Jillian’s is FUN! Community Blog

Jake’s making a monster opportunity out of a hand sized monster!!!!

You probably have seen those crazy eating competitions on the food network and tv, from huge pie eating contest or to eating hot dogs till you explode. At Jake’s, we try to bring that same kind of commroidtry and competition with the flare of our burgers. Speaking with Jake last  “Wow, its great to see how much attention we get with our Monster Burger displayed on our window I have been only standing here watching for no more than 2 minutes and 25 guests walking by had to stop and simply look at the burger. There were many people who even stood, posed, and took pictures with the massive burger.” said Jake. Jake and I agreed using the monster burger display we generate an extra $200 in food sales because it looks so good! So, the following day Ray and I were discussing club ideas and our two servers Jason an Lincoln, came to us saying, “Someone has accepted the Jake’s challenge.” His name was Jeremy he said ” That burger looks pretty good I think I could eat it.” I replied, “All right you got it! If your able to finish this challenge you will be the first!” He accepted the Jake’s Challenge. The parameters of this challenge is that you must complete the entire burger of 5 patties 5 pieces of american cheese, and 10 pieces of bacon on a standard Jake’s Burger build in 10 minutes. Jeremy had started on a good pace eating meat first in quarters then eating the bread. ” Wow! this burger is so good but, its fresh its burning my mouth from mouth for being so hot.” He said laughing. His friends shouting “Shut up and eat you only have four minutes left!” At exactly 9:59 he ate his last piece of the Monster he was the pioneer of the Jake Challenge. He ate about 2.35 # of mouth watering goodness! “I never knew something so good can make you so full!” Jeremy laughed. As his reward we bought his burger and gave him a filled up Lucky Seven card stamped for another burger. Already, word of mouth has started and people wanting to break Jeremy’s record! That’s why at Jake’s we can take something as simple and a delicious traditional hamburger into a monster of free advertising of word of mouth!

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Jaime

Award winning karaoke at its finest……only at Jake’s

On these chilly nights we have been having in Pasadena only the warmth of our fiery and hearty old fashion chilly could keep up with the daily travelers of Pasadena until one night. All the lights were lit, the stage was set and people were ready to party like no other. It was a Thursday night, one to remember, one night to start for a brighter future our guests. The suspense was like no other for our first Karaoke Competition night. What started to be only one or two names wanting to join turned out to be 32 people. Jimmy B. was on fire getting the crowd going and the emphatic cheers of their favorite songs being sung by Karaoke Heroes. You can hear the latest hits from Chris Brown and No Doubt to Smokey Robinson and Blondie it was intense. Even Simon couldnt cut a knife into our crowd for being so energetic and singing along. Plus, great drinks made by our infamous Jake’s bartenders kept the crowd wanting more. Even our famous Paddy-O came out to sing “Comedown” by Bush. With the patient waiting we had our winner, he was from the newly founded Pasadena Karaoke group who were looking for a place to perform. They said’ ” We have to thank Ray and all the Jake’s staff for putting together such a great event. We think we found our home, Jake’s is our place to be!” Ever since that night Karaoke has been the place to be in Pasadena and I thinks its going to be that way for quite awhile.

Jaime

Make it reign!!!! With a Jake’s Original!!!

It started off raining in Pasadena, sometimes can be a turn off to many buisnesses but, I was able to put a smile on my face. I see the advantages of the rain. There is a local bus stop going across 5 cities and a majority of those stops do not have any cover from the rain. I sought this as an opportunity. I spoke to many people asking them to come inside in the cafe and take a seat out of the rain. From there was where I wanted them. They sat down smelling the juicy hot tasty burgers. They can sense the aroma of our fire hot home made in house chili. Then people started taking food to go on the bus. I had one couple who moved from Pasadena about 8 years ago and was forced to take the bus due to their car being in the shop. They use to eat at Jake’s a long time ago and saw our new cling. They took the challenge of creating their own burger and the end results we won!. We sold to our guests that having a traditional burger can never go wrong when you make it your way. The guest said ” I have to tell you, I am going on that bus with over 25 stops and 3 cities I go across and I will tell everyone about how great those burgers are!!!!” Jakes is back with the blog!!!

Wow 40 K in 14 weeks here we come!!!!

I was convinced after speaking with Tony in our last coach’s corner together as a group, that I needed to do something over the top to reach our goal of $30K for the week. I was really having a hard time putting the 3 circles of our Jake Concept together: the Cafe, the Bar and Billiards, and Events. My circle was the Cafe I asked myself, “What can I do to ensure that I can put an imprint on my circle? Then I came up with an idea to boost our sluggish N/A Bev Sales. I put together a contest with all our Cafe servers on selling the most gross in N/A Bev, Beer sales, Liqour, Wine, and I would give an extra $20 credit for every Lucky Seven Card I would get back. All, I have to say is wow! This contest has really taken off in a good way. Our cafe servers have averaged over $700 just in beverage sales compared there sub par $450. We have Tam who is leading overall with a little over $10 K in 13 weeks so far. Also, Lincoln who is in second under $9.5K in 13 weeks just in today alone $525 beverage sales on a Monday!!!! Who would think a small burger stand can generate so much????? Plus the number of lucky seven cards coming in is extra ordianary; just on Sundays we can collect close to 10-15. I have to commend all our Cafe Servers for upselling very well! Right now as a group there are at $38 K. I am very sure they will be beat 40 K by the end of the week!!!! Who says Food up sale contest next???? I do!!!

Luke wowing everybody…..

“Oh, I remember my first day…” is a humorous line I always say when we are busy in the café. We tend to notice the small things we are doing wrong, mental mistakes, and details that we are over looking then we correct them. Yet, this past Monday was different. I can still remember back in the days when young Luke first started here. It was first time serving guests in a restaurant; he had very rough time at first adjusting to the work environment even to the extremes of tables walking out on him. I didn’t want to give up on him. So, today proved me thoughts right. Luke did a great job he was out going, fast pace, under control and most importantly wowed all the guests with his service making new regulars. The thing was incredible on his own his sales were over $1500 yet he only had one comp and that was for a lucky seven card, so no mistakes! Great job Luke!

The blog to beat all blogs…..

When it comes to making it your own, making a difference, embracing opportunity, proving that everything matters, and wowing everybody I can only think of one person at Jake’s. His name is Marcelino Lopez and he is the pride, passion, and heart of Jake’s and JBC. If you can take at a look at your Red Book’s he is the only person to who have worked for the company 15+ years.  Marcelino, I would say is the man responsible of making Jake’s so successful. Unlike many Jillians, Jake’s has that mystique of being a tradition in Pasadena. Marcelino has that aura of tradition when he walks into a work every day. Not many managers or employees can say they are working with a living walking piece of history; I have to say I am very fortunate that I am working with him. Marcelino has worked from billiard tables, to construction, to basic maintenance. Marcelino’s energy, passion, and work ethic beat some employees twice as young as him. I would have to say we all should stand up for him give him a round of applause and give him thanks for being a true pioneer of core beliefs in JBC. 

 Jaime

loyalty-

in my mind we have lots of stars on our server team but 1 person stands out in my mind especially during this crazy busy holiday season and it is erika chavez !  she has been with our team for over 5 years and everyday she works is a delight, not only is she one of our highest sellers, her attitude is amazing and what i like best is that she enjoys what she does and it shows. her answer is always yes  - what’s the question? i know when she is on a party we are guaranteed an upsell of some sort - my repeat clients ask for her by name - what is better than that? seriously!

 jennifer

Be jealous KM’s I have the best cooks ever!!!

Tuesday night, we had our Block Party for our good friends at Burke Williams we turned our kitchen into a pasta making machine. Trying to cook for about 120 people pasta in our small kitchen is pretty amazing but we had a tough problem. How do we cook over 25 # of pasta, sauces, cheese sticks, and meatballs with one large pot and at the time 3 working stove top burners.  Lots of hard work at first but, Lupe one of our cooks had a great idea he thought of turning our deep fryer into a pasta machine. That was brilliant. So we quickly changed the oil and set up the machine as a pasta cooker. Wow we were cooking pasta so fast. I was getting many compliments from all the Burke Williams staff on how great the food was. Great job guys!!!!

Jaime

wow everyone

this thank you just wowed our staff… funny how we wowed them and they wowed us… what goes around comes around….

jennifer

Thank you so much for your follow up phone call, everyone had a great time and your staff was MARVELOUS. They were patient, they were everywhere we needed them to be, they checked in with us to make sure everything was going ok, and you allowed us to enjoy ourselves more this year than we have the last 3 years. It’s really just amazing how effortless a good staff can make a party seem, but Molly and I both know that a lot of effort goes into creating that illusion, so thank you again. You made US look good.

Paddy-O Wow-O

It was a chilly Monday evening at Jake’s, our bartender Patrick aka Paddy-O and I were setting up for our fun night of Guitar Hero.  It’s always fun to see new guests walking into our bar and have the eyes of young children when they come and see Guitar Hero in the bar.  We hear comments of “Wow!  That’s really cool!  I wish my bar back home had something like this!” or “Monday Night Football!  Now Guitar Hero!  This is awesome eating great food and enjoying it with a beer it makes the night great!”  Those are great comments but, I strived for something much more.  I challenged Paddy-O to make 20 new regulars using Guitar Hero and if he did I would buy him lunch for a week.  So Paddy-O went to town with the guests.  A group of young women came to the bar who, were totally new to Jake’s and wanted to play guitar hero, so introduced our bartender Paddy-O to them.  Wow!!!  He showed those young ladies a great time.  He had them all playing guitar hero.  They were even dancing having a great time.  Not only did they have a bar tab of $200, they planned the next week to have an event here at Jake’s for a Guitar Hero showdown.  They said they will be back to see Paddy-O for more guitar hero practice!  Great job Patrick and I still owe you lunch!  Hahahahaha - Jaime

Team Jake’s pulls together

Take a walk through little old Jake’s for the first time, and you will agree that pulling off events here at Jake’s is a task…our little “kitchen” shared with the build-your-own burger concept that has taken off, no storage space, and very limited equipment does not make it easy.

 Friday we had 4 events for the day…we finished round 1 and reset for the evenings 2 parties without a hitch, so with everything under control I decided to take a little break and take a walk.  I return 45 min before the parties arrive to find Jake crawling behind the desk frantically trying to figure out why our computers crashed.  I realized at that moment that it was going to be an interesting evening.  About 2 minutes later we get Ray on the phone from the kitchen asking Jake how he can fix spin dip that had “slightly” burned…add more milk says Jake.  I walk out of the office to see that both parties had arrived 30 min early so I go upstairs to start sending out the food and it is more chaos.  The poor servers are adding guest checks with their cell phone calculators, poor Ray is standing over the pot of spin dip trying to figure out what to do.  And in true Jake’s fashion the night gets worse.  Jake is now completely occupied with trying to fix the micros (at this point the keyboard and the mouse have stopped working as well), Ray is on food patrol, while I am charming our early guests, along with trying to lend a hand to the cafe servers that are pulling their hair out (I make a trip allllll the way down stairs to the back to get the plug in calculator, walk allllll the way back, move the pepsi refrig to plug it in and then realize I grabbed the wrong plug….allll the way back I go).  Wow, what else is going to happen I think!  Well, the satelite wouldn’t cooperate to put the game that our party requested….and now we’ve got a guest that needs to be cut off!

 All of this and more in the matter of an hour and a half…but the 3 of us pulled together like 3 sweaty champs and pulled it off!  As quickly as it all happened everything just kinda came together, the food came out, the computers magically started working, and Ray fixed the spin dip!  We sat down in the office in awe at what just happened, poor Jake even had burn marks on his shirt from getting shocked while fixing the comp.  Our guests never knew what was happening around them.  They were very pleased with everything….in fact I was stopped on my way out for about 15 minutes worth of picture taking with the Hertz party because they were so happy (pictures to follow).  �

Jillian’s of San Francisco gives back in a big way!!!!!

Team San Francisco’s Q4 Community Initiative was headed by AUM Bryan Galope and Supervisor Timor Mobarak and this quarter we donated our time to the World famous Glide Memorial Services Foundation.  

Gilde helps many in need, especially in these hard economic times and is located in a very depressed part if the City. Poverty, drug abuse, violence, and despair persist in San Francisco as they do across the country. By working to combat these problems, Glide serves as an oasis in a desert of hopelessness, marching to the edge where victories for social justice are won. Glide is a place where old, destructive ways of being are thrown out and new ones created. Where names are named and love is celebrated and a simple call goes out to all races, classes, genders, ages, and sexual orientations: its recovery time. It’s time to love unconditionally. 

Our team stepped up in a big way by preparing food, serving food on the front line and offering friendly conversation to those in need. This experience touched our team so deeply that we have committed to Glide that a team from Jillian’s of San Francisco will participate once a month in the meals services program or wherever we may be needed. This is a very moving effort and I encourage all those that read this to visit Glide at http://www.glide.org/. As I reflect on the teams mission this past quarter my emotions choke me up and remain tender.  Helping people to this magnitude speaks volumes and to the entire team both past volunteers and future, thank you for believing in people and being nonjudgmental. Your devotion to our core values, the donation of your time and the passion in which you have dedicated yourself to this cause has Made a Difference, you have Embraced Opportunity to help others, You Made it your own, you WOW’d Everyone and because Everthing Matters you given your time for a year. All I can say is - I’m proud of you all and Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Below you will find a series of photo’s chronicling the team’s day at Glide.

I am WOW’d…

Last night, we hosted Museum of Modern Art holiday party. The event couldn’t been executed better- it truly was a work of genius and the client agreed (see email below). The SanFran team works like a well oiled engine…from the staff to the kitchen and up to management; this group knows how to represent Jillian’s in such a professional approach.

Despite this holiday season being slower than normal, the frustration of a group cutting their guest count (and budget) in half just a week before the event can be challenging to deal with. Jennifer kept her cool and stayed true to our core values:

Make it your Own !!!!
Make a Difference !!!!
Embrace Opportunity !!!!
Everything Matters !!!!
Wow Everybody !!!!

It is so exciting to be part of this exceptional team. We are building momentum to make 2009 a paramount year!

Great job team San Francisco!–one proud ESM, RaeAnne

Wow, what an accomplishment!!!

San Francisco’s own Jenny Sullivan (Bartender) took on the fight against Aid’s in the “San Francisco Run for the Cure” on July 27th.  

This race held every year in major cities around the world has participants sign up to run a Marathon!  Yes, a full blown Marathon.  This was Jenny’s very first Marathon ever. She trained hard, day in a day out. The team here in SF helped with donations, moral support, continued encouragement in this huge undertaking. Not only did Jenny finish the race she also raised $2000.00 in donations. Great job Jenny, we are very proud of you for not giving up and completing this great ‘Run for the Cure”. 

 Jenny finished the Marathon is 4hrs and 30min and has continued to train for future races. You’re a champ and congratulations!�

LPL Employees digging into our Ball Park Classic Buffet!

On Wednesday August 20, 2008 Jillian’s of Charlotte hosted LPL Financials Employee Appreciation Party for a total of 750 people.

This was truly a team effort by our management and staff.

Our management team met several times a week to strategize and plan what we would each be responsible for and all staffing concerns. This party was a huge opportunity for us with the exposure of 750 people walking thru our doors to see what we do and who we are. How can we make a difference and what would be our Wow story that all who attended would walk away with?

Parking was the clients biggest concern as we only have 115 parking spaces so we had some hurdles to jump thru before getting started. Parking spaces were borrowed by the neighboring business which gave us 230 parking spaces. We then secured a parking deck downtown with 500 spaces and had 8 shuttle vans running thru out the event picking up our guests and returning them back at the end. We also now have the luxury of Charlotte’s Light Rail system which helped with another 100 guests.

 Hurdle jumped!

Charlotte over the years has secured some strong vendor relationships which was critical in being able to add extra touches to the event that would ensure the WOW not only for LPL’s meeting planner but for all guests who attended.

We had 3 Ice Sculpture’s brought in, Red carpet at the Light rail entrance and the shuttle drop off entrance, an 8 foot balloon arch for them to walk thru with their company colors, a popcorn machine and fresh flowers all thru the club. The Host was speechless as we walked her thru the different venues. To me that is my favorite part of an event. When you can sit back and watch everyone enjoying themselves and knowing that you and your team created and executed the vision.

 LPL Financial will be back!

Networking in Seattle - the “wow” factor!

On Friday, July 18th, Jillian’s in Seattle hosted “The Toast of Seattle”,  a round robin style networking event put on by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. We cleared out the entire mayor’s room and fit 100 guests (sit down style) for a great breakfast - something we normally do not do!

We “wowed” all of our guests with great presentation, great service and the opportunity to showcase our space to a lot of potential clients for future events. The club looked great, and after a lot of hard work and preparation, the entire event went off without a hitch!

Kudos to our KM Victor, our entire kitchen staff, and the wonderful servers who all got here bright and early on Friday to make this event a success!

cudos to our kitchen!

as i sit in my windowless office trying to book business for these tough summer months i am obliviously to the 350 guests that have come in for lunch from the convention. i walked back into the kitchen to ask tamayo ( our kitchen manager ) a question about a future party and was stopped in my tracks when i looked at the line with 30 + tickets hanging - robbin our all around godess ,  expediting  and servers running me over with full hands in and full hands out- it was poetry in motion. i am so impressed with our team…. and come to find out we only had 10 minute ticket times! way to go!!

jennifer

MONSANTO - ASI

On Tuesday, June 24, Memphis hosted the Monsanto - ASI Conference Kick Off Event! It was a total building buyout for 400 guests with **EAT**DRINK**PLAY** on the agenda!

It was a fantastic night that included World Champion Billiard Player Sarah Ellerby challenging guests to see if their skills could match hers. (She let them win….a few!) The “King of Beale Street” Billy Gibson showed off his blues harmonica skills in the Video Cafe. Local Ice Creamery Maggie Moos served up tasty delights and guests feasted on a 3 enormous buffets that were not only filled with amazing food, but looked INCREDIBLE! ASI even filled our “claw” machines with special fun prizes for the guests to win.

Our entire team went above and beyond to make our building look fantastic and insured that the ASI guests were having a great time.

When I was leaving the club last night, I ran into the Monsanto - ASI clients. I was greeted with hugs and comments of how great everything went! They were blown away with the service of our staff, how incredible our building looked and just how much fun their guests had. She said that we were the talk of the conference!

 Thank you to Beth our GM, all of Team Memphis, Lisa, Dave Wallace (no one can match your banner hanging skills!), Dave Downey…. Oh my, the list goes on! This was such a team effort! THANK YOU!

“I had a GREAT time… this party was AWESOME!”

Cleveland Heights hosted another bar mitzvah on Monday, but this one topped them all in execution and FUN!  Near the end of the event I asked Jacob (the guest of honor) if he had a good time… he responded “I had a GREAT time… this party was AWESOME!” That’s what it is all about…

The staff did extremely well, especially considering that this was a first event for two of them. We did a banquet training last Wednesday that really helped execution as well as positive perception of what events do for our company, I was so happy to see our collective thoughts/ideas put into action! 

Jacob has severe food allergies so we worked with his mom to put together a buffet that he could enjoy without bringing this food allergy to the attention of the other guests (something very important to his family).  The kitchen staff did an excellent job on handling these special requests, as I know they had to take a lot of extra time to prepare.  His parents could not thank me enough throughout the event and with a phone call following the event.  Their son has never been able to go through a buffet line and eat the “regular food”… and for his big day he was able to eat just as all of his guests ate which made them all very happy.  

Overall, the club looked great, the staff executed perfectly and the atmosphere was very fun… I have to say this was hands down the best party we’ve done as a team.  Extremely exciting that we got this party after hosting Jacob’s travel hockey awards banquet in March… a small $200 pop-up party turned into something wonderful. 

Congratulations Team Cleveland… Be proud of your efforts!

Kid Delicious is a hit at Demsy Bar Mitzvah!

Cleveland Heights was the location for a great Bar Mitzvah for Cameron Demsey yesterday.  There was a game show, wax hands interactive takeaway, origami artist, candy buffet and last, but not least, last known American Pool Hustler, Danny Basevich, aka Kid Delicious.  Check out his bio on http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/books/06pool.html and you can also search him on http://www.youtube.com/.  The event was action packed and very fun for attendees and staff.  Great job to Team Cleveland Heights that put on an amazing event… Cameron had the time of his life.