Jenn/Jesse 5.7

Manager Communication: Busy, busy, busy day.  From the moment we opened, theaters were sold out, or close to it, all day.  Everyone really hustled and navigated what was a very busy brunch service, and communication with regards to needs, guest issues, and ticket times was pretty efficient throughout the building.  JH

Wow. What a night. Business only continued to increase throughout the day and night, with nearly every theater and showtime sold out from the midday through the late round. We got consistent Trees business from 5 pm onwards through 11:30 pm. Drink rushes for Dr. Strange were heavy and constant, with people drinking throughout the movie. This caused a nearly 4 hour straight push to service bar, with the Dr. Strange screenings being an hour apart and the length of the movie constantly having another in the pipeline for us. Deftly and well handled by all on today, with Lobby bar also dealing with sold out shows. Flow down there has been notably great the past few days, with really well spaced showtimes that gave us the flexibility to have Eliel batching when needed, and also covering all staff to be able to stock and break when needed. Cut Eliel around 9 pm, Tevon around 9:30 pm. Great stuff today. JM

Customer Comments: We had a lot of customers complain about ticket times for food, at both Trees and in the theaters.  Throughout the day, several customers came to Trees to close their tabs before the movie ended because they were growing increasingly frustrated at having to wait for up to an hour for food.  

We did have one guest in the first round Sonic in Th7 who came out to Lobby Bar once the show was over to say that they had a lovely time, and that their service was excellent throughout the show.  JH

These timing and staffing issues had been resolved for PM service, with good communication from kitchen about long times and better flow to service at night. Lots of happy guests, a very polar opposite vibe to the PM service. JM

BAR Staff Observations: Fantastic team today.  I made sure to communicate to both Natasha and Jenna how high ticket sales were before we opened, and both stocked and opened their bars really well.  

Jenna prepped a bunch of citrus and Bloody garnishes for Trees, and held down a very busy Lobby solo until Eliel came in at 2:30.  Eliel was an enormous help from the moment he arrived, helping each bar with much-needed restocks and cleaning the dirty bar prep items that had accumulated during service.  After working through a busy Lobby rush with Jenna, he headed to the back and batched everything he could.

Natasha deftly navigated the first hour of service at Trees, and then focused on an impromptu engagement party at Trees when Tevon came in.  As the second round began, an engagement party formed at Trees, where Natasha handled a very busy Trees crowd and Tevon focused on service bar, with four sold out theaters seated at once.  

The pressure definitely eased off once Ryan, Ian, and Gabrielle arrived, with everyone slipping into service seamlessly.  Great work all around today, with particular focus on stocking levels, communication with regards to immediate needs, and just great work from everyone behind the bar today.  JH

I have to say, this all rang true for the rest of the night. Everyone was in top form, drinks were flying and mids were excellent about stocking and covering the bars to give time for batching where needed. 

Ryan and Ian are so excellent spearheading Trees service bar, with Tevon on guests. It's well oiled at this point but truly self-sustaining in a way that makes me comfortable and able to step away or cover elsewhere when needed. JM

FOH Staff Observations: We were staffed pretty lean for the first round, but everyone hustled and worked incredibly hard all day.  Communication was as good as could be hoped for, with a lot of effort all around.  Whenever needs were communicated with regards to glassware and bussing, both runners and servers were very quick to help out. JH

Staffing and support got much better throughout the evening. We did pause service a few times for theaters 1&2 during the dinner and late rounds, but servers seemed able to dig themselves out quickly and were mainly being proactive, which is appreciated. Glassware did lag tonight during these tight turns, and I spent a lot of time helping servers rack and run glassware to keep the bar ahead of the curve but we all knew staffing was tight today. Once we get it up to par, getting focus on these things should clear it up. JM

Hiring/Training: Jules was a huge help this morning, for the first round and throughout the rest of their shift.  JH

Special Events? ST&B definitely jumped in numbers between the middle of the week and today, with just over one hundred guests in attendance.  We had a few guests get e-credits as they were worried the cartoons would skew too young, but no complaints.  The hosts said the event went very well from their perspective, and were pretty excited about it.  JH

Staff Meeting Agenda notes: Can we order more milk creamers?  Brunch was incredibly busy, so there were several times during service that there was a mad hunt for milk creamers.  JH

We sure can, ordering glassware as well this week as we broke a LOT out. JM

86ed / counts on items: There is a count on Dona Spice Soda. JH

Prep List: I made Bloody Mary, Lemonade, and Simple Syrup before open.  Eliel made The Bar With No Doors, Divine Inspiration, Fire Walk With Me, Lemonade, Mr. Fusion, and Old Fashioned and Strawberry Mansion keg, and Verse Jump.

Just a quick note to say that the batching last night really helped us sail through service this morning, as Lemonade was the only item that needed to be made for bars to have back up.  With such high ticket sales so early in the day, we did not have the extra hands to send back to batch this morning.  Being so well prepared in the walk-in was really appreciated, and made service at the bar that much smoother.  JH

I made 2x Bar with no Doors, 2x Firewalk, 1x Mr. Fusion. We will need an espresso martini keg at some point tomorrow. Otherwise, we are very well stocked. I want to second Jenn's note and also reiterate that we found a really excellent flow with product this week; getting a major batch in Thursday and then making up for what we went through throughout the weekend made this a pretty painless weekend product wise, which was good. We needed all we had for service. JM

Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Baldor (Grenadine, Passionfruit Purée, and Pomegranate Juice) and Drizly (Cynar and Suze).  JH