Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book II, Part 43): Facing the music at Rich O’s in 1992.
By the late summer of 1992, a routine had settled into place at Rich O’s BBQ, shortly to become a Public House, and the predecessor of today’s New Albanian Brewing Company.
Amy worked mostly from the kitchen, concentrating on solidifying her BBQ menu, while Sportstime’s pizza remained available on both “sides” (dining areas) of the business. I mostly waited tables at Rich O’s and poured beers, although there was no bartender in the familiar sense, and perhaps this requires an explanation.
The haphazard evolution of our pub business resulted in the scattershot addition of keg boxes, walk-ins, serving tanks and (for a while) even a hand-pull for cask-conditioned ale, resulting in a complete organizational anomaly by prevailing restaurant design and management standards, because servers poured their own beers and conveyed them to guests; three decades later, they still do.
Obviously the two of us had support and assistance from the pizzeria’s employees, and yet at the beginning of my tenure we did the bulk of the daily work ourselves. Meals and beers came straight off the company teat with little attempt to keep track of the profits we...Read more
