My second training shift was last night
Sep. 20th, 2003 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasSummary:
Overheard comment in my lounge: "That's a very good manhattan!"
Tess was training me again. I had some dinner at about 4:30 (decent pork ribs with barbecue sauce, a rather scary pasta-with-leftover-brisket which wouldn't have been that scary if I'd noticed what the meat was before eating it -- I was just thinking, "this isn't a meatball, this isn't a sausage -- what IS it?" before identifying it, at which point it was pretty good), and a really good curried chicken breast. Tess came in a bit later, and, at a bit before five when our shift would start, he sent me upstairs to set up, so he could finish eating. I got the keys, got the requisition sheet (each shift, you write out everything you're running low on, and the person who has the next shift brings it up from the beverage office), got the stuff on the rec sheet, took it upstairs, got ice from the kitchen, unlocked all the cabinets and cupboards, set up my speed rack, set up my bar tools, set up the back bar and the scotch display, put bottles of the house red wines on the wine rack next to the speed rackmade sure all my glasses were clean, logged into the serving computer, turned on the CD player, and set out napkins and so forth on the bar.
Tess wandered in a bit later, checked over everything, and didn't change anything. Only mistake I'd made is that I'm supposed to leave the rec sheet downstairs, not take it with me, but that's really doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Then we went down to the kitchen to find the fruit-and-cheese platter that we put up each night. Unfortunately the kitchen apparently hadn't made it up. Tess looked around for a while, and, eventually, one of the cooks gave him a different fruit-and-cheese platter -- a much more elaborate one than the one that the Comm Lounge is supposed to get. Which was great for us, but it means that someone else somewhere was short a platter -- but, that's Not My Problem, Man.
Tess was originally assigned to a function for Harvard Hall, the biggest function hall in the place. He was reasigned to training me. But it soon became clear that, while they reassigned Tess, they forgot to assign another bartender in his place. So they needed him there.
Fortunately Harvard Hall is right next to the Commonwealth Lounge. So he mainly worked there, and was dropping back in to check on me occasionally.
Then, a bit later, when Tess was with me, Ron Rice, one of the managers, came in to say that a party of twenty people on the third floor wanted drinks, and could Tess go up there to get drink orders.
So, Tess was officially working in three places -- Harvard Hall, the Commonwealth Lounge, and the third floor. I think that I was his lowest priority, because, as far as he could tell, the Commonwealth Lounge was in competent hands.
The manager from the downtown club showed up with three other people. I made two Tanqueray and Tonics, a Captain Morgan's and pinapple juice, and the last person told me that she'd never had a martini, but was told she had to try one. So I made her a somewhat dry dirty vodka martini ("dirty" means that you add some of the olive brine). She didn't like it, so I made her a greyhound instead.
As they were on their way out, I told her, next time, we'd find something she really liked -- and I figured out what I want to make for her: a sloe gin fizz, which is an underappriciated drink that I personally love.
Things worked well. I'm still learning the bar, but I'm working well with people, the members seem to like me, I seem to be doing a decent job.
Overheard comment in my lounge: "That's a very good manhattan!"
Tess was training me again. I had some dinner at about 4:30 (decent pork ribs with barbecue sauce, a rather scary pasta-with-leftover-brisket which wouldn't have been that scary if I'd noticed what the meat was before eating it -- I was just thinking, "this isn't a meatball, this isn't a sausage -- what IS it?" before identifying it, at which point it was pretty good), and a really good curried chicken breast. Tess came in a bit later, and, at a bit before five when our shift would start, he sent me upstairs to set up, so he could finish eating. I got the keys, got the requisition sheet (each shift, you write out everything you're running low on, and the person who has the next shift brings it up from the beverage office), got the stuff on the rec sheet, took it upstairs, got ice from the kitchen, unlocked all the cabinets and cupboards, set up my speed rack, set up my bar tools, set up the back bar and the scotch display, put bottles of the house red wines on the wine rack next to the speed rackmade sure all my glasses were clean, logged into the serving computer, turned on the CD player, and set out napkins and so forth on the bar.
Tess wandered in a bit later, checked over everything, and didn't change anything. Only mistake I'd made is that I'm supposed to leave the rec sheet downstairs, not take it with me, but that's really doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Then we went down to the kitchen to find the fruit-and-cheese platter that we put up each night. Unfortunately the kitchen apparently hadn't made it up. Tess looked around for a while, and, eventually, one of the cooks gave him a different fruit-and-cheese platter -- a much more elaborate one than the one that the Comm Lounge is supposed to get. Which was great for us, but it means that someone else somewhere was short a platter -- but, that's Not My Problem, Man.
Tess was originally assigned to a function for Harvard Hall, the biggest function hall in the place. He was reasigned to training me. But it soon became clear that, while they reassigned Tess, they forgot to assign another bartender in his place. So they needed him there.
Fortunately Harvard Hall is right next to the Commonwealth Lounge. So he mainly worked there, and was dropping back in to check on me occasionally.
Then, a bit later, when Tess was with me, Ron Rice, one of the managers, came in to say that a party of twenty people on the third floor wanted drinks, and could Tess go up there to get drink orders.
So, Tess was officially working in three places -- Harvard Hall, the Commonwealth Lounge, and the third floor. I think that I was his lowest priority, because, as far as he could tell, the Commonwealth Lounge was in competent hands.
The manager from the downtown club showed up with three other people. I made two Tanqueray and Tonics, a Captain Morgan's and pinapple juice, and the last person told me that she'd never had a martini, but was told she had to try one. So I made her a somewhat dry dirty vodka martini ("dirty" means that you add some of the olive brine). She didn't like it, so I made her a greyhound instead.
As they were on their way out, I told her, next time, we'd find something she really liked -- and I figured out what I want to make for her: a sloe gin fizz, which is an underappriciated drink that I personally love.
Things worked well. I'm still learning the bar, but I'm working well with people, the members seem to like me, I seem to be doing a decent job.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-20 11:04 am (UTC)I love it when people talk about things they're good at.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-20 11:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-20 11:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-20 11:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-20 11:41 am (UTC)Straight bourbon is my usual, that or straight single-malt.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-20 11:47 am (UTC)BTW, what's a greyhound? I'm only familiar with the four-legged variety.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-20 12:50 pm (UTC)the people. Sounds the rest is simply mechanics that
will get easier as you go along. Good to to hear
you sound so positive about this.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-20 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-21 02:19 pm (UTC)