NYCBP Blog

Hey Guys!
So I am trolling craigslist looking for work and I found this post. It is very funny and well-written and it shows how competitive finding hospitality work in Manhattan is! Bartender with 8 arms? I only have 2!! Scramble eggs with my raw sex appeal? I shower, strap em' in the push up & apply war paint... but I have never been able to scramble an egg without a fork.
Can I make it in this town?

"You know those joints where the music is bumping, the bartenders are hot sexy bitches who throw down like they have 8 arms, the waiters stick and move through the teeming crowd not missing a damn thing and hundreds of covers come out of a kitchen the size of your closet? The kind of place that's whipping at 200 miles an hour but it's all under control...? That's us. We're looking for peeps who can street fight and TCB (that's Take Care of Business - Elvis) ....while keeping fully intact the PMA (that's Positive Mental Attitude - Moms). This is our laundry list of good things we're asking the universe to send to us: Right now we want telepathic

FOODRUNNERS for our chefs to fall in love with. Can you be everywhere at once, expedite and keep the train on the tracks? We want to talk to you. Pay is 10 bucks an hour plus tips.
Chef would also like to welcome to the family a couple of LINE COOKS. A word about our boys in the kitchen: EPIC. Pedigreed with papers (Bouley, Lespinasse, Montrachet, The Modern) but all they want to do is bar food to blow people's minds. They have done it. Bomb menu. Werd.

Next we need the spark plugs. We mean the most critical element in the floor's engine: BUSSERS. Any of you waiters out there reading this know we don't get into the high gears without our peeps backing us up and watching our backs while we're doing battle. Do you know a busser suffering in some godforsaken place, totally unappreciated, leaving every night with a fraction of what he's worth? Send him over. Send HER over. IN FACT We're running a C-List special.
Any WAITERS or WAITRESSES out there looking for a new place to call home - we mean the ones everyone loves to see coming in to work, the ones who can rumble with a fast turning, definitely possibly too big station (but we're gonna throw so much support at you so you can reap the bennie$) all with the grace of a ballerina and instincts of a ninja.... bring us one of the World's Best Bussers and you go right to the top of the pile. You'll be a package deal. OR, you send us a busser we'll love and cherish and we'll buff you and your friends out for dinner and drinks. Yes peeps, you read that correctly.

THIS IS WHAT TO DO. [note: resumes are not important. If you have one done already, great. If not, all we need to know is where you've worked and your contact info. We like pictures. We like them because it keeps us organized with who's who and it's fun to see your faces. If you don't have one, that's okay. Looks don't mean anything if you can't hang. Last, we could give a rat's fat ass if you have NYC experience. Can you fight like a champ and rock a station? Be from the moon, it doesn't matter.]
RUNNERS: Send a list of the places you've worked. List all languages you speak or can fake effectively. Tell us the best place you worked and why it was so great.
COOKS: Give us your tours of duty and why you'd want to do soigne bar food instead of cheffing it up at a food palace. What cookbook are you reading now? What's the first thing that pops into your mind when we ask what's your best cooking memory? Tell us something about your favorite chef or your best job, what made them so great. And anything else you might want to add about yourself. Don't be a robot. Nobody wants a robot in the foxhole with them, and our guys are the coolest dudes. Make them laugh or nod their head when they read your email. BUSSERS: We want to talk to waiters you've worked with. So if you're interested, send us your phone number and a list of places you've worked. We'll have you come by and ask you to bring a couple of waiters' phone numbers or email addresses.
WAITING PEOPLE: What are the most important phrases in a restaurant? Why do cooks hate waiters who don't know the menu? What's so important about being ready for service? Is it really that bad to auction at a table? Seriously? Tell us about the fine dining points of service that are (rightfully) a part of your arsenal no matter what kind of place you work. And anything else you want to add about anything. You, restaurants, food, cocktails, global warming, whatever. Let us get a glimpse of who you are.
Lastly - we can't even believe we're opening the floodgates on this - but we have ONE highly coveted BARTENDER spot. For this gig, you have to be the second coming of Jack Black or else scorch people's eyeballs with your beauty and scramble their eggs with your raw sex appeal. NON-NEGOTIABLE is the ability to bartend. And aaaaallllll that implies. So tell us, what does that imply? Where do you drink, who do you respect, what are you excited about right now and can you spread the cocktail gospel in a way that is unpretentious and enthusiastically inclusive?

Each of you please put the POSITION you want in the SUBJECT LINE. We want you to start immediately if not sooner, so please be ready to jump. Interviews and hiring happen this week. We sincerely thank you for responding and apologize in advance if we don't reply personally to your email. We know job hunting is a bitch and we wish you all the luck in the world.

Compensation: C.R.E.A.M. dolla dolla bill y'all"

Get ready for St. Patrick's Day! In a brilliant PR move, The Town Tavern (134 West Third Street) created a viral video of the action from 2007 to send around town to get people into the bar in 2008. The wild bar in the West Village is notorious for huge parties at big events like these.

With Paddy's Day falling on a Monday this year, it means the serious drinkers will be out in force. Or else, a 3-day weekend?

Thanks to Katie for sending NYCBP the video.

Labels: bars, west village

I am not calling Lauren short. I think the term is height-challenged. It does not matter. She is a bad ass bartender with lots of attitude and good skills. We saw her Saturday night filling in at Yogi's, but she says she has been a regular drink slinger on Wednesday at the sister bar, The Patriot.

If she is 5 feet tall, I'd be shocked. Don't matter. She says that if you come to The Patriot, you can watch her dance on the bar. And try and match drinking shots with her. A few of the customers on Saturday mentioned that fishnets and plaid skirts are fine with them; on Lauren, killer. Go and see her, and say you saw her on NYCBP.

Labels: bartenders, upper west side

Sad news for the Upper West Side. Time Out was closed for good today. The plug was pulled on the venerable sports bar on Amsterdam and 77th Street early today. The staff was not notified in advance. At this time there is no plan for a “last night” party. The doors are locked.

For almost a decade, Time Out filled the space that was previously Boomer’s. It was a regular stop for anyone going to watch the big game (even with the worst TVs in town). Time Out was a terrific place to hang out, and had some of the best bartenders in the city. The longest-serving, Camit, had been on staff since September 2000.

This is a business, and for loyal regulars, the writing was on the wall. Just a few years ago the bar was busy seven nights a week and the upstairs was filled with people on a regular basis. But for some time now, the upstairs has been closed during the middle of the week, the bar has been not as busy as it once was.

The staff (five bartenders) is now out of work. If you know of a bar that is hiring, let me know, and I will pass it on to them.

I spoke to Carmit. “I’m sad,” she said. “These were my friends, all of my friends, and I’m going to miss them very much.”

We’ll have to plan an NYCBP party for Time Out soon, maybe at Yogi’s.

Post messages on the message board.

Labels: bars, news, upper west side

I first met Alison more than 5 years ago when she was tending bar at Red Rock West. I think she was there for close to 5 years or so. Now she is on Avenue A at Double Down Saloon, a terrific bar that is hard rock nirvana. She really is a kick ass bartender, so you should have many drinks with her. She will knock you out. She is charming, funny, and a blast to drink with. Here we go...

Q: What is your favorite part of bartending?

A: You mean besides getting to sleep in every day? I love that I make money doing almost the very thing I would be doing after work if I had a day job. I go to the bar, hang out with my friends, meet and talk to new people and maybe have a drink or 5. But instead of paying to do it, I'm making money. It's a party every night.

Q: How does bartending in a dive bar differ from other bars?

A: Anything goes. I can come into work and be as loud as I want and no one's going to complain. I don't have to watch my language which is nice (I tend to curse like a sailor). And most importantly, I'm allowed to drink while I work. I could never work in a bar where I had to watch other people drink and I couldn't. People are much more comfortable in a dive bar to come in and be themselves and let their guards down. It's a meeting place. No plans? Show up at your favorite dive and you'll probably run into someone you know. And if not, you've always got the bartender to drink with.

Q: Why should people come and see you?

A: I like to think I create a fun atmosphere at my bar. I genuinely like talking to people and I'm pretty funny (at least people seem to laugh at my jokes). And I'm super high energy. Manic almost, which if nothing else is fun to watch. Oh yeah, and most importantly, I tend to have a heavy hand when pouring drinks. I pour em like I drink em. I don't really know why people come to see me. What I do know is I have more regulars sitting at my bar on any given night then strangers and a ton of drunks can't be wrong.

Q: What's the funniest/craziest thing you've ever seen while working?

A: There's so much I find funny that I could write for days. That's the best thing about being a bartender...you see everything. Crazy...another story. I think I'm jaded. I mean, gridskipper.com put Double Down #3 on there list of best places to get a blowjob in NY so "crazy" is really just every day normal. I have a million funny stories about ID'ing people. Like the time this guy gave me this whole story about how he only had his work ID and then when I checked it (just out of curiosity..not because I would have taken it) it said he was only 20. Idiots like that make my night. One night a few weeks ago I look up from the bar and I see this guy in a storm trooper outfit just standing there. I walk over to see what's going on, and next to him is a midget in a Darth Vader costume. They then got on the bar's pony to take pictures. That was kind of crazy.

Q: And what is your shifts, when do you work.

A: I'm at the Double Down Saloon on Ave A and Houston on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8pm-4am.

Thanks Alison! Now go and drink with her!

Labels: Interviews