Big Al’s Blog: No Biggie, right?
Big Al’s Blog: No Biggie, right?

So, the mirror in the bar fell off the wall and broke into a million pieces. This mirror was big. It was mounted on the wall behind the bar and spanned about 10′ left to right and aprrox 5′ top to bottom. But the work had to continue. The bar was only scheduled to open a few hours late so we had to get humping but if things were going to go wrong, at least this accident happened early on Monday, our slowest day of the week. Normally on a Monday, we may see about 15-20 customers during the day and maybe about 20 regulars in the afternoon/evening. So while we like having those few people come in, if you are going to have a “construction” day, Monday is the day to do it. It wasn’t a major job, just doing some minor repairs and installing new beer coolers behind the bar. No Biggie, right?

big-al-blog-082515-2Well, this job did end up taking a little longer than anticipated so at about 4pm, it looked like we were still a few hours (at least) from being done and even when we were done, the entire bar would need to be cleaned from all the dust flying around. The place was a mess. So, I called it. We will be closed for the entire day. I have owned the bar for almost 6 years and this would be the first day that we would be closed for an entire day. Seriously, we are open Christmas day, New Years day, EVERY day. It’s a sports bar and usually, there are sports on those holidays. Anyway, It’s Monday… No biggie.

7pm rolls around and while I’m standing out front and I noticed a black Suburban pulling up and stopping in front. 5 people get out and we’re walking up to my front door. I went over to deliver the bad news that we were closed. The group leader looked very shocked when I told him that we wouldn’t be able to accommodate him and his group. That’s when he told me that he had a group of 50 people coming. WHHHAAAATTTTTT??? Yes, 50! On a Monday??? My bar is closed…The one day that I close, there is a group of 50 coming… Sure enough, 6-7 more Suburbans pull up all full of people. That’s when I found out that there is a Gold’s Gym Convention in town and each of these people owns a Gold’s Gym in India! AND they are hungry and thirsty…. Business owners! UGH…there was nothing I could really do at my bar so I made a suggestion. We loaded up everyone in their ubers and we headed to the restaurant that I go to every night. We got there and moved tables around and got everyone seated. Then, I bought 5 bottles of champagne and served people and I think I apologized to everyone 10 times over. I later found out they had called and the person that took the reservation wrote the wrong date on it.