Jillian’s is FUN! Community Blog

Apples in Youngstown

Here is my “WOW” Story I just wanted to share….

Pro Scout modeling (Located in AZ) called me yesterday because they needed a host place for there modeling sign ups. This event is big, I know cause in my younger days was a model wanna be…..any who, so I called her and emailed here the prices of the private room she requested.

She emailed me back today thanking me sooooo much for everything and ended the email with “but we booked with the Holiday Inn (where they have it EVERY YEAR) because space opened up.

I WAS TICKED!

I knew this could be huge for the club! It pulls in hundreds of teen optimists each time they do it! So something that Marc said really triggered my next train if thought…… In the manager meeting Monday he said “you have the best facility in this area and YOU have to make people realize that! ” Maybe it was the way he said it that really for the first time gave me the confidence to tell myself “Damn right I Do!”…. because it made me really think ….”What can the Holiday Inn offer a hundred teens that I cant? NOTHING! But here is what I can offer them”…..

So I emailed Pro Scout back and the jist of my email was this; “Amy, Its unfortunate you decided to go with the Holiday Inn especially since I have an awesome teen night and Thursday night promotion (for 18 and over ) going on. We as well as you work with the same radio station ( I know this from always hearing their ads) and I would of loved to help you promote this event to our clientle on those great nights! Within 20 min (no lie) of hitting send “they called me and booked our Private Room” and she said she was cancelling with the Holiday Inn. She was so excited to hear everything we have to offer (she is from AZ, so isnt familar with our Jillians here) she wanted to assure me this could be a quaterly event if all goes well!

So Holiday Inn how about those apples!

Stacey Willis
EC Youngstown

San Francisco Community Service

In Q2 the team in San Francisco selected to help St. Anthony Church in Oakland with a cleaning project.  This church is very old and is in need of repairs and a good clean up. The regular volunteer group who handles the weekly cleaning, landscaping and general R&M are the parish members who are mainly 70+.  Team SF went to the church last Tuesday and made a huge impact to a very greatful parish.  The following is an expression of gratitude from the church.

Note from Parish;

“On behalf of our Pastor , Fr. Jesus Nieto-Ruiz and the parish of St. Anthony, I would like to thank you for the time that you donated towards the cleaning of our church.  As you noticed, the building needs a lot of attention and thanks to your staff coming we were able to accomplish more the we expected.

 Once again, thak you for your time and dedication to our parish.”

Sincerely,
Jenny Vazquez
Administrative Assistant
St. Anthony Church 

We have attached some photo’s the first featuring AUM - Orlando Murica, AKM - Memo Cervantas and hourly Scott Myers.   The second photo is of very happy parish members.

The team felt so good about this effort, there will be another work detail heading back to St. Anthony Church this coming week.  Thanks to AKM - Memo for bringing this need to our attention and AUM - Orlando and long time hourly Erika Chavez for getting everyone there.

Thank you to all.
Sincerely,
Darren Des Roches
General Manager
JBC San Francisco

Manchvegas Jillian’s - chillin’ with Miller Chill!

Another great event success story from last week!  Miller Brewing Company chose to launch their new product, Miller Chill, at Jillian’s Manchester last Wednesday to their local distributor.  As Scottie J. would say, “This event was off the hook!”.  We had about 75 beer reps on hand (and you know how fun and crazy they are!).  They started with about a one hour business meeting followed by a beer bash (a very controlled beer bash, of course.)  Jillian’s was totally covered in Miller Chill logo’d items - posters, displays, glowing signs, beer mugs, you name it - they had it!  They even had Miller Chill chapstick!  No, it doesn’t taste like beer.  Also on hand was an ice sculpture that I ordered and this particular ice sculptor did a GREAT job.  Let’s just say that Scottie J. is not a camera shy guy.  The above photo is Scottie J., the Miller Chill ice sculpture, and AUM Shawn Cope (who is always in the trenches with all of our beer reps).  The next day, before I even had an opportunity to call my event host, he was calling me raving about the fantastic event and how team Manchester really rocked!  He is looking for another reason to throw a party at Jillian’s!  This team in Manchester really makes my job a whole lot easier…..THANKS!

Wendy, ESM Manchvegas

Jillian’s Manchester welcomes Senator John McCain!

Last Tuesday, June 5th, team Manchester welcomed Senator John McCain.  This event was tied into the nationally televised Republican Debate broadcast on CNN and our local ABC affiliate WMUR.  Over 100+ McCain supporters and campaign staff arrived to watch the debate and talk politics.  After the debate was over, reporters claimed that the Senator had “won” the debates and his supporters were whooping it up!  Senator McCain even took 20 minutes or so out of his hectic schedule to stop by Jillian’s Manchvegas for a quick hello to his group and to thank them for all of their support.  All kinds of press were on hand to capture the fun and team Manchester was looking smokin’ hot!  As the Senator was leaving, he took time to shake hands and snap photos.  I quickly arranged for one of my event servers, Liz Seymour, to capture this Kodak Moment:  Scottie J., myself and Mr. McCain!  The photo is a little blurry, but you get the idea.  Scottie J is on his way to the White House as the VP of Fun!  The other photo is all of the McCain guests glued to the new high-def televisions!  Thanks to the team for making this event a raging success!  To find out if the Senator will be in your area, check out http://www.johnmccain.com/

- Wendy, ESM Manchester

Jillian’s Has Heart - San Fran

Hello wonderful people, my name is Orlando Murcia and I would like to share my experience with all of you. About 2 months ago, my car was broken into and all my drycleaning and important personal stuff was stolen. I was the closing manager that night. By the time I got to my car it was too late to do anything and look for the one or the ones who did it. This incident was the first time that anything like this has happened to me in San Francisco, I am new in the city, just moved into the east bay area with my wife and baby daughter. I was upset for all the trouble and time that takes to replace all my personal stuff. I told my general manager Darren Des Roches about it and he took action as soon as he could without me knowing. I got a nice surprise a couple of days later, I walked into the office and Darren tells me that he got a gift certificate through Jillian’s Has Heart for clothing purchase to cover for most of the damages.

I would like to thank all who made this possible. I want to say how greatful I am to be part of the Jillian’s family.

Best wishes
Orlando Murcia
San Francisco.

Pick a peck of Red (expensive) Peppers

This is a suggestion to save a few bucks on food cost. Since red peppers are currently $2.63/lb - Piazza and $1.75/lb - US Foods… why wouldn’t we switch to yellow squash $.75/lb - US Foods for a bit of “freshness” and save a few bucks in the interim? Granted we don’t use an extreme amount but… watching plates returned to the tank there are a lot of reds left for the garbage and putting a few $ to COGS never hurts!   again just a suggestion

Arrgh! Pirates in Universal

German and team really played up to the opening of Pirates III opening on City walk  - staff was dressed for it this weekend.

The much anticipated Pirates made its way to Citywalk this past weekend. After the almost three hours of Pirates, Guests could live the experience at Jillian’s Universal. Why would you go Eat Drink and Play somewhere else when Jenna and Shaft were at the doors to Greet you.

Pop-up Party in Worcester

First a big thank you to Dave for his support in taking our parties to the next level. His ideas and encouragement have been a real boost. I went out with my new prop budget and bought some great decorations that really make the buffets look terrific. And just in time!

We had a pop-up party Wednesday for a group from Bank of America. Not really the type of group that you’d expect to have a business meeting here. But they were so open to thinking out of the box. And the party was fantastic! We don’t have a private function room so we have to make do. We put up pipe and drape to create a semi-private space around some billiard tables. B of A brought their own LCD and we projected their Power Point onto one of the screens that we use normally for sports. Everyone sat around the billiards tables in a very casual meeting atmosphere and gave their presentations. Then they finished up with a pool tournament and some drinks.

When we initially spoke the plan was to just set up the LCD and have a meeting. But we did the pipe and drape and an awesome buffet set-up.  And I’m telling you it was the presentation that wow’d them. I heard her on her phone talking to someone saying how great everything looked. They say that they will definitely be back.

Maybe I’m a little too excited about the new decorations (I’m still coming down from my shoppers high) but it’s just one of the small details that will make a big difference in the long run for our party sales. Continue reading Pop-up Party in Worcester…