being right for (not) the right reasons
in the preceding (or following if you're reading in reverse blog order) i refer to a friend calling me an asshole under one particular set of circumstances, and giving him credit for being right about that even while i would suggest to you he is wrong about all the rest of it, and it occurs to me there is some possible parallel in this to a situation about which i know more than perhaps i should regarding a particular hospitality establishment in downtown lowell. the difficulty here is in speaking abstractly about one fish in a pond sufficiently small enough to offer little plausible identify deniability, so please forgive me if i am extremely light on the details.
so, suffice it, please, to say that i enter into some disagreements with some here as to what might constitute a worthwhile way to run a hospitality business (say, perhaps, offering real beer) that might otherwise benefit those apparently incapable of making a go of it serving nothing but bud and bud light. (oh, and i almost forgot bud light lime...) the suggestion on my part is that a worthwhile number of people actually LIKE good beer, and will tend to patronize places that can offer it at fair prices which are not just the cheapest prices as seems to benefit the surfeit of bud and bud light, served as it can be via lowest-cost-producers. the further suggestion on my part being that more customers paying more money for beer is what one would otherwise want to think of as the proverbial good thing for most bar owners, but let's not digress too far here...
anyway, the ultimate "proof" in any how-to-run-a-bar argument is always in the longevity pudding, so a fair amount of offering of examples sneaks into the discussion, and me and my commenters (detractors) here have thrown about a fair number of local watering holes. so, back to my knowing perhaps a bit too much about one particular situation, i can predict for you here and now the coming demise (and/or fundamental restructuring) of one particular outfit pouring things other than bud and bud light downtown, and tell you that i know for beyond a fact that such has little (nothing, actually) to do with the flavors or prices of the beers offered.
in fact, this might neatly parallel this year's demise of other businesses whose business might have been more to the classic house-that-bud-built kind of place, and the (i'm sure) frustration of the folks disagreeing with me that, many times, if not most times, the reasons bars, restaurants and other hospitality businesses go under are predominantly predominated by 1) bad management, 2) bad management, and 3) bad management.
actually, "bad" covers a multitude of sins that include words like "lax", "absent", etc., but the end result is all the same. if you don't know how to run a bar, it doesn't matter if your concept is the best one ever in the history of the bar business, be that bud, no bud, or anything in between, you WILL be out of business soon enough.
i like to think one of the factors playing in favor of the new major's pub across the street from my place is that its success might be improved by its being able to "buy low" on all the new renovations wasted like folly on the failed aspirations of the last ownership of the dub. yeah, it's really too bad the old ownership couldn't make a go of it. but, see, here's the great news for arguments on all sides: not only does major's offer still the same lineup of cheap bud and bud light beers they always did in their old space, the increased number of taps available for relative free in their new location is helping them to offer REAL beer, too. i'd like to think it's working for everybody, and that the place is going to continue to be successful at least in some small part because of it. i know i'm going to be spending a LOT more time there than i ever did at the old place because of it. (if you like to play chess, or cards, or just hang out around people who do, come on down tonight after 8pm and join me for a real beer, or whatever it is you might like).
so, to those tempted to conclude that some bar having to backtrack on real beer might suggest the problem was with the beer, i will whisper to you the real reasons after the fact. (i won't be party to spreading rumors before). if you predicted failure, yes, you would have been right, but for not the right reasons.
on a tangent, the brian's ivy hall folks who pour bud and bud light upstairs in their club have put in an awesome array of taps slated to include lots and lots of the good stuff in finn's pub downstairs, and it'll be great to see good management succeed both ways. then we can all meet there to agree to disagree. and, seriously, come on down to major's tonight and enjoy a game and whatever your preference in beer, or otherwise, and tell me all about it.
so, suffice it, please, to say that i enter into some disagreements with some here as to what might constitute a worthwhile way to run a hospitality business (say, perhaps, offering real beer) that might otherwise benefit those apparently incapable of making a go of it serving nothing but bud and bud light. (oh, and i almost forgot bud light lime...) the suggestion on my part is that a worthwhile number of people actually LIKE good beer, and will tend to patronize places that can offer it at fair prices which are not just the cheapest prices as seems to benefit the surfeit of bud and bud light, served as it can be via lowest-cost-producers. the further suggestion on my part being that more customers paying more money for beer is what one would otherwise want to think of as the proverbial good thing for most bar owners, but let's not digress too far here...
anyway, the ultimate "proof" in any how-to-run-a-bar argument is always in the longevity pudding, so a fair amount of offering of examples sneaks into the discussion, and me and my commenters (detractors) here have thrown about a fair number of local watering holes. so, back to my knowing perhaps a bit too much about one particular situation, i can predict for you here and now the coming demise (and/or fundamental restructuring) of one particular outfit pouring things other than bud and bud light downtown, and tell you that i know for beyond a fact that such has little (nothing, actually) to do with the flavors or prices of the beers offered.
in fact, this might neatly parallel this year's demise of other businesses whose business might have been more to the classic house-that-bud-built kind of place, and the (i'm sure) frustration of the folks disagreeing with me that, many times, if not most times, the reasons bars, restaurants and other hospitality businesses go under are predominantly predominated by 1) bad management, 2) bad management, and 3) bad management.
actually, "bad" covers a multitude of sins that include words like "lax", "absent", etc., but the end result is all the same. if you don't know how to run a bar, it doesn't matter if your concept is the best one ever in the history of the bar business, be that bud, no bud, or anything in between, you WILL be out of business soon enough.
i like to think one of the factors playing in favor of the new major's pub across the street from my place is that its success might be improved by its being able to "buy low" on all the new renovations wasted like folly on the failed aspirations of the last ownership of the dub. yeah, it's really too bad the old ownership couldn't make a go of it. but, see, here's the great news for arguments on all sides: not only does major's offer still the same lineup of cheap bud and bud light beers they always did in their old space, the increased number of taps available for relative free in their new location is helping them to offer REAL beer, too. i'd like to think it's working for everybody, and that the place is going to continue to be successful at least in some small part because of it. i know i'm going to be spending a LOT more time there than i ever did at the old place because of it. (if you like to play chess, or cards, or just hang out around people who do, come on down tonight after 8pm and join me for a real beer, or whatever it is you might like).
so, to those tempted to conclude that some bar having to backtrack on real beer might suggest the problem was with the beer, i will whisper to you the real reasons after the fact. (i won't be party to spreading rumors before). if you predicted failure, yes, you would have been right, but for not the right reasons.
on a tangent, the brian's ivy hall folks who pour bud and bud light upstairs in their club have put in an awesome array of taps slated to include lots and lots of the good stuff in finn's pub downstairs, and it'll be great to see good management succeed both ways. then we can all meet there to agree to disagree. and, seriously, come on down to major's tonight and enjoy a game and whatever your preference in beer, or otherwise, and tell me all about it.
posted by kad barma at 12:10 PM
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