Jillian’s is FUN! Community Blog

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!

Jillian’s Goes Hollywood!

Jillian’s-Universal CityWalk partnered up with Jr.Achievement SoCal to host the 1st annual Biz Bowl on June 23rd! We welcomed over 300 entertainment industry professionals and celebrities to fundraise for nearly 200,000 K-12 low-income students. Jillian’s was also able to showcase our entire venue, all while guests indulged in games, food, drinks and dancing! A huge win for Jillian’s!!!

Rapper “Coolio” was among many celebs visiting Jillian’s red carpet before the BET Awards (pictured right)!

1st Annual Billiards Tournament: N.E. Association of Paralyzed Veterans!

This weekend, Friday thorugh Sunday, Jillian’s of Worcester hosted the New England Association of Paralyzed Veterans 1st Annual Billiards Tournament! Friday began with an opening ceremony with performances from several branches of the US armed forces. The bag pipes were GREAT! Ewa Laurance a.k.a. The Striking Viking, was the guest of Honor!! Arguably the best Woman Billiards player of all time!! She was SUPER! Ewa was performing trick shots, answering questions, and challenged guests to games of 9-Ball to raise money for charity! She even had a Marine lie on a table and made a shot off of his mouth! It was AMAZING! We really enjoyed having here here!!!! We also had a silent auction all weekend loing featuring signed memorabilia from “title town”. Celtics, Red Sox and Patriots limited edition frames and signatures were on display for all to see. 

 Saturday and Sunday featured the actual Billiards Tournament! A solid turnout and lots of new guests seeing the club for the 1st time, they were all very impressed. It was double elimantion and everyone here seemed to have a GREAT time! It is always great to see people doing what they LOVE and raising money for such an AMAZING cause!

 Sunday was the wrap up of the Billiards tournament and Closing Ceremony. Brendan O’Donell, Senator John Kerry’s disability advocate was here to speak for the ceremony. Overall this was an EXCELLENT opportunity for Jillian’s in the WOO to get excellent exposure as well as raise a lot of money for our N.E. Vets!!

“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!

Jon Bon Jovi Performs at Jillian’s Seattle!!!

Ok, so not thee Jon Bon Jovi, but Seattle’s very own; Kerstan Lindsay rocked the house last Sunday Night at Karaoke!!! The crowd went WILD as Kerstan and back-up singer Thor belted out Bon Jovi’s Hit Song: “Livin’ On A Prayer!”  Jillian’s Karaoke Crowd continues to grow and as you can see have more FUN with it! Oh, and yes fans they DO take requests!!! 

Embracing Opportunity in Evansville

 This past Saturday the Evansville Jillian’s had the opportunity to particapate in the Super Mini Chef’s Event at Eastland Mall. This is a very popular, annual extravaganza organized so that local restaurants can display their food and promotions in an interactive, kid friendly way. Heather Fuson , the manager in charge of the promotion, took the time to do balloons, linen, skirting, and elevation on our tables………….we received multiple complements on our display from the mall management and their customers.  There were 350 children present, and they were fascinated by what we had to offer! We had the longest lines at our tables during the entire event. We took the opportunity to hand out event sales information, bowling passes, and teaser game cards. We also had a Family Day display and answered dozens of questions about this and everything else that we can do!

Jillian’s Seattle: IS ELECTRIC!!!

Wanna boogie? Seattle does!!! Jillian’s Seattle saw an AMAZING FUN crowd on Friday Night for 80’s Night; who had their dancing shoes on!!! It was one of those nights, you know the one’s I’m talking about; everyone was out to HAVE FUN!!!  You could literally feel it in the air, it was electric!!!  The BEST part of the night was when DJ XTC played the hit song “Electic Slide,” and the house went CRAZY!!! Guests boogie-woogied their way to the dance floor; where everyone started the four wall line dance.  The house was packed and everyone had TONS of FUN!!! 

Manchvegas Hosts a New England Lobster Bake!

With a beautiful deck to sell during the summer, why not sell a traditional New England Lobster Bake?  Looking for an out of the box summer menu, I pulled together a lobster bake menu, just waiting for the perfect client to come along.  Well, my wish came true and Hearst-Argyle Stations came along - they loved it and they bought it - sweet!  My out of the box thinking (and actual selling!) along with the full support of my GM, Scott and KM, Kevin, sent all of us into high gear for perfect event execution!  Kevin wanted all of the food to be cooked on the deck for the WOW factor.  I wanted the perfect atmosphere of chillin’ on the deck (aka, the right decor) and people to think, “WOW, I didn’t know Jillian’s could do this?!”.  Scott, well, he wrote the checks for all of it to happen the way we wanted it.  Scottie was a trooper and really supported all of the details from beginning to end (including the lobster bibs!). 

Hearst-Argyle Stations hosted a national sales meeting in Manchester and chose Jillian’s for their kick-off dinner.  Attendees were from all over the United States - including Hawaii!  All guests were very excited for the traditional fare - which not only included 1.5lb Maine Lobster, but steamers, corn on the cob, salads, and more!  Upon arrival, the local event reps were impressed and wow’d before the food even came out!  They couldn’t believe we were cooking everything right on the deck!  Normally, I would continue to ramble on, but the pictures are really worth a thousand words.  I send a HUGE thank you to both Scott and Kevin, for making it happen!  I also want to give a shout out and thank you to Tracey Daigle, AUM, who took my vision and made the deck look incredible (as well as helping Kevin serve!)!  My servers, Claudia and Victoria, also rocked!  The entire Manchvegas Team really came together to make sure that this event was flawless!  At the conclusion of the event, it was really nice to hear from the host that they would write Jillian’s a letter of recommendation! Go Team Manchvegas!!

- Wendy, ESM

Manchvegas Deck Grand Opening Pah-ty

OK, so it’s been a while since Team Manchvegas has blogged and we actually have a few success stories to share…

Back on May 30th, we did our OFFICIAL Deck Grand Opening to kick off Summer in NH.  The party started around 5PM with a happy hour band, the weather held out (no rain!), and the Josh Logan Band rocked Manchester well into the evening.  Additionally, Corona was here to host the Corona Cove Party along with Rock 101.  All kinds of free schwag was tossed into the crowd.  Fun was had by all!  A funny side note, Josh Logan plays all kinds of music - original & covers.  Josh performed Stevie Wonder’s “Supersticious” - a dead on rendition.  People that live in our immediate area were calling the next day, convinced that Stevie Wonder was on our deck….fun stuff.  No, Mr. Wonder was not performing live on our deck, but Jillian’s threw one wicked good pah-ty (as we New Englanders say…)

Jillian’s Seattle Hosts 99.9FM Rock Girl Gala Ticket Giveaway!!!

Jillian’s Seattle proudly hosted 99.9 FM’s: Rock Girl Gala Ticket Giveaway Party!  KISW’s DJ; Dawg Ricker was here hanging out, with 2008 Rock Girl Finalists and past Rock Girls.  We saw TONS of excited guests, eager to get their hands on some last minute FREE tickets, and meet The KISW Crew.  The Rock Girl Gala is a contest searching for KISW’S “Ulitimate Rock Girl” of 2008.  The station’s event will take place tomarrow at the Tacoma Dome, where they will broadcast live; featuring bands: Candlebox, Chevelle, Another Black Day, and annouce The 2008 Rock Girl Winner.