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xiphiasSo, two Thursdays back, I tended bar at MIT. Showing up, I had no idea what the event would be -- which is normal. I don't find out what I'm doing until I'm there -- and I only find that out because I make it a point to ask. For the most part, event organizers don't care if the bartenders and waitstaff know what's going on. But I care, so I find out. It helps me make a mental model of what the evening will be like, helps me prepare, anticipate what might be needed.
If it's a dinner for thirty doctors and insurance managers to discuss fee structures, I'll set my bar up differently than I would for a wedding for two hundred, or a bar mitzvah, or a grad student get-together. And events have "event sheets", which say how many people are going to be there, what the name of the person or group holding the function is, what time people will show up, what time food will be served and what food it is, what sort of bar the folks have paid for, and so forth. So I always make sure to take a few moments to find an event sheet (there are usually some floating around SOMEWHERE) and read it, and figure out how I'm going to do things.
I reported to the MIT Faculty Club. You may know the building as the Sloan Center, or Building E51, but, to me, the important part is the sixth floor Faculty Club, which is where the catering office is. Usually, the functions I work are at the Faculty Club, but sometimes, we load all our food and booze and stuff into the truck and drive to somewhere else on campus.
This event was going to be held at the MIT Museum. And it was held by a group called "Yelp!" I asked what "Yelp!" was, and Will said that it was some sort of marketing thing.
And that all the booze was donated (that means that the client provides their own liquor, rather than using MIT's supply), so we didn't have to bring any of that. Will suggested that it would probably be a fairly easy night.
There were four bartenders, and two servers, and a guarantee for four hundred guests.
So, it turned out that the function was two things: a party that Yelp.* was hosting to get their name and service out into the world, and a sponsored product event by Bushmills Irish Whiskey.
I started to suspect that Will might not have really understood what we were going to be in for.
But I did, and I felt pretty comfortable with it.
As it was a promotional event, the only booze available was Bushmills Black and Harpoon UFO. Since those were the companies that were promoting themselves. And Yelp.* was promoting themselves. So I figured that, since I had the business cards made up, it wouldn't be so bad if I promoted myself, too . . .
Now, I had the only bar downstairs -- there were two bars upstairs. And I was the bar nearest the entrance. So I braced myself to be slammed when the doors opened. And I was -- but, with choices limited to "beer", and "Irish whiskey, with or without a mixer", I could burn through the line in nothing flat.
The line was long, but it was moving. Will saw that the line was long, so threw the fourth bartender behind the bar with me.
You familiar with Brooks's Law? "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." Apparently, it works with bartending, too, and for much the same reason.
See, if I had known that I'd be working with another person, I'd have set the bar differently. The bar was big enough to handle two bartenders, but I only set it up as a single-person station. Also, that particular bartender had forgotten her tools, and so had to share mine.
If you only have one bottle opener, two people can't serve beer faster than one person. If you only have one set of whiskey bottles, two people can't serve beer faster than one person.
You can get SOME speedup by having one person doing beers and one person doing whiskey -- but not much, since then you have the bottleneck of getting orders and communicating between the two of you. So, in general, I'd have been faster working on my own.
Having two of us working DID allow one of us to go and run for another box of beers, or more ice, or the like.
I noticed that some of the crowd looked uncomfortably young to me, so I started doing spot ID checks. I'd been told that they had a doorman outside checking IDs, but, y'know, it's my responsibility, too. . . .
I went outside and asked the doorman if he had training in detecting fake IDs. He didn't. I commented that I'd checked a couple IDs which turned out to be Georgia IDs, for people who didn't have Southern accents -- and the Georgia ID is one of the easier ones to fake. He promised to be more careful about that, and that was that.
If it's a dinner for thirty doctors and insurance managers to discuss fee structures, I'll set my bar up differently than I would for a wedding for two hundred, or a bar mitzvah, or a grad student get-together. And events have "event sheets", which say how many people are going to be there, what the name of the person or group holding the function is, what time people will show up, what time food will be served and what food it is, what sort of bar the folks have paid for, and so forth. So I always make sure to take a few moments to find an event sheet (there are usually some floating around SOMEWHERE) and read it, and figure out how I'm going to do things.
I reported to the MIT Faculty Club. You may know the building as the Sloan Center, or Building E51, but, to me, the important part is the sixth floor Faculty Club, which is where the catering office is. Usually, the functions I work are at the Faculty Club, but sometimes, we load all our food and booze and stuff into the truck and drive to somewhere else on campus.
This event was going to be held at the MIT Museum. And it was held by a group called "Yelp!" I asked what "Yelp!" was, and Will said that it was some sort of marketing thing.
And that all the booze was donated (that means that the client provides their own liquor, rather than using MIT's supply), so we didn't have to bring any of that. Will suggested that it would probably be a fairly easy night.
There were four bartenders, and two servers, and a guarantee for four hundred guests.
So, it turned out that the function was two things: a party that Yelp.* was hosting to get their name and service out into the world, and a sponsored product event by Bushmills Irish Whiskey.
I started to suspect that Will might not have really understood what we were going to be in for.
But I did, and I felt pretty comfortable with it.
As it was a promotional event, the only booze available was Bushmills Black and Harpoon UFO. Since those were the companies that were promoting themselves. And Yelp.* was promoting themselves. So I figured that, since I had the business cards made up, it wouldn't be so bad if I promoted myself, too . . .
Now, I had the only bar downstairs -- there were two bars upstairs. And I was the bar nearest the entrance. So I braced myself to be slammed when the doors opened. And I was -- but, with choices limited to "beer", and "Irish whiskey, with or without a mixer", I could burn through the line in nothing flat.
The line was long, but it was moving. Will saw that the line was long, so threw the fourth bartender behind the bar with me.
You familiar with Brooks's Law? "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." Apparently, it works with bartending, too, and for much the same reason.
See, if I had known that I'd be working with another person, I'd have set the bar differently. The bar was big enough to handle two bartenders, but I only set it up as a single-person station. Also, that particular bartender had forgotten her tools, and so had to share mine.
If you only have one bottle opener, two people can't serve beer faster than one person. If you only have one set of whiskey bottles, two people can't serve beer faster than one person.
You can get SOME speedup by having one person doing beers and one person doing whiskey -- but not much, since then you have the bottleneck of getting orders and communicating between the two of you. So, in general, I'd have been faster working on my own.
Having two of us working DID allow one of us to go and run for another box of beers, or more ice, or the like.
I noticed that some of the crowd looked uncomfortably young to me, so I started doing spot ID checks. I'd been told that they had a doorman outside checking IDs, but, y'know, it's my responsibility, too. . . .
I went outside and asked the doorman if he had training in detecting fake IDs. He didn't. I commented that I'd checked a couple IDs which turned out to be Georgia IDs, for people who didn't have Southern accents -- and the Georgia ID is one of the easier ones to fake. He promised to be more careful about that, and that was that.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-13 03:23 am (UTC)Black Bush is nectar of the gods. It is so good! In Florida, was pretty cheap, going for $25.00 a bottle near Sunset Pt. and 19.
Out here in NM, it's $37.00 a bottle, if you can even find it. Am lucky my local grocery store has a decent whisky selection. Still, with the price here, I keep the Bushmills for a special treat and use Tullimore and Knob Creek for regular use.
You have a very cool job. Except for living in town and having to deal with people. Other than that, it sounds pretty cool.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-13 04:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-13 10:56 am (UTC)*I had a very memorable exchange with one MIT student who told me -- to my face -- that I was simply not as intelligent as he was (in spite of attending one of the highest ranked liberal arts colleges in the country) because my college did not require its students to study calculus. If memory serves, I answered something like "Yes, but we're required to be able to write and speak coherent English, which is beyond you."
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-13 03:39 pm (UTC)I forget, does your card say you have TIPS training?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-13 04:32 pm (UTC)There is no way to verify student IDs; they're not secure ID in any reasonable sense.
Bartending
Date: 2008-04-10 02:59 pm (UTC)Andy Barman
http://www.bartendings.com