Dyngus 'Week' and Desk Assembly

Last night, Tuesday night, I headed over to Riley Street Station to take care of some random tasks, get a bite to eat and check out open mic night.

There I ate some great polish food in celebration of Dyngus Day(which was monday). For those of you who are unfamiliar, Dyngus Day or Wet Monday is the name for Easter Monday in Poland.

In Poland, the tradition of dyngus day has become a courting ritual, where young unmarried girls are the only acceptable targets. A boy would sneak into the bedroom of the particular girl he fancied and awaken her by completely drenching her with multiple buckets of water. Politics played an important role in proceedings, and often the boy would get access to the house only by arrangement with the girl's mother.

Throughout the day, girls would find themselves the victims of drenchings and leg-whippings by use of pussy willows, and a daughter who was not targeted for such activities was generally considered to be beznadziejna (hopeless) in this very coupling-oriented environment.

Most recently, the tradition has changed to become fully water-focused. It is quite common for girls to attack boys just as fiercely as the boys traditionally attacked the girls. With much of Poland's population residing in tall apartment buildings, high balconies are favorite hiding places for young people who gleefully empty full buckets of water onto randomly selected passers-by.

Buffalo, having one of the highest polish populations of any city in the world (Second only to Warsaw) had adopted this tradition and molded it into its own tradition. They even have a parade each year, and several events scattered around restaurants and bars throughout the city and suburbs.

Generally, the celebration in Buffalo revolves around squirt guns, pussy willows and polish food. Guys will go out to bars equipped with squirt guns, girls with pussy willows. The guys then squirt the girls with water and then girls then beat down the guys with their pussy willows. Which are long flexible twig like objects that feel a lot like a whip. Not all that pleasant to be whipped with one in the shin.

All in all it is a strange tradition if you are not used to it. But you do get some pretty awesome polish food on this day.

The real reason for this excursion to the bar though was to put together a desk for the new office we are putting in.

We got the following desk, which looked really nice in it's display at the store, and based on appearance alone, I assumed it would be east to put together.... I was wrong.


Believe it or not, there were probably about 200 pieces to this assembly. Although it looks like there are only really 3 or 4 pieces to each part of this desk. Complete with 500 screws, wood stubs and glue... yes glue... part of the directions required you to glue pieces together.

Also it should be noted that all the screws were hex-screws not allowing for a regular phillips head or flat head power screwdriver to make life easier.

We started putting this thing together around 8pm at night and finished at 10:30pm. I honestly thought this was only going to be about a half hour job max. Man was I wrong about that.

Eventually we finished though, and I was able to crawl out of the bright florescent light room into the bar room where open mic was being hosted. But by this time I was tired and frustrated and had no real desire to hangout long so I had one drink (diet coke, nothing too exciting this night) and said hello to some of the patrons. It was a pretty good crowd for being so early in the night and we had some good musicians playing at the time. I stayed and listened to a song or two because the guys playing were performing some pretty good acoustic blues. I'm a big fan of blues, as evident by my attendance at the B.B. King concert a few weekends ago.

Finally I headed home, and got to bed around midnight. A nice 'early' midweek night out.

I'm trying to cut back...

Another quick story from the past weekend.

I was sitting at the bar just after midnight with a friend of mine. This friend is known for drinking heavily when he goes out to the point of becoming extremely wasted. He is a happy drunk though, so he's fun to be around. That is until he begins to shut down and drool on himself.

Anyway, we were sitting at the bar at I noticed he appeared to be sober. I asked him how things were, general small talk, and then asked if he was drinking. He responded by telling me that he is trying to cut back a little and not drink so much all the time. I said that was probably a good idea, and that I wasn't drinking too much that particular night either.

So the night carries on, and I would say about 3 hours pass. I just so happen to glance over to see my friend, the one who had earlier in the night told me that he was trying to cut back, passed out, face down on the bar.

Apparently his plan of not drinking too much didn't work out.

St Patty's Day Party and boy were a lot of legs tired.

Saturday turned out to be a bit of a whirlwind of a day/evening.

I woke up at noon on Saturday so I don't really consider the daytime ever happening. The day seemed to progress immediately from Lunch to evening. I'm ok with that though, the only thing the mornings are good for on the weekends are large breakfasts. But you can have those at noon too, so it really doesn't matter if you miss the morning.

A few months ago we had organized an outing with my family and a two of my aunts and uncles to go see B.B. King in Downtown Buffalo. My sister and brother in law even flew in for the weekend to see the show. The show itself was absolutely incredible. B.B. King live is a whole different experience. He's not quite as mobile as he once was due to him now being 82 years old, but his voice is still as strong as ever.

The show, as mentioned was great. However we ran into a little bit of a conflict because we were having our St. Patty's day parties at both bars that night. The parties started at 10 and the BB King Concert started at 8. So obviously there would be a little bit of an overlap. Not a problem with Riley's as we are pretty well staffed there and can handle events and bands and the such.

However, the Glenwood Grill is a much smaller venue and we normally do not get big crowds there. So when we do have something large happening, I like to be around in case something were to happen. And by something, I mean, fights, underagers trying to sneak in, people who have been band trying to come back in, or maybe give an extra hand behind the bar if we get too busy, or in the worst case scenario, an un-expected visit by the police.

We had the local band the Schnells play for us. They plated from 10pm - midnight and unfortunately I made it to the bar at 12:10am. Completely missing the entire show, but luckily the partying continued for a couple more hours after.

To the left is a picture of some of the patrons enjoying the night. This picture was taken around 2:30am. The husband of the girl in the middle was trying to get her to make out with the others two... hence the boob grabbing. If it looks like she is falling down, it's probably because she was.

I actually witnessed many people fall down on this night. Some accidentally and some forcefully.

At one point in the night, I was talking to a wife of an old friend of mine from Highschool when suddenly she slipped off her barstool and ended up laying on her back on the floor. She popped right up, only to slip and fall again (it was raining, and the floor by the front door was a little slippery). Luckily she was ok and I would have felt bad for her had she not accidentally burnt my hand earlier in the night with her cigarette.... another reason why I'm not a fan of smoking. Cigarette burns are painful.

The best line of the night though, came out relatively early. My guess would be 1am. I was sitting at the bar talking with a friend and another guy when the guy stopped mid conversation to work some magic on the female employees.

And I kid you not, this is exactly how the dialect between the girls and the guy went.

Bartender #1 comes down to our end of the bar:
Guy: Excuse me are your legs tired?
Bartender 1: huh? no...
Guy: because you've been running through my mind all night long
Bartender 1: -blank stare, then turned and walked away without saying anything-

not more than 30 seconds later, bartender #2 comes down to the register to ring something up and the guy calls her over... and asks...

Guy: Excuse me, are your legs tired?
Bartender #2: What? My legs?
Guy: Yeah, are your legs tired?
Bartender #2: Why are you going to say something gross?
Guy: Because you've been running through my mind all night.
Bartender #2: yeah, thanks -then turns and walks away-

A female patron was sitting next to him as he attempted these lines, and just watched in disbelief as did I.

After his two attempts drastically failed, she asked him:"you can't be serious"

Guy: Just wanted to let them know that I've been thinking about them.

Girl: Well, you should probably ask them if their father was a thief next -then this girl walks away as well.-

The funnies part of this whole situation though was that I don't think this was meant to be comical in anyway. I think it was a sincere attempt at a pickup. All the power to him if it ever does work.

But all in all, it was a good night both business wise and in terms of having fun.

Private Parties a Success

Friday Night:

Good night, surprisingly calm night.

The private parties at Riley's went off without a hitch on Friday night. The first party was small quick and easy. Just a group of 15 or so people coming in for Happy Hour. Nothing too special. We set them up in the side bar. They had some drinks and some appetizer platters, nothing too crazy. It was all pretty simple.

The big party came in around 7pm and stayed until 11pm. In total 100 people showed up for the party. It was a Rehearsal Dinner as I have stated in previous posts, so everyone came looking nice. Some in dresses and suits. But by the end, people were doing shots of tequila wearing their sports coats over their heads and sporting their finest pair of Aviator sunglasses.

I propped myself in the back corner just so I could watch everything and keep an eye out for problems. Didn't have an opportunity to talk too many people, but I did get to enjoy one entertaining conversation between one of our Bartenders and a younger guy.

Bartender: You've had a lot of those drinks already tonight.
Guy: Yeah...
Bartender: How much do you weigh?
Guy: 200 pounds
Bartender: Alright then, what are you drinking again? Yuengling draft?
Guy (annoyed): Yeah...

The bartender then turns around to fill up his glass. Meanwhile, the guy begins to rant to his friends how "no one should question his drinking ability""he can hold his liquor better than anyone he knows""he's been drinking since he was 15 years old"

It was clear this guy was intoxicated and spitting all over his friends who were forced to listen to him, and I couldn't help but laugh.

Here is a guy, boasting about how much he can drink, and how much of a big time drinker he is, and he is obviously wasted from having a couple draft beers....

You keep up the good work there tough guy.

Anyway, to sum this day up. Things worked out allright. The Parties were a success, we got some experience with the large events, and all in all we gained some great PR. A win win.

Big Weekend

HUGE weekend starting tonight.

We have two parties coming to Riley's tonight. The first being just a small art group that will come for drinks and appetizers. They will only be there until 7pm.

After 7pm we have a 120 person rehearsal dinner party. This marks our first 'large' event since upgrading the bar. The wedding will be down the road at the Roycroft Inn, which is a very nice historic landmark in the heart of East Aurora, NY.

The party tonight will consist of a full catered buffet by Homestyle Catering. They are the catering company that runs out of our kitchen and takes care of all the food service for us at the bar. The rehearsal dinner party should be eating, drinking, socializing and having a good time all night long. Hopefully everything goes smoothly without any hangups. I'm expecting that it will be busy to the point where I end up being the 'guest' bartender. I do this on occasion when it gets really busy.

Tomorrow we are having our St. Patty's day parties at both Bars. Complete with live bands and green stuff. One thing about St. Patricks day, is that no matter what you find, as long as it's green you can claim that it is either an irish decoration or costume. For example, I am looking at a green sharpie right now... clearly designed specifically for this holiday. I might even use it to write all over the face of drunken victims... or maybe not.

At the Grill on Saturday we are having this band called the Schnells.

They are a local band to the area, and friends of some sort to just about everyone from the town. I've found that whenever we bring in people to play at the bars who are from the area and friends with some of the patrons, the places automatically get packed for the night. This Saturday will be no exception as I have heard everyone and their mothers are coming out for the show.

Should be a lot of fun, but hopefully there wont be any problems... unfortunately though, there always are.

I'll let you know how things go.

ps.

BB King concert earlier in the night on Saturday, very exciting times. But very stressful as well as I'm going to have to hurry out of the concert when it's over and head right to the Grill. The BB King concert is at 8pm and the Schnells start at 10pm.

Gandy Dancer Open for Business!

March Storm in Buffalo

Friday marked the unofficial opening of the Gandy Dancer Martini bar at Riley Street Station.
www.rileystreetstation.com

I'm not sure why I included that url other than to make the post look more legit. The url is really just a link to my half hearted attempt at creating a website. I am not now nor have I ever been a webdesigner, therefore the website really is just an attempt to put up some pictures of what the bar looks like until I get a webdesigner to build me the site. That being said, someone help me out here, clearly I need it.

Anyway, back to the topic of discussion.

Friday night marked the 'opening' of the Gandy Dancer room. I use the term opening lightly as it was the original bar of the restaurant back when we opened in 1987. It served as the primary bar for approximately 3-4 years. Hard for me to remember how long actually as I was only 8 or 9 years old at the time.

The concept is unique in a sense that we are going to have two bars in the same building. Not a totally unique concept as many places do this, but mostly just night clubs and bars in densely populated areas. Not East Aurora, NY.

So the opening went ok. Really is hard to judge the initial success as we suffered from a serious winter storm, the worst of the year, this past weekend. Probably accumulated close to 4 feet of snow between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning. The included picture is a random shot of this storm. I hate snow.

Surprisingly though, there was a good showing of patrons at the bar. We'll see how the new addition does after the buzz around town begins to spread. All in all, I think think it will be well recieved.

Friday night, I spent the night at our other bar, the Glenwood Grill. We had a band there that night who were actually very very good. Unfortunately their name escapes me at this moment, but I'll post it as soon as I can remember it.

They were a duo that both sang and played guitars. Playing a mix of classic rock, and blues with a very distinct feel. They even played some pop songs, twisting them into their style and complete providing a different yet appealing alternative to them. The one that sticks out in my mind was Madonna's Like a Virgin. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of this song unless I'm sauced up dancing away at a wedding, but the way they were able to incorporate the lyrics into a 'bluesy' feel was absolutely incredible. You would have never known it was the same song... although the "like a virgin, touched for the very first time" verse did give it away eventually.

Unfortunately, the Grill is located in the heart of ski country. And the winter storm provided to be even too much and the turnout for the performance was less than desirable. But I made sure to express to the band that I would love to have them back on a night when we were not getting 6 inches of snow every hour. Did I mention I hate snow?

Saturday then was spent heading to the party store to pick up some decorations. We are having St. Patty's day parties next Saturday at both places with bands. So we needed to get the decorations done early. My girlfriend and I spent the afternoon decorating the Grill, with the help of the many onlookers. It's entertaining to set up, or decorate or do anything out of the ordinary at the bars during business hours. Everyone becomes so mesmerized by what you're doing, they just sit and stare. Sometimes you'll even get a comment or two along the lines of "you should do this" or "you know what would look good?". One general rule that you must except in this business is that everyone is an expert.

Sunday I decorated Riley's, but I did this in the morning before the place opened up. Therefore I didn't get any suggestions, just me and my hangover pushing through trying to get everything in place. All in all I would say both establishments turned out pretty well.

Saturday night was spent in the Gandy Dancer at Riley's.

We had a good band at Riley's too called "Little Louis" with "Santina". They are a great local blues band.

I spent the night watching the Duke/UNC game on our new 50" HD television in the Gandy Dancer, sipping on a pinot noir and listening to blues. It was indeed a very snooty night for me, but I had a great time none the less.

I even ran into two seniors from Otterbein College who were home for spring break. Unfortunately for them, spring was still a ways off. Regardless, one guy had me laughing about how he was going to extend his collegiate career an extra semester, maybe two. I then felt the need to encourage him to do so. Stating that I myself was a supersenior at one point in my life as well. And that my second senior year was probably one of the if not the best year of my life.

If any of you that may ever read this ever are presented with option of taking the "victory lap" in your collegiate career, do it. Life can wait, you only get to go to college once and it is such a short period of time. Don't be afraid to extend that time of your life longer because it really doesn't ever get any better than that.

Well, thats about all for now. Nothing too exciting to speak of really. Next weekend should be a good part for St. Patty's day so I'll be sure to update on that.

First Post

I sit here in the office of my day job a few minutes before the work day is to end.

Excited about starting my very own blog, I wonder what to first write about. I'm not sure yet, but it is a Thursday night. I have a whole weekend ahead of me filled with what inevitably can be considered the unexplained and unexpected human behavior.

So I will cut this short for today and hope to have more excitement soon.