Thoughts 30 Aug 2008 08:21 am
Sunrise Ranch Bar and Grill
A friend –who has never run a bar in his life– has started running a bar here in Vegas called the Sunrise Ranch Bar and Grill.
He’s not working for a paycheck, instead he’s working for a piece of the action. Which would be all well and good if there was any action.
This joint is a dive. There’s no other way to describe it. It’s too dark inside, the music is too loud and the customers are not people who would be comfortable in a better lit place.
On their website they have some rotating pictures and a photo gallery. A quick look will tell you the sort of place it is.
Having said all that I will give him credit for cleaning it up quite a bit. He stopped a lot of the stealing by his staff, chased off the worst of the riff-raff and fixed some of the pricing. But they still don’t have a kitchen which will keep a lot of people away. And Latin night seems to have gone the way of the passenger pigeon.
He had someone parking their roach-coach out back, but they weren’t making any money even on the busy nights and he wanted them to be there 24/7. Needless to say they’re not there anymore.
A person who goes there fairly often and who is Mexican says that the problem is that it’s a “Gringo” bar, and if it was a “Mexican” bar it would be packed.
Ok, so how do we test this theory? If you turn it into a Mexican bar all your regulars and your bartenders, who are Gringos and probably don’t speak Spanish, will leave.
Did Latin Night bring in enough Latins that weren’t there with friends of this new manager’s friends to show any difference? –I doubt it.
The big problem is that in a town full of little bars, one more isn’t going to be noticed. And a bar with no kitchen isn’t going to attract the construction crowd or shift workers like a Big Dogs or a Bonanza Lounge.
On the plus side, they have cheap beer all week and a free BBQ on Sundays.
And would somebody please get that boy a real camera with a real flash.
on 07 Sep 2008 at 10:29 am 1.JamieTheBartender said …
It’s all about the bartenders, the best will bring in more customers, clean the place up out of respect for their craft, and, chance are, be able to speak English in the process.
I’ve taken a few bars from no customers to a few more than legally allowed, and most of them without food. Food? That’s a unique problem, you need good people skills and a little common sense to get your ass out to local eateries and work with them to supply your customers with edible fare. It Works!
I’m takins some friends to the SSBG for the fist time this week to visit Raven, a bartender that I met on myspace. We’ll see how it works out. (We’ll eat first… Thanks for the heads-up)
Jamie
http://myspace.com/jamiethebartender