NPP Bar Blog

Manager Communication: Great day. Very busy. Trees was busy all evening. Video Diaries crowd was great before, during and after the film. Once we were already closing and getting everything ready for the new menu we were told by Matthew via Chef John, that we were to use no water.  We cleaned things with the water we had and covered the well with the full ice, covered dirty glassware and covered the 3 part sink with recycle bags.  Customer Comments: Some regulars were very excited about the new menu. We got some patio regulars back.  Helped some people with tickets.  There was a guest who felt the seats weren't big enough for them and they left theater 4 and sat at Trees and waited for the food they'd ordered. Renee Michelle told me that she was taking care of it and delivering their food to Trees. I approached the guest and asked if I could give them credit or anything for the seat. They said the tickets belonged to their friend who was still watching the film....

Manager Communication: Slow day today, with low sales to start and minimal walk in additions. Not much to report on, got a lot of cleaning and prep for menu done. Low bar business to Trees, just a slight push around 8:30 pm. Cut Ryan after dinner round.  BAR Staff Observations: It sure is nice having the leads on these long lobby shifts, Chelsea was able to field 95% of the FilmBot needs downstairs today. Ryan did a great open, Dylan held it down solo no problem.  86ed / counts on items: Same as previous days, dwindling down for the menu change Prep List: Made a Strawberry Mansion Keg and Cinema Paradiso batch to have stuff ready to taste tomorrow. Otherwise, not much to prep. Maintenance: The blinds are here for Trees, we should put them up this week

Manager Communication:  Good night. Dinner round Lost city, Batman and X put up decent numbers. Shudderbug in theater two was the highlight. Trees had good traffic today and the crowd before Shudderbug was wonderful and plentiful.  We had a few guests at Trees that came for that bar. Always nice to see.  Customer Comments: Helped some guests with minor ticket issues.  BAR Staff Observations: Jenn and Jenna opened Trees and Lobby and did a great job. Jenn stayed through the initial Shudderbug push and Ryan did a great job closing Trees. Everyone did great.  Special Events? It was great to have Hannah come premiere Shudderbug. It's always wonderful to see one of our own celebrating such a big accomplishment. Staff Meeting Agenda notes: 86ed / counts on items: Brooklyn, Bourbon Cream Soda, Horchata coldbrew, Biscotti stout, french 75, Hot toddy, Hudson cider, Lawsons IPA, Jacks Abbey Blood Orange, otherhalf double ipa, paloma, Westbrook gose, Winter Daiquiri and g...

Manager Communication : Very mellow Monday, with a few couples hanging out at Trees from around 8 to 10pm.  Had a fair amount of walk-in sales throughout the day, which buoyed some quieter theaters.  BAR Staff Observations : Ashley and Eliel were a big help today, with Ashley helping set up both Trees and Lobby Bar while Eliel and Chef Stewart worked on preparing the building for open.  Once Jenna came in, Eliel was able to get out of here after some light batching and helping both bars restock.  Ashley, with her new Lead status, was great at holding down all ticketing issues in Lobby Bar with minimal assistance needed. Jenna really flowed well between guest-facing service and service bar this evening, too.  Staff Meeting Agenda notes : Some servers have begun setting up water stations for Th3 and Th5 by the service pass at Lobby Bar. I have communicated that the practice is only allowed for Th7, but just wanted to make sure we were keeping eyes on it going forw...

Manager Communication :  Pretty good Brunch. Not super busy but steady. Nice crowds at trees throughout the afternoon. EL Busy evening on both floors. Had a fair amount of walk-ins for the second-to-last round, which kept everyone occupied. The Oscars showing was a big hit, keeping Trees occupied with a slew of drink tickets from when the theater opened all the way past ten.  Near the end of the evening, around 11:15/11:30, the fire alarm went off. Jeannette will go into more detail in her blog. The majority of guests returned to their movies in the theaters that had their showings disrupted, and I handed out yellow ticket passes to all remaining guests in theaters 3, 4, and 7. JH Customer Comments :  Gave a few credits for customers who didn't need all their tickets, and some exchanges.  I turned away four kids because three of them were teenagers but they had a Ten Year Old with them and they wanted to watch Batman EL There was a couple at Lobby Bar early in t...

Manager Communication : Brisk Saturday morning, with second round really rising in ticket sales, following a well-sold first round Labyrinth screening. A couple of people popped in to Trees this morning just for food and drinks, no movies, which was nice to see.  A guest used a blue ticket voucher for the first round screening of The Lost City. Gil refunded the pass on Filmbot afterwards, so it will not reflect in the report. JH Super busy afternoon and night tonight, we just kept getting walk ins and boosting to very high sales. The whole day just kept growing, and the dinner round gave us a 1.5 hour rush to service bar and good bar crowds from 6 pm through 10 pm. No issues with service tonight, we ran a good, tight labor ship and bar was super efficient. Was able to cut Natasha at 9:15 pm and Tevon at 9:45 after they stocked, respectively. JM BAR Staff Observations : Chelsea and Jo both had great opens, and were able to get breaks once Tevon and Natasha arrived. Jo was able to ge...

Manager Communication: Good night tonight. Pretty busy in trees.  Customer Comments: Harry had to cut a customer off in theater 2. He came down to trees and kept trying to order. He was also yelling at the bartenders for water. I spoke to him, and let him know that he could have a glass of water, but if he yelled again he would be asked to leave. He was OK after that. Dwight kept an eye on him, and he left shortly after.  Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: We need to order more Maggi and Cholula Filmbot Issues: The lobby bar filmbot terminal is not working very well. The card reader and the printer keep going out. I was able to reset a few times to get it going, but I think we need a more permanent fix. 

Manager Communication: Pretty medium day. Batman dinner round and Akira did the heavy lifting. X and Lost city dinner rounds had decent turnout. Hopefully Lost City will gain steam coming into the weekend. Trees had a good crowd around dinner before Akira but not a big turnout after.  Customer Comments: Someone thought they lost their phone during Akira, I walked them in the theater and we searched. I took their name and email address and gave it to Jeanette.  BAR Staff Observations: Tevon and Chelsea opened Lobby and Trees.  After the closers Gabrielle for Lobby and Ian for Trees, and after everyone ate, Tevon did stocking a little batching and helped lobby for a bit during the 3/7 split. Chelsea stayed on till after the Akira rush.  Special Events? Akira had a great crowd but the Tuesday crowd hung out at trees more and longer.  86ed / counts on items: Jack's Abbey, Bourbon Cream Soda, Cutwater horchata, Golden Monkey. Westbrook is on a count.  Prep List:...

Manager Communication: On the slow side today, with X not really picking up as hoped and Batman starting to slow down. A few Batman shows picked up decently well, but overall no major rush to either bar. Decent crowd to Trees before Wild Things and staggered presence throughout the day. Was able to utilize Ryan to break Chelsea once Ian, the closer, was in and then got through the dinner round, he covered both bars for stocking and then clocked out. Nice, tight labor day with decent sales.  BAR Staff Observations: Great opens by Ryan and Chelsea, really efficient guest handling and service bar from Ryan and Ian at trees. Good day, very strong crew.  86ed / counts on items: Jack's Abby kicked, 86d Prep List: Need some Ancho to batch a paloma, will have to do that tomorrow. Will need Firewalk as well but otherwise, solid. Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: US Foods with Sodas and juice tomorrow

Manager Communication: Pretty good day. Akira was the big hit tonight. Dinner round had some decent numbers as well.  Trees had a pretty good crowd from about Dinner time till the end with a few momentary dips.  Customer Comments: Gave a couple of folks credits.  BAR Staff Observations: Jenn opened Trees and stayed through the Akira rush. Ashley covered lobby bar all night. Ryan came to close Trees.   Special Events? Private Escape from NY crowd hung at Trees before and after. Nice folks.  Akira was almost sold out. 86ed / counts on items: Gun Hill is back and Guiness is out.Victory Triple is 86ed, Horchata Cold Brew is 86ed, Biscotti Stout and Westbrook Gose are on a count.  Prep List: Jenn made Negroni, Michelada, Firewalk and Iceberg. We'll need a new Paloma keg tomorrow.  Maintenance: Mobilebytes Issues: Credit cards went down around the time they were running checks for Akira. I restarted the main Mobilebytes in the MOD and it all came back...

Manager Communication: Fairly easygoing Monday evening. Trees had a decent crowd after five, that really picked up with people arriving for the Careful screening. Similarly, Patio had a fair amount of guests today, with some guests telling Ashley they were happy to see the tables out front again.  BAR Staff Observations: Eliel did a great job setting up bar this afternoon, and was able to get out of here during the second round, after covering Lobby Bar so Ashley could take a break. Ashley held down Lobby all evening and kept a keen eye on the Patio. Jenna was great up at Trees, handling a fairly full bar and decently busy service bar with minimal help needed. Great work all around.  86ed / counts on items: We are 86’d Victory Golden Monkey and Cutwater Horchata.  We are running through the Guinness keg before reattaching the Gun Hill Stout, so are temporarily 86’d Gun Hill Stout.  There is a count on Westbrook Gose and Cardinal Bourbon Cream Soda.  Prep List:...

Manager Communication :  Very  busy morning and afternoon for Trees Lounge.  It felt amazing up there. EL Busy dinner rounds at both bars this evening, with a more mellow last round. Trees had decent traffic all evening up until about 10:30/11:00pm, with Patio having a quieter evening. JH Customer Comments:  a customer came to ask for a credit for a ticket they were unable to use which was 2 weeks old. I informed them that we couldn’t honor passed tickets if they didn’t contact us before the show. They were unhappy with that and said they tried to call, but didn’t Leave a message. I told them to leave a message or email next time. EL Two guests had attempted to purchase tickets for the 10:15pm screening of X, but the purchasing screen had frozen on them and when they tried to purchase them again, the seats they had selected were locked out. A pending charge for the tickets was reflected on their bank account, but searching by email or last four of their cc brought up...

Manager Communication:  Busy day. Steel Magnolias brought in a really large crowd for first round. Patio gained some traction as the day went on, and Trees built up its own crowd during the second round of screenings. JH Busy dinner and late rounds, with nearly sold out Batmans and X for the dinner round on the ground floor. Made for busy service at both bars but well handled by three up and two down through the bulk of service. Bar crowds were good and steady throughout at Trees, mild Patio business as well. Once the rain hit we got a major bump at Trees that lasted through 10 pm. Tevon was cut around that time since he came in earlier, Chelsea cut around then as well to leave Gab to close Lobby. Good night. JM BAR Staff Observations:  Jo and Jenna did a great job opening both bars this morning, with Jo leaving shortly after doors opened (elaborated on below in  Sick Leave/Call Outs ).  Jenna really did a fantastic job this morning, having to handle a longer so...

Manager Communication:  Great night. Dinner round Batman did pretty well. Other ones were fairly sold.  A big group went to see batman together, hung out at trees a little before the show, then hung out a lot after the show. Great crowd.  Customer Comments:  Someone came in with an expired pass and showed an email communication saying that the pass would be exchanged for a ticket which was already purchased.  I refunded one of two seats and applied the new pass code they were given over email, and collected the expired yellow card.  BAR Staff Observations:  Jenna and Chelsea opened, Gabrielle closed lobby and Ian closed Trees.  While we had a dip in service Chelsea stocked, batched and came back to help with the Trees group.  86ed / counts on items:  Zero gravity is currently 86ed because it was only pouring foam. I checked again towards the end of the night and it was the same.  Cold brew horchata, Other Half DIPA. Prep List: Chels...

Manager Communication:  Pretty great night. Trivia was great, Showgirls was great, and Batman is still Batey.  Great Trees business today.  Customer Comments:  A parent and child left Batman because the child was scared. I gave them an E credit and closed out their tab in theater 2.  BAR Staff Observations:  Jenn and Ashley opened up and did a great job setting up the bar for success on a busy Tuesday. Tevon closed Trees and Natasha closed lobby.  During trivia Jenn served, Ashley focused on a very busy service bar and Tevon held down front facing Trees.  Great teamwork all around.  FOH Staff Observations: The Showgirls crew was excellent.  Special Events? The aforementioned Showgirls and Trivia both did great with great numbers. A decent Showgirl crowd hung at the bar before and after the movie, even with Trivia happening all around.  Staff Meeting Agenda notes: 86ed / counts on items:  86 Zero Gravity Madonna and Cutwater Ho...

Manager Communication : Nice, steady Monday. Second round Batman had the largest crowd, but the other showtimes did fairly well, too. A welcome pop in service before Chopping Mall, followed by the Staff Appreciation Party.  Customer Comments : I’ve had several guests the last two days ask Trees bartenders to charge their phones while watching a movie. We’ve communicated that they’re welcome to use an outlet out on the floor and sit with their phone, but have gotten some pushback on that, with one guest saying their server had told them the bar would charge their phone. Just something to review with servers and bartenders.  BAR Staff Observations : Eliel and Ashley were happily set up by the time I came in at three, and it was a pretty mellow first round. Ashley held down Lobby all night, and Eliel was able to get out from behind the bar around seven.  Jenna definitely has gotten stronger behind the bar, but still needs to work on multitasking when solo. We spoke briefly d...

Manager Communication :  Pretty busy Sunday. Started strong with Grease sing-a-long and the Hong Kong series, and El Batman kept the numbers up and kept people coming to the bar. EL Another busy Sunday night. Dinner round was very busy, with sold out Batman and Spider-Man screenings. Trees had a great crowd all night, which naturally dwindled after 10:30.  JH Customer Comments :  I gave a refund to a person for a single ticket. They asked when a movie was going to be over and I gave them the wrong time and they purchased the ticket.  When I realized I went over to them at Trees Lounge and told them the actual time the film ends and offered a credit or refund. The guest opted for a refund. EL BAR Staff Observations :  Jo and Natasha opened strong and Jenna and Tevon helped immensely as leads. They all worked very hard. EL Ashley took the lead on guest service at Trees, and I brought Ryan upstairs to help Jenna deal with service bar during the dinner rush.  J...

Manager Communication : Ticket sales climbed steadily through the day, following a nicely busy first round. The weather certainly didn’t deter people from coming in, and a nice crowd had developed at Trees by the time the third round of movies were seating. JH Every Batman from the middle of the day onwards was completely sold out, and trhe surrounding movies also did well with almost every theater sold out for the dinner round and a strong late round as well. Drink rushes during this period felt like they held at a busy level for almost three hours, with guests ordering more today than any day in recent memory.  The weather also kept Trees Lounge guests in and hunkered down, and throughout this time we also had a full bar through around 8:30-9:00 pm. A few tables lingered late. We are starting to develop regulars, as I saw several repeat offenders here that have been coming by all week. We bought back some drinks and had great rapport.  Was able to cut Jenna after 9:30 when s...

Manager Communication: Steadily busy day today with strong, nearly sold out Batmans for the dinner round. Drink rushes were sustained and busy, but well handled with no issue. Had plenty of time in between these long movies to get prep done, garnishes cut and breaks handled by all on today.  Customer Comments: Had two guests at the end of the night tell me that they had a subpar experience in Theater 1 at the end when their check came. The guest admitted he didn't put his card in right away and then his server checked back and told him he had to pay and knelt by the table until he did. He was upset that this disrupted the end of Batman and that he had waited a long time to watch it and found it unnecessary to be disrupted at the end. I apologized to him for the experience that he felt let him down, and explained that with the serious ramping up of business, servers are trying to find their flow with a lot of juggling of tasks. He understood, and was gracious and didn't want any...

Manager Communication:  Pretty good day. The Bat continued to perform. Trees had a steady flow.  Customer Comments: Gave a credit to someone on the phone who purchased the wrong tickets.  BAR Staff Observations: Jenn and Jenna both did a great job opening. Ashley was great at closing trees. Everyone worked well together.  FOH Staff Observations: Everyone hustled. Carly and Danny stood out today. Quick to get orders and to help other servers.  Special Events? Eve's bayou had a good crowd and the private event in theater 6 looked to be having a good ole time.  Prep List: Jesse made a lot of Iceberg, Jenn batched Firewalk, Paloma keg and made blood simple but didn't add any whiskey. I prepped grapefruit syrup and made a firewalk as well.  Pay Outs: $30 grapefruit.  Lost & Found?: Someone came for a black and grey bag.  Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: I received an order of limes and juices from the kitchen. Jesse received a liquor order that in...

Manager Communication : The Batman continued to perform strongly, and brought in plenty of extra guests for a Monday. Otherwise, it was a fairly easygoing day.  The third round Batman screenings and Total Recall brought in a nice crowd to Trees from about 7:00 until 9:00. A couple of people lingered, but cleared out by the time theaters did last call.  Customer Comments : Ashley and a guest had a negative interaction during the first round today. Gerard mentioned it in his blog, as he had direct communication with the guest after Ashley called for a manager. I spoke with Ashley once the guest went into her screening after speaking to Gerard, to get Ashley’s perspective on what happened.  Ashley said the guest and her child entered the building and came up to the bar. The child was wearing a mask, the woman was not, so Ashley asked her if she had one to put on. The woman responded with foul language asking why she should, and Ashley explained our mask policy. The woman the...

Manager Communication :  Pretty busy Sunday to start.  Batmen were all busy and the rest of the theater was pretty busy as well.  Trees consistently had a good crowd throughout the afternoon. EL Nonstop until just about 10:30pm. Everyone did great, excellent communication throughout. JH Customer Comments :  Gave e credits to a few customers who didn't have Vax info and credit to a group of 7 that didn't realize the animated shorts weren't all ages. EL BAR Staff Observations :  Everyone came to slay the Bat. Jo and Chelsea did awesome opening, and prepping for the rest of the night. Ian was a crucial mid. EL Chelsea and Jo were really great about staying on a little bit longer to get both bars off to a good start for the dinner rounds, and were able to get out of here around 5:30/6:00pm. Tevon was solo in Lobby all night, particularly during the party at Trees, and ran service down there no problem. He was also a huge help with regards to juicing and cutting...

Manager Communication : Batman keeps Batman-ing, and kept Trees very busy all morning. Staff seemed well prepared and eager for the rushes. JH Batman was rounded out by busy rounds all across the building through the mid and dinner rounds. Late Batman also turned up huge numbers, we sold out every show after brunch. Rushes were well handled all around, with no major hitches in service. No waiting drinks, no long ticket times. For a first weekend right into the fire of a major opening like this, the whole team turned in a great day. No major issues. JM BAR Staff Observations : Chelsea and Jo did a great job opening. Chelsea handled two sold out Batman screenings once we opened no problem, and Jo was an absolute phenom at peeping garnishes for Trees and batching.  Jenna handled service bar very well during each Batman seating, and was a huge help keeping an eye on stocking and refilling frozens.  Tevon was able to come in at 4, which really helped service at Trees as the bar cro...