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BattleMoose posted:So, I have been toying with the idea of trying to enter into the industry that is bar tending, but I'm old, (33) but can easily pass for 27 if that matters, (still old). And never worked in hospitality at all, nothing. So what have I been doing with my life, well, I got a science PhD and now seriously reconsidering life choices and literally the last thing I want to do is a post doc. Keep two fingers in your science stuff while you're doing bartending poo poo if you end up trying to. Here's an except from one of my my post-doctoral papers on bartending as an old:  If it's what you really want to do you can find a way to make it work I guess but I honestly see no way that anyone with a STEM degree would ever find it worthwhile on the balance, let alone a STEM PhD. The general reasons you should look to get out of bar-tending as you get older: 1) less jobs for older bartenders, 2) of those jobs many fewer pay a tolerable amount of money, 3) your friends become less and less willing to talk to you if you work nights as you get older, 4) your friends become less and less available on non-weekends as you get older, 5) anything said for friends also goes for potential girlfriends, 6) the job has physical elements like being on your feet and noise and stooping and cleaning that get more tiresome as you get older, 7) the places that do hire you will often try to push you into being a bar manager after a while anyway and that job is usually worse than just bartending. raton fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Aug 7, 2016 |
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Aug 7, 2016 00:12
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poop dood posted:Jiminy loving Christmas, I live in Virginia and minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13/hr. A lot of places in NYC will ask you a) How much experience do you have and then b) How much NYC experience do you have? There are also lots of places that just hire the young/female/beautiful. But then there are lots and lots of places overall. Anyway you probably won't get a job you're happy with as your first NYC job, but after six months you should be able to shift. Making contacts is important as any open hiring you see on Craigslist is a sign of a place that can't get their staff to bring people in to work there, which usually means that everyone there is trying to leave. Also you should probably be aware that some bars in NYC are very image conscious -- a hipster place expects you to come to the interview in such a way that they can easily imagine you in costume the night of. The last item of concern is that some places, especially around Times Square, are basically tourist bars and from time to time this means only people from outside of the US, which means they don't tip -- but the bar is still in NYC, which also means (with some exceptions) they don't pay you. There are very few bars in Queens and almost none you'd want to work at so you'd have a commute as a bartender if you live there. The subway is great during the day but coming home at 5am (bars close at 4 in NYC) when a lot of the trains are 45 minutes apart and you probably have to make a transfer is a loving nightmare, a cab home would probably be 25-30 and doing that every night is a little much. Neither Queens (except for one distant neighborhood you won't be in anyway) nor Harlem are anything really approaching dangerous any more in any real way. raton fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Aug 7, 2016 |
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Aug 7, 2016 00:20
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FaceEater posted:ALSO: I have a guy that swears that our house pour is/should be 1.25 oz. Please please tell me precisely what amount of booze you pour into a vodka soda. I have been at 1.5 oz for loving ever, because that's what it is, and he's like "Naw man, 1.25." It's 1.5oz. Proof 1: Of loving course it is Jesus Christ Proof 2: 1.5oz of spirits at 40% ABV = 0.6 oz pure alcohol. 6oz of wine (1/4th of a bottle) at 10% ABV = 0.6oz pure alcohol. 12oz of beer at 5% ABV (average for production beers) = 0.6oz pure alcohol
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Aug 7, 2016 00:35
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BattleMoose posted:Yeah its probably not the best idea I have ever had. But the idea of being able to work around where people are having fun and somewhat physical work, is just so super appealing. They either get roped into management, become co-owners when a bar they have a connect to needs a cash infusion, or drop out of the industry. A really really awful estimate on percentages for these three things would be like 3%, 1%, 96% but whatever. Maybe another half a percent get one of those hotel jobs or Irish bar jobs or Vegas casino jobs and live out their days at work -- of those only the Vegas guys are ever going to get a pension and retire. If you want to do physical work with other people bartending isn't your only choice. A lot of the time working in a bar isn't fun, too. I would expect that you have fun when you go to a bar but honestly there are an awful lot of people that don't and they're going to be your customers too. Anyway man I would really suggest bending your PhD into something closer to what you like rather than letting it wilt while you go on a bartender lark. Spending your week doing what you only half enjoy and then spending your weekend drinking and having fun in a bar is better than spending your weekend and some adjacent days doing what you only half enjoy and then your days off trying to call the waitress that quit or going to a bar that has three people in it because it's Wednesday night. Plus you get to work every New Year's. Christmas too -- boss needs someone reliable after all and he can't be there. Sorry your vacation has to get cancelled but Jeff quit without notice and there's no one for the awful midweek days right now (apart from Charmane but the guy who does the schedule thinks she's his girlfriend). raton fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Aug 11, 2016 |
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Aug 11, 2016 00:13
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Cwmagain posted:So, the hotel where I work has decided to plant some assorted herbs in our garden rather then buy them in. This includes the mint I use for my mojitos. For some reason ( management ), normal mint hasn't made the cut, and I was left making mojitos with flavoured mint. Now, I've had some good results with applemint, but despite it's aggressive growth we are running out. Morning crew using it for flavoured water isn't helping either. Management says to just use chocolate mint for mojitos, but i've made a test drink and it just tastes off. No chocolate OR mint flavour. Any changes I could make to a recipe to bring it back up to speed? ( Please say impossible, get real mint ). Maybe add more ( bleh ), Add mint syrup instead of cannes.. lol
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Aug 11, 2016 00:41
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poop dood posted:So make as many connections as possible, look hip for interviews, and don't expect my first NYC bar gig to be ideal. I can handle that. Thanks for making it sound doable. Look for hip interviews if you're a hipster. What I was actually trying to say in that bit is that the bar scene in NYC is way more image driven than wherever you're from (probably) so don't be surprised if you sit down and lay out your respectable experience and skills and they don't hire you because you don't have ink / do have ink / aren't white enough / aren't ethnic enough / obviously do hard drugs / obviously don't do hard drugs etc. There are places where they'll try to just hire the best guy that comes in the door but there are a lot of other places that don't hire that way.
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Aug 11, 2016 00:45
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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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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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CubanMissile posted:What do you guys wear to interviews? Used to be I wore suits with no tie, but these days it feels like I should go with casual and hip. You have to match for what you'll wear to work but a little more polished. If you come in in a button down and slacks and it's a rocker bar they're not going to hire you. If you show up for a fancy hotel job and you're not in a suit and tie they're not going to hire you.
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Mar 11, 2017 02:45
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