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Perdido posted:Two girls I know walked out with $4k 2 weekends ago at a club downtown. There was some big carnival sideshow thing from Vegas that was doing a stop and it was gangbusters there. This isn't getting into our crazy territory, which starts this Friday. I know folks who have walked with $10k, but that's from poo poo like having Prince Harry or professional athletes coming in and partying. Didn't someone in this thread (James Woods, maybe) have a story about doing a bidding war amongst stockbrokers over trays of vodka sodas and walking with some insane amount? I remember it because I've always since wanted an opportunity to try it!
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Jul 7, 2016 10:50
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 16:30 |
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Lol......
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Jul 7, 2016 13:30
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These guys at my bar top right now are giving me insight into the mind of a suicide bomber.
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Jul 9, 2016 23:56
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Jul 10, 2016 18:54
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So what's the usual ring you guys at bars (not bottle service or crazy mixology spots) have rung in a shift? I hit 2200 last night and was pretty proud of myself.
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Jul 17, 2016 18:19
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Average ringout for me was between $2800-$3500, working as a club bartender at a solo well. Working with a partner, usually $6000-8000.
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Jul 19, 2016 05:07
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Old Man Pants posted:So what's the usual ring you guys at bars (not bottle service or crazy mixology spots) have rung in a shift? I hit 2200 last night and was pretty proud of myself. This is a pointless metric without prices.
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Jul 19, 2016 17:51
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Yeah no doubt. We're in the PBR top 50 accounts in the nation so I can get slammed as poo poo and not break the bank or anything.
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Jul 20, 2016 01:22
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Busy is fire capacity v. heads done. It's the Byrds man, turn turn turn.
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Jul 20, 2016 01:24
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Ever worked with any deliberate, non-alcoholic teetotalers? I'm coming off a few years working the distribution side for a major distributor - working everything from warehouse to office - and do not envy you your dealings with salesmen. In privatized states, the standard operating procedures are ludicrous; the distribution monopolized; the clients furious; the sales force complacent. On the whole, never met a worse pack of unctuous and grasping dogs.
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Jul 20, 2016 14:00
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Shooting Blanks posted:This is a pointless metric without prices. $4 water/soda, $8 wells. We're also basically a venue service bar with 2-10 tenders at a time
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Jul 20, 2016 15:43
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Old Man Pants posted:So what's the usual ring you guys at bars (not bottle service or crazy mixology spots) have rung in a shift? I hit 2200 last night and was pretty proud of myself. A busy night at my NYC job prior to the recession was around 5,000. Most drinks were 14 and we could do bottles on the bar. The crowd was atrocious though and the point computer rang higher than the other two at the main bar so there weren't any thousand dollar paydays. At my first casino job I think my average ring was around ninety bucks. When I was doing the interview at the NYC place they asked what my ring was there and I said "Probably a less than what a single bottle goes for here. How much are your bottles? Yeah, a lot less." raton fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jul 23, 2016 |
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Jul 23, 2016 05:47
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Usually just under $3k, doing domestic bottles at $4.50, wells at $6, pints $6-8, and bottles of craft or whatever beer from $5-8.
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Jul 23, 2016 17:57
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So I'm new to this whole bartending thing and just got a job in a fancy cocktail bar in San Francisco. Any pointers for a newb?
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Jul 30, 2016 02:50
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Remember, brown liquors get stirred clockwise, clear liquors get stirred counter clockwise.
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Jul 30, 2016 03:47
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Also, welcome back.
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Jul 30, 2016 07:24
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Shooting Blanks posted:Remember, brown liquors get stirred clockwise, clear liquors get stirred counter clockwise. And if it has citrus you always shake it with an egg white.
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Jul 30, 2016 09:05
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The weirdest part is either that I’m intentionally trying to make myself sleep in until four pm on a weekday or that it comes so naturally. I still can’t tell which is the case. My new wife Luna, a beautiful little French woman with a heart of gold, has a cup of coffee ready for me as I awake from my slumber. I give her a kiss on the cheek and pinch her rear end before taking my coffee to my home bar to start collecting my equipment. I assemble three full size Boston shaker tins plus three have size tins, three jiggers in different measurements, two Japanese style bar spoons, three strainers, a wine key, and finally I select a church key from a display I keep with over a dozen to choose from. One from each bar job I’ve worked and each in chronological order is a testament to design in progress. I’ve always customized my bar keys. It started with a simple wrap of electrical tape on a standard CO-RECT after I cut the rubber coating off to differentiate mine from my fellow employees. Soon I started wrapping them in 550 Paracord so that they wouldn’t fall out of the back of my belt when leaving the key in my pants while wearing a suit to work as a catering manager meant a hole in my pants. Later I started powder coating them when I became a classic car restorer and still worked nights in a honky tonk music venue. Then my designs got flashy as I was working in a Mission hipster bar and rode a vintage fixed gear bicycle to work every day. It’s the story of my life encompassed in a few chunks of metal hanging on the wall. I choose the purple one from the Irish sports pub in Haight Ashbury and toss my gear in an old messenger bag before giving the wife another kiss and head out the door with my freshly pressed dress blacks hanging over my shoulder. I round the corner and see my 74’ BMW 2002 sitting right where I’d left it with the usual parking ticket stuck between the hood and body. When I approach I toss the ticket over my shoulder and proceed to bring the beast to life waking up anyone in a three block radius that had somehow managed to sleep later than I. As the radio comes to life “Closing Time” is just starting on the local oldie’s station like a sick joke from God. I roll a cigarette and sip on my espresso as the engine warms up and stare at the clock doing the arithmetic in my head trying to figure out how much time I have to get my poo poo together at the local pub before my shift. If I tear rear end across town to the Marina I’ll have just enough time for two beers at Maguire’s. 12 minutes later (19 according to Google maps) I saddle up to my usual stool at the rear end end of the bar and despite my only coming in here for two weeks the bartender immediately recognizes me and is over with my Kolsch before I have my jacket off. Coming in wearing my blacks with my key hanging off my belt and tipping two bucks a beer from the start let her know right from the start that I was industry. In fact I’m not even sure which bartender this is. All I know is that whoever does the hiring here is into Latina hipster chicks. Fifteen minutes before my shift is supposed to start and I’m up in the office getting dressed with Sean, the other closing bartender for the night. After we’ve suited up and are ready to jump into the now five deep wells he comes over to me and grabs my shoulders then takes a deep breath, closing his eyes as he slowly lets it out. We’ve never engaged in this ritual before but I immediately know what is going on and take my own breath. “Once more into the breech” I say as we slap shoulders and head downstairs. This is an unfamiliar environment for me to say the least. I’d been doing nights in the Mission and Haight for the last couple years in high volume sports bars. This place is a high end cocktail bar that caters to the upper crust and the filth of their loins. As soon as I take my station I’m slammed with a dozen drink orders from the local wildlife. In the Marina this typically means one of five categories. 1. Marina Girls – Young hot little rich girls roughing it out in San Francisco. Daddy got one look at this town and this was the only neighborhood he had any certainty his little girl wouldn’t get raped in so this is the only place he’s paying the bills. 2. Frat Boys – Either current Fraternizers or former ones from UCLA and UCSF that come to the place on the block with the fancy drinks to impress the girls they bring here or impress the girls that come here with their bank roll. Despite being big spenders they usually are the only of my customers who don’t tip accordingly. 3. Cougars – Rich middle aged divorcees who come here either to cat around with their girlfriends or arrive on a Tinder Date with some stockbroker stooge. Which brings me to… 4. The Pricks – Brokers, Investment Bankers, Tech Company CEOs, or born rich will die rich trust funders. 5. Tourists – White people from middle America that don’t know that this is the last place you want to see if you want to see San Francisco. While I could bore you with the minutiae of the eight different Simple Syrups or six kinds of Bitters I usually use on my average drink order, the people I’m dealing with are much more interesting. The Frat Boys are the worst and I always need to make sure that I give them an itemized receipt because I know they’ll cry foul at the $80 bar tab after striking out and scaring all the women who were previously flirting with me at my bar. The Pricks are a different story These guys have real money and aren’t afraid to spend it. I crack out at least 50-100 Old Fashioneds or Manhattans an hour but nothing gives you perspective on your place in the world like seeing two of your customers get into a dick measuring contest over a 120’ boat vs. a 110’ boat. If they’re on an internet date with a good looking Cougar they’re happy to drop $150 before dinner if the date is going well. I could write a book about observing the phenomenon of internet dating from the perspective of a bartender. It’s all about body language. You can tell so much just by the facing of people without having to hear a word they say. You could write an equation on how the angle of indifference of a barstool is directly related to the incidence of coitus. The small physical contact, touching of shoulders, the way a woman laughs. We see it all long before he does. These guys are my bread and butter during a weekday shift but this is Friday night and we’re packed with Marina Girls and Frat Boys. We need to do volume to get paid tonight. And volume we do. Despite how complicated and esoteric our drink menu is we’re expediting like madmen. Even when you have to bar present every cocktail and dig from a plethora of garnishes and mixers you find a rhythm and crack em’ out like they’re Jack and Coke’s. It’s here that I reach that Zen mode of bartending. That state of mind where hours go by like minutes and you lose yourself in the torrent of it all. The only other way I can get to this place is to drive fast and as of yet I can’t find anybody willing to pay me to do that. Before I know it seven hours have passed and Sean is flashing the lights for last call and the rush washes over me and the adrenaline high wears off. What follows is two hours of closing tabs, entering tips, and counting a mountain of cash while our rockstar barbacks lick the place clean. At the end of the day (night?) I walk with nearly $400 plus my hourly which to bartenders is just a bonus you pick up every couple weeks. I clutch that filthy money in my hand as I warm up the BMW for the ride home. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
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Jul 30, 2016 16:05
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I'm currently seeing a cougar. It owns.
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Jul 30, 2016 16:18
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A Man and his dog posted:I'm currently seeing a cougar. Does she get down?
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Jul 31, 2016 00:50
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I love your writing. This thread is always a pleasure to read.
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Jul 31, 2016 03:18
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I loved reading that, and the fact that it seems like the only thing amahd latched on to was the word "cougar"
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Jul 31, 2016 06:47
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400 bucks on a weekend night in SF sounds a little insulting. 25% of total sales is kinda my average, which falls in line with tipping etiquette.
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Jul 31, 2016 15:42
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Not really. They're tipping out more support staff, make $13+ an hour and probably have full healthcare coverage. Cocktail bars are not like dive bars.
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Jul 31, 2016 17:47
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Who the gently caress makes $13 an hour while also getting tips. Jesus! Hell, good for you.
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Jul 31, 2016 17:55
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...$13 is minimum wage here, so everyone?
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Jul 31, 2016 17:57
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Makes sense, I live in the hellhole that is the South of America.
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Jul 31, 2016 18:07
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:...$13 is minimum wage here, so everyone? Jiminy loving Christmas, I live in Virginia and minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13/hr. I'm sure you need that poo poo though, with how rent is over there. My girlfriend and I have a nice 2br place for $1000, five blocks from where I work and two blocks from where she works. We're looking at moving to either Austin, Queens or Harlem within the next two years for her grad school though, so if anyone has connections in those places or has anything to say generally to quell my mounting anxiety about this whole situation then please chime in. I work at a pretty prestigious bar in Richmond and I feel like I stand a good chance of finding work in Austin but NYC seems like a tank full of loving piranhas w/r/t to the restaurant job market. Is that accurate at all?
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Aug 1, 2016 06:21
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Lol I'm in North Carolina. I'm asking for a raise. gently caress. You gonna pay me $5 an hour!
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Aug 1, 2016 13:03
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Income disparity aside, we all agree that ordering a Bloody Mary outside of brunch makes you a garbage person right? 3 deep all around the bar and a girl wearing a fedora with a drink ticket asked first for 'just a cocktail', then what cocktails we have, then finally for, 'I guess maybe a mojito'. Another busy night a guy asked me if I could make him a virgin Strawberry Daiquiri.. Sorry sir but I don't have the strawberry puree on hand to make you a giant waste of my time. I'm probably a prick though.
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Aug 1, 2016 19:13
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Wait you don't run out of Bloody Mary mix every night around 10 like I do?
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Aug 1, 2016 21:00
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I will never ever understand the appeal of a Bloody Mary, but then again I count my hangovers on one hand and abhor brunches
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Aug 1, 2016 21:02
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It's spicy, cold tomato soup for folks who can't pronounce (or spell) "gazpacho." Although every bloody mary is better than the last bloody mary I got, which was literally a mason jar of kimchi topped up with vodka. drat hipsters.
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Aug 1, 2016 21:38
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"Hello yes, I'd like a can of spagghetios off the shelf with some booze in it, and the nine dollar dish of eggs. Hashtag sunday funday!!"
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Aug 2, 2016 22:16
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Brunch is great, Bloody Marys are gross, diners with 2 eggs and bacon and real butter for <$6 the best, bottomless coffee best coffee #fuckyourdumbsunday
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Aug 3, 2016 04:14
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mooyashi posted:"Hello yes, I'd like a can of spagghetios off the shelf with some booze in it, and the nine dollar dish of eggs. Hashtag sunday funday!!" Did this really happen?
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Aug 3, 2016 06:06
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revolther posted:Income disparity aside, we all agree that ordering a Bloody Mary outside of brunch makes you a garbage person right? I don't know if you're a prick but I hate the same people. But not as much as I hate bartenders who respond to comments like this with "I'll make whatever they ask for with a smile because that's our job! If making certain drinks upsets you, then you should be in a new line of work!"  gently caress those bartenders.
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Aug 3, 2016 06:20
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I mean they're not wrong, that's just decidedly the wrong, soul crushing way to respond
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Aug 3, 2016 20:07
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And I feel pretty zen about the whole thing, so that line is definitely coming from management. And gently caress management. And I'm management.
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Aug 3, 2016 20:17
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 16:30 |
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*little smiley blowing his brains out*
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Aug 3, 2016 20:22
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