Brew Pub by the ballpark

[davideinstein]

I don't think they have trained the employees well on the TV system yet (Still!). I asked them to change a channel and after 15 minutes of messing with it, they got it to a channel that was off air and left it. It wasn't at all what I asked for. Eventually they changed it to something else completely. Then it took 20 minutes to get someones attention that we needed the check, even at the bar. 

I have noticed service has been slow at many place I've been to recently including highly-rated places we almost always have good experiences at. Typically, it is just getting the check that takes forever as we have learned to not ask for much (1 refill max if you're lucky and order any sauce/extras with the meal). Many I have talked to have had similar experiences in general recently. Some theories are that waiters and kitchen staff tend to smoke pot and the quality has gotten a lot better. Waiters here are starting to seem more like they are in New Mexico and Colorado (SLOW service!).

I am starting to like either sitting at the bar (where you almost always get good service) or bistro-style restaurants like Blue Moon Cafe or Calaveras where it is partially self-serve as I can get what I need far faster, better, cheaper and without the attitude.

I think it's just a bad labor pool in general.

[TulsaRufnex]

I've been there a dozen times already.
Great place... great green and yellow color scheme along with a couple of bleachers from the old ballpark in the front area.   
All of my bartender/waitstaff experiences have been good, think there was a learning curve for the TVs...

[davideinstein]

I've been there a dozen times already.
Great place... great green and yellow color scheme along with a couple of bleachers from the old ballpark in the front area.   
All of my bartender/waitstaff experiences have been good, think there was a learning curve for the TVs...

Luckily all of the Panthers games have been on local tv since my issue.

[DowntownDan]

I had a great experience my first time there.  I wasn't concerned about the TVs though.  If they are going to market themselves as "Tulsa's Premier Sports Bar" they should probably make sure they have every sports channel in existence and train their staff on how to work the TVs and have a guide to easily find a game if requested.  Humperdink's in Dallas is a place I liked when I lived there and everyone on staff could get you the game you wanted within a minute or two.  They had a paper printed guide every day to help find games and channels and they all knew which remote and which cable box was tied to each television.  Really top notch operation.

[JoeMommaBlake]

My experience: In some cities, many of the people working in restaurants are later in life, often times college educated folks or college students who are working in a restaurant because the local job market doesn't have many options, or there's a large number of college students in the market. The best service I've ever seen in restaurants was in Portland, Oregon, for example. Tons of out of work, college educated folks to fill up their service industry jobs.

I don't know where the 21 year old pot smoking hipsters work in that market, but it wasn't in the sit-down restaurants I was in. Every place I visited in Portland both times I went were top notch.

As for the sports issue, I've employed a number of people who are literally proud to not know anything about sports. They make fun of sports and the people who like sports. We had to print out cheat sheets for them to work the TVs. Even then, you could count on the 15 foot wide screen being on Law and Order during lunch the day after a Thunder Game on TNT. Never failed. It's something about the downtown creative class. They're good with PBR, live music, local art, and other aspects of the urban scene, but rarely, in my experience, do they like sports.

So, yes, the issues are with the labor pool. Even on 71st Street, you can count on some of the staff being Rhema students, which helps. Friendly, drug free, super-charismatic Christians often make great servers (if not annoying people). I love the people I've employed, and many of them have broken the stereotype, but I also think it's safe to say that some of my best employees ever were Spartan students, TU students, or older adults working a second job or a transitionary job. The 22 year old "musician" living five-to-a-house with his or her buddies and coming to work high or hungover has always been a reality for us. Don't get me wrong. These are wonderful people. They just aren't always the best servers. Some have emerged from that lifestyle, but many have not. McNellies Group is fortunate to have a large pool from which to pull when opening a new place, but regardless, new places tend to suffer from several months of weeding out the staff who float around from new restaurant to new restaurant, wearing out their welcome from one place to the next.

I do believe they'll get their issues worked out. It takes time. I've enjoyed my experiences there, but then again, I'm not a Panthers fan...thank goodness.

[davideinstein]

My experience: In some cities, many of the people working in restaurants are later in life, often times college educated folks or college students who are working in a restaurant because the local job market doesn't have many options, or there's a large number of college students in the market. The best service I've ever seen in restaurants was in Portland, Oregon, for example. Tons of out of work, college educated folks to fill up their service industry jobs.

I don't know where the 21 year old pot smoking hipsters work in that market, but it wasn't in the sit-down restaurants I was in. Every place I visited in Portland both times I went were top notch.

As for the sports issue, I've employed a number of people who are literally proud to not know anything about sports. They make fun of sports and the people who like sports. We had to print out cheat sheets for them to work the TVs. Even then, you could count on the 15 foot wide screen being on Law and Order during lunch the day after a Thunder Game on TNT. Never failed. It's something about the downtown creative class. They're good with PBR, live music, local art, and other aspects of the urban scene, but rarely, in my experience, do they like sports.

So, yes, the issues are with the labor pool. Even on 71st Street, you can count on some of the staff being Rhema students, which helps. Friendly, drug free, super-charismatic Christians often make great servers (if not annoying people). I love the people I've employed, and many of them have broken the stereotype, but I also think it's safe to say that some of my best employees ever were Spartan students, TU students, or older adults working a second job or a transitionary job. The 22 year old "musician" living five-to-a-house with his or her buddies and coming to work high or hungover has always been a reality for us. Don't get me wrong. These are wonderful people. They just aren't always the best servers. Some have emerged from that lifestyle, but many have not. McNellies Group is fortunate to have a large pool from which to pull when opening a new place, but regardless, new places tend to suffer from several months of weeding out the staff who float around from new restaurant to new restaurant, wearing out their welcome from one place to the next.

I do believe they'll get their issues worked out. It takes time. I've enjoyed my experiences there, but then again, I'm not a Panthers fan...thank goodness.

Not sports fans because they grew up in Tulsa which has zero sports culture at all comparatively speaking. I watched an OSU/Mizzou game at the alumni chapter in Portland a few years ago when visiting and there were tons of people that fit the mold of the creative class that knew their sports watching football.

[Conan71]

Not sports fans because they grew up in Tulsa which has zero sports culture at all comparatively speaking. I watched an OSU/Mizzou game at the alumni chapter in Portland a few years ago when visiting and there were tons of people that fit the mold of the creative class that knew their sports watching football.

Zero sports culture?  You cannot be serious.

You are rapidly becoming our next Davazz with all your Tulsa bashing.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Zero sports culture?  You cannot be serious.

You are rapidly becoming our next Davazz with all your Tulsa bashing.

Was thinking the same thing... Surely he is joking. From football being so huge to the avid soccer fans to the massive Thunder following to just about everyone having played sports at some point. Sports are a very big deal here.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Not sports fans because they grew up in Tulsa which has zero sports culture at all comparatively speaking. I watched an OSU/Mizzou game at the alumni chapter in Portland a few years ago when visiting and there were tons of people that fit the mold of the creative class that knew their sports watching football.

I guess you haven't been to Fassler Hall or other similar establishments that show games during Thunder playoff time (or NACC tourney, Olympics, or World Cup). There's a big Thunder following among the young/artsy/creative crowd and big passionate crowds for many of the other big sporting events.

Just about everybody plays sports growing up. It is a huge deal at just about every school. I can't imagine Portland being much better in that regard. Oklahoma produces more NCAA football players (despite being a smaller state), slightly fewer basketball players and about the same number of baseball players (again, despite the lower population).

[RecycleMichael]

Tulsa sports fans are different. I feel like I am somewhat an expert on this.

My first real money came at age 11 selling programs on 11th street outside Skelly Stadium. I spent high school working at the old Oiler Park doing everything from batboy to groundskeeper to selling soda. I still have a frequent urge to yell, "Ice Cold Pop!"

I started the first fantasy football league in Tulsa in 1983. When my wife and I were starting dating, I refused to see her on Friday nights during the fall because my friends and I would go to a random high school football game to see star players. I am also a charter member of the Green Bay fan club in Tulsa http://www.tulsa-packerbackers.org/

I travel to more games than any of you. This year I went to spring training for four games, Yankee stadium, Wrigley Field twice and Busch Stadium three times. I have been to 25 of the current football stadiums and 22 of the current baseball stadiums.

I go to sports bars in every city I can. I spend a week on average in Vegas and I stay in the sports book. I hang out at tailgate parties and start conversations on the street with anybody wearing a sports clothing item. I am that guy and I can talk sports.

Enough of my credentials...In larger cities than Tulsa, in general, have sports bars that are really only great bars near sports venues.

The fans are almost all showing local team pride and the walls are filled with local jerseys and cool pictures from past athletes from that town. A waiter or waitress doesn't have to know much to be polite in conversation. Drop a name or two and say, "go (insert team here) gets you all the cred you need. All the TVs are on one channel and people are really only interested in watching the game or drinking and talking about the game.

What a Tulsa sports bar has to have to succeed is way harder in my opinion. You need to not fill the walls with history but with technology. In General, Tulsa sports bars have more TVs per foot of space than any where else outside of a casino. And Tulsa sports bars have to compete with a casino. Most other urban areas don't.

I also think that Tulsans are food snobs as well. In almost every great sports bar I have been in, the menu has been pickled eggs and the bare minimum. In Tulsa, you have to be a restaurant first. There is a unique challenge to all sports bars that regular restaurants/bars don't have is the length of the stay of each customer. Most people eat and leave, but at sports bars some people stay for hours. I don't know how you make money on a chair that the person orders once and hangs around.

Tulsa doesn't have many venues that a sports bar can be next to. This is really the first true effort. They have an excellent menu and 47 nice big HDTVs. It opens up to a patio, has private areas, and is easy to get to.

I will give the staff a break. This is a high volume, loud place and people have high expectations.    

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Not sports fans because they grew up in Tulsa which has zero sports culture at all comparatively speaking. I watched an OSU/Mizzou game at the alumni chapter in Portland a few years ago when visiting and there were tons of people that fit the mold of the creative class that knew their sports watching football.

\

Seriously? I grew up on Oilers baseball and hockey, TU Football, OU/OSU football, the Roughnecks (the original) The Outlaws, played hockey, soccer, baseball and football as a kid, used to go to the Tulsa Speedway on Saturday nights, went to the Spring Nationals drag races for 8 years in a row.

Most of my friends that I went to school with that still live in Tulsa are avid sports fans and have been since we were kids in the late 60's.

You must be hanging out with people that live under rocks. Tulsa has always had passionate sports fans.

[davideinstein]

\

Seriously? I grew up on Oilers baseball and hockey, TU Football, OU/OSU football, the Roughnecks (the original) The Outlaws, played hockey, soccer, baseball and football as a kid, used to go to the Tulsa Speedway on Saturday nights, went to the Spring Nationals drag races for 8 years in a row.

Most of my friends that I went to school with that still live in Tulsa are avid sports fans and have been since we were kids in the late 60's.

You must be hanging out with people that live under rocks. Tulsa has always had passionate sports fans.

Passionate? Attendance at Roughnecks and TU football tell me otherwise.

[davideinstein]

Regarding sports cred, I watched every OSU game under Travis Ford last year and wasted money on a trip to see the Roughnecks in San Antonio. Both make me want to cry more than brag though.

[Tulsasaurus Rex]

Regarding sports cred, I watched every OSU game under Travis Ford last year and wasted money on a trip to see the Roughnecks in San Antonio. Both make me want to cry more than brag though.

Stop

[Conan71]

Passionate? Attendance at Roughnecks and TU football tell me otherwise.

The Roughnecks put out a really piss poor product after all the ballyhoo about how they were going to be a superior soccer team.  No wonder no one showed up.  When TU is winning 8-10 games a year, they get good attendance.  That's true of any team.  Win games and you put fans in the stands.