The past few days

I worked a short shift on Thursday. I went in at four to work the "second" bartender shift. That means that I was done as soon as happy hour was over at six. Its a silly shift, but a necessary one. We have to have two bartenders at The Seafood Restaurant during happy hour because of the cheap people who come in for cheap drinks and even cheaper food. The funny thing is, ninety percent of them have never come back for lunch or dinner, just for happy hour. This restaurant is really confusing. The company is trying to blur the line between fine dining and mass appeal. It might work in some other locations, but here it is not going so hot.

Yesterday, Friday, was actually pretty good. I opened the bar and stayed through happy hour. Once happy hour was in full swing I put on my long johns and winter coat and stood outside with one of the other bartenders and manned a drink stand. We sold hot chocolate, hot apple cider, coffee and smores to people who were at the mall we work at for the Christmas tree lighting. It just happened to be the coldest night of the month. We were setup on the patio so we had the gas heaters cranked up to full, but we were forewarned so we had plenty of layers to keep us from freezing to much! I was working with Ashlie, who had also been there all day. She was the opening server and then practiced making drinks until we had to go outside. She is our newest bartender, so she doesn't know how everything works behind our bar. She knows a lot because she has served for a few years and she was hired as a cocktail server so she serves in the bar a few times a week, but she still has to learn the mechanics of our style of drink making. The tree lighting was fun, but it was the cap stone of another long day so as soon as we were done breaking down, I went home and went right to bed because I traded shifts with Lauren because she had a cheer leading event this morning and could not work.

So, I opened again this morning. It was pretty good. I didn't have that many customers so I was able to get everything prepped and set up for the night shift. The thing that was bad about today was the management (imagine that!!!). They made me stay until six thirty or the time I like to call "when the display shelves are all clean". They made me stay and hour and a half later than they needed me just to clean shelves. So I stood on the back bar and cleaned shelves for forty-five minutes. It was great.

Now, I'm going to bed because I have to manage most of the day tomorrow. (Something I always look forward to. No, really! The Bar Manager and The GM will not be working tomorrow so we can all relax and at least try to have a good day!)