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So yesterday, day one of Beercation III, I get an email from my boss telling me about a secret shop they got, and saying he just couldn't believe it was me, even if I was on my worst day.
He copied the shop report to me, and in essence, it said that the shoppers went in there, were treated really rudely by the bartender, and when they ordered a margarita, it was made with orange juice, and when they asked for one without orange juice, the bartender told them that that was they way The Bar makes margaritas, and he refused to change it. The shoppers did not get the bartender's name initially, but the report said that later they found out his name was one that is often confused with mine. (Picture Ken instead of Len, or Jay instead of Jake, etc.) My boss said he couldn't believe it was me, but he checked the date of the report, and I was indeed working.
I told my boss that perhaps the shoppers had the wrong date, or something, but there was no way it COULD have been me, and here was why.
1. I don't refuse to alter drinks to fit a customer's preferences. There are a few minor exceptions to this, but very few, and I would never be rude about it. Or I might joke around about it. Perfect example: from time to time someone might order one of our better rums with coke. And I'll serve them the rum and coke separately, saying that I just can't do it, or I'll cry. But they are more than welcome to mix them themselves. This has never produced anything but laughter.
2. The orange juice sealed it. Why? Because I love margaritas, and consider myself a purist in that I don't think OJ belongs in margaritas, and only ever put it in one if requested to do so by the customer. Even then, I have been known to resist that. What I mean is, if someone orders my signature Jester Rita, and ask for OJ in it, I suggest that they try it as is first, and then we can always add OJ later. Since this is one of my signature drinks, people don't have a problem with this, and honestly, only a very small fraction of people ever ask for the OJ after tasting the Jester Rita. So the idea that I refused to make a margarita WITHOUT orange juice is simply wrong.
As I told my manager, they may have had a different bartender, they may have misunderstood something, they may have had the wrong date, they may have even been making shit up (it read far more casually and less detailed than any other secret shop report I've ever read), but that it would have been impossible for the bartender they described to have been me. Not unlikely, not improbably, but impossible. Hell, I've been leading the anti-OJ-in-margaritas brigade for about 20 years now. Does that sound like someone who would refuse to leave orange juice OUT of a margarita?
And that, as they say, was that.
He copied the shop report to me, and in essence, it said that the shoppers went in there, were treated really rudely by the bartender, and when they ordered a margarita, it was made with orange juice, and when they asked for one without orange juice, the bartender told them that that was they way The Bar makes margaritas, and he refused to change it. The shoppers did not get the bartender's name initially, but the report said that later they found out his name was one that is often confused with mine. (Picture Ken instead of Len, or Jay instead of Jake, etc.) My boss said he couldn't believe it was me, but he checked the date of the report, and I was indeed working.
I told my boss that perhaps the shoppers had the wrong date, or something, but there was no way it COULD have been me, and here was why.
1. I don't refuse to alter drinks to fit a customer's preferences. There are a few minor exceptions to this, but very few, and I would never be rude about it. Or I might joke around about it. Perfect example: from time to time someone might order one of our better rums with coke. And I'll serve them the rum and coke separately, saying that I just can't do it, or I'll cry. But they are more than welcome to mix them themselves. This has never produced anything but laughter.
2. The orange juice sealed it. Why? Because I love margaritas, and consider myself a purist in that I don't think OJ belongs in margaritas, and only ever put it in one if requested to do so by the customer. Even then, I have been known to resist that. What I mean is, if someone orders my signature Jester Rita, and ask for OJ in it, I suggest that they try it as is first, and then we can always add OJ later. Since this is one of my signature drinks, people don't have a problem with this, and honestly, only a very small fraction of people ever ask for the OJ after tasting the Jester Rita. So the idea that I refused to make a margarita WITHOUT orange juice is simply wrong.
As I told my manager, they may have had a different bartender, they may have misunderstood something, they may have had the wrong date, they may have even been making shit up (it read far more casually and less detailed than any other secret shop report I've ever read), but that it would have been impossible for the bartender they described to have been me. Not unlikely, not improbably, but impossible. Hell, I've been leading the anti-OJ-in-margaritas brigade for about 20 years now. Does that sound like someone who would refuse to leave orange juice OUT of a margarita?
And that, as they say, was that.
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