Saturday 08.05.23 Edgar/Jenn

Manager Communication: Steady start to the day. Not a huge crowd in Trees, but with Th2 and Th4 going, it kept us busy for a bit. Barbie dominated the day again with Oppenheimer selling out the smaller theaters as well. EA

Very busy across the building all throughout the evening, and up until last call.  Broke out a box of pint glasses to help account for breakage over the last week, and it did seem to ease some of the glassware strain at Trees. JH

Customer Comments: Had two unruly teens call Matthew a slur after he declined to sell them late round tickets due to our Age Policy.  They exited right after, and Matthew only filled me in a little later and said that he was not overly bothered by it.  I did remind him that he is always welcome to call a manager if he gets any undue pushback from guests, especially if they use abusive language, but he overall seemed okay. JH

BAR Staff Observations: Slower start for Miguel vs Natasha. He didn't set himself up for success, so it was a lot of running back and forth to get him what he needed and to help fully set up the bar (take the tops off bottles, have glassware ready and unpacked, having all cheater bottles ready and in spaces that made sense.). After the first Barbie rush ended, we made sure he had everything he needed on hand to keep the service moving. We had a small chat about the importance of setting up thoroughly and being ready for service. It was a much easier for him to jump between service and front facing after that until Jeshua stepped in. 

Natasha ran pretty much solo downstairs and handled ticketing and theater service tickets at the same time without breaking a sweat. 

Ashley held down the batching and restocking as needed as she didn't quite feel 100%, but was willing to help out wherever was needed. EA

Was able to get openers out of here shortly after both bars were restocked and everyone had a chance to grab family meal.  Ashley spent the majority of the evening batching basically the entire menu, popping out to Trees to assist with sold out service pushes.  

Jeshua and Matthew held down Lobby, with Jeshua completing one last restock and getting out of here just as the last round settled into service.  Matthew was okay with sticking around until Th3/5 had done last call, so we only had to route one theater to Trees, and he got out of here shortly before midnight.

Gabrielle and Ian kept Trees stocked throughout service and rode wave after wave of bar crowds and theater seatings all the way up until last call. JH

FOH Staff Observations: There was a radio call from "Trees" to an MOD during the 1:45PM requesting backup for the bar. I'm not 100% sure about who made the call (It was Miguel and Jeshua at Trees today), but when I got there to ask them where they needed help, Miguel looked confused at me because he had no idea what I was talking about. 

Although he had a truckload of tickets coming out, him and Jeshua were cutting through them when I got to the pass. Can we ask the servers to not make calls on behalf of the bar? We ran through the tickets in about 10-15 minutes and the bartenders had it under control. This backup was initially caused by all the flags being put in pretty much at once again and was also affected by theater 1's last call that was happening at around the same time. 

Basically, servers shouldn't be making the calls for service back up in the bar. EA 

I think, once Barbie begins to settle down, we may need to revisit server training/prioritization of needs during service.  We are in our third sold out weekend, and I keep seeing the same mistakes being made, and have heard some frustration voiced by bar staff when it negatively impacts their ability to do their jobs efficiently.  

The main points of concern are: the sudden influx of tickets from when servers wait to place drink orders in the station during their initial greets; lack of communication between servers in stations about who is grabbing drinks, particularly when there is not assigned drink support; lack of prebussing; and volume of conversation/cellphone usage at the service pass, as well as crowding the pass which can inhibit restocks of product and glassware, expo calls, and ice refills.

Really great work from James and Tiffany up in Th4/6, Daniel and Grace on support in Th2, and Nico was very proactive about traying up drinks as well as running glassware through the washer at Trees. JH

Hiring/Training: I emailed Taurean today to let her know that we will not be moving forward with her training schedule.  Still have not heard back from her since we last spoke on Thursday, but she did log into Schedulefly yesterday.  Her shifts were deleted on Schedulefly and I made her inactive. JH

Staff Meeting Agenda notes: Again, chatter has been an issue where servers have been having full on conversations at the service pass while trying to expo very busy rounds on multiple floors. Can we please have them reduce the conversation at the pass? It's incredibly distracting when I need to raise my volume even more so bartenders can hear me and I can hear them. 

Also, more and more frequently, servers have been calling MODs (mainly bar, sometimes MOD in general) in regards to the bar "needing backup" because they perceived that it was needed with the amount of tickets. In the past bartenders have been really good about calling for backup when needed and pretty much they are the one that will know whether or not they need it. 

All that to say that servers shouldn't be making this call for the bar. EA

Prep List: Walk in looks good for tomorrow, with many thanks to Ashley who powered through a lot of prep today.  Hatch Rye is in the walk in waiting to be strained, and we should definitely back up any necessary Trees cocktails tomorrow morning. JH

Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Baldor & US Foods arriving on Monday.JH

Maintenance: Ian noticed that the table holding the coffee station at Trees is incredibly wobbly.  I added it to Maintenance, as it should probably be either reinforced or replaced. JH