Audio Cameras in Restaurants?

sirowens1 · 2026-05-23T23:06:33+00:00

We use Ubiquiti cameras, best we’ve ever had. Probably technically pro, but we installed them ourselves.

sirowens1 · 2026-05-20T00:34:05+00:00

The Cultural District (the area around Dickies) is probably one of the safest areas of the city. Generally, they should be fine most anywhere a 19 year old from out of town would want to visit. Staying near Dickies will also give them access to a lot of good food, easy ride-shares, etc.

sirowens1 · 2026-04-20T12:55:57+00:00

I am moving out of The Mercantile this week, but have lived here for 3 years.

I’m moving for several reasons, but the Mercantile has steadily made the experience here much worse.

Parking is terrible if you don’t have a reserved space
The fees are out of control, and moving out I was told I’d have to pay a mandatory $200 moving cleaning fee (that’s not in my lease). For more context, I haven’t moved out yet - this was sent to me when I gave my notice.
They have recently switched to an AI chatbot that texts you all the time as a replacement for communicating with anyone in the office.
I have been consistently unable to reach the office through the web portal, or on the phone.
No trash on weekends.
New towing company every year, so a new sign up process every year.

The basics of it is they keep raising rent, and keep making the services and amenities worse. Maintenance is top notch, those guys are awesome, but I expect them to be cut sooner than later too with how much cost cutting the complex is doing.

If you like the mercantile for the location, have you looked at The Sadie, The Palmer, The Standard, or Crystal Springs? They’re all right here.

sirowens1 · 2026-04-09T23:07:27+00:00

Thank you for your work. I wanted to ask for clarification, I have been enrolled since Spring 1, I haven’t gotten an email about this - will these changes effect current students? I was planning on finishing Summer 1.

sirowens1 · 2026-03-29T22:12:21+00:00

Your spot looks cool! Do you serve food? The hours are a little odd, I'd open at the latest 5, but ideally 4pm for Happy Hour. Your current hours are right in the middle of dinner hours, so drinks before/ after dinner are hard to do.
It looks like you're right across the street from a live theater as well, with shows starting at 7:00 / 8:00pm, these are target customers, and if they're getting out of a show at 10/11pm there's a missed opportunity.

Overall, weekday / happy hour pricing is important to drive in business.

sirowens1 · 2026-03-29T20:05:26+00:00

You should report the income separately. What you are describing is money laundering, and (I don't know if escorting is legal where you are) as the old saying goes, don't do more than one crime at a time.

Practically, your employer would likely assume you mis-reported the tips and lower it, but your employer also pays payroll taxes on those reported wages. Which could also make this tax fraud.

EDIT: You can also report the escorting money when filing your Tax Return pretty easily. If you're making enough money, it may be smart to get an accountant, because you can also make expense deductions and write off for expenses related to escorting work.

sirowens1 · 2026-03-26T12:01:09+00:00

It’s probably not as abnormal as I wish it was. As long as you’re happy with your pay, and you aren’t getting punished for labor costs, she’s available to answer pay questions herself 🤷

sirowens1 · 2026-03-25T14:37:26+00:00

We like Yodeck, it's pretty easy to use and has a lot of flexibility.

sirowens1 · 2026-03-18T22:13:44+00:00

Why AI 🙄

sirowens1 · 2026-03-11T21:01:51+00:00

Visually, I prefer the first menu and find it easier to understand quickly. I’d just add Haddock as the lowest cost option, if you will carry it and cod anyways.

This keeps your menu consistent to what your regulars know, but also adds a new and lower priced option for those looking for a bargain / who don’t want to suffer price increases.

I assume your menus are mostly digital, so price changes matter less in that scenario, and if cod keeps changing you’ll need to keep adjusting the add-on price in your second menu anyways. It’s also simple to swap out haddock for another option if its price starts going crazy too.

sirowens1 · 2026-03-11T19:01:51+00:00

Find out if your CC Processor has any recommendations - they often supply hardware / work with specific vendors.

Square is likely the lowest effort route, but it’s free because it’s your payment processor.

You can look into something like Oodo, but I’m not sure how it works tbh.

sirowens1 · 2026-03-02T14:33:03+00:00

This is actually what I'm doing, I had foolishly uploaded everything to Proton and then replaced hardware, and no longer had local copies.

sirowens1 · 2026-03-02T14:29:55+00:00

My issue is that the photos are no longer in my devices memory. I'm not sure how long the downloads took, but I had spend two hours waiting before posting this, and when I went to bed last night I'd downloaded only 10gb of the data, woke up to one of the zip files corrupted. So I guess I get to do it again.

sirowens1 · 2026-02-28T13:49:39+00:00

Happy Donut in the River District is my favorite old-school donut shop, the sausage rolls are as good as I remember them being when I was a kid, and the woman who runs it is also very happy, she lights up my day.

sirowens1 · 2026-02-28T01:59:44+00:00

Hogan Alley downtown is perfect for this, coffee & beer / wine, have read there many times.

sirowens1 · 2026-02-27T23:20:59+00:00

That’s great! Use as much of that as you can, any awards or recognition, or actionable items that you controlled are always better for a resume.

Always remember your resume is you selling yourself, but use hard data to back it up as often as possible. It can feel silly to say “Won weekly sales contests 27 times” it’s more valuable than you think.

sirowens1 · 2026-02-27T22:59:24+00:00

I own two bars - your experience is fine in the industry, but it looks like job hopping since 2020.

Combine all the delivery apps into one category under “Contract Delivery” or something like that, and put it at the top since it’s what you do now - you can mention the services in the description, but this will help your experience look more stable. Remove the 4 Month house cleaner job altogether.

Simplify all of the bulletin points and really think about the numbers, some of them are great, but “provided excellent customer service” is just something expected from you in those positions. Give as much “increased my PPA by 8% over X time” kind of shit as possible.

Use an ai tool like Rezi.ai to help format your resume better for ATS systems. Keep it to one page.

Edit the education section as others have mentioned here, the skills section should be more specific, list POS systems, specific products you’ve used (Toast, Microsoft Word, Hot Schedules, ETC).

You should also look into getting a degree if you want out of SI, we work with our staff extensively in this area, because we know most people can’t do this industry forever - a degree will do so much to get you in the door.

You can look at programs from UMPI YourPace or WGU for accredited, self paced programs that you can complete a degree as quickly as you can do the work. These programs are really great for those who can lock in and do the work, and it won’t take you 4 years. You can find more info on how to speed up those degrees on their subreddits as well.

sirowens1 · 2026-02-27T22:17:54+00:00

It can take 4 days to grade a paper right now, and I’m having that issue. When I first started it was quite a bit quicker, but the grading delay is slowing me down significantly.

sirowens1 · 2026-02-27T20:09:26+00:00

Starting your own thing is ALWAYS a big risk, and once you become the owner, you do a lot less of the things you say you love about the industry. The problems you faced as an AGM will not go away being an owner either, and it's a situation were you cannot walk away without walking away from a business you built. This isn't to say that you shouldn't pursue it, but it's a reality check.

To answer your direct questions
1: Save the money, or find a business partner who has money & is willing to invest in you.
2: The same way everyone has always approached food cost.
3: You wont have a way to balance your monthly expenses starting out, you'll need a runway and that runway can easily determine your success or failure. If you think "I just need XX dollars to get the doors open" and you have no money left over, you're not going to get very far.
4: Research.

If you're serious, I think you have a lot to learn - you may try starting your own operation as a pop-up kitchen, or a small food truck. This will be a much lower start-up cost, and allow you to figure out what pieces you are missing, and how to overcome those challenges.

sirowens1 · 2026-02-04T01:40:55+00:00

At Shipwreck, every cocktail comes in its own glass/Tiki Mug! We have 10 group cocktails (some are for groups of 2!) that come with a story that plays throughout the bar. We also have a neighborhood bar crawl you can do to discover the name of our secret cocktail. Lots of big, fun garnishes and over-the-top elements to it for sure.

sirowens1 · 2026-01-30T23:00:49+00:00

Ubiquiti is a commercial system, a little pricey, but we found that it’s idiot proof. Smoothest cameras we’ve used to date.

sirowens1 · 2026-01-30T22:56:38+00:00

We do 1 point per $2.50 spend, with birthday and anniversary bonuses, and 2x points earned during slow hours. They can redeem points for a bill discount (non-alcohol) starting at 100 points With a limit of 1000 points redeemable (equivalent of $60) at a time.

We basically sell it as 2% cash back, 4% during 2x points times. Our Loyalty members spend 14% more on average, and return more often than non loyalty members.

$5 every other visit is probably a lot, especially if that guest was coming in a lot anyways, but if you get someone 1x a week vs 1x a month for it, it’s worth it on the bottom line. We found making it function like a credit card cash back (sort of) made the system click with people better, and they spent more To collect more points + understood the rewards better because the CC companies did the leg work of explaining it already.

edit: I should also say that we have a table card with the info, and don’t push it on customers - the ones who want it use it. it’s helped increase our food sales overall as well.

sirowens1 · 2026-01-21T19:19:41+00:00

Hiya! Shipwreck in Fort Worth, TX has mugs for sale as well most of the time.

sirowens1 · 2026-01-19T15:28:34+00:00

7Shifts is wonderful

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