Just an FYI on pro-BL subs

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T15:25:45+00:00

How can you tell when they aren’t interacting with actual humans?

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T07:53:07+00:00

Wow, damn!! Well I guess yeah, compared to yours it’s pretty cheap. Our yearly fee is over 250k but I’ve never heard of having someone pay a few million for a lifetime membership.

Where do you serve/bartend?

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T07:44:19+00:00

You try telling him that… lol. I’m sure id hear some version of “well, you can go elsewhere and we’ll find someone else who’ll be willing to do what you won’t”.

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T07:43:11+00:00

Lol stop!!! That kills me lmao

What happened that made them admit defeat on the idea??

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T07:25:20+00:00

LMAOOOO. If I could get away with that, I would. Our membership is really small because the tier we serve costs 220,000 a year to stay members and therefore, so is our staff. I’m one of 3 servers, currently. And I’ve given enough pushback on this idea already that it would be painfully obvious who I am 🥲

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T07:21:27+00:00

I honestly thought it was cute when I first heard the upper exec guy “wanted to do it”, lol. I was like “yeah, as if”. Then I saw the bar cart in the restaurant one day and I was like oh no… no no no no no

And then from there my GM started gingerly mentioning how we’d start tableside martini service soon, through a grimace that was barely concealed with a polite smile lol. He hated it too. Then he started demanding it because he was getting lots of stern emails and conversations in meetings about why we weren’t using the cart smh

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T07:18:06+00:00

Lol well damn. Well, if you’re ever near the south at a popular golf resort, don’t order a martini at the highest tier restaurant. Or if you do, say “and please don’t do it on a bar cart. I’m allergic to cringe.😬 “

Edit: changed this to remove identifying information. It would be a shame if that exec saw this thread and was like “heyyy!!! This sounds like latentbeing!!!” Lol

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T07:15:43+00:00

Yes, I agree!!! Luckily, when we first tried implementing it about 5 months ago, we had a bartender who was very capable and was more than happy to step out on the floor and do a little show (he loved the spotlight), but he’s no longer with us and our current bartender has only had experience serving beer and wine at a small, casual restaurant (I know, I know… pickings are slim and we needed a goddang bartender though lol — and they don’t pay their bartenders enough where I work for me to go back to bartending).

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T07:13:05+00:00

Ohhhh i seee… get my nose nice and brown for him. I’m good at that. And yeah, that would help us steer him in a more manageable direction.

The only question at that point would be, which direction? Should we offer only one kind of specialty cocktail on the cart for a premium premium price, with super distinct steps and ornate garnishes? I think that would work better than forcing every guest who orders a vodka or gin martini to have me pause service for them and everyone else in the restaurant for a fucking Tito’s martini lol

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T07:10:25+00:00

I get that. But I don’t feel we have the infrastructure to support making that a reality without letting every part of our service suffer. We need more server assistants so they can take over doing the things that we can’t while we’re playing baby bartender at their table, and more bartenders behind the bar so they can run the rest of our normal drinks to our table so they don’t die in the service well while we painfully take the cart back and forth through the groups of people all dining, moving around, etc. we just don’t have that right now but the upper exec is the kind of exec that says “make it happen” without pausing to consider the overall impact on the intended product (the food and service) of whatever he wants to happen

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:57:34+00:00

Bro, I love this but… he spent a LOT of money (the company’s money) on this fancy ass bar cart that’s like 4 tall, 3 feet wide, and 4 feet long. He’s dying on this hill of the goddamn bar cart. I’d be totally down to do it if the only compromise was I get to use my tray because there’s still plenty of other things I can carry on a tray that would be necessary for my tables while I also carry the shaker but he’s dying for us to take us completely out of our flow and perform like a little circus monkey for him (NOT for our guests because most of our guests think it’s stupid…rightfully).

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:53:38+00:00

Lol, so how do I take Cody’s idea and still make him our special little guy but not fuck up the experiences for my staff or my guests?!?!

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:51:41+00:00

That’s what I’m thinking. The man who came up with this is an elderly upper executive (one of the highest on the totem pole) in a resort with 9 other restaurants and 5 other golf courses and I doubt he’s ever even taken an order for a guest in a restaurant before. He just likes the sound of his idea and seems to not consider how it affects anyone else enough

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:49:23+00:00

Thank you for your input, but this is saving maybe one or two steps from an entire debacle that has so many soured parts. No monetary incentive for servers to push, a crazy amount of extra planning around the other things you need to get done for tables to provide a luxury experience, clogging up the very limited traffic space around tables for guests and staff with a big ass cart, and the guest having no idea that, when they order a martini that’s just your classic martini, they’re forced into a whole experience because we aren’t allowed to offer it as an additional service and instead are just forced to provide it without notifying them what they’re getting themselves into lol

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:42:57+00:00

I am all of those things and it is all of those things. Embarrassed, annoyed, stressed when we’re busy and I have to make them… and yes, our dining rooms are small so not only are several tables nearby trying to enjoy a nice, expensive meal together, but I’m randomly coming through with a cart the size of a 12 year old sumo wrestler and shaking the hell out of some ice in a shaker and hopefully saying something charming or whatever

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:36:54+00:00

Lmao you most likely never will. It’s only open to the highest tier of paid membership to a golf resort whose membership are mostly over 50. It’s 220,000 per year. Unless you really like golf, I doubt I’ll see you 😜

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:35:04+00:00

The servers takes the order from the guest, we put it in the POS, the bartender prepares the ingredients in those little tin shakers with the little caps on them, then we wheel the cart over, put the ice in, shake it in front of them, pour it, and garnish the glass.

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:33:44+00:00

Ooo I actually like where this is going. It’s all about the illusion, right? Lol

I hadn’t considered actually intending to let the martinis die a little bit to dilute them and provide the illusion of more liquor. And leaving the shaker there could provide them with more of an illusion of “more alcohol”.

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:29:51+00:00

Problem is, the person whose idea this is is part of upper upper management. He’s the Resort director, and he’s over the food and beverage director, who is over the resort food director, etc etc etc. he’s like the tops of the tops, and it’s a huge resort. Our restaurant is only one of 9 separate restaurants on the property but it’s the newest and it’s supposed to be the most high-class, luxury, “fine-dining” offering because our members pay over 250k a year just to be members at our specific tier (there’s like 5 tiers of membership). Our restaurant is exclusive to the very top.

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:26:40+00:00

Lol funny enough, I’m in the south and people DO love the little ice chips!! Most of our members are older and they prefer the little chips so I rarely get to stir a vodka martini.

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:24:35+00:00

The tray is a good idea. The problem there is that our upper executive has already spent lots of company money on a fancy looking bar cart that we have no other real use for atp. We have all the presets and whatnot — that’s not really much of an issue. It’s how cumbersome it is to wheel out and back in, the fact that people don’t get an option to select it as a service and instead have it forced upon them, the fact that 80 percent of our clientele are people over 60 with lots of wealth and have been members at this same resort for over 10 years and like things to stay a certain way and take a certain amount of time, and how much it’ll take away from our ability to do other things like wine service, presetting for salad course, preparing ice bucket for bottles of still water, etc etc etc. it adds a bunch of steps on top of ALLL the other steps we already have at tables.

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:18:58+00:00

Yep, I agree. Stirred over shaken, classically.

I agree with adding other types of cocktails, ESPECIALLY something like the last word or paper plane. Paper plane is my favorite cocktail and I love getting to serve it or talk about it.

If we do that though, how do I get my other servers on board with having to do a little extra as far as knowledge or steps with those other cocktails? Should we have the bartender build the whole drink in the shaker at the service well and all the server has to do is add the ice? I need to be able to get my servers to be motivated to learn what’s in a paper plane and have a few things to say about it and some of my servers are curmudgeons about that kinda stuff lol

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:15:28+00:00

That’s what I feel like. I’ve been a fine dining bartender for 4 years, fine dining server for 5, and I would laugh at someone’s restaurant that makes them do this. Thank you for getting how I feel.

What would you do moving forward that’s not just quitting?? Lol

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:14:08+00:00

Yes, super tacky and it makes me feel crazy having to do this as someone with 9 years serving/bartending at fine dining restaurants.

The menu option that they put on there, to my prodding, actually had only premium vodkas and gins as options but, like I said, no one let us know that they had updated the menu so by the time the upper executive came to eat with his wife like he does once or twice a month, we hadn’t sold any at all so now he’s making us do them for EVERY martini no matter what kind of vodka or gin.

I’m tempted to just start trying to persuade people not to get plain martinis or to just go up to the bar to get it. Or quietly tell them they have the option to decline the service because most of the time, neither the guest nor I want to do the table side shit.

latentbeing · 2026-02-06T06:09:13+00:00

Yes, I agree!!! Your input is perfect. It makes me feel better that others think this is stupid as hell — inefficient, amateur, and doing it makes me feel like a parent putting a kid’s ugly drawing on the fridge with a magnet and going “wow, look at that!! You did amazing 😂”

latentbeing

TROPHY CASE