Wednesday, March 2, 2005

A NEW BEGINNING.....

We have a new porter. His name is Abu (not his real name, of course) and he seems to be a nice enough guy. He definately seems eager to work and make a good impression, which I like. And he understands English, which is a huge plus. I began the morning by walking him through his duties and showing him where things are. Abu seems to catch on quickly, which works for me b/c quite frankly, I am not the most patient teacher (which is why I never became one). As I was going through the process, it became immediately clear to me that I need to learn where certain things are. When you have someone working for you for a long time, they develop their own system of doing things, putting things in certain places, etc. Once that person leaves, you have to figure out where everything is, which is what I found myself doing this morning. A pain in the ass, but a necessary evil. In any case, I'm just happy that we have a new porter. We'll see how long Abu lasts.

And while we are on the topic of porters, it's DAY 4 of the Rockstar Porter World Tour. Today we find our "celebrity" in the town of Intercourse, PA. My sources told me that Mr. Rockstar Porter chose to pull his '68 Volkswagon Bus into this town b/c he thought that he could actually score a little tail here. The local sheriff had to explain to him (via an interpreter) that Intercourse, PA was simply the name of the town, not a place where you could actually have intercourse. Needless to say, our Rockstar Porter was disappointed. The tour continues....

Working in the bar business, you often become the venting board for customers. They will share the good news in their lives as well as unfortunate events. As a good bartender, you have to be a good listener and be empathetic when possible. Case in point; last night, one of our Tuesday night regulars happened to be walking by with his best friend. I waved at them and they were going to walk by but decided to come in. We acknowledged each other and I noticed that one of the guys looked like he'd had a few cocktails in him. So I said to him "long night, eh?" At which point tears started welling up in his eyes. I knew right away something was wrong, so I asked if everything was alright. They shared that he just received bad news about a close friend of his who was tragically killed in an freak auto accident. The guy had just spoken to him a few days earlier to finalize plans for a trip to Europe the following week. So he was visibly shaken and very upset. He vented his feelings about the incident, asking the "why" questions that one would ask a tragic event happens. I felt really bad for him and shared my condolences with him. He's a really cool guy and it sucks to see someone you know in obvious pain, especially when you feel helpless to do anything but to be there for him....I hope he'll be okay.

There was an unusally large amount of women at the bar last night. Not sure if it was Ladies Night in Murray Hill, but it seemed like for awhile there it was like a 3-to-1 ratio (ladies to men). Of course, you'll get no complaints from me. that being said, i'd like to get some feedback from you guys on how to make the place more appealing to women. Ideas, constructive criticism, etc. Things that we could possibly implement in the future. I'm all ears.

That's it for now. I have to go back and check on Abu. March Madness is here and that means NCAA tourney time! Look out for more details on what we have planned for the March Madness.

NUFF SAID