NPP Bar Blog

Manager Communication: Very busy day and night with lots more food and drink each round than yesterday.  The early round was a little hairy, as the brunch movie sold high and 30 minutes later Frozen went in.  Now that our brunch programming is picking up, we should have the first mid in earlier. The busy and slightly understaffed morning led to the upstairs bar not being quite properly set up going into the sevens, but Jenn, Dylan, Rebecca, and Ian communicated well and got it back up and running well.   Customer Comments: I talked to Vanessa about the gentleman who said a beer was spilled on him by another guest.  I told her to call for an MOD if something like that happens.  She said he seemed very calm, but she understood when I explained that it is better if we can do something nice for him in the moment and help the situation.   BAR Staff Observations: Tevon was an hour 35 minutes late.  Jesse opened the bar up quickly. Rebecca, Dylan...

Manager Communication: Really busy all day, but well staffed at the bar.  Nick had to jump back for a bit during the 4 o'clock push, but as we got more staffed it was fine.  The new film schedule allows for our usual ups and downs to get batched, restocked, and glassware.  So nice to have normal length movies in the big theaters. The schedule is good for pre and post theater business, and now that we are hitting the busy season, may be worth mentioning to staff that when it is busy, they should find a table.  I reminded some staff tonight, as the big theaters were letting out.  Bathrooms are going through stocked items quickly, so let's keep an eye on them and get porters stocking them.  Also, keep an eye on the surrounding areas as picking up paper towels is constant right now. Customer Comments: Had one woman in the theater order a paloma at the bar and then be confused as to why she could not in the theater.  The server suggested the Pink ...

Manager Communication:  A busier day overall than we thought. We were staffed up, so no issues handling it. We had a very strong opening round, the dinner round ramped up nicely as well and also gave us a good bar crowd and then our late round tapered off. The 9 pm films still did well, though and even the 10:30-10:45 movies generated a crowd. Used the staff we had well, the pushes were very regular so we got a lot done. Customer Comments:  A guest in Th2 wrote down a very confusing ticket for soda waters that looked like they said soda with vodka. Kevin rang them in and the guest denied them, saying he wanted just soda waters. That guest then came out to the bar, ordered some club sodas (I didn't know it was the same guy and I made them) and then went back in to the theatre with them as Kevin was arriving with their drinks. They were run immediately, but he got impatient. Ended up having to comp the vodkas and the sodas. BAR Staff Observations:  When Dylan got here...

Manager Communication: All rounds were very busy tonight, and sales seemed comparable to a Friday night. Everyone did very well. Nick and I were both at Hi-Res for the majority of the rush with Nick helping to bartend for a large portion of it. When closing out Hi Res B at the end of the night, I noticed there was a check for $419.17 in Four Roses (check C16) that hadn't been closed out with gratuity yet. I'm assuming that its just a rep situation or something, but I wanted to blog about it because it was a strange floating check in the "no cc tip" tab at the end of the night. BAR Staff Observations: For the final round, a parent with a young child (around the age of 6) bought tickets from Tevon to see Frozen 2 in theatre 7. Ellie brought to my attention that there was a very young child in her theatre, and I asked Tevon about the sale. He said that he told the parent that we would let it slide if the child was well behaved. After speaking with Rachael and Rya...

Manager Communication:  Steady night with good ticket sale pick up and good bar business. We started with very thin ticket sales, and it wasn't overwhelming by any stretch but it was certainly a better night than the number let on. Customer Comments:  We had the Comedy Central VIPs in Th7. They were really cool, asked a lot of questions about the history of the building and how the theatre's been doing. They ordered slim, I sent them some popcorns and they were very appreciative. **adding these notes at the tail end of the evening. When it came to paying, they were very uncool. They were under the impression that we were comping them because when they asked me and then Christine their server if we were comping anything we didn’t explicitly say “no”. Christine responded to the “are you sending us food?” question in the theatre with “just order normally” which they claim sounded to them like we would be paying for what they ordered. She claimed if she knew she was paying, ...

Manager Communication: Good night tonight. It was pretty quiet so I cut Susan very early. She was able to batch up nicely for the next few days. Jenn and Eliel were solid. Customer Comments: A guest came up to Hi-Res right after we opened and told me there was a naked man covered in poop in the downstairs men's bathrrom. I ran down and went in and there was a mentally handicapped man trying to clean himself up. He had pooped his pants walking by and came in to take care of it. I felt very badly, he kept apologizing and saying that he pooped his pants. We stanchioned off the bathroom and I had him get dressed and leave. Unfortunately in the process of cleaning himself he had gotten poop all over the bathroom. A woman knocked her glass off the table in theater 6 after the movie when lights came up. Kylie was in the theater, and said she just laughed when it happened. When she came downstairs she noticed her ankle was bleeding. It was a very small cut, but her boyfriend grabbe...

Manager Communication:  A busy night through the dinner round. Most of that business came from Frozen, but we sold out every show except Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. That gave us a very large window of time to stock, clean up and batch up a little where needed. Bar wise it was a very smooth shift; good times on tickets on both floors, a moderately busy bar but also very well staggered so that I could cut throughout. Customer Comments: We had a sound issues in Th7 during Ford V Ferrari, the sound was muffled and tin can like. The dialogue was still perceptible, so we decided since the film had 25 minutes left not to spend 10 minutes rebooting it. We gave all guests passes and Ryan and I apologized and thanked them on the way out. No one complained in person and seemed grateful, one guest however did email us afterwards and Ryan responded. 86ed / counts on items: 86'd Rain Falling Prep List:  Pumpkin King, Pink Panther, Beet Vermouth to make Audrey. Otherwise, look...

Manager Communication: Really busy from the get.  Theater 1, NSF  and Irishman all sold great for round one, and every movie picked up the rest of the day.  Beautiful Day only really did well for the dinner round, but was able to sell out theater 2.  Frozen has been generating stronger food and drink sales than I expected, with the adults ordering drinks.  Bar business is a bit lighter with the kids movie, but sales are still good. The schedule is working well with only the first push for theater 1 a little hairy.  The bar manager just has to jump back and help during the push for that round.  We also had time to get continuous batching done, and are looking good.  Rain Falling is on a count, and there is no product in house, so will most likely 86 tomorrow.  I estimated the count, so it may need to be updated. Customer Comments: Really nice people today.  Lots of good interactions.  Ryan and Jesse dealt with a difficult...

Manager Communication: Busiest Friday in a while ticket sales wise.  The only movie not pulling weight in the late round is Beautiful Day.  It did fine for dinner round. There was a DIPA that went out to a table in Theater 1 during the dinner round.  It was placed in front of the adult, but she had only ordered an apple juice.  As Brandon arrived with the box of apple juice, she was putting a straw in the beer and about to give it to her kid.  Brandon took it from her, informing her it was the wrong item, and told an MOD immediately.  This was a server error, as the DIPA was not supposed to be on the check.  Brandon got there before any serious damage could be done.  Customer Comments: Lots of switching of seats in the early rounds. A guest in the last round of theater 3, seated at 3509, had an issue with his bill.  Kristina explained to me that she had missed one of the drinks on their second round, but got it out to them quickly ...

Manager Communication : Really good service tonight. Drink sales were great for the depeche mode show and then a strong bar crowd for afterwards. The crew all handled it really well. Special Events? The Depeche Mode music video after party was pretty well attended. Great event. Prep List: Made an extra batch of ginger syrup to get ahead for the frozen special.

Manager Communication: I went to the Runner meeting and talked to them about what the bar needs from them. Busy Wednesday, which was great.  Sales crept up for all the dinner shows and Roc Raida climbed steadily as well.  I had Jenn batch while the shows were in, as the bar wasn't too busy, and we got up on most of what we needed.  Got some syrups done as well.  Jenn and I helped Ryan on the bar for the first push for the party, and then Jenn restocked and left, I stayed to support Ryan and help with the room. We are out of Gentian, so could not finish Them Apples syrup, but we had enough to batch a keg.  I will pick some up at Kalyustyans tomorrow. We have the new wine, and a button, it's under "Syrah Glass" as it's short name Customer Comments:  Lots of seat changing.  BAR Staff Observations:  Really solid job, had fun with the crowd. FOH Staff Observations:  Runners did a good job clearing the bar, I just gave them the h...

Manager Communication: A very busy night for the bar. Between the Die Hard crowd coming in before and after the movie, a packed trivia and strong dinner round sales on both floors the bar started really hitting a stride around 6 pm and didn't stop through 11 pm. Didn't allow much in the way of batching, but bartenders kept things stocked throughout and never struggled with the business volume. Hopped behind the bar through the initial Die Hard push and half of trivia to support, but everyone was working at a very high level and we handled business without ever struggling on ticket times or Trivia service. BAR Staff Observations:  Ryan was a machine on service tonight, good thing too with Malka on table service and Jeremy on guest service at a full bar. Dylan's hit downstairs was no slouch either, honestly everyone did an amazing job. FOH Staff Observations:  Drink running lagged a bit at the beginning of Die Hard but Kylie was all over tray building and helping them r...

Manager Communication: Not much outside of NSF Closing Nite.  I had Susan batch us up during the show, as she would be needed later in the night.  I was then able to cut her as soon as the after party began to get settled. Customer Comments: The film maker who was given the bottle of Nitehawk Red #2 was drinking it from the bottle as she and her friends were walking down to the door.  Dylan radioed for me and I approached her outside and explained to her that she is endangering our business, as the bottle has our brand on it.  She and her friends scurried away, not listening to me. BAR Staff Observations: Killed it.   FOH Staff Observations: Amina and Adriana were great with keeping the upstairs bar clean, doing regular passes and communicating well. Hiring/Training: Nick Dodge had his Day 2 at the bar.  He was ok. Special Events: NSF Closing Nite and After Party, about 100 people stayed for the after party.  We were good on product, a...

Manager Communication:  Strong mid and dinner round with a good bar crowd through 11:00 pm. We fully dropped off for out late shows with some of the slowest late night sales I've seen in a while on a Sunday. I was down to 2 up, 1 down by 7:30 and cut Antonio before close once he had William most of the way to his close. No issues from the bar team executing service. Customer Comments:  Kylie radio'd for me to the lobby to talk with two guests that were very upset that they had mistakenly bought tickets for yesterday and were made to buy them again today rather than just transfer them over. I backed up what several managers had told them prior and explained the reason for our policy. They got pretty confrontational, telling me they were going to call our corporate office. I told them they were welcome to, and that they would get the same answer they've gotten 4 times. They left in a huff. BAR Staff Observations:  Vanessa is a really efficient closer, another nice job...

Manager Communication: Family meal was great.  Thank you kitchen! Really busy from the Jump for the 4 o'clock rounds.  The 2:40 Irishman had 2 different guest incidents, covered below. The dinner rush at the upstairs bar was crazy.  It was great to have all 4 bartenders on, as the big theaters let out, and the drink pushes were lasting very long.  Everyone handled it great.  Really strong team on tonight.  I cut Susan after the 8:15 rush settled and the bar cleared a bit.  Cut Ryan and Ian after the late rushes slowed and restock was done. Ryan had a bit of time to get back up on batches for tomorrow between the dinner rush and the late rush. Good bar business til late too. Customer Comments: Right when I got here Kylie informed me that there was a strange guest in Theater 2, who was upset with his popcorn and with the fact that people were laughing in the Irishman.  She said it just so we kept an eye on him, and sure enough, he came...

Manager Communication: A slow start to the day, but the second and middle rounds saw a lot of late ticket sales and walk ins. I think the cold weather is finally pushing people inside for earlier shows when they normally would have been out/in the park. We had steady business for the remainder of the daytime shows, ramping up to near sell outs for Ford v Ferrari and several smaller theatres. Good bar business after 1 pm. BAR Staff Observations: Cut Jeremy at 1:30 pm due to very slow business on the main floor and incoming bartenders. Gave Rebecca some time to batch and stock us up for the rest of the day. Prep List:  Very robust stock on batches, good for the rest of the night and into tomorrow. Maintenance: Soda Gun holster in lobby bar 3/5 side loose, needs to be re-attached.

Manager Communication: Slower side for a Friday.  I went to 3 up 1 down at 8:30 and 2 up around 9:30.  Ford vs. Ferrari did ok dinner round, but struggled early and late, it got some great buzz, so hopefully builds through the weekend. Good bar business especially after 1 and 2 let out, but the long movies makes it tough to do as much business as normal. Really smooth Friday, and it is done, so I am not jinxing it! BAR Staff Observations: Ryan got us batched for the weekend, none of the rushes were crazy.  Able to keep staffing leaner than most Fridays. FOH Staff Observations: Really good job running drinks, rotating glassware and trays.  It was an experienced crew on tonight, and it was noticeable.  Staff Meeting Agenda:  Actively welcome everyone through our door.  Prep List: Just daily maintenance.

Manager Communication: It was pretty quiet in the theaters, but the private party kept the bar nice and busy. Service went very well. Ford vs. Ferrari did not open very well. It only sold 39 tickets for the 7pm show. Parasite still seems to be the most popular movie. Customer Observations: We had a really strange guy in for the last round of Irishman. He came about 2 hours before his showtime and was hanging out in the bar. He was only drinking cranberry juice but he was acting very weird. He fell asleep for a little bit and I had to wake him up. I gave the MODs a heads up that he might be a problem in the theater. Sure enough he took a phone call in the theater, refused to pay for his chicken sandwich and was very rude and combative with security and his server. The phone call was at the very end of the movie, so when the lights came up I let him know he would not be welcome back. He threatened me and security. We walked him out, he punched a couple doors on the way. He left his...

Manager Communication: Lot's of receiving and organizing today.  I put in a ticket for Coke to come out and fix our gun.  Will let you know when they get back to me with a time. Matthew, I showed the art group what we wanted, and explained why.  While I was doing other things, they tacked up their name plates with museum putty.  They sent me an email saying it will not harm our walls... so we shall see.  If it does at all, I will make sure it doesn't happen next time. I burned the ice machine in the bar prep and turned it off.  It is open to dry right now.  Jesse, can you have a porter clean it out tomorrow AM? I know everyone probably knows this, but it was freezing in the lobby tonight. Dylan had the space heater on and he still had to wear a coat and gloves throughout the night. Ryan suggested to me tonight that it would probably be better if the Wednesday night cleaning duty of cleaning underneath the bubblers and frozen machines was don...

Manager Communication:  A pretty slow Tuesday, opening round very light with some good pick up for the dinner round. Everybody's Everything sold out, and lots of small theatres got close or sold out (Parasite, JoJo, Lighthouse, even Joker still holding strong) Marriage Story picked up a bit but seems to be dwindling. We got a nice push mainly to Lobby Bar, Jeremy swung down to help and then got cut. No other major issues, staff party was good and mainly popped off once our bar business died down, but there was nice energy through the day. Customer Comments:  Had a group of guys try to eat deli sandwiches in HiRes and I told them they had to take them outside to finish them or wrap them up. They were a bit obstinate but they eventually said ok. They apparently then later took them out in the theatre as well and Kunsang told them the same thing. They left her a lewd and angry note on their way out. We couldn't find their info as they paid with cash, but nearly everyone manag...

Manager Communication: There was a verbal altercation in Theater 7 around 9:30 during Joker.  Rachel and I sent an email to executives, and I will talk to everyone at the meeting tomorrow. Otherwise it was a smooth night with a busy dinner round and totally dead late night round.  Good bar business during dinner, with good times for Susan and Jenn to get some batching done.  Heading into the week, we will just need to reup on some things. Customer Comments:  Only the Theater 7 incident. BAR Staff Observations:  Everyone seemed a little tired after a long holiday weekend, but still did a great job. Kitchen Comments:  Kyle was in theater 7 talking the guests down immediately, when I got in, he had already partially deescalated the situation.  Not sure if he heard the walkie call or the shouting, but amazing response.  Special Events? Never Ending Story Staff Meeting Agenda notes: Communication between shifts Prep List: Posted O...

Manager Communication:  Brunch was solid today, with steady sales throughout and stronger bar business than yesterday along with the event. Busy Sunday afternoon, with great afternoon sales, sold out dinner round and the 9 pm shows also selling out or coming close. Business fell off for the late round, but still higher than a typical Sunday due to the Holiday tomorrow. Bar business carried through from the solid daytime volume, with a good crowd of bar and table guests throughout the night. Customer Comments:  A guest in Th7 wrote a flag that he was upset about the film size for The Lighthouse. I explained the aspect ratio of the film and that no matter where he saw it, this would be what the screen looked like and he apologized and said it was fine. BAR Staff Observations:  Antonio hurt himself on his way in tonight and therefore couldn't work. Big ups to the rest of the team for making the busy day successful. Special credit to Rebecca, who bounced between bars wh...

Manager Communication: A steady morning, lots of first timers with our current set of movies. Marriage Story and Irishman are doing encouragingly well; despite them being on Netflix in a few weeks, people want to see them in theatres. Minimal brunch crowd to the bar, took advantage of the start of the day being slower to batch us up and we are strongly set up going into the rest of the weekend. Customer Comments: Had a group of a few industry folks at the bar for brunch; it was their first time, they loved the renovation and are going to come back for a movie. Nice to see them catch wind and come in just for the bar scene. BAR Staff Observations:  Adrianna and Tevon are very efficient openers on brunches, did a great job doing their cleaning projects at the start of the shift FOH Staff Observations:  Kaya was struggling today with drink running and timing her trips to the bar. 86ed / counts on items:  Low on lime juice, current batch levels of everything seem su...

Manager Communication: Solid sales, considering we lost 1 round in theater 2 due to the length of the movie. The Marquee went off at 11 PM, probably needs to be adjusted to new time. Had to call Palco, as theater 2's heat was not working. Passes were given out during the 4:15 round only.  Palco had it up and running an hour into the later round. I rerouted the lobby at 11:10 after all the rushes were done.  I cut to 1 down around 9:15 as the rush for seven was so far from the rush for 3/5, Dylan wouldn't have to bounce back and forth too much. Good bar crowd all night, with times of all tables and people standing. There was a brief presentation issue in theater 1 for the dinner round right at the beginning of the film, Kylie made an announcement, and Erin and Alec had it up and running within minutes.  No passes or comps were needed. We got a good crowd at the bar for after last round for Parasite, not much for any of the other movies. BAR Staff Observati...

Manager Communication: Pretty smooth night tonight. I cut Adriana and William right after the 7's. There was a little bar bump when they got out, but Susan and I were fine. BAR Staff Observations: Adriana knocked over an entire stack of glass racks while pushing them up the ramp from the kitchen. We were able to salvage most of them, but probably 30ish glasses broke. She felt really badly. FOH Staff Observations: Drink running has actually been really good during the rushes, but in between during the slow points tonight, servers were forgetting to come to the bar when they rang drinks.

Manager Communication: Steady night, service went well. BAR Staff Observations: Great crew, Antonio was sad that he was working instead of watching Slayer. FOH Staff Observations: Drink running was really solid tonight, we had a runner posted for the busy parts of the night. Special Events? SLAYER!!!!  really good event. The theater got very rowdy, but everyone was enjoying it, so we didn't police it very hard. A good number of people hung out for the music videos afterwards. Many a beer was consumed, many a head was banged. Maintenance: The 2 wall heaters in the highway were giving off very strong gas smells. We turned them off and the smell dissipated. We should get those looked at.

Manager Communication:  Blue Velvet gave us some nice theatre business. Overall the dinner round sold pretty well, with both bars getting a nice hit from service tickets. Our late round drop off was substantial and, that combined with a slower trivia lead me to cut to 1 bar up, 1 bar down and Susan serving. Cut to just Susan closing as we had gotten very slow and were well batched and cleaned up. BAR Staff Observations:  Susan swung between serving and closing nicely, Dylan had her 90% of the way there. Jeremy also did a real thorough close. Nice jobs. Special Events? Definitely our slowest trivia in a while; I get the feeling we burned a lot of folks out with three last month and doing it back to back these last two weeks, but I'd much rather go through a slow week to get us back on schedule. Prep List:  In very good shape for tomorrow, we made Pumpkin Syrup so we will need Pumpkin King tomorrow. Ordering/Receiving/Shipping:  Chefs and Coca Cola Thursday ...

Manager Communication: Slow night, cut to 1 up and 1 down quickly.   Really good feel in the bar, with people hanging out and ordering food, but just not that many of them. There was an issue in the kitchen that Maria was at the pass doing expo, and we had too few runners. Stewart talked to Lester about that. Got some good cleaning and organizing done.  FOH Staff Observations: Lots of newbies, but went smoothly.

Manager Communication:  Pretty slow brunch overall; event added some good business to the bar but otherwise theatres were on the slow side and service bars were pretty light on action. Annie gave us a decent push, otherwise free to focus on batching, cleaning and stocking. Easy day that allowed for productive shifts and quick cuts. Customer Comments: (Rebecca)  A woman tonight was upset when I told her that we could not honor her movie ticket from 10/26 that she claimed she did not use. I explained to her that exchanges must be made the day of, and she then asked me to prove this policy to her by pulling up the Nitehawk website on my phone. She seemed to understand our policy by the time she left. BAR Staff Observations:  I spoke to Antonio after he forgot to go bus the mezzanine after Danielle told him to and he agreed. He said that he forgot, and I told him there was far from enough going on to justify him losing track of a simple task like that. Special Events...

Manager Communication: Steady early, with Annie doing great.  The STB private event showed up mostly late, but once they were in they spent well. Middle rounds picked up into a fully sold night with just the latest movies slowing a bit.  Late night Joker had no incidents. Churchill sold better than last weekend, and we ran out during the final round.  I batched more so we are good to go for tomorrow.  Otherwise, batch levels were great, and we're looking solid heading into Sunday, will need only some daily upkeep. Every crowd was drinking well, and we had really steady business at the bar all night. The issue with the soda was low CO2 tanks, NUCO2 came out and refilled us. Customer Comments: Around 5 PM, a woman from the 4:15 Jojo rabbit came down to Lobby bar and was visibly shaken.  She told me that she had asked the people next to her to quiet down early on in the film, and they spent the next bit of the film being passive aggressive towards her...

Manager Communication: Steady business all night, after the first round.  Drink rushes were a bit lighter than a lot of Friday's as people have been partying for the holiday. There was a popcorn put in just before midnight and the popcorn station was already broken down.  The guest in theater 2 was understanding, but as our out times will continue to be late, we have to continue to serve until midnight. Towards the middle of the dinner rush, the soda guns started running on the flat side upstairs and down.   Jesse, if you can figure out how to bypass the water filters, that would be amazing.  Otherwise, I will take another stab when I get in.  I tried during the busy time, but couldn't figure it out. Customer Comments: I had a guest in theater 6 for the last Zombieland who had two large cups on his table of outside beverage.  Paige had nicely asked him to remove them, and he did not and him and his other person continued to drink from them. ...