NPP Bar Blog

Manager Communication: Slow Friday, I was aggressive with cuts, cutting Ryan right after he was done batching, and cutting Eliel right after the dinner round slowed.  Cut to 2 up after the 9 PM rush, and had them get the last bit of Prep done and everything set up nicely for an easy open, as we pushed some folks back tomorrow.   There was some decent business at the bar before dinner round, and before 9 pm show. BAR Staff Observations: Solid crew, handled everything easily.  Hopefully the shorts pick up over the weekend. Staff Meeting Agenda Notes: herb treatment tutorial at staff meeting. Prep List: Hibiscus Lime, looking good on everything.  Do NOT prep Short and Spicy or Rum Diary Over/Short on Banks: Lobby 3 over Pay Outs: 200 to 9785 entertainment Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Baldor and Chefs tomorrow Maintenance:  One of the green chairs we found on the street broke tonight.  It is unfixable.

Manager Communication: Good night tonight. Smooth service. Customer Comments: We had a very drunk couple that went in to the Shining. We were prepared to cut them off, but they didn't order alcohol. Then they left of their own accord before the movie started. They did walk out on a tab, but it was only two cokes, and they did pay for the tickets, so I would say it worked out pretty well. Lisa Gibson and Jen Marshall were both in today, as was Liz Z with a birthday crew for The Shining. BAR Staff Observations: Adriana brought in the bar tips that she accidently brought home. I added them to the over under envelope to replace what was taken out. Special Events? Shining had a great drinking crowd at the bar before the movie went in, and then was pretty busy in the theater as well. Made an otherwise slow night pretty decent. Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Remarkable and St Agrestis are coming tomorrow, as well as the Schlafly Kolsch from SKI that was not on the order to...

Manager Communication: The gate was fixed today.  The guy told Juan that it was a rusty chain. BAR Staff Observations: Very slow night, but Jenn, Antonio, and Ryan all did great jobs as usual. Special Events? We did not see a large bar crowd for the documentary in Theatre 2 tonight. For the number of people inside the theatre, they drank a decent amount during the film. Prep List: Syrups/Infusions:  Hibiscus syrup, Grapefruit Kaffir Lime Syrup Cocktail batches: Pink Panther, Bloody Tin  Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Empire, Interboro, Channing Daughters all came today.  Empire drivers broke a case of Natura, it is marked on the invoice.  I didn't notice that it had spilled on some of the boxes, so all the wet boxes are on the dropdown shelf.

Manager Communication: A steady but very manageable day for theatre business. A busy trivia kept the bar at full, high energy for hours. We had a crowd starting at 6:30 pm that stayed through 10:30 pm. Great work by the upstairs team. BAR Staff Observations:  Dylan served a very busy trivia and did a great job. Ryan and Jeremy kept a two deep bar well served throughout. Great work. Special Events?  Trivia! Really busy! Prep List:  Pretty solid going in to tomorrow, just maintenance needed. Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Coke Thursday, Chefs Thursday, Geyser Friday

Manager Communication: Short slow day.  Got some condensing and organizing done.  Probably could have run with just 1 up and 1 down today.   I put it in holiday notes I did last call at the bar at 9 and posted a sign at the entrance explaining. BAR Staff Observations: I cut Susan as soon as Jenn was in.

Manager Communication:  A steady Sunday with a slow last round. We didn't see as much walk in business to boost the starting ticket sales today as we have on the weekend days recently. That being said, it was a pleasantly steady shift with guests populating the bar from 7 pm through 10 pm. Rushes were well spaced, so I got Hex out and ran with 2 bartenders for the 7 pm shows upstairs and sent Rebecca to batch, stock and do some cleaning after the 7s rush in lobby as well. No issues with business flow. Customer Comments:  Had some guests in Th4 complain after being spoken to about rudeness to staff. More in the FOH blog. BAR Staff Observations:  Super strong team on tonight, well handled. FOH Staff Observations:  Called down for a drink runner for the dinner round; we had Amina dedicated but would still like to see this process be planned ahead with a runner up before the actual start of the rush to get oriented and be ahead of the tray-ing and running process...

Manager Communication: We had 2 large birthday parties, one starting in the afternoon, and one starting at 5:45.  The one starting in the afternoon had lots of individual checks, the one in the evening was an Italian man from the neighborhood  named Fabian Carruzzo.   He had come by early to give me his card and order some meat and cheese plates for everyone, and everyone was under his tab.  It was his wife's birthday, and they just wanted pre dinner snacks and drinks.  They were great and loved everything.  They also introduced some neighborhood folks to our bar with their party. Another night of really great bar business.  I had to jump behind for a little while both parties were in full swing and the theaters were going strong, but service was great.  Jesse was still here to expo some and batch a few things.  So much product went out. Customer Comments: I interacted with a very nice gentleman in a wheelchair today who wanted to see...

Manager Communication: Slow for a Friday night theater wise.  The bar, however, was busier than usual.  It was completely full at every table and the bar, with some people upstairs for an hour and a half or two hours.  Upstairs bar was the second highest revenue center today. I was able to cut both openers by 8 PM, and the three upstairs were able to handle a busy bar well, with the drink pushes being a bit slower than usual. I closed bar doors to upstairs bar just as a deterrent just in case, as there is no roll down gate this weekend. The Boddingtons cans are Imperial Pints, and our pint glasses are 16 fl. oz.  There is a tiny bit left in the can afterwards. Dylan and Rebecca switched for tomorrow, and Dylan should be fine.  Only Harriet the Spy will be busy. Customer Comments: There was a woman who seemed slightly off, who bought tickets in the front row of theater 7 dinner round.  I immediately told her we do not allow in outside food, and...

Manager Communication: Pretty quiet night tonight. I updated the plex playlist so it has more content now. BAR Staff Observations: Good crew tonight. I cut openers very shortly after the closers got in, so it was just 1 bartender at each bar for most of the night. no issues Prep List: We are looking very good on batching going in to the weekend. William was able to get us caught today.

Manager Communication:  Outside of film feast a pretty slow night on both floors. We saw a slight push for the dinner round, with 1917 and Parasite leading the pack for ticket sales. Afterparty was great energy at the bar, and drove a lot of guests in through 11:00 pm. No issues. BAR Staff Observations:  Malka did a great mid-day prep shift for us and got everything needed done to get us through the next few days until we have a prep Thursday. We will need bloody tin when Tin Cup gets in, but otherwise looking strong. Special Events?  Film Feast! Amazing execution of the service and the party afterwards, a great time had by all. Engagement on the mezzanine went very well. 86ed / counts on items:  Bloody Tin, Banana Dolphins Prep List:  Bloody Tin Pay Outs:  Pay in for Video Game money Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Big Geyser Thursday, Coke Thursday   

Manager Communication: It was as busy as a Sunday, but we had 2 fewer bartenders on the day, as last year, it was all morning loaded.  This year, it stayed busy until about 9, and we didn't have quite enough on.  People were drinking heavy too until the last round.  Next year probably need 6 or 7 bartenders on, I added to holiday notes. Prep work for film feast is mostly done, just have to spin juice and make batches tomorrow.  The 4 course is batched already. Hot cocktails are selling like crazy.  We should do double batch for the Bloody tin, as we have flown through it all weekend. Seems like new years resolutions are done, and people are drinking. BAR Staff Observations: Dylan had a long shift, but was needed to get the bar back up after some crazy business. FOH Staff Observations: In the theaters at points, the glass racks that were full were not being brought down immediately, but rather moved to the bottom.  This caused us to feel lowe...

Manager Communication:  A very busy day! We got consistently hit at both service and the front of the bar from the afternoon round through 10 pm. Even late rounds and late bar business did well due to the holiday tomorrow. Everyone did exceptionally well, especially in the face of some MobileBytes issues. We didn't feel much of them at the bar, but servers and runners still found their way to the bar to run well despite having lots of complications. No issues. Customer Comments:  Had a few groups at the bar run up really good tabs tonight and sit for a while. One group of three are locals, and said they wish they knew we had a stand alone bar upstairs because everything else in the area gets so crowded. Lots of good feedback tonight on drinks and service. BAR Staff Observations:  Rebecca was a rock star, helping with a very busy lobby and also working with me to find time for batching to get us set up for a busy day tomorrow. William and Caleb were great upstairs....

Manager Communication: Really busy day drinks wise.  Upstairs bar stayed full til about 11 PM.  Was able to make consistent cuts and have things batched well, as this labor schedule works quite well. Everything went really smoothly.   The snow pushed people to the bars, and bar sales were very strong. Two product notes:  The last keg of Nitro Stout was pouring foam, so I had to 86 it.  The keg is labeled.  One keg of Apex Saison was pouring foamy.  It is also labeled for pick up.  We will need to choose a new wine to do the Bloody Tin Cup with.  Went through all our old Cabernet!  Start doing double batches, it is selling with the cold weather. Customer Comments: People were extra, but all smooth.  Jenna had a concern about a couple in theater 1 cause the gentleman had left the theater quickly to use the bathroom before they ordered another round.  They had only had one round previously, the handwriting of the...

Manager Communication: Really strong bar business from 6 PM to about 10 PM.  Well handled by all. I was able to cut the lobby opener early, as the shows downstairs were so spread out for the late round.  I did need to help out at filmbot for a moment during the late rush downstairs.   Bathroom checks were all signed off on today. Customer Comments: Sam Radioed for a manager to theater 2 cause a guest had fallen.  Gerard went to the station immediately, and radioed for me to call paramedics.  I called paramedics and printed out an incident report to hand to Rachel. The paramedics were here quite quickly, and I greeted them and brought them up to the theater.  Theater 1 was letting out, so I controlled flow of people, and stopped them for a moment as the paramedics carried the gentleman out of theater 2. BAR Staff Observations: Ryan got lots of prep done.  Should be looking good for the weekend. FOH Staff Observations: I talked to Jeremy ...

Manager Communication: It was a very quiet night tonight.  Service went well. The bar itself had a little hit around 9 and stayed steady for a couple hours. Customer Comments: Had to take a couple outside beers from a young couple in theater 2. I checked their IDs, they were out of state and a little flimsy feeling, I told Brett we should not serve them if they try to order something. Luckily they did not. Prep List: William was able to get us all batched up for tomorrow.

Manager Communication: Slow service all over tonight, our busiest push came at 7 pm with the dinner round. Even amidst that we had time to batch, stock, clean and go down to 1 bartender upstairs at 7:30 pm. No issues. Customer Comments:  We had a family at HiRes that lives down the street come in just for dinner and drinks at HiRes. I bought them a drink and thanked them for coming in regularly, they specifically come for the chicken sandwich. BAR Staff Observations:  Cut Antonio early, Ryan batched and then both bars were tightly closed down with slow service to minimize labor on the slow day. Prep List:  Tonic syrup/Lawrence Keg Pay Outs: $150 for DOH Ordering/Receiving/Shipping:  Big Geyser Thursday, Chef's Warehouse Thursday

Manager Communication: Slow night, did some nice cleaning and prepping.  Cut Susan after bars were nice and fully restocked. Got some ingredients prepped for film feast spec meeting tomorrow. Customer Comments: Had a guest complain about having no marking for theater 1 in the elevator.  Gil changed it so it says theater 1 ADA. BAR Staff Observations: Got some cleaning done.  Had a little crowd around dinner. FOH Staff Observations: Kept staffing low.  Worked well. Prep List: Posted

Manager Communication:  Steady business all day today. We didn't have any sell out shows or truly staggering pushes to the service bar, but we stayed steadily busy throughout and then dropped off for the late round. Smooth service with no issues with drink making or running, and great bar crowds through 10 pm. Customer Comments:  Had two guests in Th1 have several issues in a row. They ordered two stouts and bratwurst, and then found out we were 86 bratwurst. They asked, as long as their beers weren't made already, if they could change their order but the beers were in the station so Jo ran them. They then got the wrong popcorn, claimed to have ordered 2 Beef Jerky but only received one (the ticket was difficult to parse) and said their cookies with the Cookies and Milk were different than they remember them being. They wrote a long flag detailing the issues and saying it really took away from their movie and they asked for the check to reflect their experience. I charge...

Manager Communication: Very busy service today, executed well.  As much F&B as our busiest nights.  The dinner crowd were thirsty, especially 1917 crowd.  One of the busiest drink rushes I have seen in a while.  Everyone killed it. T.E. Lawrence by a hair among the new cocktails today.  Saw a lot more go out than yesterday in general. Blessing cleared us out of Drink Tokens to reward the kitchen staff, and they earned that! Customer Comments: Had a woman come out of theater 7's last round arguing that she only ordered 1 cider in the theater and had paid for the other at the bar.  I asked Charlotte, and Charlotte said she had had and drank 2 in the theater, which I absolutely believe.  I still refunded the woman for one of the ciders, as she was adament (and a little tipsy).  BAR Staff Observations: Really good team on today.  Got everything batched continuously through the shift. FOH Staff Observations: Bussing still need...

Manager Communication: Star Wars is not long for this world.  Everything else performed great. Between dinner and lates the bar stayed almost entirely full.  It was great.  Still had business going for quite a while after. The pick up sheets still had the Lady Killers in the bubbler, so I corrected and printed new ones. The dinner round and late rounds for 1 and 2 had some huge rushes.  The flip for theater 1 from dinner to late took a bit extra, because we had to clean a mess from an old man (see FOH blog).  The bar crowd got really big, and the drink rush was huge once they sat.    Theater 2 had a large long rush for the late night as well, so I asked for reroute a bit late, to give upstairs a chance to catch up. Some good business for 1 and done after last round as well. Not a big cocktail night (mostly beer and wine) but the frontrunners tonight of the new items are Lady Killers and Rosemary's Baby. Customer Comments: I had to ...

Manager Communication:  Bar Binders have everything except Allergy Grid (will add once it is finalized after tasting tomorrow). Ingredients for tomorrow are prepped.  Customer Comments: I (Rebecca) had to tell a couple of kids to please stop making out during the first round of Jumanji. They had already gotten complaints about talking and cell phone use. Ryan and Kevin issued their initial warnings. They were receptive to our warnings and stopped talking/making out/using their cell phones after we told them to.  BAR Staff Observations:  Props to Antonio tonight for keeping a particularly clean bar. He and the other bartenders generally do a fantastic job of keeping things clean, but tonight his deep cleaning was exceptionally on point.  FOH Staff Observations:  During the preshow of Citizen Kane, a Chicken Sandwich and a Beyond Burger were mixed up. Graham, who is still in training, was the runner. By the time we caught the issue, both parties...

Manager Communication: It was a long and busy day today, with prep for menu change, meetings all morning and spoons tonight, but we are looking really good for tomorrow. Menus are changed behind the bars, all the new beer win and liquor is stocked behind bars, and cocktails are batched and ready to go. We have our draught cleaning in the morning and then we can hook up all the new lines. BAR Staff Observations: Great crew tonight, they handled the long day well. FOH Staff Observations : No runner support for drink running or the bars tonight. We were OK but it was a little disappointing, because Jeremy had told me earlier in the night that they had a drink runner for spoons, but when it came time for the rush he said they were all needed to run food. Special Events? Spoons was tonight, everything was good. It sold a little over half the theater. The bar was pretty busy before the show for the pre-party. Staff Meeting Agenda notes: We went over everything we needed to in th...

Manager Communication:  A pretty slow day overall, with low ticket sales for the opening and late rounds and 1/3 capacity for the dinner round. Pushes to the bar were minimal and easily handled. Parasite is the exception, still selling out small theatres. Trivia gave the bar great energy and kept a crowd drinking until 11:30 pm. Customer Comments:  Had a guest complain pretty aggressively about not being able to buy certain seats because it would leave a single seat in between. I calmly explained the reasons for the policy and took care of getting them the seats they wanted behind Lobby Bar. BAR Staff Observations:  Hex handled downstairs solo without issue, Jeremy served trivia and did a great job. No issues. Special Events?  Trivia tonight, on the slower side but a really lively crowd. 86ed / counts on items: Sorachi, Clarence Worley. Prep List:  Made Firewalk, Lemonade, Knights of Ren tonight so tomorrow you can just focus on new menu items. Pay...

Manager Communication: Slow night, started getting organized for new menu. Mostly cleaning and organizing.  Started changing out binders. Customer Comments: Lot of first time customers. BAR Staff Observations: Cut Susan as soon as bars were stocked. Staff Meeting Agenda notes: Setting up fully all days. 86ed / counts on items: Counts on lots of package that is coming off the menu. Prep List: New Menu things.  Going to start in on prep tomorrow and Wednesday. Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Baldor and maybe Union tomorrow.

Manager Communication: While reheating the Toddy during the last round around 10:30 PM, the Toddy got warm but never hot and the light never turned on.  May need to go to the new system upstairs as well, which means we will need more of the new toddy batch, but have enough to get us started. Crazy busy all day, one of our best days.  The schedule allowed me to get early mids out and have Malka help upstairs late  night, and then move downstairs to help with the 2 sold out theaters at 10 and 10:15.  Everything went smoothly. We have had a decent amount of breakage.  Bussing was not great today, but I think we can benefit from breaking out 1 more box of pints. Did a quarter batch of Clarence Worley, should get us through, just may have to toggle it between machines. We batched 1/2 batch of Short and Spicy, as we only had a bit left of Barking Irons, will need to order more for next weekend. Customer Comments: I got a call from Ryan Wilson for a male ...

Manager Communication:  Holiday level business keeps coming, we had a very busy day overall at the bar. Movies kept service bar going strong through 9 pm and then the bar stayed crowded with a group of people watching the Golden Globes. No issues with getting overly busy, however, as the push to service bar died right as the awards show started and a crowd grew at the bar. We were able to get all duties done tonight; batching, cleaning projects and strong service. The 4 pm rush was very heavy in particular, with Theatres 1, 4 and 6 very tightly seated but we never ran overlong on timing. Customer Comments:  We had a guest come to the bar around 4:30 to complain about some late food, which was dropped by a manager. Julie had a flag that she forget to ring until right before check drop and the guests complained about the wait, but were happy with our resolution of some passes and goodwill discounts on the check. BAR Staff Observations:  Everyone did a really excellen...

Manager Communication:  Busy from the get go; most of the early round business was for ET, which gave us a steady hit early on. Hopped behind for a bit with Jenn, and then to help with ticketing in Lobby but overall, no issues with handling a busy early round with 2 bartenders on. Ryan and Adrianna got in at 12:45 pm, Adrianna stocked both and Ryan got batching done to set us for the rest of the day. Lots of bar business as well, no signs of slowing down on weekends with our current line up right after the new year. Customer Comments: We had a gentleman use a gift card and buy a ticket for Little Women in Th3. Unbeknownst to me, he gave his server and Mascha a hard time and would not show his ticket, saying he bought one with a gift card. When Mascha checked the report, the seat he was in was sold to someone else with a D&D who did not show up. I realized who he was when I dropped his gift card back off and that he was sitting in the wrong seats. He was pretty curt with bot...

Manager Communication: Busy night.  Lot's of bar business and sold out theaters!  People are still going strong for the new year. BAR Staff Observations: Really good service tonight.  Drink rushes were long and bar business was heavy, but everyone did great.  I got openers out for the last round, and had Ian swing between up and downstairs for the drink rushes. FOH Staff Observations: Theater 3 did not bus enough during the dinner round, with 4 drink racks coming out after (100 glasses). Theaters 1 and 2 were on point tonight. 86ed / counts on items: Founders Lager is on count.  Brooklyn Sorachi is 86'd. Prep List:  Lemonade, grape syrup for short and spicy, maybe 1/4 batch of into the woods, strain beet vermouth, audrey II Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Geyser tomorrow

Manager Communication: Steady night tonight. Service went well. The bar was mostly quiet, but there was some theater business. William mostly focused on batching once Ian got in, and Ian held it down downstairs solo. We had a lot of product to catch up on after the long shifts and being a little short handed for the last couple days, but we are now looking pretty good going in to the weekend. I added the desert fruit and the Aperol spritz to the do not batch list. Let's make sure we are keeping a very tight eye on product levels and communicating anything we are subbing or 86ing to the whole bar team. BAR Staff Observations: Good crew tonight. 86ed / counts on items: We are 86 Brooklyn Sorachi, we will not be getting any more in before it comes off of the menu next week.

Manager Communication: We only had 3 bartenders all day, so shifts were long, but everyone pulled together and bar service was great all day. No major issues.

Manager Communication: Similar to a Sunday service.  Really busy until the last round.  Some bar business during the day, but died off totally around 9:30.  Was able to close with one up and one down after the 8:45 drink rush. Customer Comments: Had 2 customers outside who apparently didn't know eachother start arguing and came close to coming to blows.  I kept an eye on them and they separated.  They had been in Theater 2, and we checked with the servers, they said nothing had happened in the theater.  It must have been on their way down the stairs.  Just seemed to be posturing. BAR Staff Observations: Really good job by everyone.  The fatigue was there, but service was smooth.  We were shorter staffed than normal because Jeremy called out sick, but with only light bar service and a spread out schedule, everything went off without a hitch.  I was able to toggle Jenn between down and upstairs, because the drink rushes for the fl...