|
I received my first award! And from nobody less than a well know artist in Bali:
DEAR BLURRY-EYED SUPER-BULE, It is a pity Pintor didn’t accept my invitation to come over for a coffee and to chat with one of my 150+ staff members on how they feel about their job and how they like their yearly outings to Malaysia, Singapore and other places. Anyway, it is my first award and I am honored that talent full people like him are reading my observations as well. It is not my intention to upset anybody and I will always try to prevent this. Sometimes we laugh about Indonesian actions that look silly to us, foreigners, but in most cases it is the bule who always again manages to be fooled or – more often – who manages to make a fool of himself. In this newsletter the first part is Widi making a silly mistake , second part my American bar manager in DE HOOI (Pondok Indah) and in the third part I myself are to blame for a complete mess up. A fair balance, isn’t it? As long as both parties can –in the end- laugh about it. Indonesia
is dealing with an enormous alcohol shortage. The import of liquors has
been stopped a few months ago, and to invest in a bottle of Jack Daniels
is currently a better option than putting your savings in an Icelandic
bank. The bars come up with all kind of emergency solutions and one is
that we use a ‘private’ 2 liter bottle from which we serve our Italian
house wine (note: the BuGils Group will NEVER go as far as mixing your
drinks with local brews. This is also the reason that we cannot always be
as cheap as some of our competitors). As this is from a private collection
and no duties have been paid, we pulled off the label. There is nothing on
it. It is just a huge big green bottle with wine in it. But the wine is
actually very good and when this Frenchman asked if he could check the
bottle to see what wine he had been served, Widi didn’t hesitate for a
moment. She carried the big bottle to the eager awaiting French wine
connoisseur. As an experienced bar tender she hold the bottle in both
hands while lifting it above the table. The French men bowed forward while
putting his spectacles at the tip of his nose. “Can you turn it?” he asked
friendly when he didn’t see the label. Widi, (unwittingly or jokingly; we
will never know) slowly turned the huge bottle around… The Frenchman was
very curious to know what year the wine was. But he stared at a bottle
with no label at all. Widi turned further, slowly… At two rounds of
turning, the Frenchman finally dropped back in the chair with a big smile.
‘No etiquette!” he burst out. Now Widi was surprised and lifted the
bottle to her eyes. “Because it’s from the private collection”, she
concluded and calmly and quietly walked back to the bar, leaving the
Frenchman behind at the table in surprise and unbelief.
Yesterday morning I received an early stress call from a customer in De Hooi. He had come early to try out the English breakfast. Unfortunately he was so early that the cooks had not even arrived yet and he yelled over the phone that I should contact the manager immediately, which I did. Harry had just had a big night, and the early call did not make him happy. “The guy should read the blackboards! Breakfast is served from 8am onwards, not 7!” He promised to look into it and to apologize to the customer, that is, if this person ever would come back. Harry couldn’t sleep anymore and decided to go to De Hooi early. Still fuming he stormed into the bar, straight to the waitress behind the bar. “Can you believe there is this f….. idiot calling Bart at 7 in the morning to complain that he has to wait for his milk and toast! What an unbelievable imbecile, son of a b… . We should hang this guy in front of the door!” Not knowing that the customer was still in the bar, sitting in the corner just next to the entrance, he continued his trace of abuse into the kitchen. The
customers send me a message the following morning: “Thank you for
following up yesterday. Your manager is not a morning person. Greetings
from Donkin Donuts”. After a week he did return and we had a good laugh
about it. He is only coming back in the evenings now. Just before I went back to Jakarta last week to check on the bars there, I told the bar staff in BuGils Bali that the first beer that comes out of a barrel (and that is normally thrown away), should be collected and be given to the kitchen boys. We don’t want to throw anything away, do we? They fully understood. We use beer for cooking the Fish & Chips and fried mushroom, and the boys can just as well use this overly foamed beer. Two days later in Jakarta I received a call from Bill. Bill is an Ozzy and keeps an eye on the operation when I am not around. He was upset. “You won’t believe it!” he said in an emotional tone. “I walk into the kitchen and the cooks, were all drinking beer!” I realized my mistake immediately. Bill continued: “I told them to put it down, but one of them was already half drunk and got angry at me!” He told Bill that was “instruksi dari Mister Bart!” Apparently they had not understood that the beer was supposed to be used for the cooking, and if it wasn’t for Bill they would have had a party for 4 days in a row! Things are settling down now and this Saturday, Oct 18 we finally have the Grand Opening with free flow of beer and Live Music (9pm). Feel free to come along! Bartele
|
|||||||||||||||
|
►LOCATION |
|
►MAP |
 |
|
|
|
►OUR JAKARTA BARS |
|
|
 |
|
-- Visit
www.bugilsbali.com |
|
|
|
|
