Bartending

i agree!

xpost Ha.. I once got called in at a winery for writing Black Sabbath in a layer of frost on a fermenting chardonnay tank... "We have tourists coming through here, you know.." etc.

I thought I’d seen some Andy the grasshopper tags in Oakland

there's a whole lotta tags in Oakland

Cinco de Mayo is the worst and stupidest thing in the world for a bartender. I went through 4.5 liters of tequila last night in a four-hour shift. I told the owner "you bit off more than I could chew" and I wasn't smiling when I said it. He apologized for not trying harder to get a 2nd bartender for the evening. I woke up from a making-margaritas nightmare at 2:30am and just chewed out my dayjob client. Bad, bad night that will take a few days to recover from.

Cinco de Mayo feels like months ago now.

The other bartender gave notice. I couldn't be sore about it -- she has a new boyfriend a year after an ugly divorce, and coaches both of her boys on their baseball teams, so ditching the bar job was an easy choice. Plus she doesn't drink, has little interest in drinkcraft. I'm doing a bartending training session Tuesday for the new bartender and all the waitstaff. The Imposter Syndrome is kicking in hard for me. How can I go from starting my first bar job to training bartenders in less than a year?

Ingredients-wise, I'm keeping rhubarb syrup available all the time now, and the rhubarb martini is starting to get a solid rep. I developed a riff on the Trinidad Sour (called the Tobago Road) using Amaro di Angostura instead of the bitters, and it might be the drink I'm proudest of. I have an idea for making orgeat using toasted pecans instead of almonds, and sweetening it with a blend of Golden Eagle syrup and dark Karo instead of regular sugar; in theory it'll have the flavors of pecan pie. That + bourbon or dark rum = ?

How can I go from starting my first bar job to training bartenders in less than a year?

because you know yr shit, ask for a raise ;)

lol, the owner/GM hasn't deposited his last eight paychecks yet, I should tread carefully there.

A couple of weeks ago I dealt with a bunch of early-20somethings who come in regularly for loads of Bud Light and Vegas Bomb shots. This time they were clearly fucking with me when I was trying to take a break, getting a round of pints and then calling for a round of shots as soon as I finished getting those, and then getting another round of pints as soon as I finished the shots. One of them said "get us another round of shots, ok?" and I turned around, told one of the owners "I need a break. I NEED a break." and walked out the back door and sat on the curb in the alley for a few minutes.

So they all came back in this past Saturday and tried to do the same routine. I heard the word "shots" while my back was turned; turned back to them and said "Vegas Bomb shots are for children, drink your beer." So they hoovered up several dozen wings and chicken strips and more beer, and paid up like nice little kids. I guess I passed some toughness test, because the main instigator tipped better than usual.

WmC, i only just found this thread and read the whole thing. it's a great read! glad you've stayed healthy--would read a book full of your bar thoughts.

― horseshoe, Sunday, March 14, 2021 4:34 PM (two months ago)

also i'm so sorry about your mom

― horseshoe, Sunday, March 14, 2021 4:34 PM (two months ago)

Thank you! Also, it was rude of me not to acknowledge this sooner, I apologize. I do wish I'd kept better notes over the last year.

How do you guys deal with the music question ? Or is it pre determined my Mgmt

Sp0t!fy business acct, owner picks the playlists.

https://i.imgur.com/6UPb4sO.jpg

I bet Death & Co. never gets straight-up garbage from their citrus suppliers.

yikes

Uggghhhhh! I can imagine how nasty that smells

barf emoji

I inhaled a lot of mold today. Washed and juiced what I could of the limes, washed/dried and moved the lemons out of cardboard -- they weren't in as rough shape, but they smelled worse. On the bright side, one of the new bartenders is doing great and I get two nights off this week.

I would raise holy hell with whatever company delivered that nonsense (not yr job but still)

i've heard of scratch and dent sales but that's basically frame damage

Lol, I'm having flashbacks. My first job was in the produce dept. of a grocery store and had to sort through stuff like this sometimes.

I would raise holy hell with whatever company delivered that nonsense (not yr job but still)

― sleeve, Tuesday, June 8, 2021 7:30 PM

The owners sent the pic to their sales rep and I think they got credit for that case. I should have known these cases would be crap -- the previous ones were nearly perfect, 3 limes and zero lemons lost to rot.

i don't know your bar's receiving set-up WmC, but someone ought to be around to check stuff in and make sure stuff doesn't get delivered like that. like it's kind of critical imo. that is terrible that you had to work with that and it didn't get sent back/replaced (am not dissing you at all, obvs, it's not your bar). It makes me think there must be other things being delivered that are not being done "up to code" as they say. I worked as purchaser/receiver for a few years and i can see how a mistake like this could happen from a reputable distributor. mistakes get made. also, if a company knows nobody is every gonna check their deliveries, *maybe* they might try and pull this shite.

Some of our deliveries involve the driver having a key to the back door, stashing fridge and freezer stuff and locking up on the way out, with the GM/owners not seeing the produce until he gets in a couple of hours later. They're a bit lax about the quality of bar citrus because I usually make do without complaint, but maybe that will change after this week.

The owners have discovered flavored vodkas. On one hand, that's some more bullshit I have to make room for in my life; on the other hand, I can batch up raspberry and blueberry lemon drops, booze and all, and just fill a chilled glass from a chilled bottle and be done.

Fridays are our busiest night -- last Friday I worked my ass off, a long shift including prep, and there were five ones, a quarter and three dimes in the tip bucket. I changed it to a clear beer pitcher so it's harder for people to hide their sinful behavior. Or maybe I'm just a bad bartender, I don't know.

I doubt that very much <3

ugh bad tippers are the most disgusting savages; i'm sorry, WmC!

$5 for the whole night? Wtf
Do you guys accept credit cards? Maybe everyone paid that way instead of cash?

I'm usually so exhausted by the end of the night that I forget to check my cc tips -- I'll find out on my paycheck tonight. There were a few cash customers, including one Deliverance-reject motherfucker who comes in almost every night that we're open and always sits at the bar — dinner, one tea, one Mich Ultra and one cocktail every time, and has tipped me exactly three bucks on probably $700 in total charges over the months.

What pct of checks do you estimate are paid by credit?

it's known fact that the bartender is someone you are supposed to be over-generous with. ffs

so many people are shit tippers. my wife is a server and has averages under 10% and she works at a reasonably expensive restaurant in a bougie part of town frequented by wealthy people

the **ckers sound like they deserve to be served moldy limes tbh

( i don't really mean that, but. . . )

What pct of checks do you estimate are paid by credit?

― calstars, Thursday, June 17, 2021 2:26 PM

At the bar, probably 2/3. In the dining room, probably 95%.

Every time there is grumbling about bad tipping around one of the owners, she makes commiseration a winner-takes-all contest -- "Don't feel bad, X had it worse tonight." So the person who got screwed the worst gets the sympathy and everyone else gets to fucking suck it up or shut their ungrateful mouths. Meanwhile, the house gets paid. I may have a few words with her about that tonight. Tonight's the last day we're open before a 13-day summer break.

How not to run a business

that's abusive behavior by my measure -- this is a workplace and you should not be measuring your misery against other people's nor should your employers

it's not surprising how many small employers use these tactics to mollify their employees but that doesn't make it right

not sure these people deserve your expertise tbh, although I get that you took this on as a challenge

Got our most recent liquor order in 3 weeks after placing it -- they left off the peach schnapps, the item we were almost out of. So I said "fuck it," got the owner to order some peach flavoring, and I'm going to mock up a 40-proof substitute with vodka-sugar-water. I also faked blue curacao by adding blue food coloring to cheap triple sec. Fuckit.

Do it live. F’ing thing sucks

It's been heading downhill in '22. The price of fresh citrus went through the roof, a case of limes going from $55 when we opened to $140ish in early 2022, so the owners changed to prepackaged lemon and lime juices, which have a lot of pith-bitterness.

This town's diners and drinkers are shitty tippers -- my cash tips last week were five and a half bucks, and total tips were about $70.

The owners cancelled shift drinks and limited shift meals to the cheapest/least hassle menu items; the same week, their eldest son turned legal drinking age and started drinking free at the bar, top-shelf bourbon in his whiskey sours and no tips forthcoming. At the staff meeting announcing the cost cutting measures, the owner said "I want y'all to know we think of everyone here as family," so that was THAT spot on everybody's bingo card. Family-family drinks free, work-family gets a 20% discount.

I used to bring bottles from home so I could make fancier drinks for favored customers -- part of the effort of teaching this town to drink better -- and make things like ginger-lemongrass syrup and rhubarb syrup for the bar, but I don't do that anymore.

Tonight is the first HS home football game of the season, no help for me behind the bar, should be fun.

total tips were about $70.

this is absolutely shameful

Sorry man
I always tip $2 per bottle of Bud and $4 for a buyback , sounds I should come to your bar

“ part of the effort of teaching this town to drink better --”
Doing the Lord’s work

Someone asked for a Dream Catcher -- bourbon, Zucca, strawberry syrup, lemon, rhubarb bitters -- last night and I said sorry, no Zucca. But it was slow and I had a minute to think, so I faked up some Zucca with Campari, house rhubarb syrup and a little Fernet Branca and got damn close in flavor, if not color. No strawberry syrup but any fool can muddle a berry in some simple syrup. Customer approved.

The owners are buying the empty space next door and expanding the restaurant, planning on building a second bar and making the new space mainly a lounge with upholstered seating and coffee tables. The bar will be built from scratch, with input from actual bartenders about what infrastructure we need, unlike the first bar. I hope/think I'll be able to get a dedicated bar freezer where I can start producing large clear ice. The space used to be a pharmacy called People's Drug Co. so The People's Lounge is at the top of the list of names.

Consultation with employees, how unusual!

Whoa - was it one of these guys?

http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2011/11/once-ubiquitous-peoples-drug-stores.html

People's was the main drug chain in my area before CVS bought them up. I hold an undying grudge against CVS over the name change.

http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2011/11/once-ubiquitous-peoples-drug-stores.html

Wow, maybe so! I didn't know Peoples was a chain, I thought this was a locally owned standalone. It was still called Peoples until it closed in the aughts, which makes me think it wasn't part of the chain that sold to CVS...? I'll do some digging.

Of all the horrors I've made over the last three years, Double Malibu and Red Bull took the cake last night. Whoever they were, they had three of them.

Coincidentally, another customer came in who never orders from the menu, demands that I come up with something new each time, and says it has to have Malibu in it, and then comes up with stupid names for the drinks. Last night I told her "I let someone name a new drink last week but that's because he tipped me a hundred bucks" and that kind of got her to ease up for a minute. Anyway I did something served up with Malibu, rhubarb syrup and lemon, with syrup from a can of Amarena cherries in the bottom of the glass making it a layered drink. GAG. Anyway the demanding customer and one of her girlfriends LOVED the drink, and the other girlfriend said "Call it an Orgasm, because that's what they looked like when they were drinking it." We argued about names some more -- since it's pink and has rhubarb in it, one of them had the good idea of The Barbie. At the end of the night I said "I'm glad I was able to give y'all some orgasms" -- they fell out, high fives all around. I wrote the recipe for Barbie's Orgasm down but I'm not going to make another unless under duress. Coconut, rhubarb, lemon and sour cherry flavors in one drink? DOUBLE GAG