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James, can we try to get a list together of all the bartenders that post in these threads and what types of venues they're working in? Like: Daric - Medium-High Volume Restaurant
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Aug 10, 2012 08:02
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 17:18 |
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So according to the news broadcast I just watched, one of our cooks got shot in the chest and is in the hospital in critical condition. He got home at 3am, which is normal for a restaurant job, and had a couple hundred dollars cash on him, also normal for our jobs, and some guys jumped him, took the cash and shot him in the chest but he managed to get the gun away and yell for his wife to call 911. There may be people reading these threads and thinking "Man, that sounds like so much fun, I want to do that" but, if I were you, I'd keep my 9-5.
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Aug 10, 2012 08:12
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leica posted:Has anyone banned cigar smoking in their bars? We've been thinking about it because there are a few regulars that smoke them non stop and the other patrons bitch and complain about it. One of the bars across the street from us has started kicking out people for smoking cigars, I was wondering if this was a trend to keep the majority happy. We are like 10 feet outside the city limits so you can smoke at our bar but my manager recently banned cigars because it stinks up the entire restaurant. I'm ok with that, I wish we'd just get rid of smoking too.
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Aug 10, 2012 18:25
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gently caress errbody tonight, just a bunch of assholes all night long
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Aug 11, 2012 08:14
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I've never had a shandy, but with the temperatures hovering around 110 degrees right now, it seems like something I might enjoy. Any recommendations on drafts? I have XX Lager, Shiner Bock, Bud Light, Abita Turbodog, Stella Artois, Saint Arnold's Elissa IPA, Shock Top, and Sam Adams Octoberfest on tap.
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Aug 12, 2012 05:07
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Perdido posted:Perdido: High volume nightclub, Canadian I'm off tomorrow so I'm going to try to collect all these bartenders in the thread and send the list to James Woods And yeah, it was fairly slow today but almost every single person tipped me 20% Except the people that come in right before we close. They sit there forever and never tip anything.
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Aug 13, 2012 06:58
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I'm watching the poo poo out of Bar Rescue right now
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Aug 13, 2012 23:24
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My manager decided it would be best to have a bar meeting on Wednesday at 2pm. I have to be at work at 3pm. I really don't feel like coming into work an hour early when they're not actually going to fix any of the issues I bring up. But I'm going to do it anyway, just to throw it at them. I got my rear end kicked last night because our service bartender decided it was in her best interest to leave 2 hours early. So I had to cover the service bar and the bar as a whole (I have 32 seats at my bar and they were all full) because some manager said she could go early for no reason. If i'm not tipping you out, you're getting paid hourly, you cannot leave early. This ended up costing me money because I couldn't give a good level of service to our guests and I'm not getting paid to make drinks for the servers, she is. I'm tired of this poo poo.
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Aug 14, 2012 04:41
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Sheep-Goats posted:Just use a cheap blend unless they specify. JW red is fine. Anything pricier and the Drambuie just shits it up really. It's supposed to be an affordable low brow kind of scotch drink, something for a blue collar guy. Not a frufru thing. Not how it works at our restaurant. Bartenders split tips between us the way you're saying. Service bartender gets paid $13 an hour just to make server's drinks. They don't get tips.
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Aug 14, 2012 08:17
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Sheep-Goats posted:Oh. Then either she can't leave or mgmt gets to pay you 13 extra an hour while you do two jobs. Or the servers can make their own drinks. Yeah, the bar portion of the restaurant isn't run very well. I'm going to bring up a lot of stuff at this meeting because there's just too much stuff that's out of control. They keep moving up new people that just aren't getting it. Hell, they're training a new guy now and there's not a single open shift for him to take. The last guy they trained barely has 2 shifts.
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Aug 14, 2012 08:25
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Sheep-Goats posted:Don't bother. They bring people in without having shifts for them on purpose. Then they can say "oh Gunther needs shifts" and dilute someone else's. Keeps the staff hungry, which keeps them divided and cheap. I'm going to bring the stuff up in the meeting and then take it to the GM. They've asked me to be a manager (this is kind of a chain restaurant but not exactly) and my dad is an old fraternity brother of the concept leader so I feel like if I give him some notes next time he comes in, he'll at least consider them. And it's easy stuff. Like, we serve our beer in frosted mugs. I would prefer to serve cold beer, not a cold glass. And the cooler for the glasses is set too cold so when the beer hits the glass, it immediately foams up. So they're losing a lot of money just on wasted beer. It's just stupid stuff. We are a New Orleans style restaurant, that's cool, I love cajun food and I think it's a cool concept. We have 8 beers on tap. They are: Bud Light Dos Equis Lager Shiner Bock Stella Artois Saint Arnold's Elissa IPA (St. Arnold's is a craft brewery here in Houston and they're great) Sam Adams Octoberfest Shock Top and last, and definitely least, Abita Turbodog Abita is a craft brewery from Louisiana. Having an Abita beer on tap is a great idea because it goes along with our concept. But instead of having the Abita Golden on tap, which goes really well with fish and our food they put the Stout in there in the middle of the Texas summer and they're having us serve them in a frozen glass. I've sold 1 Turbodog in the 2 months it's been on tap. And with the St. Arnold's beer, I love the IPA. It's a really great beer, not too hoppy even though it's an IPA and I'm glad we're trying to support craft breweries at least a little bit. But, if you're going to have the IPA, have it in a bottle. Put a different St. Arnold's beer on tap that's going to sell more like the Lawnmower which goes with blackened fish, which is about 50% of the items on our menu. This is pretty stream of consciousness and I'll make a more concise write-up but overall my bar manager has good ideas, but terrible execution.
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Aug 14, 2012 17:36
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leica posted:Ding ding ding. I honestly wouldn't even complain to management about the service bartender leaving early, they did that on purpose to save hours. That problem could be solved by making them tipped employees but that's neither here nor there. Management could give two shits about how you feel about it because you can be replaced easily. Pick your battles and don't complain about poo poo that management does to save money or you'll just be pegged a whiner. Complaining about the beer mugs is a much better idea and is constructive, that's picking your battles the right way. You guys really aren't getting my restaurant. They didn't do it on purpose to save hours. The manager that let her go is also a bartender. She asked him to leave and he doesn't give a poo poo so she left. This is a place where they will happily let us take service bar shifts in overtime. At time and a half that's like $20 an hour. They really don't care. This isn't a bar first, restaurant second, it's a pretty expensive seafood restaurant with a bar. It's a Pappas restaurant for anyone in Texas who will recognize that name.
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Aug 14, 2012 17:51
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$310 tonight, too bad I'm leaving for New Orleans in 9 hours and I'll probably blow it all
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Aug 16, 2012 06:53
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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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Woooo tonight was rough. My other bartender may get fired tomorrow. I really hope she doesn't because she's the only person I look forward to working with but it's a possibility. We were loving slammed and it's just me and her. In a normal bar, that wouldn't be a big deal but people at my restaurant expect a higher level of service that we were unable to give because it was so busy. For whatever reason, none of the guests included me in their complaints but 4 different guests complained about her not taking care of them tonight. It was ridiculous, we were both running around working as fast as we could and I'm not sure why I wasn't included in their complaints. She also somehow lost a guest's credit card. We don't really keep them to run tabs because we're a restaurant and we're not usually busy enough to warrant it but this guy gave it to her, she sat it on top of the till like we always do and it was there all night. Up until it came time to give it back to him, where it mysteriously disappeared. We cleaned the entire bar and it was nowhere to be found so I'm betting someone snatched it when we weren't looking. We ended up making $200 each but that wasn't enough for how much I took it in the rear end tonight. I also left a note in my bar manager's box tonight with a list of all the drinks my other manager came into the bar and made that I never got a ticket for. We just got reamed in our meeting the other day about making sure we keep track of all that and always get a ticket for them and here this dude is not ringing up any of the stuff he's making.
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Aug 20, 2012 06:51
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leica posted:I've found that busier doesn't always equal better tips. When it's steady but not too busy you're able to give better service and actually talk to people, those are the days I bank. When you're in the weeds people are always waiting and get pissed, they reflect their displeasure in the tips. So you work twice as hard but don't get nearly what you thought you should. My bar manager did the math and figured out once we get to a certain sales number the tip percentage starts going down in a hurry. There's no reason to fire her but she's worried and my general manager has been known to be an rear end. But yeah, I agree with you. Those steady nights when I can actually hang out and chat with my guests and everyone leaves me $15-20 or more, it's so great. Nights like last night where I'm busting rear end the entire time and I come out of the other side making less than 10% of my sales in tips suck so much.
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Aug 20, 2012 19:10
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Well my girl didn't get fired, thank god, but they did say they're adding another bartender. This girl is a little on the thicker side and pretty slow so i'm worried about her moving at a good pace with how tight our bar is.
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Aug 21, 2012 04:38
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What would y'all recommend for making whiskey sours at home? At work we have jugs of lemon sour that the prep ladies make for us every day. I have some sweet and sour mix at home or I could do lemon juice and sugar. Which do you think will be better?
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Aug 22, 2012 02:28
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I wish Evan Williams was our house whiskey, we use Early Times. Evan Williams is really good.
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Aug 24, 2012 03:18
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There's been 2 fights so far tonight. It's 7:15.
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Aug 25, 2012 01:12
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Actually they were both at the bar. I'm a little drunk right now but I feel the stories will best be served by providing illustrations of the layout of my bar so I will recount the stories for you tomorrow morning. Enjoy your nights. Drink Responsibly.
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Aug 25, 2012 08:40
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Hey guys, I'm dead. Labor day weekend killed me.
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Sep 4, 2012 18:31
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Shooting Blanks posted:I once got called out for drinking a Negroni, by a guy who was hitting on a pair of girls at a really small hotel bar here in Houston. I offered to let him try my "faggy pink drink" and after a bit of goading, he took me up on the offer. And promptly spit it out, not realizing how bitter Campari is (the bartender, a friend, had a good laugh at that). Let's go drinking some time 
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Sep 8, 2012 06:04
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Like I've said before, I work in a "fancy" restaurant so our uniform is pretty strict But my GM just said it's ok for the bartenders to wear Texans jerseys on Sundays as long as we're all wearing them Fixing to bust out my custom Case Keenum jersey this weekend whattttt uppppp
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Sep 11, 2012 20:15
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BRT 133: Introduction to Plumbing
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Sep 19, 2012 05:53
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Coohoolin posted:I'm so happy I don't work in a "posh" bar anymore- having to apologize to dickheads over bullshit complaints was incredibly depressing. I know work in a working class pub in the Ned (Scottish version of a chav) area of Aberdeen, my regulars are insane or ex bikers and football casuals (better than any fascist bouncers), my boss is a 50 something foul mouthed "Torry quine" who's been chucked out of other pubs on the street and anything like what I've just read on this last page would be promptly met with a curt "dinnae be a fucken' oval office" or "git tae gently caress!". I derive personal pleasure from telling the dolled up anglophiles ("omg did you see TOWIE this week?") that "we don't do cocktails. You can have an irn bru WKD if you don't fancy beer." Holy poo poo I have no idea what most of this means but I'm glad to see we have some international tenders in the thread I had this conversation yesterday:  How much is a Bud Light in a bottle? $4.75 How much is one of the large drafts? $5.50 Ok so it's a better deal to get the large draft then. Give me one of those, but make it Miller Lite I don't have Miller Lite on draft, I just have it in a bottle Why not!? That's stupid! Who doesn't have Miller Lite on draft!? Well just give me two bottles of Miller Lite and pour them in a large glass and only charge me for 1 because that's really not fair to me that you don't have Miller Lite on draft.(At this point I was just flabbergasted) Ummm....it's really not fair to ME to give you 2 beers for the price of one so I'm not going to do thatThen her friend goes "Just give her 1 bottle of Miller Lite" and then she turned to the crazy woman and said "You're an idiot." It just blew my mind that someone would think they were entitled to free drinks because we don't carry their favorite beer on tap. And why would she even ask me about the Bud Light if she wanted Miller instead? I was so confused.
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Oct 8, 2012 23:25
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To go with what we were talking about earlier in that some people just buy the most expensive thing because it's expensive I had a couple come up earlier that wanted 2 Bloody Mary's...with Belvedere. Way to go buddy, you got a premium vodka and drowned it in cheap Zing Zang mix.
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Oct 13, 2012 07:14
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Our well vodka is Taaka and I can guarantee you that you will never want to drink it
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Oct 14, 2012 19:45
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Walk in today: The air conditioner is broken and doesn't work. Not for the whole restaurant, just over the bar. The service bar printer doesn't work so tickets have to print up at the other end of the bar and we had to run them over to our service bartender every time someone rang something in. We ran out of: tartar sauce lemonade margarita mix hurricane mix watermelon monin and oranges Thank god I have tomorrow off because I was ready to kill someone
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Oct 15, 2012 06:22
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We're not allowed to wear costumes anymore after one of our large male bartenders showed up in a Hooters girl outfit.
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Oct 16, 2012 22:11
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Pappas family just put in a new rule that says employees are no longer allowed to have alcohol at their own restaurant. This includes coming in and sitting at a table on your day off. With your girlfriend, parents, doesn't matter, you're not having a drink. My GM took it one step further and decided that we're also not allowed to have alcohol at the Pappasito's next door. Nor are they allowed to have any in our restaurant. A few of the managers and a lot of the staff members would come over after their shifts and sit at my bar for happy hour. They can't do that anymore. Thanks, guys. There goes a lot of my money.
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Oct 26, 2012 06:51
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leica posted:I can kinda understand those rules in a restaurant setting, most managers don't want people (especially the same people on a regular basis) getting drunk in a family oriented restaurant. Honestly, if you like having a "following" of regulars to make money don't bartend at a restaurant. Yeah it's not the ME not drinking that's an issue. The only time I'm in there on my days off is if I'm with my parents or I'm sitting in my girlfriend's section because it's slow and she's bored. But I had a steady stream of managers from next door that would come over and have a couple beers and hung out that I'm going to miss. Obviously they tipped better than my normal clientele.
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Oct 26, 2012 16:59
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Vegetable Melange posted:Dear everybody who will pre game at house parties then show up a sloppy, costumed mess at my bar: comic con is over. gently caress Halloween. Comic Con is NOT over. I will be there tomorrow dressed as Robin.
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Oct 28, 2012 04:35
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$337.50 in each till (2 tills) for a 2 bartender night $197.50 in each till (4 tills) for a 4 bartender night
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Nov 9, 2012 06:19
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Pretty slow night but we had some guy at our bar tonight that was pretty cool. He owns an advertising company in Los Angeles and he was out here in the burbs of Houston doing some promotion with converse and footaction. He drank a couple of beers and the other male bartender, Keaton, and I talked to him for a little while. Then he said he had to go across the street to the mall and set up and that he'd be back later. He promised to bring us some stuff when he came back. We were like "Yeah, that'd be cool man. See ya!" not really thinking much of it because people are always promising to give us stuff and it never happens. This guy definitely delivered though. He showed up a few hours later with 10 really cool tote bags, like 20 t-shirts, and about 60 pairs of shoelaces in every different color. Keaton and I took everything we wanted and doled out the rest among the managers. I don't really wear graphic shirts around but drat these things are soft and I'll be wearing them to chill around the house quite a bit. I ended up getting 4 shirts, 3 bags and a few pairs of shoelaces. I've had guests promise me Texans tickets, rodeo tickets, all kinds of stuff. I never actually get anything. The only other guy that's actually delivered on something like that got me into the crawfish festival for free but that was it. I didn't end up making much money but we shot the poo poo with this dude for a couple hours so it wasn't too bad.
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Nov 24, 2012 07:36
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gently caress yeah guys, I get to go up to work today (my day off) to go through the paperwork and find out why my other 2 bartenders on Tuesday night stole money from me. I worked for 4 hours, they worked for 8 or 9. When I got in the safe last night to get my share of the tips from Tuesday night, there was exactly $20 in 1's in my envelope. Now, that means they were making $5 an hour in tips (I have literally never worked a night there where we made less than $13 an hour) and if I only got 20, they only got 40-45. I seriously doubt that happened since it was pretty loving busy. I also happened to find one of the guys' credit card receipts from Tuesday night when I got there yesterday which means 1) that the manager checking them out wasn't paying attention to what she was doing and 2) that, by the amount of tips on those receipts, they owe me more than I got. So thanks, fellow coworkers, for making me do this poo poo on my only day off.
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Dec 13, 2012 18:44
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FaceEater posted:e: post number 1000 woop woop Yeah I went through it, found out that they claimed they gave me $40 but there was definitely only $20 in my envelope. So I'll ask them. But the way we do it is that it's split up to an average hourly wage so it doesn't matter which hours you were there, if you worked 4 you get 4 hours worth of pay.
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Dec 13, 2012 20:43
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Most of the time guests walking in right before you close sucks But sometimes it's the Harlem Globetrotters and you hang out and talk to them for an hour  (I'm in the server uniform)
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Apr 6, 2013 06:43
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I've been out of the bar for 4 months. My first day back was yesterday. I closed last night and opened this morning so I ended up making $350 in 24 hours. God I missed that.
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Apr 13, 2013 04:48
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 17:18 |
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I can't get a link to just the video on my phone but Hay Merchant is THE place to get craft beer in Houston and here's a tour of their coolers http://blog.chron.com/beertx/2012/02/behind-the-bar-tour-hay-merchants-lager-and-ale-coolers/
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Apr 13, 2013 20:01
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