Dog Community

My bad New Years Eve

Posted : 12/31/2006 6:25:13 PM

Happy New year from Hong Kong!
I had to work, typical in the F&B industry. No problem with that, though.
My problem was at work, our company had the great idea to have an open bar package and take advance bookings on top of selling "tickets" at the door. Well, they sent out invites and such...4 Universities got wind of it and sent a massive email campaign out. "$550HK!!! open bar all night!!" We were expecting 200-300 people max. Instead we got over, 1300!!! No sh!t!!! 1300, You can imagine the lines, drunks, smuggled booze....6 of my bartenders walked off after people started throwing glasses at the bar. Every single one of my staff got into some kind of fight, We called the police at 12:30am because people were throwing our chairs off of the balcony, climbing over the bar to get drinks, going into the restaurant to steal wine that costs $300US a bottle and they show up at 3:30!!!
I had 30 staff against over a thousand...One of the bouncers broke his hand, a guy hit him with a bottle so he beat him in the head. I got in 4 fights, with 18 year old kids because I cut them off. My hand is covered with cuts from blocking broken wine glass swings that were being directed at me. The only good thing about drunks is they are slow and cant do much....
I have to hand it to my staff that stayed, they really worked together when they had to. I saw my smallest waitress grab a guy by the back of the neck and toss him out the door.
To clear the bar at 3am...(2 hours early) we used fire extinguishers and the muddling sticks. Everytime there was a fight or a problem the police vanished....
I have been to the gulf when I was in the military...but this was unreal!
It's now 8am, and I'm having my first beer and smoke. I was going to quit today...but I just really really really need a smoke right now...On top of all of this....I was supposed to go to Thailand in a week with my wife and now people over there thought it would be a great idea to blow sh!t up on new years eve!!!
I hate people
Sorry it's so long...
Edit: one good thing, we made over 45K in USD!!! Not to bad for one night

ron2

Posted : 12/31/2006 7:35:55 PM

It sounds like you survived by the skin of your teeth.

miranadobe

Posted : 12/31/2006 8:05:52 PM

I'm sorry that happened.
Hope you recover some sense of normalcy tomorrow.

ladiebug

Posted : 12/31/2006 11:28:09 PM

Wow, that's horrible! Glad that you survived the night and kudos on the 45K!

Xerxes

Posted : 12/31/2006 11:37:27 PM

Is it that bad for Chinese New Years too?

Wow...sounds like you had a helluva night. 4 times the amount of people expected, geez. I hope you got a few $$$ in tip money too...oh and I'm glad I didn't have to clean up the bar. [

]

spiritdogs

Posted : 1/1/2007 12:15:24 AM

Can't be that bad, this year, Xerxes, I hear it's the Year of the Dog [

].

HK, I hope you enjoy spending the cash, but that'd be too much excitement for me - it's just New Year here, and BF is snoring, as are the dogs. When he gets up to pee, we'll have egg nog and a hug LOL.

gayle

Posted : 1/1/2007 2:04:31 AM

holy dog poo, not only are you on the opposite side of the planet but you had a completly opposite night. sounds exciting!

loveukaykay

Posted : 1/1/2007 4:11:08 AM

I would get on you for how bad smoking is but Ill let you go for the moment[

].... you know... now Im realizing the time thing.... its 3am here new years eve night and your 8am the next day Im guessing, but it says your 530 yesteday, then again, I shouldnt even be trying to read and respind at this point and will quit and go to bed after this attempmt.

Im so sorry for that experience... Ive had similar working on Burbon st on mardi gras a new year... its beyond your contorl at times, very stressful and very scary. Glad nothing happened to yo u peronsally!

HKdog

Posted : 1/1/2007 7:47:09 AM

ORIGINAL: spiritdogs
Can't be that bad, this year, Xerxes, I hear it's the Year of the Dog [].

Chinese new year starts in Feb. It's the year of the pig I think this year. Last year was the dog. Well it's still last year for chinese new year but this year for this year. Im confusing myself....

Actually the staff didn't make much in the way of tips, to many drunks fighting to get to the bar to get drinks so they can get more drunk than they already are. Clean up today....miserable.
Breakage report: 500 tumblers, 228 champagne glass, 330+wine glass 158 hurricane glass, 3 broken tables, 5 broken glass table tops, 3 fingers, 1 hand, I manage a total of 30 staff, total stitches for them 18. cuts, bruises, scrapes.....
30 against over 1300...not to bad.

ron2

Posted : 1/1/2007 8:39:42 AM

I just had an image of Power Ranger bartenders.

Anyway, I don't think it will be fun mopping up blood, vomit, and whatever else. Good luck to you and may the Farce be with you.

Haleigh

Posted : 1/1/2007 9:57:15 AM

I hope when you say broken hands and fingers, they were still intact and not on the tables[

] I just had a horrible vision of hands and fingers squirming across the table *shudder*. Joy says "Yummy hotdogs!"

MissMandy

Posted : 1/1/2007 10:03:52 AM

Yikes!! So sorry to hear about your awful night! That does sound really rough. I hope the $45K was enough to make up for all that you lost because of it...and then some!!

Michelle

Posted : 1/1/2007 11:42:05 AM

Wow! It's amazing no one was seriously hurt, or that a fire wasn't started, or people trampled! What's that line in "Young Frankenstein" about a mob being an ugly thing?

calliecritturs

Posted : 1/1/2007 2:35:35 PM

12 years ago when David was in the UK and I was here and it was my first "New Year's Eve" online I was truly blown away to find out people started like 6 a.m. on New Year's eve morning saying "Happy New Year" (from New Zealand -- don't think we had anyone closer to the Int. Dateline than that) -- but almost every hour someone would wander thru Worlds Chat and 'yell' 'HAPPY NEW YEAR' from wherever they were and to learn you can do Happy New Year for nearly a full day.

It was sort of a crash course in how big/small the world is, as well as how differently different cultures spend it. My first 'date' (online) with David was on January 2 because he honestly told me he was gonna be in NO shape to be social on New Year's Day after Hogmanay/New Year's celebrations. LOL -- and last night we did dinner and a movie and I screwed up and bought tickets for the 'next show' not realizing it wasn't a show that could carry us thru midnight. So we got home about 11:45, stayed awake to kiss at midnight! But ... *grin* ... we'll still have a 'date' on the 2d!! That's become an annual event LOL>

HKdog

Posted : 1/2/2007 1:54:01 AM

Today, two things happened with parents. One was from the guy that hit the bouncer with a bottle and got punched in the head for it. This guys parents came by today to complain that their son was treated poorly. The guy that got hit was in his 30's!!!!!! What did he do? "mommy, daddy, a big bad man hit me after I cracked him in the head with a bottle, can you try and get my money back for me?" I hate people
The next parents were nice, they understood how crazy it was and came to thank me and my staff for taking care of their son who got so drunk he passed out and was rolling around on broken glass. We carried him in and patched him up and called an ambulance for him.
Isn't it amazing what alcohol can do to some people?