NPP Bar Blog

Manager Communication: Put out a case of shot glasses, pints, rocks, new ice bucket, bullets for picklebacks. -LB Set for the meeting tomorrow. Everything is made and ready except for JImmy the Gent. New frozen machine is filled with the two new frozens - I wasn't able to fully test the freeze, but whoever is in first can just turn the machine to slush and by the time the meeting starts they should be good to go. - IP BAR Staff Observations: Gab and Danny work very well together. Sam has a pretty bad attitude a lot of the time and could make a concerted effort to work towards some warmer customer service. Jeshua was set it and forget it in the lobby as per usual. Smooth night. - IP FOH Staff Observations: Gil crushing it in theater 4/6/-LB 86ed / counts on items: Officially 86 High Noon and Stout Cans. - IP Prep List: double batch bloody concentrate, hibiscus tea, Suck it Nature, Iced Tea Concentrate, last two cheaters for new menu. -LB Demerara, honey syrup.-LB I made more simple...

Manager Communication: Gus went to town with the Spinzall and other preparatory measures for the forthcoming menu change. The clarified ginger whiskey is gonna slap. - IP Gotham Shorts had a good afterparty crowd for the first block of shorts. Other than that and a well sold dinner round, it was a relatively chill night. - IP BAR Staff Observations: Gotham Shorts had a thirsty crowd after the first bloc. Lydia stuck around to help with the theater rush and Tevon and Darius handled the after-screening drinkers easily. Greg cruised through lobby. - IP Prep List: After the bars went to bed I got a jump on some menu change stuff - made batches of How to Train Your Dragon, Pineapple Express and ORANGE MOCHA FRAP - but couldn't find enough Creme de Cacao, so the batch is labeled "NEEDS 12oz CREME DE CACAO". Tomorrow we'll need to make more demerara and then an OF keg. - IP Over/Short on Banks: Lobby bar was "over" $19.60, but then when we did the shift review i...

Manager Communication:  Birdgate: well I am gutted I have not caught my new friend Jack Sparrow yet. He landed on my hat earlier and I thought our bond would carry us through. I will try again after this Coyote vs. Acme screening, but it is sad. I worry for his little well-being. He is a baby sparrow. -LB There were no further bird sightings in Th4 this evening, and we opted not to leave out the birdseed bait cambro overnight in case some four-legged friends crawled in instead.  The cambro is in the liquor room if openers want to leave it in Th4 before doors to see if we can find out if our winged friend is still in Th4. JH  Surprisingly busy Monday night.  The first three screenings in Th1/2 were fairly mellow, but the last three were almost completely sold out.  Definitely kept the service pass bustling from 6:30-9:30pm. JH Customer Comments:  Had two guests from the first round Th4 screening come to Lobby and ask for a refund on their tickets because the...

Manager Communication: Trees filled up later on in the evening in spurts, but nothing like yesterday's wall to wall. This kind of rain luckily keeps people home more since we are still down a person. -LB When it comes to putting color to menu items, please be mindful of people with color blindness.  This has been one of the higher priority concerns of servers as it would help them get faster at finding things. It really isn't a time consuming endeavor that would gain a lot of favor within the company. And it would also be very helpful to a lot of people. -LB Customer Comments: BAR Staff Observations: Natasha and Greg are beasts. There was no relief until 2:30 and neither one of them complained, asked for a break- really awesome and setting the tone for everyone else today.-GS They did long shifts. They are both rockstars. Appreciate the teamwork in total.  Knibbs did a smart thing and pre-authed Alex M when he placed his staff food and I placed the discount and ran it when I ...

Manager Communication: The rain definitely kept post-movie crowds chilling at Trees, which kept the space just as busy as the theaters.  Lots of big crowds, a couple of impromptu parties, but nothing ever became too overwhelming.  Service was pretty constant after 1:00pm though.  Looks like we sold just over 2400 tickets, which is a busy busy day all around. JH After bars were shut down, it sounded like a keg fell in the walk-in, no one was in there. Nothing fell and the beer line is clicking slowly non-stop. I tried to get it to stop. I don't know why it started. No one ran the draft lines. -LB Customer Comments: BAR Staff Observations:  Greg+ Tevon did a great job setting themselves up for success throughout the first round, and both bars were able to do a quick restock once Lydia got in.  Greg is becoming a Lobby Bar brunch machine, and both Tevon + Lydia made quick work of a very busy bar and service passes.   Once Jeshua was set up to close downs...

Manager Communication: Solid Open Lots of forward motion toward menu change and such. Looking good.  If it is at ALL possible to have it say THEATER 1 and THEATER 2 at the top of the ticket the way it does on the kitchen tickets that would be extremely helpful. This is a service issue at TREES for sure during busy times. It will lead to mistakes.  There are also lots of handhelds still printing multiples ie. 2 lemonades vs lemonade lemonade. It seems across the building and across menu. So I think a fine eye to just make sure that is all worked out or things may get missed. The non-consistent nature of it, will in fact lead to mistakes.  The handhelds at Trees are also difficult to use without any color differentiation in the BAR COCKTAILS CATEGORY. If you could take the notes from the people doing the serving it would be super helpful for us. We are a little older and we are using tiny little machines that slow us down. If we could sit down and make some choices Gil to j...

Manager Communication: Chill open, Wyatt and I got that done (Wyatt was very helpful) Pretty relaxed evening. Decent bar crowd for Perfume. Busy drink rushes and some frantic energy behind the bar when I first came in but things settled down. - IP Customer Comments:  Sent two popcorns to the crew that intro'd Perfume tonight. Darla and (?) - super regulars. - IP BAR Staff Observations: Solid Crew Sam was a total rockstar tonight. He's got great hustle and takes on a lot of the load when he's behind Trees. I think we should be mindful of making sure that people don't take advantage of that hustle and not meet him there at that same level. - IP FOH Staff Observations: Brian is incredible. Whenever his theaters are settled he actively looks for ways to assist his fellow servers. I saw him running drinks all over the building, and even reorganizing some of the cardboard in the dumpster to make more room for Vlad and the porter crew. The dude is an angel - I gave him a toke...

Manager Communication:  I ordered a new baffle for the lobby ice machine from Webstaurant, keep your eyes peeled for this one. The one in lobby bar looks like a tiny Kool Aid man busted out of it. -LB I spray painted the A frame today, so I can rewrite it on Friday to be less Summer movie quotes. I am leaving it to dry in the liquor room.-LB  Had a bit of a pop at Trees with the pre-screening crowd for Zoolander , but it was pretty sleepy at the bar after that. JH BAR Staff Observations:  Danny and Sam super smooth open. -LB  Sam got out of here once Jeshua all set down at lobby, and Danny stuck around until the Zoolander crowd had gotten through their first service push.  Gabrielle + Jeshua closed each bar without issue. JH Staff Meeting Agenda notes: Reminder for opening bartenders to put the $10 of quarters in the bank in to the drawer when opening.  More info under Over/Short on Banks below, but it caused some confusion during Lobby's close tonight. JH...

Manager Communication: The old linen company I guess left a coat rack behind that ended up outside the MOD office which I guess then ended up inside the liquor room, so yesterday Chef Jared said just throw it out. I took it to bar storage with Rebecca since I think it is useful for private events as a divider and it is of good quality. -LB The Tuesday FWWM special button and the Trivia special button specifically are NOT PRINTING during trivia. So another weird issue.-LB Aside from some weird snafus with food items being dropped at the wrong tables, and some missing or improperly routed buttons, our first Toast Trivia went off without too many hitches. Becca and Christine are just so fantastic to have on the floor during busy Trees events and Lauren stuck around super late getting stuff done for upcoming stuff and also being able to jump in to change kegs or grab stuff for the bars. Great teamwork on the management side tonight. - IP I reset the lobby handheld as per the instructions f...

Manager Communication:  THANKS FOR THE TRIVIA LAYOUT. -LB Yussss. Will be VERY helpful tomorrow night. Toast was presenting some issues throughout the building as per usual, but on the bar side of things they seem to be picking it up. No Budge was the big ticket item tonight. Busy beforehand, and likely to be busy afterward. - IP Indeed it was VERY busy afterward. - IP I burned the ice in both ice machines and left them turned off for Dio to clean tomorrow morning. - IP BAR Staff Observations:   Danny and Patrick handled the No Budge crowd like champs. Lydia was lackadaisacal at best, deciding to chat with bar patrons while Patrick handled a very busy service bar solo (while Danny was on a break) - I had to call them back over to the pass several times. Danny is picking up Toast really fast - the handhelds made dealing with lots of close-outs very easy once you got in the swing of it (I helped back behind the bar for different spurts throughout the night - especially after Pat...

Manager Communication: Got in at 8:30 to try to resolve the frozen machine issue. More in maintenance below. Opened up with no issue. Rainy day drove ticket sales up quite a bit. Staffing has been on point.   Greg sold five gift cards to a guest doling them out as wrap presents for a short film (how cute!) but didn't make sure to get the CVV cards of the gift cards he gave out. Fortunately, he got the email of the person giving out the gift cards, so we just have to email him and ask him to send the numbers and CVV's so we can activate the cards. Very annoying, but easily solvable. Greg knows to make sure to get all of the information on the clipboard - it just wasn't readily available, so he took down the info he remembered but forgot the CVV. - IP My personal muscle memory for the Toast interface is coming back, the love/hate of certain things as well. But developing some speed for things like staff discounts and orders which is good because those can be time consuming. ...

Manager Communication:  Mellow morning.  Sales definitely picked up for the later rounds, with Resident Evil doing pretty well in the big theaters. JH I mentioned routing to the team on the bottom floor and Katherine asked about check printing. I assured them they could still print checks at lobby bar, just to be mindful of closing that door once no one is present for the sake of safety. Perhaps touching on this at the meeting on Thursday noting that the 3/5 side doesn't automatically lock, but the theater 7 side does. So they can know that if they all have to drop checks they have a place to print besides just the kitchen even after the ground floor is routed. -LB BAR Staff Observations: There was an issue with a guest, Wyatt spoke with her, but she was somewhat unhinged. She complained that Jeshua didn't help her to her liking. He advised her to consult her tickets, he did tell her the theater.  She came back afterwards and still had an issue with him and she took his ...

Manager Communication: Solid busy shift but not too busy. I decided to keep Natasha on tonight. I figured I would be called into a lot of theaters so I wanted a strong lead in Trees to close the bar tonight. - AB2 Customer Comments: Lots of customer confusion here with tabs on the phone and opening tabs. I think a lot of guests are unsure about things and are just confused by our service in general. I did not have too many issues. Most were pretty quickly and easily resolved. - AB2 FOH Staff Observations: Lots of simple staff errors. Not too bad but I think it was more due to staff not knowing a few simple things. I think the difference between colors with hold, sent, and running items was a big thing. I told all the peeps I could and Rebecca went and told a bunch of members of staff as well. I think simple things like this are the main reason for issues. I think some pictures of screens and steps would be helpful for servers. Also a quick run down of things when they clock in if it...

Manager Communication: Opened up with Gus. Got everything prepped for the event this evening. Drink is batched and set at bars. Menus or the event are printed and in stands for Trees and on tables for the theater. Toast continues to settle in. Made "Schedule A" the Resident Evil cocktail and Conrad swung by to snap some photos. Definitely seconding the earlier note about having a Trees Bar layout that the bar team will land on when they open up the POS. The team is continuing to compile missing buttons. Two that jumped out today were the $12 beer and burger special for Thursdays, and then a few odd liquors here and there (Ketel One, Casamigos). - IP   BAR Staff Observations: Gab and Jeshua opened up. Jeshua doing a long lobby. Chill day, but gearing up for the film festival afterparty this evening. - IP Natasha really led the way with troubleshooting any Toast issues during service, and was a welcome addition to the Tres closing team this evening.  Once the first film festi...

Manager Communication: Machines cleaned and repaired (de-gunked some interior tubing in one of the frozen machines and replaced the flange on the iced tea chamber in Trees lounge - the other three flanges haven't been worn down enough to warrant replacement). Went through opening up with Toast with Matthew and Sam. The cash drawers are set to have started the day at $0, but in order to open the drawer we have to put an amount in, so we entered the $300 of the bank - so the "cash expected" at the end of the night will include the $300 at top of day - just FYI.  TOAST RELATED NOTES:   QR codes started by guests are showing Chefs as servers on the checks.  Lobby bar handheld didn't have a printer, I added the one we need. Trees POS is not printing auth slips only showing authorization signage on the screen, which is fine if someone is in front of you, but ideally closing people out there will be important since it is a critical place of order taking and transactions, how...

  Manager Communication:  Got some leak fixes worked out today as a team between toast stuff.  Good things ahead. LB Things went very smoothly for Bar with Toast today, thanks in major part to NWB's Maiden Voyage yesterday and a team that is very smart and flexible. There are some flow headaches that will quickly resolve themselves - the main thing I can think of is having a spot on the back bar or next to the drawer where we can keep the handheld POS - and making sure the bartenders are taking the handheld back after the guests complete their transaction. Not a huge thing, but will help expedite closing out lots of guests when the bar is slammed. - IP Jenn Hickey is a LIQUOR ROOM DEITY. It looks so insanely organized and wonderful in there - thank you, Jenn!! - IP Customer Comments: The MOD blog will likely have more about the woman who had a full on episode after we cut her off, but here is the gist: She made aggressively flirtatious (this is euphemistic...) remarks to...

Manager Communication:  Going to pause making cheaters on ALL Trees cocktails. 86 as you need to.  I grabbed a box of bullet ramekins from the kitchen for the upcoming additional pickle backs we are adding to the Trees menu.  I will be grabbing the 5 gallon tub of pickle juice, with the assistance of Ian tonight.-LB Pickle juice acquired and stored in walk-in. Thanks Lauren for the fix on the frozen machine! Very mellow sales with the exception of "To Wong Foo". - IP BAR Staff Observations: Cut Lydia around 7:30 - Patrick and Danny were easily able to handle the Drag show rush. Tevon had a very chill evening in the lobby. - IP Cut Danny around 9:30 after the rush for "To Wong Foo" was over. Patrick handled the Trees close, and Tevon the lobby, with ease. - IP FOH Staff Observations: Conner routinely shows why he has been promoted to lead. He is really great about being aware of what's going on with not just his theaters, but also those around him. Really wonde...

Manager Communication: Rainy Sunday - "Shrek" sales really spiked with the weather. Otherwise, business levels are remaining smooth til the afternoon. Wyatt and I got the building opened for brunch, no sweat. - IP Similar sales to the past couple of days.  Smaller theaters selling out and the large theaters hovering somewhere around 80-100 tickets during the busier rounds.  We played the US Open at Trees, but did not turn on sound.  Overall, drink service went smoothly and it was a pretty sedate, early night. JH BAR Staff Observations: Greg and Nat opening lobby and Trees, respectively. Looking at the showtimes and the business levels, I decided to push Tevon and Patrick both back to 2p and 4:30p. Will decide if we need to keep Duan on or not, depending on sales growth by later this morning. - IP We ended up not cutting any bartenders today, and it worked out across the board.  Both openers were here until about five or so, and Tevon was able to clock out to comple...

Manager Communication:  Chill day in the larger theaters, with The Departed leading the charge for the first round, and Coyote + Tony filling up some of the smaller theaters.  Practical Magic 2 definitely has some folks coming out to see it, but none of the daytime showings came close to selling out the larger theaters.  The drink special is very popular though! JH A guest with a to-go box asked me for a bag on her way out in the Lobby. I went to the Kitchen and grabbed a lil stack and put em behind the Lobby bar above the bins where we have shirts for sale. I think it's handy to have on deck for when people ask for a bag on their way out. - AB Customer Comments:  Had a guest come in hoping to purchase tickets for the 6:30pm PM2 , but she would be bringing her two-year-old.  She came by in person to ask about the possibility and I explained that unfortunately we would not be able to sell her child tickets for that showing.  I explained our Hawks w/ Babi...

Manager Communication: Pretty chill transition- Jenn and I worked through some inventory stuff. Great handoff. Sleepy night. Theater 2 popped. That was kinda it. Customer Comments: BAR Staff Observations: Knibbs and Matthew opened. Really chill day. Natasha killed it tonight FOH Staff Observations: Siete was in great spirits. Staff Meeting Agenda notes: Matthew Soler asked for some adjustments with the floor mats. Going to speak to him about this. 86ed / counts on items: We are light on Cab Sauv, but that is okay. We have more at NWB and its coming off very soon Prep List: I made 4 FWWM, Simple, OF Keg, Changed some kegs around The remaining Elijah Craig case was for 1L bottles. I'll order Four Roses for Tuesday- however, we will be without the big boys, so just use Old Bardstown (its cheaper anyway) Over/Short on Banks: Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: union + us foods + Sarene Maintenance: The Alt Endings keg was really difficult to change- also we are having issues with the Old Fas...

Manager Communication: Busy morning. Everyone in the Toast meeting at Trees got to witness my fraught battle with the Frozen Machine's temperature gauge. Nearly at the point of giving up, I was finally able to get the plate that holds the spring and unit in place detached and successfully replaced the gauge. I reassembled the machine but left the chambers empty at Gus' request to utilize them for testing out our new menu items. Conrad swung by for a PM2 specials photoshoot.  Wyatt swooped in to help me out by getting the building set up while I was busy. - IP BAR Staff Observations: Gab and Greg opened up - very sleepy until the special event tonight. Swung Greg up to Trees after Family Meal and Sam flew the lobby bar solo. - IP Gabrielle got out of here once the special screening had loaded in to Th2, and Greg stuck around until post-Q&A so that Matthew had some extra hands at Trees.  The event ran over by about 20-30 minutes, so I ended up holding on to Greg longer tha...

Manager Communication: Chill open with James.  Customer Comments:  BAR Staff Observations: Matthew is great. So is Danny. Opened like champs. Gabrielle and Jeshua closed. It got kinda busy around 7:45pm, but no one was ordering anything, Gabrielle had it under control. FOH Staff Observations: Hiring/Training: None Sick Leave/ Call outs: Jenn is sick. Feel better! Special Events None Staff Meeting Agenda notes: 86ed / counts on items: 86 chilled red, GF Soda (the keg was flat and I forgot to turn the gas on when I plugged it in today- my fault on that)  Final keg comes tomorrow Prep List: I made Princess Peach, 4 lemonades Over/Short on Banks: Pay Outs: $300-Employee Loan 1250 Lost & Found?: Ordering/Receiving/Shipping: Union arrived Tomorrow we have Empire, Manhattan, Baldor Maintenance: Mobilebytes Issues: Filmbot Issues:

Manager Communication:   Smooth Open- Jared, Jeremy and I opened with ease - GS Becca and Christine make managing Trivia a breeze. Theaters were chill, which made a busy night in the lounge feel easy (but mainly thanks to the awesome Tuesday night team, top to bottom). - IP BAR Staff Observations:   Tevon is a great opener. - GS Darius is so good with the guests. So friendly and makes everyone feel at ease. He, Tevon and Duan were excellent tonight, and Greg was totally self sufficient in the lobby. Great night. - IP FOH Staff Observations: Alejandra is one of our strongest servers. Fast, efficient, thorough, kind, calm - just A+ all around. - IP Special Events:   Trivia. - GS Trivia was well attended but not as much of a madhouse as it has been in the past. The theater sales being relaxed always helps when the lounge guests demand a lot of attention - either way, slammed or not, the Trivia Team absolutely crushes. I added a little lemon juice to the "Debbie's Dreamsicle...

Manager Communication:  Pretty sleepy morning. The lobby music was not coming on. Aside from The Departed screening, very mellow Labor Day, sales wise. - IP Customer Comments:  I got a walkie call for the lobby. A guest was very distraught. They were in a TH6 of  Tony (1st round.) The pair were a special needs guest and their caretaker. It happened during the movie, she reported that her client (the lady with special needs) was finishing up her soda and the guest next to them passed comment and it sent the guest with special needs into a tailspin. The guest ended up running away, but their caretaker stayed back. They had their stuff in the theater. The caretaker was in shock and had a hard time explaining what happened, what they consumed and what they didn't. I comped their drinks- sent them credits, she kept complaining and asking about special accommodations for her client. We talked through it. I did my best to show empathy and compassion. The situation was strange as...

Manager Communication: Opened up with Wyatt. Unremarkable. - IP Christine rules. Awesome presence on the floor. - IP Service definitely picked up for the later rounds, but nothing that was unmanageable.  It was primarily the smaller theaters selling very well and later rounds of Coyote vs. Acme growing in sales in the evening.  Five bartenders was perfect, so great call on bar staffing. JH BAR Staff Observations: Greg got the memo about keeping the theater 7 well unopened until replacement. Tevon at Trees. LDW Sunday looking relaxed. - IP Ticket sales grew decently for the day but everything remained calm and easy. Got Tevon out of here and swung Greg up to Trees around 4:30, can probably get Greg out of here right when Jeshua gets in at 5. - IP Both lobby + Trees were pretty busy with guests and the service pass from about 6-7, but everyone kept up with the pace without issue.  Sam has really come into their own at the service pass and Jeshua is a closing machine....

Manager Communication:  Very easygoing morning, with the first two rounds staying relatively mellow.  It was an absolutely beautiful day outside this morning, which I'm sure contributed to a dip in walk-in ticketing. JH Customer Comments: There was a customer named Lauren who really didn't like her Piadina. I spoke with her. She was really nice. I think she just wanted to be heard. I took it off her bill and tried to send drinks, but they were content. -GS BAR Staff Observations:  Greg+Matthew rocked out two very lowkey rounds, and once Danny was able to do an afternoon restock for Trees I sent him down to lobby and got Greg out of here.  Once Sam came in, they went down to lobby until Jeshua had gotten a lobby restock in, and Danny went back to Trees and Matthew got out of here. JH I pushed back Sam and Patrick tomorrow. Unless there is an illness or we get slammed, lets plan on cutting Patrick. Its pretty slow and Sam is very motivated for tomorrow. FOH Staff Obser...

Manager Communication:  Easy open. Jared, Jeremy and I opened with ease -GS Very sleepy Friday night. I think Coyote v Acme might actually have some legs due to really good word of mouth - the dinner round was rippin' tonight. Otherwise a nice end of summer Friday. - IP The lights at Trees Lounge were bumped up higher than they should be on the wall panel, so I adjusted them to their appropriate levels at the end of the night to avoid a laser lights show for the guests, as those dimmers are finnicky on their best day. - IP Customer Comments:  Tevon caught some kids trying to buy tickets to an R rated movie and notified me. They didn't get them.-GS BAR Staff Observations:  Great opening team. made some cuts (well 1)-GS Gabrielle is cut tomorrow- No one is pushed back. We feel good about the plan.-GS Matthew helped out with the big dinner round push and got outta here around 7:30. Tevon stuck around to help with a relatively light Friday night crowd (bolstered by US Open co...

Manager Communication: Got Lobby machines cleaned this morning. The FroCo chamber in Trees on the OTHER side is now acting up, so I will replace the temperature gauge ASAP - it will just be a little more invasive as I'll have to move the whole unit from the back bar to have space to work on it. I also replaced the broken nozzle on the sprayer in the dishpit at Trees. - IP The folks at NuCo FINALLY dropped off and installed our new N2 generator! It's sleek and smaller than the old one - I already have it labeled to make sure to not place anything on top of it. - IP Still waiting on Coca Cola to come by and take a look at the soda guns in the lobby. - IP BAR Staff Observations: Danny and Gab opened up. - IP Easygoing night, which meant I was able to get both Danny + Gabrielle out of here on the earlier side.  Jeshua + Matthew crushed solo service and closed each bar without issue. JH Special Events? ST&B.  This crowd showed up thirsty for MILK.  They went through twen...