New Bar Rescue

hello everybody hi everybody Jamie and Marcus here welcome back to uh building your dream restaurant and uh this is our little show our podcast 15 minutes to a half an hour um what we've learned and how what we should share about the Russian and working together working being entrepreneurs together and building our what we enjoy doing right because everybody's enjoyment is completely different um and so

we enjoy bringing great food great drinks traveling um and and all of the things that go around all of that so all right so I have a question here oh boy we went out the other night went to a place that had it was a bar they've had a bar and I couldn't figure out they're leasing the bar out to another space now it's like an

amusement Place games and stuff like that at least in the market another place and I want you to sort of subscribe their Brit so from what I take it number one we don't know their brand I know you were like what's the brand we have no idea who they are a bar just a bar she's a bar and supposedly another restaurant has come in to run

the bar and the kitchen is what we're understanding right so it's a new operator in this amusement and it's just opened just that weekend so it's a new operator it's a local a local another local bar or something somewhere else or it was open somewhere else it's not really oh it's another bar operator they have a bar somewhere else and they're operating in there they already

have no location yes okay yes know that yes and I went to the bar a couple times yes didn't know that but you wouldn't know that because it's totally different yeah like what are they doing wrong now oh gosh so many things uh number one I want your insights operation okay so let me give a little brief overview so it is in an amusement type um

situation there's some kid activities um there's adult activities obviously the bar um and they have food um and it's kind of attached to this this um this Center and uh you walk in and then there's the bar um so there were a few observations that I made um I went up and ordered um a drink um and it was not um it wasn't very friendly it

was not friendly at all it was very uh what's what's the word it's uninviting um so it's very uninviting um the bar is a mess um there are there are bottles everywhere there were are they busy um would I say they were busy maybe for them they were busy for their opening weekend for them for them they were busy um they definitely weren't busy there were

two bartenders and there were two sections of the bar so each section had the same things on it but they both seem to be working in the same area so they weren't utilizing the whole bar at all and there were two servers and 10 people at the bar maybe there were maybe 20 people that were drinking all together kind of in the seating area as well

um so overall busy say they were they were steady excuse me they were steady because they weren't bad we weren't packed it wasn't like a pack bar um number one the the bartenders did not smile at all they were extremely extremely unfriendly um and they were very very very slow um it seems to me that they're using a new system right that they're not used to

in terms of taking payments and things like that they don't have a system for recording what people have had already um to drink and um they're just all over the place like they just didn't seem to have a any rhythm um they they didn't even seem like they had ever really been making drinks before they were out of limes you know they didn't even have limes

for drinks I ordered them they didn't have any limes um so they just seemed very Saturday night this was a Saturday night and they gave me a lemon and the lemon was slimy and I took it out and I gave it back to them um because I was like I I don't want that so I don't know how long they were open for they just seemed

very all over the place um there was no management there we asked them to we were watching a football game we asked them to change the football game on a TV and they said well we don't we can't do that we don't have we don't have the ability to do that but I'll ask somebody they never came back and followed up with us they never even

you know responded right because we were sitting on a table and the one side had the game we were watching on but not every single to one side of our table so we were around the table the other people viewing there was nobody really viewing the other TVs was the same game on both geez both TVs were next to each other with the same game on

all right so we were just like take the one channel one TV and put the other game on that we're all walking it was a different game and our answer was I don't have control over that she never even asked nor did she ever even come back over so my question was well like who does have control right who doesn't control yeah right no idea so

so it seemed to me there was no management there was nobody there uh answering questions or helping them out or anything like that so it seemed very um unorganized extremely unorganized and they had no idea what liquor they had they had no idea where things were I would have at one point with a friend and he had the point where the bottle rise of the tequila

that he was trying to get he was like there that that's it right there I mean even at one point one bartender was making a drink and she moved the cup over and the other one came and poured something in it and it wasn't even her drink and I saw all of that happening and I I actually felt a little bad for them but they had

no personality so it was kind of hard to even like have a conversation with them they were just busy making drinks they were drink makers they weren't there to give you an experience at all and I would say that for me um going to this particular place um being able to do an activity you know a sport Sports type activity having a drink hanging out with

friends all kind of went together um into one I mean we were there for a birthday party so uh so it was just a a very interesting Dynamic um it wouldn't be a place that I would think of going back to because of that disorganization so I went up twice to get James I wasn't joking I was just real and whatever you were getting drinks or

something else so I was going I would stand there they didn't even acknowledge it and not even acknowledge me and she and they're just walking back and forth back and forth the bar the bar rail was filled with all dirty glasses every time I went up there were dirty glasses here's the thing they were using plastic glasses plastic plastic cups but all the bull bar rail

standing there and I'm the only one standing there I would say they were 25 occupied and and she's back there her head down like it's like she's washing things and and doing stuff and literally I was like okay so my first impression was well she's not the bartender she's just the bar back and she's like just cleaning glasses but then she looked up a minute later

two minutes later and when you're standing there for a minute it feels like a turkey shut up can I get you a drink yeah so realize she's one of the two bartenders over there and that experience happened twice and you know other people said it too because they were waiting to get water they were waiting to get another drink and there was no intro duction no

interactions the host of this who spent a lot of money experience that she couldn't even get water for her kids she wanted water for her because then she's like gonna get water for my kids I'm just standing here nobody's like acknowledging me and again they're only 25 occupied they're not they're not packed if it was packing I would want to feel something different so what is

so what is biggest takeaway here what is your biggest suggestion to them get organized and have some have a plan in place um so so when you say get organized okay things are behind the bar um you take the exception of the bar I'll take this section of the bar and smile right smile be happy that you're there they just looked miserable they looked miserable um

they they didn't seem like they even enjoyed their job and that that comes off on on your guests right like that comes off on the people that are waiting for drinks like they're not happy you know that they're waiting a long time and then you have a bartender who doesn't care you don't even want to leave them a tip you know like it's not you we

always even trip when we go out and especially because we're in the restaurant industry I never want to I never want to not leave a tip because we'll Flex on us but I gotta tell you I did not leave 20 20. I did not leave that at all I felt I felt like we were a bother to them we were a bother and so organization I

mean everything from start to finish I mean know where things are behind the bar know what section of the bar you're actually helping if there's going to be two of you then you need to know which section you're going to be helping you need to be organized on both sides so what I think it is is there's only one soda gun and it's at the corner

right but there's two sections of the bar where the same Liquors on each side right so I think soda gun is only on one side what I'm thinking it's in the wrong place it should be in the middle so that you can go back and forth um no I used to have a friend that worked in this place before was owned by only by these this

outfit and claim it for 500 a night tips which means it's an extremely packed busy bar Ry package bar uh events no I don't know how they I have no idea if they were even the place would have been that busy how they would have even survived yeah they probably they would not have survived it would it would have been a disaster losing it was actually

25 occupancy yeah so organization station so let's give an example of this to people so they make a drink then what happens after they move where does the bottle go where's the great where it came from right in the same spot everything should have a location on the bar um so I like that because when I went to the bar every time the bottles were turned

backwards and my friend actually had to tell him tell them that's where the teal is over there so that that's what I mean by organization um and then you know then the next thing is you're cleaning the dirty glasses off the bar while you're serving new glasses you're wiping the bar down the bar was dirty it was sticky um they I never saw them wipe the

bar down at all um so being organized and clean and smiling all of those things kind of go together um all into making the experience what it is um the for me a smile would have made a difference I felt they were they were bothered yeah now how about now Sona all the dirty glasses so let's say let's say they were kind of back there I

didn't see a sink did you see them I saw them I saw them so dump the glasses in their plastic throw them in the garbage glasses are on the bar were glass that they were very slow too because I I don't think they were organized which made them very slow and they were constantly turning around looking for then you have a handheld um you know uh

and you can't pay attention to all that and maybe it's because they were new maybe if we gave them another shot we went back maybe we'd see something completely different they were first-time bar owners I'd be like okay they have enough to learn but knowing that they now have a normal place tiger that's that's a tough one for me that's it but maybe that isn't that

they don't care like mortality so I like that word care they don't care I really like that word care so now who doesn't care the employees are the owner the owner because the owner if the owner doesn't care then the employees aren't going to care the only owner isn't taking the pride in it then then then there's no so I saw I saw what I would

appear to be a manager walking around there was a lady and then a guy they were throwing garbage out on the tables I couldn't I didn't know if they were they were working in the kitchen because we asked for a knife to cut the cake and they came out of the kitchen with it so they appear to be manager I definitely saw the person that was

clicking okay she was an older lady with an apron on I definitely saw her cooking because she brought out some food at some point but I had no idea they even had food we I there were no menus on the table at all I only knew because our friend had a menu at the bar she must have asked for a menu there were no menus at

the table at all she probably would have ordered something too try it out see how it is how much money you think they were losing by not being a lot of money a lot of money right because money the bar is I mean people are going to eat when they're at the bar right and we were sitting there watching the game we would have had you

know small things in front of us we ordered some stuff for the table you know that kind of stuff well Thomas joke that night was the yard sale tomorrow and and it's very slow but again only 25 off they would have made more money if they would have had a third person there walking around getting food for people asking people at the tables if they wanted

drinks I found that kind of annoying that I had to get up and go ask for what I needed right I felt like I was in a college bar but I really felt they would have made a lot more money if they want to Smiles yes simple smile symbols the most powerful we talked about this the most powerful sales tool ever doesn't matter your product knowledge

none of that matters the first and foremost is smile is what creates people when people walk into a door in a restaurant or they sit in a bar this is the host is sitting up Alternative Market they know within a split second they're getting along based upon the energy of a person and when you smile your whole energy you're holding me or everything changes it's impossible

to fake a smile you can try it but people know and it's not when you do a real smile to somebody yeah it's totally legitimate and that right there is the number one sales tool yeah from there on you have a much better chance of things going right than wrong absolutely so I knew right away as soon as I walked through the bus we all knew

just look up at me and smile if you're busy I'll be right with you be right there that goes a long way that not even acknowledging you at here's our menu here's our food menu we'll be right with you I'm just like right and again maybe they're just so new I'm not sure um it definitely is a place that will give us a shot to because

you know we would um but but Smile Smile this is a big big take away from Marvel as well so um how can they find us so restaurants.com and go on there we have tons of content free information we'd love we love helping other restaurant tours we love sharing our knowledge we love sharing mistakes that front owners make so we love sharing those mistakes we love

all that kind of stuff so go there look at the shortcuts we've created and that's build your dream restaurant for life so this is Jamie and Marcus we appreciate you um listening watching however you're seeing this and uh we'll catch everybody soon goodbye