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New to this thread, but longtime lurker and huge fan of the previous one. Also, an NYC-based actor, so... you bet, have done some bartending. Currently working as a server instead because now that I'm auditioning again, I have to wake up at normal-people hours and can't afford to be getting in as the sun comes up. I'm 23, can't keep up with the young 'uns anymore. Experience: Worked shirtless in a Hell's Kitchen gay bar for 2 months. Split time between tending bar and serving at an LES cocktail lounge for 3 months while in school. Obviously not a great deal of experience. But if anyone has any relevant questions, fire away. My inquiries for the legendary Internet liquor-slingers of this thread, ignore if they were previously answered and I skipped those pages in the last thread: What's your absolute favorite NYC bar? My list (big bourbon snob, so be prepared for pretentiousness): Bar Centrale On The Rocks Mars Bar (RIP) Death & Co. Employees Only Lansdowne Road Holland Bar What's your guilty-pleasure girly mixed drink? Everyone has one.
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Aug 11, 2012 21:29
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leica posted:I really hope you're joking. What the gently caress are you gonna do when you turn 30, move into a nursing home? Totally joking. Switched to daytime serving primarily because a) my bar's night shift guys are gonna be there till they die and b) getting up to audition at 7/8 am doesn't work well with getting off work at 5 am every 3 out of 5 weekdays. When I told my friends I was quitting tending, though, the "too old for this poo poo" jokes started flying. Over the hill at 23, pensioner by 27. Frozen Horse posted:Does the sidecar count? The sidecar is dignified and old enough that I don't consider it a girly drink. More a matronly drink. A damely drink. A girly drink would be something shameful like a Midori Sour. Which.... which is mine. Yup. Choom Gangster posted:
Used to live right around the block. Have the shirt.
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Aug 12, 2012 02:28
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Daric posted:Any recommendations on drafts? They're in the same general ballpark as Shock Top (way better), but especially in the summer, Ommegang Witte or Duvel go like gangbusters. I'm not sure how wide Ommegang's reach is these days, when I moved to NY 3 years ago it seemed like it was basically limited to NYC and environs, but grab that poo poo NOW if you can.
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Aug 12, 2012 06:10
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Got fired from my old part-time job last Thursday for calling the new (male) GM a oval office. Turns out there is a certain amount of poo poo which I will refuse to eat for roughly $150/shift. Got about 4 months downtime till my next scheduled theatre gig, and I'm tired of scraping by on server money, so I'm back to slinging drinks if I wanna make enough to live comfortably. First shift at a Hell's Kitchen Irish bar tomorrow. Here we go. I know it's a long shot, but anyone work in the neighborhood/an NYC Irish bar/NYC in general and wanna give me some tips on easing back into it? I'm actually kind of nervous, just because this isn't a scene I'm familiar with from this side of the wood (previous experience has been mostly in gay bars, which... well, goes without saying it's a whole different ball game).
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Sep 18, 2013 02:09
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40 OZ posted:Sounds like you were getting pretty good shifts, what happened? A whole lot. Might as well tell the story. The long(er) version is posted in my fitness log, but basically management took me off bartending to replace me with a 22-year-old former ballet dancer who'd never touched a Boston shaker in her life, proceeded to gently caress me out of around 300 dollars a week by putting me on 3 shifts a week instead of 5, ran the restaurant into the ground in the process of trying to improve it, drove away our customer base, insisted it was somehow our fault, and then attempted to solve their problems by forcing us to take a bunch of paper tests. The incident in question resulted from me refusing to attend a "mandatory" meeting for which I would not be paid, and from filling out one of the aforementioned paper tests with vitriolic joke answers, which I wouldn't have done except that I had taken the exact same test literally 5 weeks prior, and I was handed it and ordered to fill it out in the middle of the first busy shift I'd had in probably a month. So I proceeded to treat it like the joke it was. Some examples (they listed the "Golden Rules", our steps of service, and asked us to define them): "Use It Once" (means every customer gets new silverware with each course) My Answer: "I assume this refers to prophylactics, and is obviously a lie as you can reuse those". "3 Foot Rule" (acknowledge the presence of any customer within 3 feet of you) My Answer: "All servers must have 3 feet". "Love To Say Yes" (self-explanatory) My Answer: "Always say yes. When you have to say no, say yes instead. You like Pad Thai? No problem. Want an open-mouth kiss with tongue? Of course, sir." They did not find this amusing, and when I walked in for my shift on Thursday I was called to The Serious Talk Table and asked to have a seat, to which I said I'd rather just cut to the chase thank you. They asked me why I missed the meeting and why I filled out the test the way I did, to which I told them that the test was a joke so I treated it as such, and that I couldn't legally be forced to attend a meeting on company time without being paid. The GM started to berate me for my poor attitude and lack of team spirit, and I cut him off and said "I can no longer pay my rent with the schedule you've put me on, I've voiced my concerns politely in the past and nothing has been done, and I can't be bothered to listen to this lecture unless it ends in me getting paid commensurately with my experience. I have a feeling that's not how this is going to end, so fire me now or let me quit, you greasy oval office". They fired me. One bartender and three of the other servers quit immediately after, and I know at least two more that have put in their two weeks. Let the proletariat unite.  Sheep-Goats posted:People sometimes think "Oh I work at an Irish bar now, time to give away drinks and make buddies!" but you still have an owner and manager and your first week is the time to do what they want not what you want. Yeah, I'm definitely gonna be treading lightly. The above paragraphs notwithstanding (I think everybody's got one big gently caress You Moment somewhere in them, and that was mine), I try hard to be acutely conscious of where my boundaries lie, and don't push them until it's apparent that it's okay. I had a friend who got a job at a super-swanky Meatpacking club and proceeded to post on his Facebook "Come by! Free drinks if I know you!".... Got shitcanned not even 24 hours later.
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Sep 18, 2013 03:46
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Avian Pneumonia - Completely apart from America's refusal to convert to metric, the most likely cause for the "my beer is too small" kerfuffle is that you have been served a beer with a higher-than-usual ABV. Most if not all of the craft beer bars around my neighborhood have been serving beers higher than 9% ABV in smaller 8-oz. glasses at least since I moved to NYC, and I've noticed recently a lot of bars that don't bill themselves as specifically beer-centric have started to follow suit. I asked a bartender at one of these joints a while back why that was the case and he said the higher-proof stuff costs more and usually only comes in half-kegs, depending on the brewery, so their profit margins are much lower. I've never had any say in the stock or distribution end, so I can't confirm/deny whether that's legitimately the case, but it makes sense. I wouldn't worry about it too much, the actual amount of alcohol getting into your body is gonna be around the same with one of those as it would be if you'd ordered two PBRs. NINJA EDIT I just read the disclaimer that nullifies my entire previous paragraph. If they're just giving you some bullshit macro draft in a kiddie cup, move bars. In my defense, I've noticed a lot of people complaining about the 8 oz. glasses and I assumed you were one of them. I am now supplementing my Irish bar shifts with 3 days a week of work at an infamous Midtown "martini factory". Very different crowd. Much higher volume, much wealthier clientele, universally shittier tips. Just 2 things: 1. Every time someone pulls out an Amex Black Card, I immediately prepare myself for no more than 12%. 2. If you have to ask "X happened/I am X/I know X/my friend is X/ so now we get free drinks, right?", the answer is always going to be no, and I'm always going to enjoy the look of denied entitlement on your smug little face that immediately follows. If I wanted to give you free drinks, you'd have free drinks already. I am the Liquormancer. All drinks flow through my hands. Defy me at your peril.
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Oct 10, 2013 17:19
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A summery, girly 'tini drink from a while back: 1 oz Tito's or other ultra smooth vodka .5 oz st. Germain 1.5 oz grapefruit juice Shake, strain, top with prosecco or other cheap sparkling wine Optional: add ~.5 oz cranberry to make it pinker I would unashamedly drink this poo poo all day, as it is straight up delicious. The sour citrus of the grapefruit plays with the sweetness/florals of the St. Germain perfectly. Slap it on the menu for 12-14 dollars and watch money fly at you. For bonus points, use whatever "ultra-premium" fancy-bottle nonsense you're trying to get rid of and charge 15 bucks. (NYC prices, ymmv)
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Oct 13, 2013 17:25
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Another one bites the dust. Godspeed in the real world, Masonity. Not to make you miss it even more, but but tonight I had one of those nights that just makes you love the business to death. Amazing regulars, incredible volume, verbally abusing rich, entitled Midtown shitheads, management joining right in with the insults, a reasonable but still generous number of Powers shots, and walking at the decent human hour of 12:30 am with over 300 in cash tips alone, not counting credit tips? Worse ways to make a living.
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Oct 24, 2013 06:52
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You guys. You guys, you guys. Negronis are loving great. Earlier tonight my coworker tried to talk poo poo at me for drinking one (bright pink drink in a rocks glass with a lemon twist, I understand) so I told him to take a sip. He had bought three more for himself by the time I left. Vegetable Melange posted:Sub Vodka for Gin and that drink owns. Had a few (4) in an airport bar with a friend before tales two years ago, never flown so happy and electrolytically balanced. I've always used "highball" as shorthand for a blank and blank as well, not sure how kosher it is but it's always served me well when training new people, since even if they're not technically highball glasses, all one-and-ones are usually served in the same glassware.
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Nov 10, 2013 06:55
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In a surprise melding of my two careers, I am bartending at the afterparty of the Tony Awards tonight. Stories forthcoming hopefully.
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Jun 9, 2014 02:49
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Vegetable Melange posted:I didn't know you were NYC. Come by for a drink sometime. Love to. Where you at again? PM me if you don't wanna post itt. Sadly, the only lesson I learned last night was: DO NOT EVER WORK FOR THE loving PLAZA HOTEL. Do you hate organization? Does the idea of a proper bar setup with all the necessities (the simplest ones - ice, liquor, and mixers) invoke feelings of dread and anger? Do you enjoy having completely contradictory instructions yelled at you for three hours by two short bald men both named Daniel? Then the Plaza Hotel is your place, buddy! Literally the biggest clusterfuck I have ever worked in about 4 years doing this on and off. Showed up at 10 to a thousand people running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Nobody knew poo poo about dick, nobody knew where anybody was supposed to go, where to sign in, who to talk to, what we were wearing, what to put behind which bar, NOTHIN'. I got shuttled around the innards of the hotel being told to go here by one dude and there by another dude (I made pit stops at 5 separate bars) until I finally said "gently caress it", broke off from the bustling pack of black-clad workers, found a table with a few bottles of Jack, Dewars, and Absolut on it, and stood behind it. The disorganization did give me a little down time to talk with Bryan Cranston, who had snuck in early to beat the crowd and is an absolutely wonderful man. Doors opened at eleven, I had wound up at a 3-person bar in the main hallway reception area. We had, in no particular order: no pour spouts, three shakers, two pint glasses, 6 huge crates of mixers for 10 bottles of liquor, no sink, no garnishes, no garnish tongs, and one SALAD BOWL full of ice between three bartenders. Like literally a bowl that you would serve a salad out of. Ice was gone by 11:05. I ran to go get some and not a single person among the staff who, I'm assuming, work at this hotel every goddamn day, could tell me where to find it. I stumbled on a kitchen on the third floor and found a big bag of ice, grabbed a plastic crate, threw the bag in it, sprinted back, and found the bar about 7 people deep with Questlove from the Roots first in line. I had been introduced to two guys when I set up shop at this bar, and found two completely different guys behind the bar when I got back with the ice. Turns out the dude to my left had never tended before, though the dude on my right said he was a pro (and, to his credit, backed it up with some serious volume work). I muttered some introductions, threw my suit jacket behind me, rolled up my sleeves, and started cranking out the messiest fuckin Cosmos I've ever made in my life. Brief impressions through the night: Questlove is also an awesome guy. Tipping at an open bar is always a little weird but he threw me a fiver for making two club sodas. Mark Rylance, the world's greatest living Shakespearean actor, enjoys his cranberry juice in a tall glass and wears a jaunty porkpie hat. Daniel Day-Lewis likes cheap wine and rarely buys a bottle that costs more than 16 bucks. Jan Maxwell is adorable. Richard Kind isn't loving around when he says he wants a double Absolut no ice in a pint glass. Jeffrey Tambor doesn't mind if it takes you a long time to make his drink because you're out of ice again. Tony groupies are a sad, sad bunch, and they do exist. On the whole, the winners/nominees/people from the shows conducted themselves incredibly well, while a lot of serious poo poo-talking was going down amongst producers, investors, and hangers-on. It's almost like a bunch of people who originally wanted to be actors but couldn't hack it turn out to be bitter, lovely assholes.... Portly DeVito type, to me: "Man, I gotta tell you, the party's GREAT out here. Doesn't look too good back there." I just gave him a death stare because seriously what the gently caress kind of talk is that. Drunk Girl in Dress, After Last Call: "Uhhhh you guys are supposed to close at 2, right?" Me: "Ish, yes" DGIDALC: *in tone of incredulous indignation, displaying phone* "My phone says 1:59. I want a drink." Me: "Okay, what do you want?" DGIDALC: "Let me get a.... uh.... do you have vodka?" *phone switches over to 2 am* Me: "Whoops, too late! Water it is." Breakdown of the bar was even more of a mess than setup, if that's possible. I wound up stripping the whole thing myself, dumping the liquor in a walk-in fridge, and bailing at 3 am. One of the Daniels tried to tell me I had to wrap up the hors d'oeuvres for another half hour, to which I laughed and told him no. All in all a pretty fun night, despite being an absolute mess. My roommate got kicked off one of the other bars for being drunk, apparently.
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Jun 9, 2014 18:54
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FaceEater posted:This sounds like a blast. poo poo goes wrong, and you fix it, and fuckin get to help make a party happen and people are understanding and appreciate you for doing it (even with relatively light tipping, considered)? Yep, count me in. For sure, the gig itself was a blast once it got underway, but during prep, the utter lack of anything approaching organization or leadership surrounding a 3000+ person afterparty was just mind-boggling. Like for real if you've got a three-person bar right smack in the middle of the VIP hall, feet away from the entrance, and there's a dance floor in the next room, one would assume that stocking more than 2 750-ml bottles of water FOR THE ENTIRE NIGHT would be a priority.
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Jun 9, 2014 20:56
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The kind of job that will understand your complaint is the kind of job you want to have. The best jobs I've landed have been the ones where I've been completely honest and up-front in the interview. I can't work these hours, I won't do this side work, I left my job because it sucked and management was awful. If you lay it all out on the table, they understand you from the get-go and they're still willing to play ball? That's the kind of job you want to keep. When I got to the city, everyone told me to be diplomatic, polite, and undemanding and because of that I landed a series of jobs that didn't meet my needs for various reasons and took my politeness as license to work me like a dog and not pay me enough for it. The second I started telling people the amount of poo poo up with which I would not put, the industry turned into the magical support system it was reputed to be. Just my 2c.
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Jun 15, 2014 19:23
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