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