Jillian’s is FUN! Community Blog

Congratulations….

Team Seattle would like to congratulate our house pro - Joel Pritsch - the proud new father of Nolan John Pritsch. Nolan weighed in at 6 pounds, 14 ounces and is 20 inches tall. Mother and baby are both doing well.

Pictures to follow….

SCOTTIE J. AND WENDY ARE GOING TO JAIL. SEEKING “BAIL” MONEY!

Hello! I’m hoping that the title of this blog caught your attention. Well, as usual, Scott and I are up to our usual antics. Scott managed to get us “arrested” for the MDA Manchester Lockup on August 22nd. Scott and I need to raise $1300 in bail (each of us is responsible to raise $650). Bail money helps the MDA continue the important fight against muscular dystrophy. The MDA helps people in our community with neuromuscular disease by providing clinics, support groups, summer camp for kids and the purchase of necessary medical equipment.

To help raise awareness in our building, we had several posters made with our mug shots. They are very funny and are generating a lot of buzz amongst our guests, especially our regulars! Scott and I are having a fun time “competing” against each other to see who can raise the $650 first. To show our progress, we each have a poster of a thermometer detailing how much $$ each of us has raised. We need the Jillian’s team to help us reach our goal!If anyone would like to keep Scott and I out of “jail” by making a donation to the MDA, please call or email us! Our snail mail address is 50 Phillippe Cote Street, Manchester NH 03101. Please, I beg you…..I already have to share an office with Scottie, I can not share a cell with him too……

Thank you! Wendy, ESM Manchvegas.
 

Banquet items

While its fresh in my mind…  Many of us use the Life Long tables that we buy at Sams, BJ’s, Cosco or where ever.  Trying to find the clips for the skirts that fit those 2″ thick tables can be an issue.  If you need them…try these guys  www.quickstage.com   For 100 LV clips (actually made for those table) its $58.

Also the Pagoda Boxes aren’t carried by many of our food distributors.  I finally got lucky at  a local Oriental Grocery store that was more than happy to order (and actually go and pick up for us) a case for $35.  www.MrTakeOutBags.com sells them for $45 for 500 with printed sides.

Just for those that might need to find such things..

spence

Kudos to Charlotte…

  Thanks… to the great effort from the Charlotte team for putting on a great new menu presentation. We know TONS of effort was needed & used to put the gathering on and appreciate all the hospitality, effort, and fun you made it.     Thanks from team Evansville.

A great way to clean your ferrels!

I just wanted to pass along a helpful hint!  I’ve found the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to work wonders in keeping the pool cue ferrels extra white.  It’s fast, easy and works better than any other method we’ve tried.  Happy cleaning!

 Brandee Beck, AUM, Pasadena

Seattle’s got FLAIR!!!

On Sunday, July 15th Jillian’s of Seattle hosted an amazing flair event. This attracted over 32 competitors from Vegas, Reno, Seattle, and all over California, in addition to upwards of 200 spectators. The event was sponsored by Skyy Vodka, XS Energy Drink, D-List Magazine and 92.5 (who broadcasted live from the club). The competitors practiced throughout the day outside in the park along Lake Union, which tempted curious drivers into the location to see exactly what was going on. Lauren Anderson, our VIP/Marketing coordinator worked hard to ensure the evening was flawless! With the vibe and energy of the night, the biggest inquiry we received from competitors and guests was when we would be hosting our next competition…

spare-RIBS to spare….

We have recieved numerous negative comments on the new rib being used now. “Tough,” “chewy,” “full of cartlidge,” “I liked the old flavor better by far” comments like these have been conveyed more often than not. The new rib is actually a sparerib with a trim, NOT a true St.Louis rib and seem to not be nearly as meaty.  Anyone else getting a ribbing over the ribs?

Jay

Team Seattle out on the town!

On Wednesday night Team Seattle was out doing market research…We visited all the local establishments around Lake Union and even took a traditional tourist ride on the “duck”. You will never guess who was presenting that evening on our ride– the one and only Tony Humphreys! He even joined us for the after party. This was a great team building exercise which we plan on repeating to celebrate all of our successes!

FREEDOM AND FUN IN EVANSVILLE!!!

             This past weekend the city of Evansville, IN hosted its annual Freedom Festival on the Ohio River, only a few blocks away from Jillian’s. Since the Evansville club opened September 18th, 2006 this was our first exposure to the event and we were not quite sure what to expect. Well…………….what a weekend it turned out to be!!!!!!

             The festival offers 50-60 carnival style food booths, corporate tents, a Budweiser VIP tent, a stage that hosted multiple concerts throughout the week, and air shows that featured the Canadian Snowbirds. The highlight of the week, however, is the hydroplane boat race on the Ohio that is televised on ESPN. Being a little bit away from the action and with access to our parking lot partially blocked due to road closure for the festival we were afraid that our guests would choose to spend their food and entertainment dollars at the river rather than with us. This, in fact, did happen to our neighbors, an Irish Pub, as they lamented all weekend the lack of traffic and slow sales for them. We, however, saw an uptick of 20% in sales for the week because we chose to plunge into the middle of the festival with our people all day, every day, wearing Jillian’s logo shirts and passing out fliers, teaser game cards, and coupons throughout the event that drove new guests to us. In total we handed out more than 3,000 items with our name on them.

            In addition, Patricia Morris, the JBC National Event Sales manager, gave up family plans for the weekend to join us and network, as well as offer her insights into building future event sales around the weekend. We, in Evansville, can’t say enough about the impact that she had during her short visit, providing us with perspective, interacting with the Freedom Festival organizers, relentlesly touring the grounds to help our ESM fuel ideas, etc. She even arranged a helicopter tour for Tony Humphreys!!! (he passed).

            The primary reason that I am writing this is simply to share with the entire JBC community the feedback that we have received locally about Jillian’s in the immediate aftermath of this event. From the radio people that worked with Chuck Corcoran to set up the multiple live remotes, to the boat race teams that Patricia & Summer contacted prior to the weekend, and the heads of the festival organizing committees, there was a universal WOW heard by the Evansville staff about Jillian’s proffessionalism, enthusiasm, creativity, and overall support for this event. The race teams that we hosted, (including the winning team, and another from Seattle) were thrilled to know that we are now here and that we can accomodate them. The local contacts that we made were enthralled with the possibilities that Tony and Patricia suggested for our particapation in next years event and were practically stumbling over themselves to invite us to all of the VIP events this year. The staff and management in Evansville were exremely proud to be a part of JBC this weekend……………and are walking a little taller these days because of it…………….thanks again to Tony, Chuck, & Patricia for all of their support. �

ESM Menu Food Show in Indy Sets the Stage with Huge Success!!!

Back in February we started the process of launching a new Banquet Menu for the ESM departments nationwide. Darren De Roche-GM of San Fran, Spence Crisco-KM of Charlotte, Chip Romp-VP of operations started the long hours of preparations with many conference calls and ideas being thrown at them from all directions. I was also able to take part and watch the project “GROW” into what I believe will take our Event Sales Department to the next level. Many Thanks to Darren, Spence & Chip!

Last week a group of us arrived in sunny Indy for the first of 3 food show conferences to showcase our new ESM menus. The General Managers, Kitchen Managers & ESM’S from Indy, Memphis, Champaign & Worcester along with Tyler Warfield, Darren DeRoche, Spence Crisco, Chip Romp, Dave Wallace and myself set out to learn and understand about the new menus along with gaining a “TON” of new knowledge about banquet table presentations and tricks of the trade from each other.

The energy level was Awesome and the food Outstanding!

The GM’s & KM’s arrived at 5:30am to prep and cook all of the food- a huge undertaking but executed with perfection! The ESM’s arrived at 8am to find that they would each be given a specific menu and they were to set up the buffet from scratch using any and all props they could find floating around! Great Stuff!

The GM’S & KM’s finished around 10:30am and the ESM’s walked us thru each buffet and explained the flow thru and decorations for each of their buffets. A very PROUD moment for all. I believe each of us at the show were equally impressed with what we had accomplished. We each learned more about our business and each other and that is what it is all about.

After eating for what felt like hours we gathered for a round table discussion. We were all excited and proud of what will become of this. A lot of great discussion and ideas tossed around.

We have two more shows slated for Charlotte on July 19 and San Fran for August 1-I will keep you posted. Thank you to all who participated.