NPP Bar Blog

Manager Communication:  Pretty mellow Friday first round, with PSP at Trees being the main source of bar guests. JH Erika placed an order for the Just Roar but add Tequila. I was happy to make it for her and the guest but Matthew and I were unsure if this was something we were able to do or not. I have no problem doing an N/A movie special with alcohol as a 1 and 1 but wanted to verify with everyone else because there was a bit of confusion. - AB2 Gabrielle brought to my attention that we should bring up DOH protocol to bar staff because we have a lot of new staff and it would not hurt for a refresher. I agree with her. - AB2 We had guests in Tree's order food at 11:39 and the kitchen was done. The cue sheet stated that last call was at 11:45 and Kitchen close at midnight. I understand when kitchen wants to close earlier and it is slow but I think it should be a thing where kitchen walkie's that they are doing last call. Last week I had a similar issue where guests wanted to or...

Manager Communication: Stacked team tonight. Kayla is a gamer. Just shows up and is ready to go. Great addition.  Customer Comments: I think word of us carding people is getting around, we only had one party that stood out tonight. I ID'd them, they were legit. Very nice. Though they were on the younger side. Trees was popping for a moment tonight. Very exciting. Tevon did a great job of leading the rush. BAR Staff Observations: really impressed with Tevon tonight. He ran point as Natasha was off and Matthew opened. Very direct and to the point, but he was really on it. FOH Staff Observations: Caleb is great. Super hard worker. Staff Meeting Agenda notes:  Put the two remaining rollies in the liquor room into service today.  Let's keep an eye on rollies and glass stacks this weekend during service. JH 86ed / counts on items: Cigar city until Draftchoice comes and fixes our line. Prep List: Lots tonight Will see if I can pull product from NWB cause we are low on Giffard Va...

Manager Communication:   Pretty mellow Wednesday, with both Cinema events selling fairly well.  Trees also had a nice crowd this evening, up until about 9:00pm or so.  Trees really emptied out after that, and was fairly quiet for the rest of the evening.  JH BAR Staff Observations:  Matthew was going to see Night is Short, Walk on Girl , so I swung Greg upstairs once the last The Brutalist screening had finished its initial service push, and Matthew got out of here.  Once the last rounds in Th2/4 settled down, I got Greg out of here and both Gabrielle and Jeshua closed each bar without issue. JH Staff Meeting Agenda notes:  In-times are done for this upcoming week.  The only thing worth noting is that I have pushed back both mid shifts on Sunday, to ensure full coverage throughout the double sold-out Oscars. Spoke to Ian and Lauren about the plan today, and they feel ready heading into Oscars night. JH 86ed / counts on items: Cigar City is ...

Manager Communication:   Major tasting energy in the building. What fun on our new menu!  Just gonna throw another hail mary up here for getting some more visibility on the mezzanine. Occasionally popping up there to admonish the twenty-somethings who cannot keep themselves from vaping is not doing anything. Unless we come up with a more Draconian 86ing procedure for anyone caught vaping/bringing in outside drink and food (which is going to alienate a large portion of our regular pool table using clientele - which tbh I am not at all against, as I don't think a young crowd with underage friends and no money to spend are the crowd we want anyway) I fear we will continue to embolden the already frustrating population of 21-25 year olds to bring in more of their underage friends and continue to break the rules. - IP BAR Staff Observations: Swung Lydia up to Trees around 6:15 to help with a very good pre-Mississippi Masala crowd coupled with the happy hour cocktail specials. Got h...

Manager Communication: I think it would be advantageous to customers buying tickets in Lobby bar or online, that we notate the aisle. As someone who generally makes sure I can exit to hit the bathroom as needed this is something useful. When I was helping a lady yesterday in lobby I showed her the easiest access to the aisle.  If we can update that on filmbot I think it would possibly cut down on the random people entering the server stations by accident.-LB The apple ID at Trees needs to be signed into or something. The notification pops up quite often and is kind of cheesy.-LB The Creature from the Gowanus Canal now lives in Trees Lounge. -LB Customer Comments: BAR Staff Observations:   Got Lydia out of here around 8. I asked her to do a few things before she took off, some of which she did not do.I will speak with her about this tomorrow. There are times when she doesn't seem to be a team player, in ways of restocking glassware, bussing tables. Just trying to get to ...

Manager Communication: So I tapped the Gansett and turned the line on to see if I could get that line working. It didn't do anything until I untapped it and then it was trying to pull beer. It is haunted and broken I assume. I think that cleaning our lines more often would mitigate this hardware being problematic. I moved the Gansett to the Cigar City line and 86ed that instead since Gansett outsells everything. -LB We seem fairly low on Collins glasses, I busted out a new box to realize they are a newer updated version of the glassware we have. Acopa has done this in the past and they do not make it apparent on webstaurant. I think this is going to leave us in the annoying situation of updating in full to this newer version. -LB Dinner round was well sold, but the crowd was relatively mellow. Dee, James and Kayla rocked it. James, Darius and I had a little chat (covered more below) - but we have a great opportunity to poach some business from Alamo right now - let's make sure ...

Manager Communication: The King of Klutzy (me) knocked over the toasted almond bitters when batching, it broke. I ordered a bottle to my house so we are sure to have it for the tasting on Tuesday.  I also ordered us a replacement bottle. LB Customer Comments: I had several guests complain at the bars about disruptive guests in their theaters tonight. I went into theater two to check it out, and there were some rowdy kids in a large party, and some disruptive guests in the front row. I spoke to them and there were no further incidents - but the uptick in people leaving the theaters to ask if they can speak to someone makes me worried we don't have as much presence in the theaters as we could/should during a Marvel run and an anticipated horror release. Just something I noticed today. - IP BAR Staff Observations: Pretty good team work tonight but still looking for that ability to gel as a team 100% of the time in Trees on Saturday during the rushes.  -LB I agree with Lauren - th...

Manager Communication: Solid night that started getting busier as the night continued. I would be expecting more business since the drama at The Alamo is going on. We were busy and every theater that was not sold out got real close to it at the end. - AB2 BAR Staff Observations: Maya and Patrick stayed a lil longer than usual because it was busy today. Downstairs theaters were selling out and poppin'. Everyone was great tonight. - AB2 Staff Meeting Agenda notes:  All binders and service passes are updated with The Monkey drink special specs and build. JH 86ed / counts on items:  We are down to two cans of Lyre's and several bottles, so Gus is going to bring some cans over from NWB this weekend. JH update- I brought the cans with me, along with a sample bottle of Pandan Liqueur and some rums -Gus We are really low on Milagro Liter bottles. I saw it Thursday and thought to myself "I bet we can survive the weekend with what is out there" Turns out- not so much. My bad. ...

Manager Communication:  Definitely opened up with a busy, kid-forward first round, with Dog Man & Paddington in Peru leading the way in sales.  The Monkey seems to be starting off strong in the big theaters, so hopefully that trend continues over the weekend. JH Customer Comments:  Had a guest at lobby bar who could not find the email with their tickets for the 4:30pm Captain America: Brave New World .  We tried to search up the purchase using email, cc number, and last name, but nothing came up.  They were pretty sure they remembered the seat numbers, but when we checked the purchase of those seats, it was not their purchase.  We went through all of the two ticket purchases for that screening, but none of the names or emails lined up.  They then purchased tickets for the screening at lobby bar, and seemed to be satisfied that they had apparently not completed the purchase.  Just a heads up, in case they email in the future if they figure ou...

Manager Communication: I will speak with Bryan when he gets in, because the dishwasher filter was rank this morning. Almost all the holes for the dishwasher were filled with lemons. There is just no way that the glassware washed from last night is going to be clean. If this can be a reminder in the staff email this week.  Regarding not pulling all three sinks because they can't drain: this is a DOH certification point that if bartenders don't know, it makes me worry they don't have their DOH food handler's certification.  Obviously there are always managers around, but I do think the knowledge gleaned from this course is important as a whole. -LB I spoke with Jeshua about slowing things down during service and giving other's an opportunity to do some of the backing work involved. I also mentioned to Gabrielle how I think she would be a great lead bartender. She seems up for it and I told her that Gus would be following up with her. -LB Brooklyn Brewery's rep st...

Manager Communication: Fruitful meeting with the bar team today, gonna tighten some protocols with staff accordingly.-LB Have some really fun cocktails looking to make their way onto the menu this spring. -LB Customer Comments: Someone loved and noticed the Jerry Lundegaard set piece at Trees Lounge and was a big fan.-LB BAR Staff Observations:   We had a chill evening in comparison to the last several days. Only buys screening was the sold out documentary special in 2 at 8:45. Hung onto Tevon for that push and then got him outta here. Patrick and Greg made light work of the lobby and was able to get Patrick outta here around 7:30. - IP One easy note for the tap ledge nearest the trees service pass - maybe we could throw a shim under the middle of the ledge to try to prevent the run-off from pooling in the center and missing the drain? - IP FOH Staff Observations: Had several tickets tonight that requested substitute liquors in our house cocktails (that obv cannot be subbed). Perh...

Manager Communication:  I went to input Red Hulk Smash count into the POS, but no one had added the count for the first batch. Are we doing this still? I was gonna track garnishes this way.  -LB The marmalade simple syrup needs to be strained. I strained the batch of Just Roar and the simple. It is clogging the dishwasher and the store and pours.-LB Wow, what a fun day. Socket fun all around.   Pretty busy day unsurprisingly. Lydia really cranked out lobby bar. Maya carried Trees solo until Gabrielle arrived and they were steadily busy through the printer crisis. Everyone kept their cool all around, again the staff here is impressive in all regards. -LB I ordered a chai concentrate from Baldor that in my opinion is subpar all around. I reached out via their website to troubleshoot in case anyone gets an email response to which I am not included. Thank you.-LB  Some  detritus was observed in the Winter G&T at Lobby bar, Lydia dumped and repoured with my ...

Manager Communication: I threw out a peeler at Trees because it appeared to be very filthy. We may need to note washing these at the end of the night to the bar team.-LB Customer Comments: A man that saw Wicked said there was a kid talking the second half of the film with no intervention from the parents.  He was super kind about it. I informed him next time if he writes it on a flag we can help intervene. -LB A guest tripped and fell on her way out of theater 2, and Rebecca (GM) and I handled it. She hurt her ankle pretty bad, and must've hit her face because when I came to her aid, she was bleeding from a cut to the nose. We called EMT and they arrived on the scene and took care of her. A kind guest who was not part of the injured woman's party waited with her before I arrived - she relayed that the woman who fell had taken a strong edible less than two hours prior. Don't do drugs, kids! - IP BAR Staff Observations: Greg held his own in Lobby bar during a pretty busy b...

Manager Communication:  Started service with Gil and I doing an NPP 2019 #throwback, where he was on the floor and I was working Trees Lounge brunch.  Staff really stepped up in a big way, and the day never got away from us service-wise.  The snow definitely got some people to come inside and catch some movies, and most of the second, third, and fourth round screenings grew in sales exponentially throughout the day. JH  Customer Comments:  Around 4:30pm, Gabrielle let me know that a young girl had gotten her finger caught in the door leading into the ladies restroom by Trees.  She had given them ice, and asked me to check in on them.  The girl was upset, but her finger looked okay (I have a long history of catching my fingers in doors as a child, so know how gnarly they can get).  I spoke to her and her father, and they declined an incident report.  I gave them some yellow passes to come back another time, and they seemed very pleased with th...

Manager Communication: We went from being flush, to me beign the lone ranger today. Floor managers were flush, was a good time. We grinded it out Customer Comments: I was checking on the Mezz and there were a group of kids at like 3:30- they weren't buying anything and had outside drinks. I told the kid with the drink to leave as there were multiple signs. He gave me some lip about it, then asked if he threw it out could he stay. I said yes, but if anyone brought out more outside food or drink the whole group was leaving. He mouthed off to me, I asked him to repeat what he said, he said he didn't say anything. He then told his friends I was crazy and they left. I thought nothing of the matter really, but his parents called later and said they were going to come yell at me. Jared talked to the mom. I'm still here and its 10pm. I was kind of looking forward to it BAR Staff Observations: The bar team tonight was killer. Sharks. They crushed.  FOH Staff Observations: Monica is ...

Manager Communication: Lots of hands on the floor tonight. I was wondering where Wyatt was, but refused to look at the schedule to find out. Guess I just miss him -GS Customer Comments: Pretty normal night. There was one guy who I helped at the bar who I had a sort of odd interaction with who saw later and he seemed like I was a cop. He was in the Mezz. BAR Staff Observations:  We cut Natasha's closing shift based on sales, and both openers were fine with sticking around later to get both bars through the later rounds. JH There was a moment tonight which disappointed me- but around 6:45 at Trees, knowing all the bartenders were there, Tevon sent Jeshua to stock, didn't tell management, didn't tell Lobby bar, who were flush with help, and just sort of tried to make it happen by himself, even thought he had decent bar business and a movie starting. I jumped in and it was genuinely fine, was a 15 minute blip, but it highlights the lack of awareness that perpetuates at times. I...

Manager Communication: Did a beer idea round up that I will send on to the team.-LB Mellow day, with a fair amount of guests coming through for the later two rounds.  Ian got us batched and ready for service, so both bars only needed light packaged restocks throughout the evening. JH BAR Staff Observations:  Got Tevon out of here shortly after family meal, and Matthew stuck around to work Trees with Jeshua until the last screening in Th2 had gotten past its first service push.  Both cinema events brought out decent-sized crowds to chill at Trees, so the bar was pretty popping from 7:00pm-9:00pm. JH 86ed / counts on items:  Finback is BACK.-LB R&D comp checks:  Had to put in a spillage tab for some expired Princes of Maine. $15.06 Over/Short on Banks:  Trees lounge bank was over $1 to start. -LB Pay Outs:  $12.98 - Spring Cocktail R&D. JH Ordering/Receiving/Shipping:  Finback, Sarene. Baldor coming tomorrow. US Foods coming Friday. 

Manager Communication:   Maya was worried about nightshades in some of Family meal so she had only a small bowl of food, staff perking her a small plate later on tonight.-LB Tasted a LOT of beer for the new menu. Will type up findings and the price profiles tomorrow. -LB Lauren and I conferred about the drink special for Captain America. We had a sleepy night other than a more tame than usual trivia. Can confirm - staff perked a flatbread for Maya end of night. - IP BAR Staff Observations: Gosh, this team is so good. Bryan was an excellent understudy on the floor while Maya was away, and happy to report she did not miss a beat upon her illustrious return. Bryan was just as sharp behind the stick as he was on the floor, and he and Tevon made service look easy. Got Lydia outta here shortly after family meal and Patrick flew the lobby solo with ease. - IP Special Events? Trivia was not as utterly insane as it was last week, but still brought in a good crowd. Shae and Kevin killed it, ...

Manager Communication: Wyatt and I got the building up and working without issue. I took some time to straighten up the liquor room before doors opened. -IP I suggest we add Raspberry herbal tea to the menu change and take off the Orange Pekoe. It is caffeine free so we will have a second option to peppermint. -LB I took the lock components from the door locking experiment, I put them in a to-go box and left outside of MOD-LB Bryan reorganized some items in the Trees Lounge fridge. Will take a photo with labels to send to staff once we all agree on the layout. We can discuss this at our bar meeting.  I also think moving the POS to the bitters area would be prudent if we have the outlets.  We can put a bar mat down to discourage people from sitting there. I would get a small bookshelf to put in that spot and we could keep bitters, back up paper goods etc.  -LB Customer Comments: BAR Staff Observations: Just want to give a big shout-out to the team from last night - the ba...

Manager Communication: Carly and I opened up the building with little to report. I came in early to make some Espresso Martini and simple syrup for eventual batching later today. Dogman continues its reign of terror - lots of kids in the building, lots of tired parents. Otherwise a very sleepy day. Lauren is sick, so there is no closing bar manager. Per discussion with Gus and Lauren, Jared, Dee and James, who felt comfortable with my absence given the low business levels, I got out right at 6:20 so I could watch my Birds in the Superbowl (but watched it at Trees, so if anything went haywire I wasn't far). - IP Customer Comments: Two young women attempted to buy tickets to the 2p screening of "One of Them Days" at 2:24 - Bryan politely informed them of our 15 minute post start time cut-off, and they were incredulous. I happened to be at Lobby bar, so when they asked to speak to a supervisor, I took over. At this point they were recording themselves on their phones and ask...

Manager Communication: A foul stench is coming around the dishpit and the stairwell by family meal all morning. Sometimes vomiteque, sometimes ripe cheese.  I ordered sink stoppers for legal DOH compliance. There were cambro corners in the cart that I ordered as well. There was a case of coupes in the cart that I removed, we have a full rack of coupes in the liquor room. -LB  Management was all over it tonight. James and Jared were extremely helpful while we had a lovely little engagement party up in Trees. Extremely busy bar business tonight on top of the party because of the Snowmageddon that people did not want to go out into. Good lord the kids are horking down the lemonade - had to make a bunch of stuff to make sure we were up for the Dogman showings tomorrow. Overall, was a good night. - IP Customer Comments: Some guests specifically singled out Alayna as being a wonderful server and giving them an excellent experience tonight. Bravo! - IP BAR Staff Observations:   ...

Manager Communication:  Very sleepy first round, but ticket sales definitely picked up for the dinner round.  Heart Eyes didn't open with a bang, but it may end up being one of those 'has a better second weekend than opening weekend' since everyone who watched it said it's great. JH Customer Comments: We had some guests have a lil party thang, in Tree's. They had a cake and thangs. I brought out the event plates and we were able to play their music video celebration. They had a good time and we had fun. They were very nice and had a great time. I charged them for the cake fee and everything has been put back to where it belongs. - AB2 BAR Staff Observations: Sad to have no Matthew but everyone was great. Tevon got out after batching around 8:15ish. Bryan stayed till things slowed down around 10ish. Gabrielle rocked out lobby solo! Natasha absolutely killed it and closed Tree's solo. All around good night with a dope squad. - AB2 Hiring/Training:  Jeremy let me...

Manager Communication: Shout out to Vlad for helping me put away the wine in bar prep, this building is full of helpers.-LB I would say for the most part the trays have been clean and not smelling like feet. However today a huge stack just reeks. Whatever the porters have been doing has been great Rebecca, but perhaps just a reminder. Thanks.-LB  I brought the bubbler tops back to the liquor room and put some rando parts floating around liquor room with them.-LB I left the STB bus tubs drying upside down at bar prep to facilitate one less thing for me to do on Saturday morning if you can just put them in the liquor room.  Trees needs an oat milk restock after STB when Baldor arrives.-LB Just an idea as now when people order at Trees Lounge for staff food, they may not pay because of discounting needed. I suggest added a Trees Lounge tab at lobby bar so MODs can quickly checkout staff that have clocked out and want to head out.-LB Customer Comments: A woman was very annoyed at ...

Manager Communication:  Really great tasting at Skurnik this morning. -LB The Zorba brine was in the walk in and was not strained on the 3rd. I strained it this evening, if Jenn can check the fortitude of the brine and make sure that it isn't overwhelming to that cocktail, it is the only one I have yet to try.-LB The sign that says no one under 21 is allowed on the mezz are 7pm has disappeared from Trees. I found it in the bar storage closet so it is back in place.-LB I love the new hooks in the hallway for coats.-LB There was a bar mat on bar prep I rinsed it and it is drying on the sink.-LB There is a soda stream bottle of unknown origin.  Does anyone know where my MSG water went that I made for bar prep? Opener will need to make change for the banks.-LB Dwight told me that the exit only doors are not magnetically locking again.-LB Customer Comments:  BAR Staff Observations: Patrick got out of here before 9 because it was slow. -LB FOH Staff Observations: Sick Leave/ ...

Manager Communication: Jenn, Gus and I went over our gameplan for the Bar staff meeting on Thursday. Looking forward to it! Jenn got us all prepared for Trivia, and James and Jared were aces on the floor. Night went very smoothly. - IP BAR Staff Observations:  Patrick did a nice open. Found that a lot of the glassware was kind of nasty. This must be related to Ariel's note about the lack of hot hot water at the end of the night. Going forward, let's try to pay a little closer attention to the state of the glassware as it's being put away - if we need to rewash the glassware it's easier to do that the next day rather than have to find and rerack all of the dirty glassware like Patrick had to today. - IP FOH Staff Observations: Dang, maybe a little less garlic in the meatballs next time? Staff meal got me all kinds of blegh tonight. - IP Special Events? Trivia was chock-a-block full, as per usual. Bryan is really great on the floor, and Patrick did a lovely job behind the...

Manager Communication: Chill day then got pretty poppin' after No Budge. Got Greg out as soon as that rush faded but definitely needed him. - AB2 BAR Staff Observations : Good crew today. Got Lydia out early and Maya rocked Lobby solo and Greg and Bryan crushed the event. - AB2 Prep List: I batched up - 3 Firewalk - Bounty Law - 1/2 Cherry Lime Slush - Tornado Wrangler - Honey Syrup We will need Negroni and Old Fashioned tomorrow. AB2 Lost & Found?: Someone left a small black leather purse on Saturday and came in looking for it today. We had no luck but here's her info... "Lauren Hobby brown wallet (917)755-2799 Saturday Night Theater 7" - AB2 Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: We have Baldor coming in tomorrow. Lots of juices coming. - AB2 Maintenance: Dishwasher was not getting very hot tonight. I turned the hot water to get it cranking but was still not the best. I only had about 4 racks that did not seem clean enough so did not seem a big deal but wanted to note in ...

Manager Communication:   Wyatt was at large and in charge. Ariel came in around noon and held it down. It was Guys Nite until Carly showed up. Lots of support on the floor today, though I do believe we were a bit short -GS Took some time to check levels on the trees special cocktails / cheaters, also restocked the wines in the walk-in while things slowed down during the last round. James and Dee absolutely killed it on the floor tonight. - IP Customer Comments:   Holy Dogman. So many families coming out. -GS Still noticing a lot of young guests on the mezz after 7. I've encountered many times now a few members of a given party will be over 21 and the other friends with them are not - just noting here to get security/management to sweep the mezz with a tad more frequency after 7p. - IP BAR Staff Observations: The dinner round was busy but everything really petered out after 8p. Patrick and Jeshua were able to easily handle Trees Lounge and Darius had a chill evening in the lobb...

Manager Communication:  Service started off with a very busy  The Fall screening in Th1, and it remained busy throughout the rest of the day.  Dogman was basically sold out for every screening, and The Brutalist sold well for both of its rounds in Th2.  Trees had some guests in the morning, and really filled up at around 3:00pm.  Lots of groups with lots of kids. JH Dogman continued to crush throughout the dinner round, coupled with extremely sold smaller theaters. Manager presence was on point - Dee is a pleasure to have on board the management team! - IP Customer Comments:  A guest in the 1:00pm Dogman in Th2 asked to speak with a manager after the movie was over.  I spoke with her, and she said that there had been a child in the screening barking loudly throughout the movie.  She had alerted a server during the preshow and was told management was dealing with it, and she seemed disappointed that the barking child was not removed from the th...