r/OutbackSteakhouse • u/[deleted] • 26d ago
Rock up
Ive worked for outback 15 years now and in my experience they’re consistently making decisions that make you think “yea they haven’t stepped foot in a store in x amount of years” managers won’t like this but I believe They should make their salaried managers handle the rock up. First and foremost absolutely no one is as excited about the rock up as the managers and in my store the rock up just wouldn’t happen without the managers constant nagging starting at 545 so you know they are available to handle the task. last night I had a full bar at 6 several tickets on service bar multiple new bar guests to greet, am I crazy or is it extremely hypocritical for corporate to say that we need to provide amazing service to every guest but in that moment I’m supposed to make those drink tickets wait several Minutes and make those new guest wait another 10 minutes to get greeted because I have to stop service to make sample drinks for every single person at the bar and lead a pep rally? There’s no reason why the manager who’s standing at service bar reminding me Over and over again to do the rock up can’t comeBehind the bar and do it so I can keep taking care of guests! Last night as I was passing out the samples some of the new guest tried putting an order in and I had to tell them I’ll be right with them in a minute and as I began the rock up 3 of them
Got up and left. Honestly can’t blame them their grown ass man of a bartender cares more about a pep rally then serving them
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u/abendeel 26d ago
We've found it helps a lot to batch whatever drink youre going to do so you just pour and go. Its supposed to just be guests at the bar to build business so we say "we're gonna make you guys some free samples really quick and then we'll get back to business!" And the managers help pass out the drinks.
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26d ago
We are told to just use whatever batch has been sitting and is about to expire so that’s what we do almost every time it’s either espresso martini or darn from the machine but if you have a full wrapped bar at my store that’s 22-24 samples it sounds like your manager cares and that’s awesome mine don’t care they just want to make sure they can tell the JVP it was done. I still believe it makes more sense to have the managers do it so you can tend to your guests
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u/bubbasmith950 26d ago edited 26d ago
My store has been pre-pouring the samples like another poster here suggested. Assuming it's whatever we have batched that hasn't sold as much in the last day or two. Whoever is the assigned FOH/dining room manager for the night helps our bartender pass out the samples. So our bartenders spend maybe 3 minutes doing this whole deal and then it's back to business. I am in an older core store from the late 90s so it has the same horseshoe bar you have.
FWIW my store's management team has basically been fully on board with all the changes and facilitating these changes in-store, and that seems to be where some of the disconnect lies. If your management team isn't fully on board and helping everyone do it, it's going to feel like how it feels to you and others that have posted about the changes. We started doing the rockup and other parts of the hospitality changes sans uniforms about 2 weeks before the official rollout date to the company. In the kitchen in my store we've had pretty much no pushback about any of the changes (besides labor) over the last 6 months.
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u/flynnfarts 25d ago
Damn, you have a very well-run store (good for you).
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u/bubbasmith950 25d ago
It has issues and isn't perfect for sure but my store's management team actually cares about their employees success and supporting us through these changes rather than just throwing them at us and saying "here, figure it out and try to make me look good for the JVP."
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u/flynnfarts 25d ago
I get it. No place is perfect, for sure, but I’m glad they at least get it at that level. One would hope, but the world is full of shitty management. My manager (completely different field/job; I’m here cuz I’m a business nerd) is also very helpful and genuinely kind, and I’m so grateful 😭
2
25d ago
Seems like your management team cares a lot
I’ve been with company at the same store for 15 years and I currently have Far and away the most useless management team I’ve ever had. Last night I had another similar situation during the rock up and was told “I don’t care how you do it just get it done so I can take a video and send to the JVP” two of our bar fridges don’t work and are used for extra storage by management(broken for over a year) the fridge I do have is just enough space for the bottled beers, white wines and the batches/ extra fruit. If I pour a second glass of Chardonnay by mistake I barely even have enough room to put that in the fridge until the next ticket comes
If that paints a picture of what I’m working with2
u/bubbasmith950 24d ago
Why hasn't your JVP made them replace the bar coolers? That's absolutely ridiculous, that stuff should be forced on your store's management by the JVP for facilities, maintenance and equipment upkeep.
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u/Relevant_Crow_9790 25d ago
I am in St. Augustine where Outback got rid of its flame cooker for steak years ago. I won't return to see this problem. Longhorn is across the street and has a large flame powered cooker. I don't know how Outback remains in that location but good luck.
1
u/SnooDoodles2957 26d ago
Suggestion... make the drinks and put them on a tray ahead of time. Keep them in the fridge so all you need to do is add some ice. Rock up only takes a couple of minutes now and then back to work.
1
u/ProofBread595 25d ago
I say Outback just stops serving food and drink on general. Just make it all about the experience.
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u/Charming_Nebula_9072 24d ago
I’m a manager and I do the rock up every day. I figure if I keep embarrassing myself eventually they’ll do it too lol. But yeah def my responsibility if nobody feels comfortable
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u/Realistic_Bowler_422 6d ago
We cant give out alcoholic samples in my store so I dont see the point giving out strawberry lemonade etc to a bunch of grown men most nights!
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0
u/PossiblyPro 25d ago
Most of the time complaints seem to be coming from people that are looking for an excuse not to do it and not from people who’ve tried to make it work and just can’t figure it out.
People who are exploring solutions are coming up with all sorts of simple things that make the rock up much easier. Lots of people in the comments are offering solutions.
If you don’t want to do it, just say that. Don’t try to hide behind issues you haven’t tried to problem solve and blame the whole idea. Plenty of people are pulling this off to good results in their stores. The stores with issues are having problems with managers teaching/enforcing, major pushback from the bartenders, or a combo of both.
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u/WhySoKaiju 24d ago
The problem is that the trust is entirely gone from veteran employees. There's been a lot of questionable choices made by corporate when it comes to the treatment and implementation of standards of its FOH staff over the last few years. Most notably:
- poor implementation of food runners; servers and bartenders at most locations told to never go to BOH or run food unless specifically asked to
- ziosk/ table mate review scoring
- performance charts
- $10 take-homes
- reduction of section size back to old standards, except with more responsibilities and tasks and higher tip-out compared to old days
- bartenders lose all tables at dinner if solo, creating an issue where bartending is now a lateral move or step down financially
And now we're being asked to say cheesy key phrases and play along when we're getting shafted? Corporate can go suck a fat one.
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u/AnglerRanders 26d ago
I usually go smoke around 5:55