NPP Bar Blog

Manager Communication:  Opening round was steady, pretty typical traffic for a weekday. Dinner round was a full shift into high gear; highly sold to sold out in all theatres with the Halloween crowd populating the bar long before we sat the theatre. Once they went in, they kept on drinking and ordering. We were running full trays right up until check drop; honestly one of the heaviest drinking crowds we've had. They mostly left after the movie, but a few groups came back to the bar. Good energy, high spirits by all today. A really good shift. Customer Comments:  Guests were overwhelmingly positive for the most part, the bar had a really high energy throughout the night. One guest from Th6 late round saw a guest come down to HiRes to try to order, claiming they couldn't find a server. They hadn't tried to flag, however. Beau took care of it quickly. BAR Staff Observations:  Susan and Ian killed it upstairs. Brought Dylan up so we had 3 up for the Halloween rush, then...

Manager Communication: Adam is coming between 1 and 2 on Friday with a sample bottle for photos of the Locations CA wine so we don't have to order.  Jesse, I will connect the two of you through text. I met with Elyse from Absolut, and she is super excited about Film Feast, will have menu in doc by tomorrow, and we can talk about at next film feast meeting. Special Events? Morricone Youth's Live Sound Cinema showing of Night of the Living Dead brought in great bar business. I feel like the amount of drink ordering in the theatre was particularly great, but the bar got a decent amount of business afterwards as well. Prep list: Into the Woods Them Apples Keg Audrey II Arbol Tequila *Joker will be fine tomorrow, but we may need some for the weekend. We are out of the infusion, so we will need peppers before making another batch. *We are out of Bloody Concentrate, so that will def need to be made during the prep shift on Fri. Over/Short on Banks : Hi-Res B was $1.5...

Manager Communication:  Good dinner round on all floors; no massive hit of business but steady throughout. That, along with the solid bar crowd we maintained from the event and theatre traffic made it a solid day overall but easy to staff as well; we cut down to 1 up, 1 down directly after the last Vincent Price course went out and Rebecca and Vanessa handled the rest. Tried to get Eliel out as soon as possible as, with his picked up shift, he may go into OT. Customer Comments: Had an issues with a guest in Th4 Rachel dealt with, had to double down when he came to the lobby and tried to buy a ticket after being asked to leave. BAR Staff Observations:  Eliel was real helpful with stocking and batching for both floors. Everyone did great. Special Events?  Vincent Price event was wonderful; beautiful food and drinks, no issues with execution, gave us a nice crowd in the lobby after helping us finish off the cocktails and have stuff signed by Victoria. Prep List: Ba...

Manager Communication: One of the busiest trivias in quite a while.  Staff handled it very well with minimal need of help from me, so I was able to get lots of Vincent Price things done. I have all the infusions done for Vincent Price, and will get everything done tomorrow. We had the same problem as yesterday during the first show in theater 4 for the first round.  We canceled the show, and Michael and Karen worked on it.  We had no more issues for the other 2 rounds. The art group that is doing the november open house dropped off some promo materials. Customer Comments: Trivia crowd was big and many were dressed as Midsommar people. Most of the people who showed up for theater 4 parasite were fine moving to the 4:30 showing.  There was one woman who couldn't but was understanding.  I gave her an e credit and a single pass for her inconvenience.  BAR Staff Observations: Very strong staff.  Eliel was great serving.  They all kill...

Manager Communication:  A really busy day overall, with a stronger Brunch than yesterday due to some nasty weather. Park Slope Parents group ended up being nearly 60 people; it was a big hit for the bar but extra staffing and Rebecca helped hold it down strong. Guests were all well taken care of and it added a ton of energy to the bar during the day. Great bar sales overall today, with a good sized crowd throughout the day. Dinner round sold out, lates were decent but slow enough to cut to 1 up, 1 down. Customer Comments: Rebecca helped with the theatre 6 issues, overall guests seemed happy with the recovery although she and Gerard mentioned one pretty irate guest. BAR Staff Observations:  Specifically strong props for Jeremy and Ian today, they killed it. Everybody recognized how busy it was and stepped up. FOH Staff Observations:  Drink running was prompt tonight, especially from theatres 4&6. Prep List:  Good shape going in to the week, we'll need so...

Manager Communication: Beetlejuice drove the early business, but it didn't pick up til the 4's and really started killing it during the 7's. Tavon was able to get out early, Rebecca got us well batched, and everything was smooth for the night. I was able to get Ryan out after the rush in theater 3 and Ian out after the drink rush in 2.  Closed with 2 up, 1 down. Mostly a smooth day. Jesse, we will need cinnamon sticks on Monday. BAR Staff Observations: Everyone was very strong.  The extra person upstairs was a luxury we haven't had in a while, and it helped a lot.  Having 4 up during the busy bar and drink rush 7's made it so I could manage the floor exclusively. FOH Staff Observations: Drink running was a big issue tonight.  Runners were not being communicated to when servers had rung in a lot of drinks, and servers weren't making it to the bar quick enough to run drinks.  I had to call for drinks to be run far too much tonight. Hiring/Tra...

Manager Communication: Solid night.  Great sevens, very strong late night. Steady Bar business throughout. During the 9:30 lighthouse rush, the drinks got a bit backed up at the bar.  I called for runners, and they went flowing out. Cut to 1 down and 2 up after the 10 pm theater rush. BAR Staff Observations: Solid night.  People were tired, but there was a good energy after the rushes (a bit of stress during the rushes).  FOH Staff Observations: Good jobs, except the one lag time for the 9:30 lighthouse, and some drink running from Customer Comments: In theater 2 the servers reported a disruption, and we immediately called for security, and had him stand in the theater for the rest of the show.  The servers did not know who the disruption came from, so we could not target the specific person,  and there were complaints about multiple people.  At the end, we had 2 very angry guests ask for an MOD, and when I approached I listened to ...

Manager Communication: Between busy theaters and the fangoria after party, the bars were slammed tonight The building was very hot today. All of the wall heaters were on and the AC had been turned up to 74. I turned off the wall heaters, but I did not adjust the AC levels. Customer Comments : Someone threw up all over the floor near the DJ set-up during the fangoria after-party. According to a person who saw it they left right away, so I was not able to see who it was. We got it cleaned up, but it was right in the middle of a crowd of people, so it looked pretty bad. We cleaned as best we could, but Jesse can you please have a porter clean the pew and cushion closest to the projector as thouroughly as possible tomorrow AM? BAR Staff Observations: quite a few really long shifts this week and it seems like the bartenders are starting to feel it. Next week looks to be much better staffed, but there are already several shifts up, so we will see. Special Events? The fangoria afte...

Manager Communication: I pulled out the low-boys downstairs with Amedu and we got behind nice and clean and dry.  It wasn't as bad as I was expecting.  Probably a once-a-quarter task.   I (Benjamin) have batched about 40 cocktails worth of the Jojo Rabbit.  Rob is testing rapid infusion in corny keg, and will report back later tonight.   Doing a larger batch all at once would be much easier.  I only had enough dill for the amount I made, but the kitchen has more dill coming tomorrow. Deep stock lists, and Jojo Rabbit are in the books. I talked to MOD's today, but as I was switching out the books, I realized we will need to print cards for the Beyond for the BHFF tomorrow.  It is the last event.  Hey ya'll its Rebecca now! The prep shift was cut today because  Jenn was sick (see Benjamins note below), but I was able to get a lot of prep stuff during the shift. We should, with the exception of a few things that I'll list below, be g...

Manager Communication:  Solid business throughout the day, no major all at once pushes tonight to either bar. Brooklyn Horror was sold out, guests arrived early and drank at both bars so when the theatre sat, it was calm at lobby bar. Had Eliel to support at HiRes during the dinner round's theatre 1 and otherwise was steady enough for Ryan to handle it while Eliel batched us up. Down to 1 up, 1 down by 9:00 pm without issue. BAR Staff Observations:  All good. FOH Staff Observations:  Alice did a really nice job tonight in 4&6, was prompt picking up drinks and handled her theatres well. Special Events?  Brooklyn Horror brought some needed energy and guests. Prep List:  Solid across the board. Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Chef's Warehouse tomorrow, Coke Thursday (Root Beer)

Manager Communication: Decent dinner round for a Monday with the new movies and Joker doing strong work.  The BHFF crowd drinks well and are a delight to interact with. Got good and caught up, heading into the week, going to stay ahead on all prep. Running stock list is updated, going to emphasize in the email tomorrow what the two lists are for. Jojo Rabbit special is done. Customer Comments:  BAR Staff Observations: Smooth. FOH Staff Observations: Smooth. Special Events?  BHFF was great.  They drank a bunch of white russians afterwards. Staff Meeting Agenda notes: Labeling checks, stock and pull lists 86ed / counts on items: rain falling until skurnik comes tomorrow. Prep List: posted

Manager Communication: Steady brunch, busy mid rounds, sold out dinner round, nearly sold out 9 pm movies and a slower late late round tonight. We needed a lot of batching done mid-shift, we'll all look at sales and batch volumes this week and adjust accordingly. 7s round was busy on the front of the bar and at service, but went smoothly. No issues with drink execution tonight. We did have to do a lot of mid-shift batching but we had plenty of staff on to move people around and get it done. Ian batched while Caleb and Susan held down HiRes in between Th1 and Th2 in the dinner round and got both bars back up on cocktails. Vanessa stocked both bars with package, wine and liquor. We flexed where we needed to and made it work. Definitely a need to look at sidework distribution, as a lot of things like tea, coffee station cleanliness, dish pit and the silverware/bussing station were in pretty rough shape and needed stocking at inconvenient times. Went down to 2 up, 1 down at 9:00 pm a...

Manager Communication: Besides the fire alarm, a very smooth night.  It was fortuitous that when the fire alarm went off, Jesse was still here, as he was able to help the upstairs bar while I ran around and helped Mascha and the MODs organize everything and deal with incoming guests. Prep was great, with good communication between upstairs and down on when prep could get done. Really good staff on tonight handled everything so well. Customer Comments: I got applause in theater 1 when I told them what was going on.  After the show, a few regulars who had been in theater one were up on the mezz drinking and said it was kind of fun because of our service.  At a regular theater they would have been more irritated.  So nice. BAR Staff Observations: Everyone killed it.  More bar business than almost any other day.  I staff perked some food for those who did so great tonight.  They were locked in.   FOH Staff Observations: Killed it as we...

Manager Communication: Real busy night.  Very good cocktail and wine sales.  Hopefully this will be a trend for the full length of the menu. Three deep at the bar in between big theater seatings.  People are loving the new space. Kept the openers both til around 11, after the late rushes, as we sold well on all the late rounds! Really good pacing to the night, but a really tight and tough late turn in theater 2 from the sevens to the late one. New menu was executed wonderfully. Customer Comments: People seemed to be loving the new cocktails, and our new wines were moving. I had one customer who is a regular who had dine n dash, come down during the 10:20 Joker and ask to exchange tickets for another time.  He said the guests near him were disruptive, and he knew we were good about enforcing this, he just didn't want to deal with it.  He was very nice. BAR Staff Observations: Good job with new cocktails and long drink rushes.  I had to onl...

Manager Communication: All the syrups are prepped for batching tomorrow morning.  The keg of Them Apples is charging. All the stuff that was delivered today is put away. New whites are in the walken. Prep List: We'll need to make hibiscus syrup tomorrow. Over/Short on Banks: One of the bar banks was $18 short last night, and I figured out why today. I completely forgot that there was a check closed out to "cash" and re-rang in as credit last, but I don't have the capabilities to void cash payments. I put the receipt aside to give to Jesse, but then got busy with trivia and completely forgot about it. The receipt is in MOD. Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Lots of orders came in.  More tomorrow.

Manager Communication:  All Them Witches and the dinner round Joker drove a lot of business in, but other than that and Trivia being our really isolated strong hits, we were slow otherwise in theatres. Cut to just Ryan and Rebecca when a steady trivia was well under way without issue. Got nice bar traffic after each movie let out, on top of trivia it gave us great energy at the bar. Customer Comments:  Had a couple at the bar during trivia that wandered in after a movie and said they didn't realize, even coming here regularly, that our bar was a standalone place they could hang out at. Alleviating the waiting area feel totally changed the area for them, they live around the block and will be back often. BAR Staff Observations:  Malka and Ryan were great for the onset of trivia and balancing that with a busy Th1 and Th2. I only had to hop back once or twice to alleviate a really strong rush. Rebecca was wonderful serving trivia and then switching to help close. 86e...

Manager Communication:  Good flow all day.  Kids shows sold strong in the day rounds, everything sold well for dinner round.  Got Eliel out after the 4's rush, cut Ian after the 6:30 joker rush.  Helped with guests at the upstairs bar during the 7:30 rush.  Long and smooth day on the bar side. Customer Comments: At 5:30 I had a customer come tell me at the bar that someone had slipped on the stairs.  I went over and there was a man in intense pain, with his adult son near him.  We called EMTs, and they were here in 7 minutes.  The man was in extreme pain and they took him to Methodist.  He was saying he thought he broke his back.  An incident report was filled, with the son's phone number and Gil sent the email to Jess and Mascha. BAR Staff Observations: Everyone did great.  End of a Long weekend, but great attitudes all around. Special Events: 14 tickets for Monday night horror Prep List: Posted Pay Outs: 50 f...

Manager Communication:  Took a hit on late night sales that put us below last night in terms of tickets, but day traffic and dinner round business were nearly identical and very busy. The addition of the bar party for Ms. Cooper gave us a lot of bar traffic, and the dinner and 9 pm shows of Joker seemed to generate an endless drink rush throughout the whole movie. Balancing the front of the bar and the service well with the increase of bar business is something that the bartenders seem to be getting better at. Stocking is much better as well, and we navigated the rushes very well. We were able to get Rebecca and William to the back to batch us up for the busy day tomorrow and also make cuts effectively. A very controlled night. BAR Staff Observations:  Really happy with everyone today. Eliel did a nice job handling the party and keeping the area bussed and restocked before he left. PM crew kept the bar guests taken care of, the tables clean and drink times on point. Nice w...

Manager Communication: Slow first round, as our neighborhood was out of town for the long weekend.  After that, busy the rest of the day, and mostly sold out from the 4's on. We found good times to batch, and the mids were on decently long shifts, but we had no service issues, with hour and a half long drink rushes between the 2 big theaters.  Negroni Bianco is low, as is Barr Hill gin, so Nick, if you want to do a half batch with a different gin, we can, but otherwise we can 86 it and offer Mae West going into the week of Menu Change. About the same amount of bar business as I expect, but less before shows, more hanging and drinking after.  People definitely stay at the bar more now. Customer Comments: There was a walk out from a declined dine and dash in the last round in theater 1.  Ellie called as soon as she noticed, she had already presented their check and asked for another form of payment.  It was a bit of a strange interaction she had with h...

Manager Communication: Good night tonight, it was nice and busy. Service went well. FOH Staff Observations: A question came up about servers using the quantity button as opposed to just ringing in multiple items. It does make the tickets look different and the bartenders all feel pretty strongly that using the quantity button will result in missed drinks. I don't think it needs to be a hard rule, but let's encourage the servers not to use the quantity option. Sick Leave/ Call outs: Vanessa is under the weather, but has confirmed that she will be in to open tomorrow. Let's get her out as early as we can. 86ed / counts on items: We 86ed Pinot Noir tonight. We have more coming Monday. Gennesee is low and will probably run out tomorrow. That one will be 86ed for good. Prep List: Susan stayed after the lobby close for a bit to get us caught up with batching. Looks good going in to the weekend. Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: I put together the new menu orders tonight...

Manager Communication:  Slow first round, but then off to the races for the mid and late round Joker. We had great bar crowds and energy for a Thursday tonight, with several tables taken up. Bar area looks great with the reduced line area and more tables, excited to keep developing it. Guests are a little resistant once their theatres are open to order everything from their seats when they come to the bar first, but bartenders are getting used to talking up the pre-show and getting people to the theatres after they get a round waiting. Cut down to 1 downstairs at 8:00 pm and just Susan at 9:30 pm as the last round trickled in. Effective staffing for the day. Customer Comments:  Had a guest in theatre 7 come up to HiRes to let us know that Beau had not been in the theatre for a long time with a flag in hand. We sent some passes out and comped items to apologize for the lapse in service and spoke to Beau after his shift. BAR Staff Observations:  William's prep shift w...

Manager Communication: Very busy first round with Yom Kippur, well handled by all staff. I batched 4 liters of the gemini man tequila, which will cover 2 batches. The cocktail spec is in the binders, will be launching Friday. I have a weekend pars list that I am going over with Ryan for his Friday prep shift and will send Nick and Jesse emails.  It is so we don't over prep, but don't have to constantly prep either. I ordered 4 extra kegs of Gun Hill for Friday, and apologized to Hank (he was fine with it) as when I came in we had sold another full keg from when I placed the order yesterday. Jesse, can you place the full order of N/A for the weekend for Friday (I placed a small order of GF juice and ginger for tomorrow with Baldor).    And when the Carton gets here, attach it and un86 it please. Bar business was really great tonight. Reserved seating is definitely bringing bar patrons in! I noticed that not many people used the lines tonight. Since we now hav...

Manager Communication:  Busy! We had a decent starting round, but then once dinner and the late rounds came, we were busy through the end of the night. Even the late Jokers sold out, and we seemed to get a lot of walk ins for other movies; maybe guests here for Joker that saw it was sold out? It's also a holiday tomorrow, that may have contributed. Either way, both bars were consistently busy through 10:00 pm. We had a great bar front of guests at HiRes all night, even generating a few people around 11:30 after some late rounds let out. The line not being here really changes the energy of the bar; we had a full set of tables full, a few guests on the mezz and 1 deep at the bar through 9:00 pm. Bartenders did a great job asking guests ordering drinks if they were seeing a movie and really pushing them to find their seats and order in the theatre to help keep service going. Customer Comments:  Lots of guests coming out to change seats, I echo the idea that doing this mobile ...

Manager Communication: Very busy Monday with Reserved Seating!  Joker drove most of the business, but all theaters had good numbers for a Monday.  We are back to it. Susan had a long shift, as it was busy at the bar, but is in no danger of going into OT as it is a 3 day week for her. The bar felt really good without lines.  Not as many people are coming before the show to drink, but more are staying after to enjoy drinks.  Really good feelings.  I had Jenn stay open til 12:30 so the last theater can enjoy the bar for 1 last round.  It feels much more approachable, and people were staying for a while. People are definitely showing up later with assigned seating.  A 5 minute or 10 minute buffer for the show time might help. Customer Comments: Most people really like the assigned seating.  Disappointed people who wanted certain seats left  early and less angry.  Some older folks didn't like the new way, but were fine. We had a...

Manager Communication: Nearly identical flow of service today to yesterday, with the very last round being the only one that really tapered off at all. Joker killed it again, and crowds today gave us good traffic at the bars again as well. Handled the entire night with never more than 3 behind HiRes, with a strong stock of back ups done after every single theatre 1 or 2 seating. We were ahead of the game tonight and ran service without issue, and the slight drop off of bar and theatre business for the very last round allowed me to cut to 2 at 10:00 pm upstairs and have Rebecca focused solely on batching and stocking Lobby with Antonio holding it down after 9 pm. Felt far more smooth today without any stand out issues. Customer Comments: We filled the bar at close with a bunch of late round guests. A group that lives in the area started chatting us up about our bar and being happy we had a stand-alone one. Told them about upcoming changes to the bar, events, trivia etc. BAR Staff ...

Manager Communication: Busy day, with things really taking off for the 3 pm round.  Really well batched, and in between rushes, the staff did a good job getting prepped.   Trains were wonky, so a lot of people were 5 to 10 minutes late. We are out of straws, so we are using the paper ones for the moment. Customer Comments: We had a customer in theater 3 that was cat calling and making a few unnecessary comments to all the female staff.  Kayla thought that they would make a scene if I kicked them out immediately, so I went in, and forcefully told them that if I heard one more time that they sexually harassed the staff, they would be asked to leave.  They said ok, and I did not hear another complaint. For the 5 PM Joker, a few people ignored the line signs and got angry, I assured them that they would still get good seats, as they would be seating with the line.  After they sat, I did not hear another complaint. I had a woman wanting to pay for a tick...

Manager Communication:  A crazy busy day. We had steady numbers through brunch and then took off sprinting through the rest of the night. Sold out shows for Joker from 3:45 on gave us a constant push tot he bar, and this crowd drank a lot more on the weekend shows; filling the bars both before and to a slightly lesser extent, after. We got pretty crushed but everyone held up well for the most part. During our 9 pm round we had a perfect storm of a very heavy hit to service, a lot of guests at the bar and a high amount of draft beers kick and last minute stocking needs. Not the best set up for success, the bartenders need to stock in between every single rush when we are this busy, as even the smallest thing to run out of (orange juice, lime wheels) can throw a huge wrench into a very fine tuned machine. We had a few tickets run a bit long due to a need to run back for batch, but otherwise we got through the other side of it and the rest of the night was well handled and smooth. ...

Manager Communication:  Really busy Friday.  Busiest in quite a while.  Steady streams of people starting with the dinner round with all theaters selling out or close to the dinner round, and really high sales on the late night round. The 9:15 and 10:15 Jokers require proactive line management.  I was encouraging people to start the line as soon as people got in, then had to make sure they knew to condense down to the front, then make sure the line bent the right way, and then make sure it goes up the stairs.  It just takes being there at strategic moments.   Customer Comments: The 10:15 Joker was a bit rowdy and drunk, but all the other ones were good.  More notes in MOD blog. BAR Staff Observations: Really great today.  Ryan batched up almost everything.  Susan and Eliel held downstairs down.  I had to jump behind the upstairs bar for a bit a couple times while the lines were filling up and the big theaters were ordering....

Manager Communication:  Joker has arrived! The impact is immediate, we were busy for Joker showings for all rounds, and did solidly well for other shows for the dinner and late round as well. Steadily busy on both floors throughout the night, this crowd is also populating the bar nicely before and after shows. We had a no show bartender for Lobby bar, but Susan did an excellent job holding it down with manager support only needed when we had large numbers of guests coming in with ticketing. Her theatres were on the slower side so no issues or impact to drink speed and service. Kept Susan until close, still out without spread of hours. Kept Antonio to midnight as well, lots of stocking and some last minute batching needed. Customer Comments:  We had a bonkers line situation prior to the 9:30 pm Joker. Someone changed the line sign at the front of the line, but not the entrance and some guests thought the back of the line was the front of the line. I was able to figure out w...

Special Events? Spoons, Toons, and Booze brought in a decent crowd; however, the bar did not experience much business before or after Spoons this time. Staff Meeting Agenda notes: reminder about taking out both trash and recycling in the prep area. Probably should be done by the mids on weekends and the openers on weekdays after all batching has been done, I've been noticing recently that it's often left to the closers even though those trash cans haven't been used in hours.  Hibiscus lime should be made on a pretty much as needed basis. Its such a simple thing to batch (no pun intended...) and its often getting batched in larger quantities for no reason. Prep List: Syrups/Infusions Kung Fu Syrup, Hibiscus Syrup, Cinnamon Syrup (Both Hibiscus and Cinnamon can be made during shift or on Fri prep since all of them will need to go on the stove. Batched cocktails Negroni Bianco (once Bar Hill comes in), new Joker special (syrup is made), Buddy Love (I know we'...

Manager Communication:  A strong starting round today, Abominable did really well for the opening round as did our other showings due to having lots of All Ages shows today. Got off to a good start, had a solid dinner round as well but actually slightly slower than our starting round. That worked out fine, we got busy at the bar with Trivia and guests tonight. For a second trivia in two weeks, attendance was on par and generated good sales tonight. Had some nice after-trivia business as well from a few lingering crowds. Was able to cut to 1 up at 10:30 pm and get Dylan out by 11:15 pm. We had on and off issues with the Gansett, I tightened the hose around the coupler and dropped the pressure some and it seemed to solve the issue. Customer Comments:  We had some first time trivia guests tonight, said they heard about it a few weeks ago and finally came in. Brought a crew of 6 and stayed well after it was over drinking at the bar. BAR Staff Observations:  Eliel is gre...