Client changes and being flexible

So I was bartending an event for a very important client this weekend.  During the week leading up to the event there were multiple changes the client made as to bar location and guest count.   The bar was originally to be set up in a rented area outside.  Then I was told we would use the inside home bar.   Then was asked to bring my portable to make a second bar station.   

When I arrived I set up the portable then discovered another bartender was brought in to help who wasn't my staff.  

I created a cocktail program based on original information for guest count and menu items.  

The bottled water and club soda were not supplied until 2 hours into the event which was a difficult situation to pacify. 

The challenge:   Split supplies based on a one bar set up and smaller guest count between the 2 stations, then bring the surprise bartender up to speed on the drinks menu, recipes and determine what could and couldn't be made at the smaller second station, and manage my bar assistant and the new guy.  As well as keep the guests and host happy and worry free.  I was not very aware of the type of crowd ( wine drinkers, shots crowd, etc).  Nor did I know the alcohol preferences so that put me a little disadvantaged. 

The night went well.  Although I feel it was a bit rocky at the start.  The guests all seemed to enjoy themselves and the drinks.  My assessment: a mixed crowed of wine enthusiasts, high end old school drinkers.( manhatten, vodka and club) with the usual mixed drink people of fruity sweet enthusiasts. I felt that I couldn't deliver the 120% I strive to give.  With the challenges presented I felt I delivered 90-94% which I feel was not good enough for theses clients. They truly deserved the best a+ game I can deliver but I feel I was just and A.    

I think realistically it's more of needed better communications on my end.  Ask more questions and be more proactive in clarifying the client wants.  I could then have provided a supplies list to prevent lack of supplies.   

Cost consciousness and ergonomics with 1.75 liter bottles.

I am coming to the last quarter of the year.  One main lesson I've come to learn is that clients love to buy the giant 1.75 L bottles of alcohol in order to save money.  I completely understand their desire to keep cost down and buy in bulk to buy cheap.

However as a bartender I hate these bottles from a functional standpoint of view. 

The bottle weight is heavy for one handed pouring.  The size is difficult to grip and tip to pour.   The size also makes it difficult to pour into jiggers.   They put a lot of strain on the wrist. They over tilt and splash more than I want causing spillage and waste.  It really disturbed me to spill client supplies.  Makes me feel that I'm cheating the client.  But it also concerns me that my wrists and joints are being strained as well as those of the people I hire to help me.  

 I've been struggling with this for several months trying to figure out a good solution.  

Here is what I'm going to try the next time I have a 1.75L bottle or a bottle with oversized opening.  

The Oversized Spout .   Found theses and figured it would help reduce spillage and more accurate pours. 

Better control of the pour is how I'm working to Raise the Bar and toasting your spirits.  

 

Oversized Spout

What do you do to solve this issue?  

Weekend wedding cocktail tasting

This past Sunday I provided a cocktail tasting for a great couple.  

As part of my wedding service I great a signature cocktail based on my consultation with the couple.  I drive to their home and crate the drinks for them using all the ingredients I would use at their event. 

This couple had 2 criteria: Rum and blue.   I worked on this for a while and came up with 4 different drinks based on captain Morgan spiced rum and blue curaçao.    The tasting lasted about 1 hour and 45 minutes.   The bride and groom provided lunch.  The brides sister and boyfriend were also there to help with the de ion.  After tasting all the drinks the de ion was made.   Captain, Blue curaçao, peach schnapps, and orange vodka, topped with sprite.the name So Rum-mantic was chosen for there drink.   

After some discussion I also made their cocktail using non flavored rum.  This was to let them decide if the want to spend for the additional flavored vodka or use the vodka they already purchase.  While the flavor did change, the couple still enjoyed the drink and decided to go with non flavored vodka to work with the budget.   I also made the drink using fresh muddled blueberries.   This gives a good variety for them to taste. 

I had such a great time with thaes people.  Young new couple with a bright future ahead.  

It is truly a blessing to be chosen to participate in there special day.   

Lesson learned :  be prepared to make substitutions to help the clients with budget, time, and variety.  

I brought a couple extra ingredients specifically for this possibility.   

  Love her expression on how good the drink is! 

Vacation in Arizona - Arizona Distillery Product Tasting

So I recently spend a few days in Arizona.  The cocktail culture is really growing and becoming a great area to find some incredible craft cocktails.   Part of my vacation was a Whiskey tasting at the Arizona Distilling Co, located in Tempe, AZ.  My beautiful girlfriend set this up and it was an incredible experience.  My favorite product to taste was the  Bourbon.  Flavorful with hits of vanilla.   What really grabbed my attention was the Gin.  I'm not a Gin drinker, but this Gin was incredible.  No overpowering Juniper Berry smell or taste.  The first smell that you notice was lavender.  Very unique and tastes mellow enough to be palatable for me.  This company products will make some great cocktails.  I'm going to be recommending the gin for beginner gin drinkers.  I also plan to experiment with it on my own.  Thank you to my wonderful girlfriend for thinking of this cool activity. I recommend stopping by and tasting their product.  You will definitely want to buy a bottle and take it home.  Call to schedule a tour/tasting.  Be sure to like their facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/AZDistilling

Lessons in Margaritas

For this 4th of July, I spent it working a party in Stevenson Ranch.   Near magic mountain in Southern California.   The family has this event every year for the past 20 some years.  The normaly have a margarita machine to handle drink tasks, but this year decided to try a live bartender.   That was me.   Since they only wanted margaritas, I created a menu with 6 versions and a tequila sunrise.   

The challenge-  they family decided to use a mix then just add the tequila and done.  Instant margarita.   Now for the home drink, that is good enough.   But for my clients they deserve better.  I normally make margaritas with fresh squeezed lime juice, agave nectar, triple sec (Cointreau) and tequila.  Simple, clean tasty.   The mix says 4 ounces of mix with 1 ounce of tequila.  This doesn't cut it.   I had to experiment with the mix, triple sec, agave, and tequila ratios to make a refreshing, non-chemical tasting margarita.   So after a few tests here is what I came up with. 

1.5 oz tequila

0.75 triple sec

1/4 oz agave nectar

3 oz of mix

Shake everything together and strain into cup with ice.   Everyone loved this mix.  

For the fruit versions simply add a handful of the berries to the shaker and pick large ice pieces to smash the Berries with hard shakes.

A guest decided she wanted jalapeño / pineapple margaritas.  So she brought the ingredients with her.   I had no idea how to make this so I used my chemistry skills to figure it out.   Pineapple is acid so it needs balance by equal parts of the mix.  Then muddle in 2 jalapeño slices , and the rest of the ingredients and magic.   The margarita was a hit too.   

Lesson learned- don't be shaken when your normal ingredients are not available.  Be flexible! Be creative!   Clients will be appreciative.  

Giving more than what a client expects is what it is all about.  

Raising the bar and toasting your spirits.

Bartender Vince

A little bit of taking myself lightly

Bartender Vince movie premier.  

Juicing lessons from this weekend birthday party

I'm always looking to improve something in my services.   Recently I received an electric juicer.  I wasn't sure how using it would work out.  Mostly due to power needs.  Wasn't wanting to always need to plug into clients outlets and use their electricity.  Just seems a little wrong for me. So I read the power consumption needs of the juicer and it requires about 20-30 watts.  Next I pulled out the portable power/ car jumper I have and use to run my digital picture frame.  Turns out my power supply will out put up to 200 watts of power.   So I used my portable power source to run my juicer.  It used up 25 watts while juicing lemons and about 23 when juicing limes.   I needed to juice 3 times during the night without any issues from the power source or the juicer.   This made it possible to make 32 ouces of juice in about 10 minutes as opposed the hand juicer which takes a lot longer.   More efficient is always a plus.

I also have to say how excited I was when 2 guests at the party were checking my availability for dates in August to bartender their parties.   They loved my drinks, and my services.  I was even able to get out and dance with one of the guests.   So much fun and great people.  Just like family.  Hopefully the 2 dates will work out and I can help them with their events.

Willy Wonka Wedding Weekend

This weekend was a very unique wedding.   I bartended a Willy Wonka themed wedding that was really cool, colorful, and had some of the most warm hearted people I have ever met. I brought in my full bar set up.    Cocktails were themed and enjoyed by all.  It was a long drive to Escondido so I made the weekend out of it.  Visited local areas and enjoyed some R&R.

Some business lessons.  Estimating the amount of supplies needed is really hit and miss. It seems my estimates are high resulting in extra bottles and mixers.   I would like to get a better estimation going but cant seem to find much information on it from other bartenders in the business posted on the web.   Bevmo, wedding sights, books, all have differing methods of estimation, but they seem to mostly focus on the alcohol portion and not much on mixers, garnishes etc.   

Anyone have suggestions on better and more closely estimate the shopping list?

Any help is much appreciated.

Looking back on the wedding bliss

The last wedding I bartended was incredible.  Not only was the bride and groom two of the sweetest people I ever met, but their family and friends were too.  There were lots of raving comments of the drinks.  The signature cocktails were an incredible hit.  

On looking back I would say the night was full of golden nuggets of learning opportunities.  

1 - make every effort to see the venue prior to the event.  Their venue had wood floors in the area the bar was set up.  Thinking about this I wanted to protect the floors as best I could so the family would not be charged any fees.  I went to pep boys and purchased 2 rubber backed absorbamt mats. The are about 3x4 fr so they protected the whole area well.  

2 - take time out to take pictures with the people there.  They will have fun and you have promotional materials.  

3- don't dismiss technology.  I had my ipad at the bar. I used it to take photos and video of the party.  Now I uploaded it all to Dropbox so the couple can have them for their memories.  Also a bridesmaid used my ipad to log into her yelp account and gave me a review on the spot.  My ipad was PICELESS that night. Mm

4- know the surrounding area.  It was necessary to go out and purchase some extra supplies so knowing the closest store location was important.  

5- the fist two hours of service are the busiest.  The crowed slows down after that.  

6- there was still more left over supplies than I would like to see.  I need to fine tune my estimation sheets to better calculate the supplies needed.  

Till the next post.

Raising the bar and toasting your spirits!

Mad scientist night

I have a wedding with a Willy Wonka theme next month.  The menu will have 3themed drinks.  My idea was a a wonka bar cocktail, blueberry, and an orange colored cocktail.   The image was a willy wonka, violet, and Oompa Loompa named drinks.   I spent the night experimenting with different cocktail recipes and finally settle on these candidates.   Each drink I made I took notes on the portions, and subtleties of each, garnish, color, smell, taste, etc.   I will present these and let the wedding couple decide if they fit their expectation.   

  

Equity -The UK version of SAG/Aftra 5/4/2014

I was booked to bartend an event in the hills of Studio City Ca that took place yesterday.  It started a month or so back when I recieved an inquiry for services through my website form.   After reading through the request I noticed the contact persons email was in the UK.   I originally thought it was a mistake but still sent back an estimate for 2 bartenders to handle 120 - 130 guests.   This charming lady called me back from London England to confirm she was having an event in Studio City and she wanted to book my services.  She was the event person for Equity ( SAG for UK for you actors out there).   I received a deposit through paypal and locked the date.  Since this is a group of actors I decided to call my actress friend to help out.   Well yesterday we arrived, set up the bar and served Cava (sparkling wine,) Pimms cup, and various juices.  We were prepared for 100 or so guests, but when the line started backing up and went around the pool, we knew something wasn't right.  To speed thing up we started making pitchers of the Pimms.  We got one of the staff to help back us up by serving some drinks and cutting fruit.  We got slammed but kept it togther.    After all was said and done, turns out the door count was 195 guests that arrived. 

Some high points.

Saw a few recognizable movie stars.  Great understanding crowd.  For the most part.   Spent the day in a beautiful home with great SoCal weather.   Spent a great time behind the bar with a beautiful actress and friend that really did a great job.  Thank you so much Janae McDonald for being there.  The owner of the home like my menu and asked if she could have it.  I couldn't refuse. I gave it to her when we finished clean up along with business cards.  

Lessons learned 

1- Start batching as soon as you notice a line more than 8 guests.   

2- I had the tubs of juices and tonic behind us, I should of had them under our table to be better efficient.   

3- Remember to bring up glass washing to the host when booking.  Our glasses kept running out and came back not as cleanly as I would have liked. 

4-double and triple check that you have all your gear when you clean up.  I lost a scoop.  Had 1 mixing glass fatality.   

All in all the client was really happy that we kept up, guests were happy we kept things going and we're accommodating, and I grew out of this experience.  Many cards were picked up and there was talk of working with film crews for their wrap parties.  Made some great contacts.  Very great full for this event.   

Office solutions

I'm trying use my ipad more for my bartending business activities.   This time to create cocktail menus and shopping lists.   Pages is a pretty good program for this.  The problem?   How do I get the document to print?   After researching some software  options I decided to look at printers.   I chose to buy an Airprint friendly printer.  Next step, which printer.  My criteria- print from ipad , print from my laptop, great font and graphics printing, under $150.00 USD.   My decision was the Epson small in one 410 model.   Based on PC magazine reviews of many wifi printers.  http://mobile.pcmag.com/?origref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcmag.com%2Fsearch_redirect%2F%3Fqry%3DEpson%2B410%2Breview%26x%3D-1064%26y%3D-20%26searchSection%3D0%26site%3D3#!/article/51eea3ef93e8e482b40ecd3f-epson-expression-home-xp-410-small-in-one

Tried out the combo just now.   I printed the menu for tomorrow's bartending job on fancy card stock from my local Michaels craft store.  Great print quality for a little printer cheap price and small footprint.  

Happy so far 

Logistics for Saturday wedding.

This Saturday I am bartending a wedding in city of industry, ca.   Over 130 people. Signature cocktail with fresh berries. Custom printed menu. Water station and I am hauling all the supplies (alcohol ) to the venue for the client.    How do I package, store, transport all this stuff, and my bar, tables etc, with my little Toyota Matrix hatchback. 

Here is how I handled it.   All supplies are stored in my garage.  The black berries are ordered from the local street fair vendor.  8 flats ordered and I will pick up tomorrow, bring home, wash and package into 52 plastic containers purchased from the dollar store.  Purchased 6 ft tables x2 and a 150quart cooler from Walmart to store all the berries.  

Ordered fitted table clothes for both 6 ft tables, 4 square purple table clothes for accents, 4 clear ice buckets to hold the display beer and wine, purple led lights to illuminate the ice buckets.  Purple is the theme color.

Custom menu created by buying light purple card stock from michaels and printed with my home inkjet printer with dark purple ink.  

Polling all viewers- blue or purple

Here is a poll to see how many agree that this light is blue.  Please participate and help find out if I'm colorblind. 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/55QL2YL

Business difficulties.

I will be bartending a wedding this coming Saturday April 19 2014.  As part of my service I will be decorating the bar in colors to match the wedding scheme.  Bout a month ago I order battery operated tea lights in the color purple to place in the clear ice buckets I will use to display and chill wine, beer, etc.   yesterday my lights arrived.  However they turned out to be blue not purple.   I can't wait another month for a replacement from china.   I contacted the amazon.com seller and received an immediate refund. I then had to order from a local seller at higher cost.   He lesson learned - if an issue comes up take action immediately to correct it.   My new lights should arrive in 2 days just before the wedding.  

2 booking in 1day

On Friday 4/11/2014 I was able to book 2 jobs.   1 from a lady contacting me from the UK.   I was very skeptical.  Initially thinking it was some sort of scam.  After a few emails and some research on her, I determined she was real.   I sent a paypal invoice.  She paid the deposit and is confirmed for her event.  Turns out she is part of the UK group called Equity.  The are the UK version do SAG/Aftra.  Very interesting. 

Second quasi booking was from a referral.  She called looking for me to DJ her wedding.  I advised I am not a DJ but have a speaker system for rent.  Connect your Bluetooth device and play your playlist of music.  I do bartend weddings though.  So she asked about my service and showed legitimate interest.  Details still not finalized.  I sent an invoice and now waiting to see if she leaves a deposit.   

Used my iPhone to check calendars and take notes.  However it's not easy to hold the phone and switch to calendar.  Looking for a more efficient way to field calls.   

Start of a new chapter of life

I'm writing this blog in hopes that I can help others who are starting in the industry.  Sharing my struggles and victories so others can provide their thoughts or to inspire.   Hopefully together we can help each other to be successful without having to reinvent the wheel. 

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