the last thread I think), but employers love concrete examples when you state you have certain skills or experience. In an interview you don't just say, "I manage my team effectively!"  because that tells them gently caress all. You say, "Here are some specific examples of how I have handled disciplinary issues in the past. Here is how I pump my team up before a busy night. Here is how I have trained someone up from a barback to bartender. Here is an example of a time I hosed up and here is how I took responsibility and fixed the situation."This is all just my experience though. The people skills you have developed as a bartender should help you through the interview process. That's the hope, anyway.
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Aug 17, 2012 05:28
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Perdido posted:RE: Other jobs, I can't imagine hating someone THAT much. I wish you had taken a picture of their face after it happened though.  What do you guys think about barbacking/bartending in a nightclub for your first job? A very good friend of my brother works for a man who owns several nightclubs. My brother's friend basically goes from club to club, does regional manager stuff, talks to sales reps to get good deals on product, stuff like that. My brother is going to contact him, see if he can help me get my foot in the door. I'm hoping to hear from him soon. My job is loving depressing the poo poo out of me. edit: Now I'm curious. Where did the urine come from? I mean did you guys just all whip it out and piss in it or what? edit 2: Was it warm still? Or room temperature. I bet body-warm urine would be worse. Deep Thoreau fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 05:37
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Perdido posted:You guys expect your BAs to be flat out running? I'm mostly with you on the running. I expect everyone to be hustling. A light sprint from one end of the bar to grab something, cool with me. But anytime I catch anyone really hauling rear end out of the corner of my eye, my brain assumes BIG DEAL and I go to follow them. I've got one bartender that is awful about doing this, and while his argument is that he is quite literally moving as fast as possible, it breaks everyone else's rhythm and drives us all insane. I can't relate on the danger of someone running into me though. We have the biggest behind the bar space that I've ever seen in a bar. Aside from some hip checking right against the well, we've got plenty of room to avoid each other.
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Aug 17, 2012 05:44
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Dirnok posted:I'm mostly with you on the running. I expect everyone to be hustling. A light sprint from one end of the bar to grab something, cool with me. But anytime I catch anyone really hauling rear end out of the corner of my eye, my brain assumes BIG DEAL and I go to follow them. I've got one bartender that is awful about doing this, and while his argument is that he is quite literally moving as fast as possible, it breaks everyone else's rhythm and drives us all insane.
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Aug 17, 2012 05:52
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Bash Ironfist posted:I can't imagine hating someone THAT much. I wish you had taken a picture of their face after it happened though. First job is a first job and you get it where you can.
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Aug 17, 2012 05:58
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navyjack posted:yeah, I'd I see someone in a dead run, I'm after them, so I don't miss out. I went over the bar one time cause my GM saw a old girlfriend from college and I misunderstood his sprint. Having a legitimate reason to go over the bar is one of the few goals that I've yet to achieve in this industry. The only time anyone has had to do it since I've been there was because I was the jackass on the other side of the bar that had bitten off more than he could chew and needed saving. The guy that went over rubs it in my face to this day. Sheep-Goats posted:First job is a first job and you get it where you can. Seriously. I think we've all made it very clear that getting your foot in the door in this industry can be pretty tough. There's a good chance that the first job you manage to get is going to suck. But it's all about getting experience and doing some networking. Keep your head down, learn everything that you possibly can, tough it out, and make as many friends in the industry as possible. And once you've lined up something better, be it through your newly acquired experience or your newly acquired connections, loving jump ship. Most people only put in a few years at a particular venue before moving on to something better. It's just the nature of the business. There might be some hard feelings when you leave and you should do your best to not burn any bridges on your way out but, at the end of the day, you are in this for you. Get in, learn what you can, get out when you find something better.
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Aug 17, 2012 06:46
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Perdido posted:You guys expect your BAs to be flat out running? Well, within reason of course. Sprinting blindly around isn't exactly what I meant, but a good barback is one that can take care of business at speed without causing more work to be done. eg. breaking poo poo, or making other staff think there's an incident, or knocking things over. Or spilling a couple of jugs of clamato all over you, causing no one to get any work done for the next 5 minutes while everyone howls with laughter. Hey, at least you know the guys heart is in the right place. It's easier to get someone to tone it down a little that it is to light a fire under someone. More importantly though, now I wanna hear a story about a bus bin full of piss.
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Aug 17, 2012 10:38
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This is it! I am gerting married, after 3 kids and soon turning 30 I decided to please my wife to be by proposing her. Now you might say what does it have to do with this thread? Well i am throwing a wedding party where all the family and friends are invited. I am currently questionning myself alchool wise, since I pay for everything, I am wondering if I should hire a bartender. A few friends has offered me to bartend but they have no bartending background. My father work for a firm that distribute liquor and wine so I can get a huge rebate but limited to 500$ of goods. What drinks should I serve? Should I charge for the bar ? We also have access to a room that is connected to the reception room and there a fridge in there and a small windows that you can order from. I am not really rich and I need to take a loan for this party. It will be a small reception 80-100 invitee max. I also hired a friend as a dj's (he is ia dj in raves). Food wise we hired a traiteur that will make a Mechoui (spit roasted bbq). I want this thing to be as fun as possible. So any tips for throwing such a reception is welcome.
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Aug 17, 2012 15:06
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If you need to take a loan for it, don't have liquor. Do beer and wine only - buy enough alcohol for everyone to have 4-5 drinks (there are 4 glasses of wine per bottle) and call it a day. You can cover the whole cost for like $750, easy, even if you're buying microbrew beer and wines other than Kendall Jackson. Edit: VV Did they tip? VV Shooting Blanks fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 15:15
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Oh man. I did a private event for a whiskey company that was providing the open bar at the book launch party for some hipster band I've never heard of. We set up the bar, three bartenders, couple cases of whiskey and mixers at each station. Of course there's too little ice, but more is on the way. 15 minutes to go time, we are all set up but forbidden to serve until 7. We pre-make a few dozen drinks so we're ready to go at the buzzer. The line forms, five deep at each station, a wall of "No, we don't have any white wine. The beer is across the room. We have cocktails." The clock strikes and it's sling six drinks as fast as you can. We stay five deep. Thirty minutes in, guy on my right with slippery hands loses a glass (because the corporate mixologist who supplied us got untempered glass to make up the boston shakers) and it shatters against the back wall of the gallery. Keep going. An hour in, the call is just "cocktails, cocktails" and I make the first mistake; I look up. The wall of people hasn't moved. I'm pretty sure the girl in front of me hasn't moved in three rounds, she's just passing drinks back. We're not taking orders for the individual cocktails any more, we're just making rounds as fast as we can. We run out of Vermouth, so no more white Manhattans. We have a safety meeting as I tell the other bartenders that it's only been an hour. Laughter turns to the sound of ice crunching. The wall ebbs and flows but the people get drunker and drunker on the two finest words in the English language, "Open Bar". Goddamn gallery receptions. 61.5 liters of whiskey, gallons of mixers, four bottles of benedictine, three of vermouth. Two goddamn flats of tallboys. Several jars of luxardo cherries. All in 2.5 hours. We run out of product half an hour before the open bar closes. One by one, as we run out, we take our bows and go head to the loading dock to count the tips and smoke a cigarette. Those people were loving animals. We were told to expect 600, which is a reasonable figure for three bartenders, for three hours. What happened was they had a cap at 600, and a line around the block. Unsurprisingly, as we split a beer on the dock, the decision was made to go and get a proper drink, somewhere quiet.
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Aug 17, 2012 15:51
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That sounds amazing. I wandered around bourbon street last night but tonight i'm going to grab a drink and head to Preservation Hall to listen to some jazz.
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Aug 17, 2012 17:08
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Vegetable Melange posted:I make the first mistake; I look up. I hate when that happens.
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Aug 17, 2012 17:51
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I happen to work at a student bar in the UK which is pretty fun (especially during Freshers where you have ~400 people turn up simultaneously every day for the first week of term and only one 10 metre bar space) but as has been mentioned bar tending is an unskilled job so I don't know much about drinks in general. So what I want to know is what sours refers to in the US? In the UK (especially at lovely student places) it refers to Apple/Raspberry/whatever fruit sours which are generally about 20% alcohol shots. There's a couple of drinks posted in this thread that sound pretty nice and I want to make some of them up when I start work again when the new semester starts.
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Aug 17, 2012 20:52
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Vegetable Melange posted:Oh man. That's insane! I hope you got okay tips out of it, at least? Went on my first barback interview today. I was honest with the dude, and told him that I'd eventually like to bartend. So I'll either hear back from him tomorrow or I didn't get the job. I also quit my other job because I had enough. 
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Aug 17, 2012 20:53
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The busbin full of piss, Essentially, there was this girl that was hired because the GM of the place I was at at the time was loving her and she wanted to work there to impress her friends. She was attractive, biggest draw was her implants, but was also a huge rear end in a top hat who did little work and was thought to have been stealing from other employees. She didn't care for the job and was just there to basically look cool. Since our GM was loving her, she basically had carte blanche to do whatever the hell she wanted. Sucked, but everyone has a story about the son or daughter of the owner or something similar. You just have to deal with that poo poo. Anyway, not long after being a 'team member' (  ) she gets asked to fill in for one of our bartenders because he's sick. That pisses off a lot of people in the club as there were other folks who felt they deserved the shot over her and/or just flat out hated her.However, the bar she was working on was directly below the DJ booth, which was an elevated little stretch, forming a T section. Our DJ, Bill, was notorious for being a complete dick to people if he didn't like them -- patrons, co-workers, celebrities, etc. Didn't matter who you were, if Bill didn't like you, tough titty. He loved to gently caress with drunk people. For example, he'd keep a sharpie around and if a guy was wearing light colored shoes, would scribble on their shoes, onto the floor and draw a line with an arrow out of the DJ booth telling the dude to get out. Normally, this would lead to Bill getting his poo poo pushed in, right? Well, the charm about Bill is that he could be a complete prick to your face but play it off as though he was just joking around with you. So anyway, Bill gets this idea to fill up a busbin full of piss and use it to soak this bitch at the end of the night. So he rounds up a bunch of us dudes and has us all piss in it. He then recruits another bartender that he'd been having some drama with to come up to the DJ booth and get into 'an argument' with him and pretend to have Bill and his assistant toss the busbin at him. One of our managers would be down at this chick's bar telling her she needed to do something, so she would be in position. Me? I'm this pasty faced busboy who was like a month in to this job and was confused as gently caress when I was ordered to piss into a busbin. So end of the night comes, music is off, house lights are on. Argument starts, girl is positioned where she needed to be. Bill and his assistant chuck the urine out of the busbin, the bartender ducks (keep in mind that this girl is loving our GM and we need witnesses to make this look credible) and the urine goes up, over and down onto the chick in what was the most horrible 'accident' in the world. I ended up having to clean it up the resulting mess. Bill paid me $100 for my trouble. Girl quit because she had loving urine poured on her, GM found another girl to screw. Such is life at nightclubs!
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Aug 17, 2012 21:09
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Bash Ironfist posted:What do you guys think about barbacking/bartending in a nightclub for your first job? A very good friend of my brother works for a man who owns several nightclubs. My brother's friend basically goes from club to club, does regional manager stuff, talks to sales reps to get good deals on product, stuff like that. My brother is going to contact him, see if he can help me get my foot in the door. My first BA job was at a nightclub. High volume is good, because if you can work at that speed, you can handle any speed as a barback/BA and slot in anywhere. If you can get in, get in.
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Aug 17, 2012 21:19
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Perdido posted:The busbin full of piss, Royality posted:So what I want to know is what sours refers to in the US? In the UK (especially at lovely student places) it refers to Apple/Raspberry/whatever fruit sours which are generally about 20% alcohol shots.
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Aug 17, 2012 22:30
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