BarNinja Podcast - The Ultimate Bartending & Mixology Podcast
The bartending podcast for home and professional bartenders. We share best practices, tips, trends, tools, hacks, product reviews, and innovations in the bartending and mixology field. We cover everything from being a better bartender to being a better drinker.
BarNinja Podcast - The Ultimate Bartending & Mixology Podcast
Rising Prices Demand Better Experiences For Every Guest
Guests don’t compare you to last year’s prices; they compare you to their best recent experience. We dig into why the gap between “good” and “great” hospitality has widened, and how small, repeatable moves—clean bathrooms, warm greetings, and a clear point of view—turn rising costs into loyalty instead of churn. From the moment someone parks to the last goodbye, we treat service like hosting a dinner party, not running a transaction.
We share a practical owner’s checkpoint you can run daily: start at the curb, audit the approach, test the bathrooms, and watch the floor from a guest’s perspective. Then we get tactical about training that sticks: short pre‑shift huddles, simple digital manuals everyone can access, and standards that make excellence predictable. We challenge the habits that quietly erode trust—sticky bars, vague cutoff times, and the “we’re closing soon” shrug—and offer ways to set clear expectations for late tables without burning out the team. Along the way, we talk menu focus, using names to create connection, and how to survive the half‑season slump by staffing to reality and compressing to what you can execute perfectly.
The conversation also takes on post‑COVID scheduling realities: fewer days, tighter hours, and the profit math behind compression. If you’re charging luxury prices, you need a luxury experience—welcoming energy at the door, clean spaces everywhere, and a bar program that remembers regulars. That’s how word of mouth compounds and why certain spots become the only place locals want to sit. Subscribe for more straight‑talk playbooks, share this with a manager who needs a reset, and leave a review to tell us the one change you’ll make this week.
Make sure to follow us on Instagram.com/barninja and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Also be sure to stop by the store at barninja.com to purchase a J Plate bottle opener to help keep the show on the air! Thanks for tuning in! Mike, Bill & Kayla
Hey Born Ninja Nation and welcome to the Born Ninja Podcast, where we talk about everything from trials and tribulations from life behind the bar to tips and tricks to make you a better bartender and a better drinker. Join your host, Bill Thornton, Kayla Lee, and yours truly, Mike Davidson. Let's go have some fucking fun. Well, what's going on, Bill? By the way, good to see you. We've caught up. We we shoot at 10,000 probably with this episode. But I mean, it is ranked anywhere from you know, FeedSpot gave us top 10 bartending podcasts and all platforms. And then usually in Spotify, we're anywhere from one to three. If you just type in bartending. It might be on all he the podcast reporting is still weird. So, like, yeah, that might be on all platforms. Because there's a we're out there on a ton of, you know, for my heart radio to feed.
SPEAKER_01:Every day in my life, I know at least 75,000 people with us. Yeah. Every day.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I don't have a ton of housekeeping stuff other than buy our new J Plate. Uh the J Plates are live. Um, we did your promo by four get one free, Bill. That's live on the website. Pick those up while they're available. Uh putting another order of them together, but it's probably gonna take a minute because we do make those by hand here in Richmond, so it takes a minute. So it'll probably be sold out for a little while, but if you jump on now, you can probably get them. Um the last few that we've got in stock.
SPEAKER_01:It's season's spinning up, so I'm basically gonna be. In fact, I'll go to Blacksburg and do some promotion too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do it. Don't do it too good because I gotta make all of them. I'm kidding. That's a champagne album.
SPEAKER_01:We're gonna make as many as people order. I'm down. We can get pictures of me in like a little tank top. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Working from backyard. Um, two actually two things I think we ought to talk about. One is the difference of good and great in a restaurant. Because I've given been in so many restaurants lately where it's like, do you guys even care? You know what I mean? Like the great restaurants and the good restaurants, it's just that last level of hospitality from somebody walking in the door, the greeting, the introduction, you know, keeping your bathroom clean, having fresh ingredients, having your menu. You know what I mean? Like it's amazing that so many restaurants, whether they feel like they get so busy they can't see it or they don't realize that they're being, you know, mediocre, but like there's just no room. The stuff's so expensive these days, you know, food and drinks, drinks now are what entrees were, you know, insane five years ago. So it's like you really gotta bring your A game in the restaurant industry. You can't just serve Cisco chicken fingers and you know, charge people$15 for them.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you gotta have a media needs to have a soul. Um$18 for a shrimp poor boy today in Blacksburg, which I get it, prices are through the roof, but you know, that's like in a college town. I mean, if you're you're really not staying on top of the little stuff, it just it's almost like a lot of the operators or management, which trickles down to staff just don't want to be there anymore.
SPEAKER_02:You know, there's just yeah, I mean it's just like have a you need like now, like a restaurant needs to have like a point of view, a soul, a vibe, as the kids say. And if it doesn't, like I just don't want to spend money there over and over, you know. And like you've got in you've really got you know, I think we uh we talked about last time training the staff, it's just so imperative and it's so overlooked in these.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and I think also, I mean, ultimately, like it's unfortunate, but everything is just expensive, and everyone's kind of accustomed to that too. So it is definitely that extra difference of like a good restaurant and a great restaurant, one that I want to go back to is the customer service. And of course the food, you know. I mean, if the food's just like super mediocre and we're paying top dollar for it because life just inflated, you know.
SPEAKER_02:But at the same time, it all feels top dollar now, right? So for sure. You're almost forced to up your game a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:You have to. I mean, like there's otherwise you're definitely gonna get complaints. I feel like I'm a pretty easygoing person, especially when I go into a restaurant, you know. But at the same time, I think regardless, like for me, the experience definitely comes from the person we're talking to or the bartenders. I mean, I know Ben and I, when we go somewhere and we sit at a bar, if the bartender interacts with us and is talking and very kind, we're like, okay, well, this is a spot I'd come back to. But it's rare now. Like I feel like it used to not be that rare, and then now it's become kind of a once in a you hit it every once in a while. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it feels so good when you get it, you're like, oh, this place is really well run.
SPEAKER_00:But like, oh my gosh, I want to talk to you too.
SPEAKER_02:If you're a GM or if you're an owner operator, you need to pull into your parking lot, detach yourself. They call it detachment. You know, detach yourself from your role and what you're doing, and just open your eyes and look around. How's the dumpster look? How's the fence look outside? How's the landscaping? Does the outside of your restaurant make me want to come inside? Like they forget so many things. Do we need a paint job on the trim work? And then just start from the outside, work with your way to the inside as soon as you get to do the inside. Okay, let's go to the bathrooms first. How are those? Is the sink hanging off the wall? I mean, a lot of times it's just like small stuff. Yeah. You know, does a bathroom need an upgrade? Is it clean? And then go from there, go to the front of the house, go back of the house, and then pay attention to the service a little more, not from the eyes of you as an owner operator, but as a customer, that customer interaction with the client.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and I think that's even like, you know, when there was a price gap, like it was either you're going to find dining or you're going to kind of like a normal restaurant. And now there's not that big of a difference between, you know, a normal restaurant you'd go to on an evening compared to, you know, like a full fine dining experience. Like the prices are very kind of similar mantres and stuff. Yeah, it's like there's not really a gap in that anymore. And so, you know, if we're paying luxury prices for food, which really unfortunately we just are because it's inflation, there should be still luxury experiences. And there's so many more like new restaurants and kind of like different vibes, as you said, compared to where it used to be kind of more just like chain. And now that there are more, I feel like smaller and you know, mom and pop shop restaurants or just even like kind of their own brands opening up and expanding. You know, as you do that, there has to be quality control um for sure.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's just if you anybody runs a restaurant, owns it, bar managers it, take a look at the whole every aspect of your business. And because it like it's like you said, Kayla, I mean, prices have equalized, it's a little weird, you know. So it's like you hit$100 real quick on a tab these days. Every time if you're drinking and eating. So 100% I'm gonna give you a hundred dollars. People expect a certain level of one service, two ambiance. You know, they they could eat at home, but they're choosing to come to your restaurant, give them a reason not only to come, they'll want to come back.
SPEAKER_00:This is such a small detail, but I literally hate if I go into a female restaurant or restroom and then there's just toilet paper on the floor. In any of the stalls, if there's toilet paper on the floor, I'm just like, this is disgusting. It's an eating establishment, right? Yeah, like why is there a toilet paper on the floor? Just just makes me turns me wrong.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, in so many restaurants, it gets boring. I was like, So I remember when I was working in the restaurant, you feel so busy and overwhelmed, and like some things you just don't care about as much because you're just like trying to keep your head above the water, but like that's not I've never owned a restaurant, so I've only bar managed, managed things like that. So, but it that is like when I was managing, that's my problem, this to take care of the whole restaurant. But like you have to have processes and enough people in place in the establishment to keep it at a certain level. That can't be an excuse. Yeah, being understaffed forever, that doesn't that doesn't fly anymore. Um, you need to be able to keep a clean restaurant clean. You know, things shouldn't be sticky. I don't go back to a place that's sticky because I'm like, yeah, if it's sticky, they're not cleaning their draft lines. You just start telling yourselves a bunch of stories. Feels so gross.
SPEAKER_00:Like you just feel gross when you leave. And they're just like, what did I eat? I don't actually, maybe I don't know what I ate. Yeah, I don't know if I want to know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I've talked to multiple friends that are former bartenders, former managers, etc. I'm still active, who won't really go out anymore. They have their one place where they're treated like a regular, but they don't want to, and I'm guilty of it. Like, well, I don't necessarily want to go to restaurant B because the last time I was there, the personality, the effort wasn't there. You know, it's this was like it's a sliding trend that I feel like the industry doesn't get ahead of, and operators don't get ahead of. It's kind of chipping away what COVID started in the food and beverage industry.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And I mean, you're you're when you work in a restaurant, you're a ho you're hosting people, you know. You have to almost treat it like it's a a dinner party. You know, somebody walks in the front door, you wouldn't be like, look at them, look away, go over and just start, you know, chopping up cheese. He's like, hey, Rick, how's it going? You know, come on in, whatever. Like that has to trans that you go where you feel welcome. That's why it's the restaurant you go to all the time. And so, like, if we don't make people feel welcome, why will they want to stay and why will they want to come back again? Um, it's it restaurants really shouldn't be transactional. Even a seasonal restaurant, even a tourist restaurant, it can't feel transactional or that you don't care about the customer because then that customer leaves and tells people, oh yeah, it's you know, the food's okay, but you know, the vibe's this, or like, you know, we've all been there where we hear what other people say about a restaurant, and that then changes our mindset whether we go or not. So it's a like a viral expansion loop. When people walk out of your business, what are they saying about you? Are they being like, Oh, you gotta go there. The steak's so good, they're so nice. You know, Tim Behind the Bar is the greatest bartender, you know. You really gotta build that kind of scene to have a successful bar program indoor in restaurant too. And this is this is goes for bars and restaurants and the bar part of restaurant too as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, there's too much competition out there to only be mediocre, really. You know, I mean, don't get me wrong, I think, you know, depending on location and certain things, there's places that can survive that are mediocre, but long term, it's it's never you're not going to, right? It might work right now. But those type of like quality controls, the difference between someone good in a restaurant and great is ones that you'll see stick around for a very long time. And so, I mean, even like staying here at the lake, like it's so interesting in Lake Norman when there's a new spot, new restaurant in town, like everyone is so hot on it and they're like flocking to it. And so you better be on top of your shit when you open because if not, you're gonna have a bad experience and then like the whole town's gonna know about it. So, and it's it's a big town, but it's small. Like everyone knows everybody. It's it's it's great, it's awesome. But also, there's like some caveats to that. But you you've seen it. There's restaurants that have been here for a very long time and continue to do very well, and then the ones that you know kind of started out okay and were good, but just not great, are are gone.
SPEAKER_01:And you can come out the gate small details like that. They come out the gate amazing, staffed properly, and then the half season curse, you know, in the month or two months into it. It's easy to get the car going up to 200 miles an hour, but if you cannot maintain the capability, that that's how restaurants fail. It's like we were great at the beginning, now everybody's exhausted, nobody wants to do the job, product is dropped, and it's just new options.
SPEAKER_02:The first thing to go is like, and I mean, even connection with customer, right? If I'm giving you awesome customer service and I have a decent drink and decent food, I probably will have a repeat customer, you know, and people would refer. But if I don't have, I think you can drive a little while with mediocre service and great food, but I think you really need to have the great product and the connection. When I say great service, creating connection with a customer, like using the people's name is their most important thing to them. So like even though they're only there for a minute, but if you can get a name and use the names, you know, that's huge. They want to come back because they feel special. They feel like you care you've cared enough to remember their name. So um, you know, there's things you can do, strategies that you can implement um with a process that'll create better customer service too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Speaking of, I think it can go ahead, Keller. Oh no, I was just saying, I think it can be even just like a you can put it together like a simple training manual, which I think kind of sometimes a lot of the times is overlooked, you know. And I mean, now things can be digital, you can have it on sent in a file where it just lives in every single one of your employees' phones to reference, so there's really no excuse for, you know, poor situations. And you know, you set the standards up front, you have the high expectations, and someone's not meeting them, then well, clearly that's not the right person. So it's it's being like having that clearly lined out in terms of kind of those systems and processes, so it doesn't become an issue, or you don't go from a great restaurant to a good restaurant, or you don't start at a good restaurant, you start as an excellent restaurant.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I think having meetings with your staff, weekly stuff, get togethers talking about stuff, daily meetings, just a quick set down about the special and everything. You've got to make that stuff fun because a lot of employees don't want to come in on their day off or have it worked out. But having the trick into that and then getting everyone together and communicating will sh will just good, you're just gonna see higher profits.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. One thing I see that is bad is that there's a tribalism between the serving staff and the customer. It's like, oh, the stupid general public, which I mean, I worked on a long time, I'm guilty of this. And I mean, there are times where you're just like, Are you kidding me? But in general, you you I mean, you're gonna have your your bad apples in any business, any anything, there's gonna be the onesie twosie people that just drive you crazy. But overall, you you have to like, it's a guest walking in. You have to treat them with respect and try to make a connection with another human being versus been like, oh, they're walking in at 9 30, we close at 9 30, and now I gotta stay, you know, like they almost have to like just force. I don't, you know, and I think that goes back to what you're saying, Bill, but just training about look, these are our customers, these are how we make our money without them. They're not the interruption in your job, they are the purpose of it. And so setting expectations for your closing servers to like you're gonna take a table at 10 if they come in at 10. You know, that's the expectation. And so, like just having upfront contracts with your or upfront expectations with your employees, and then really like if you'd expect your employees to make that connection with a customer, treat them like a guest, things like that. I think you would probably would help customer service a little bit because I've seen that just I'm paying a lot of attention in bars, just like the the vibes between staff, customers, the cut the staff with me, things like that. And it's um sometimes there's a there's a little wall in between the servers and the customers, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01:Some of the local places here have started, say, and a lot of places close at nine here, but they stop serving food at 8 45. And they don't. It might be on social media, but I've had like operators and and other bartenders like you know, in a hurry, we just want to get this sandwich, and we've been working all day, and they get there at 8 50, and it's like, well, we're closing in 10 minutes and the kitchen's closed.
SPEAKER_02:Nine feels early to me. That was a COVID start, right? Everything went to nine during COVID because people but like that's been over for a while now. I feel like if you're a restaurant, you could at least go to 10 or at least seat eight, 9:30.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, we've all been there, and I I've had the 902 where I go into the kitchen or 1002 or whatever it is, and go into the kitchen and be like, you know, my boy is in the back, and I'm like, hey man, I got two set down. What they want a barbecue sandwich and a uh Philly cheesesteak with fries, spin it up. The pros, you can get a lot of flack from the kitchen when they do that, but the pros really want to be like, okay. You know, it's I mean, maybe I wanted to get out of there too and go grab a beer, bar down the street, but me more fulfilled and happy to know that I'm like, shut all that off, give them the best time they want, make sure they feel comfortable, don't care about the tip, just represent the brand, the restaurant, and make sure they have a good time because in the long run, it's go for the people to come back and pay the bills and take care of everything. It's part of the industry. We're just gonna close it early so nobody's here after which makes me think they're not making enough money. It's just a whole other story. Yeah, um well, and the whole like I know lots of operations that post-COVID that were seven-day a week operations, and now are three and four day a week operations, and they're making more money than they were when they were seven-day operations because of labor Hillab and everything like that. And when you see that as an owner, that trend changes, you're cutting hours, you're making the same profit.
SPEAKER_02:That's fine though. I mean, if it's I get it. Yeah, I mean that if you this is compression, right? You're just compressing your all your sales into a smaller plant. That's I mean, if you can get away with that, great. But um, yeah, it's just it's weird as everything kind of comes back from COVID, which something's stuck and something, you know, be closing early, stuck, uh multiple days off, stuck, things like that. Although I, you know, I don't know that you know, you change your hours, you shorten your hours, then you shorten your days. You know, are you making the same amount of profit? Could you make more profit if you were open seven days a week with a longer hour? I mean, seven, one more hour opening from 10 to 9. Um, if you've got the business and it supports it, that's a whole nother day open for you. Yeah. Do we know we're making the same profit? Are we staying, you know, are you stagnant on the same profit when prices are going up when really you should be up on profit as well? So it's hard to tell on that one.
SPEAKER_01:But um so uh sidebar. I've had someone ask me since we are the Ningerian Empire, and we are Bar Ninja, if we could please, for the love of tips, service, and good time, normalize not singing any more happy birthday songs in the restaurant industry.
unknown:Yeah, it's funny.
SPEAKER_01:He was like, Man, funny. Good luck on that one. How long is this trend going to keep happening? And I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna put you ahead of that. I don't think you have a prayer on that one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I don't I don't think what we say is gonna stop that.
SPEAKER_02:You what? Good luck with that one.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we're just never mind. Moving on.
SPEAKER_02:Um all right, guys. Uh thanks for uh listening to today. Make sure you hit subscribe on your uh favorite podcast player. Buy a J Plate so you can keep us on the air.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, or J Plate.
SPEAKER_02:And uh, we'll see you guys soon. Bar Ninja Oh or J Plate. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bar Ninja Podcast. Please be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast player. You can join the Bar Ninja Nation that has over 7,000 bartenders in it by going to www.barninja.com, and you can enter your email. Until next time, see you then.
