Which is why when I was first approached by Bottleneck ownership with the question, “How many beers do you think we can carry on tap?,” I was very hesitant to give an answer that would compromise the quality of the product we serve to our guests. You see, when a keg is first tapped, the clock starts ticking and the shelf life of any particular brand on tap generally ranges from 3-5 weeks, depending on the brand (compared to bottled beer that has a shelf life of months to years depending on the brand and storage conditions).

A New Focus

The previously mentioned question was posed to me in the fall of 2011, as Bottleneck’s activity began to focus on what is now Old Town Pour House. We wanted to open a restaurant that offered the very best in craft beer in its truest form, draft.

• After reviewing expected volume numbers and running comparisons to other venues we operate, my recommendation was initially no more than 60 beers on tap. I was challenged to go higher.
• So I did more research, gave this concept a lot of thought, and came up with a strategy to offer 90 brands on tap at Old Town Pour House. If we were going to succeed with this concept and remain committed to delivering the freshest tap beer possible, we would need to take advantage of high volume business, employee education, organization, product programming, and a commitment from suppliers to offer their brands in smaller quantities.

Executing

The first and major component to managing freshness with a list this robust is volume. You simply have to operate a high volume business to get through that much product. Once the guests arrive, however, then the strategy needs to take hold.  With the opening of Old Town Pour House, we asked all of our bartenders and servers to become Beer Server Certified through Cicerone.org. This commitment to learning beer is necessary to give guests a unique and genuine beer experience, but it also empowers our staff to be able to speak to the entire beer lineup and not just their handful of favorites.  Our staff has to know and recommend the entire list democratically. If they only recommended their favorites, those brands would dominate, and the lesser known brands wouldn’t be called for.

Organization

Keg cooler organization is the next step in this equation. We have a “tap date” written down for each keg that we have online. The shelf life of a tapped keg varies by brand and there are many factors that go into how long a beer will stay fresh once tapped. Once we are aware that a beer is approaching the end of its peak freshness, we will introduce programming that will promote selling that beer at a faster clip. Flight programming, product features, and menu placement are all mechanisms we work with to help promote the sale of a brand that needs a little help.

Final Component – The Math

The final component of this strategy is the market trend and the commitment from our suppliers to supply us beer in smaller quantities. Ten years ago, when most keg beer came to us in 13-15 gallon vessels, this concept wouldn’t be possible. Now, most craft brewers are supplying their beer in 5 gallon vessels.

• When you do the math on 5 gallons, it comes out to just over 600 ounces, which equates to about 40-45 beers (depending on how large your glassware is). Let’s break it down even further…if a kegged beer is at its freshest for 3 weeks, that means we have 21 days to sell 40-45 beers, or roughly 2 a day. THAT’S IT! If we sell two beers a day, we can deliver our guests the freshest draft beer possible.

Newest Location

We are on the cusp of opening Howells & Hood, in the first floor of The Tribune Tower. This concept is our most aggressive to date, bringing together the best of all Bottleneck establishments; including but not limited to, the most craft beer on draft in the city of Chicago. We are going to house 114 beer brands, flowing through 360 faucets, spread across 3 bars! This selection is well designed to represent all styles of craft beer, and in my opinion, represents not just the best of craft beer available worldwide, but also highlights the great craft beer that is produced in Chicago. Over 20% of the lineup is dedicated to Chicago craft brewers. Chicago should be recognized as producing some of the best craft beer in the world, and this lineup represents that idea.

But we didn’t stop there. Corporate Executive Chef Paul Katz has hired one of the most talented Chefs in the city of Chicago, Chef Scott Walton. He and his menu will surely have people coming back for more! In fact, I often joke with Chef Scott on what will be a larger draw at Howells and Hood, the craft beer line up or his menu? If I were a betting man, which I am, I’d bet on the menu…but I think the craft beer will be a close second!

“A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it’s better to be thoroughly sure.”  – Anonymous

Cheers,

Ken Henricks

For those lucky enough to have a sense of family with the people they’re actually related to, this time of year is filled with great memories and plans. Others who are less fortunate in the direct familial sense can often see the holiday season as a burden. Regardless of one’s circumstances, I believe most people crave a sense of family, whether it’s with their own brood, groups of friends, the work place, or a combination of all those elements. Family can manifest itself in any number of ways, but support, togetherness and a sense of caring and being cared for is pretty powerful stuff. The more we have IT in our lives, the better off we all are.

Interviews

Recently Bottleneck Management held internal interviews for some fairly high level positions. The process was thorough and somewhat grueling for both the candidates and interviewers alike. Because these were internal interviews, we knew these people well. We’d worked with them collectively for many years. But we wanted the process to be as professional as possible, so we treated it as such.

Much was asked and discussed during this three day period. Candidates were nervous and wonderful and surprising all within the same interview. To be honest, I’ve never been more proud to be associated with a group of people. But during this 3 day period, a theme began to emerge in regards to the company culture. There was one word or phrase that, I suppose not so surprising now, kept coming up during the interviews as the candidates reflected on their time with Bottleneck.

Family

Family. A sense of family. A family environment. I feel like I’m part of a family. It reoccurred within each and every interview with such conviction that it was as if the participants had secretly met beforehand as a group and plotted to play some cruel and cosmic joke on us. Only it was delivered with such sincerity and frequency that even the most cynical of souls, among them mine, could only marvel at the obvious pattern. Family.

This response was not prompted specifically. This was not a desired outcome by design of the questions, many of which tended to deal with dry, quantitative analytical issues and not the touchy-feely stuff of Oprah shows. Our line of questioning, in other words, did not lead the witness. Yet, over and over again, the term family came up in our internal interviews.

I can tell you that there has never been a directive from ownership to foster a sense of family. No one has ever said to me, “Now go make a family environment.” Frankly, I wouldn’t know where to start if someone had. What I can tell you is that I feel it too. I can tell you that not so long ago I was a bartender with this company. I can also tell you that our Director of Marketing started as a bartender with us as well, as did our Director of Operations and one of our General Managers. Another one of our General Managers started as a door guy and we have several Managers throughout the company that started in similar positions. I can also tell you that there’s an emphasis in this company on quality of life outside the workplace, that ownership all have their own families, and that many of us spend time together outside of work doing fun things.

Company Culture & Family

So family. Where does it start? I have no idea, but something tells me it’s our people, all our people. The people who lead, the people who hire, the people that open Bottleneck places, the people that work with us. What I like to call, in my weird way, “the osmosis of good people.”

There is something powerful in attracting and retaining people who are a joy to work with, as difficult as that is. And to watch them grow and flourish is a beautiful thing. The more great people we surround ourselves with, the more we’re collectively inspired by them, the more we care for them and they for each other. The more they remind us what it is to be human and the more they feel like, well, family.

Yes, we’re a dysfunctional lot like any family, no doubt. There is bickering and occasional pettiness, and we’ve lost some folks along the way. And we have our fair share of drunken Uncles at the table, chief of which may be the author of this blog. But in the end, leading with the heart has served Bottleneck very well, and has created a company culture that we all enjoy.

As we head into the stretch run of holiday season, I’m reminded of the dozen or so people that were part of this quirky little Bottleneck family at the beginning of things. Back then, it was truly Charlie Brown’s tiny, charmingly bare little Christmas tree. To see how it’s grown is amazing. The fact that we’ve maintained a sense of family in our company culture, even after adding hundreds of employees, is even more amazing. As the company grows and grows, the key to retaining Bottleneck’s familial spirit is to continue to hire great people. And, of course, allowing the drunken Uncles to still sit at the table.

~Bart Vivian

It’s that time of year…the leaves changing colors, the temperatures dropping to allow for sweaters or light jackets, and an array of fruits and vegetables coming into season that just scream “autumn!” The flavors of acorn, butternut and pumpkin squash, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and the spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice…YUM! Little speaks more to autumn than my favorite holiday to cook for…THANKSGIVING! It’s a wonderful time to create and envelope your home with these wonderful flavors.

The day is filled with cooking, eating, libation, football, family & friends; I cannot think of a better way to spend the day! I start out my day by washing the bird and patting it dry. I open up a bottle of champagne and take a drink. I prep all of the ingredients for the stuffing, cook and let it cool, then stuff the bird. I take a drink, wash my hands and pour myself another. I lay pats of butter and fresh herbs under the skin, season with kosher salt and black pepper, and liberally brush olive oil on the entire outside. I wash my hands and take another drink. Once the oven is preheated to 325 degrees, I place the bird inside, grab my glass to toast the meal and pour myself another. I will baste the bird religiously every 20 minutes for the next 3 hours (by this time I have switched to beer, and not coincidentally, each beer lasts me about 20 minutes). After 3 hours, I cover it in aluminum foil and continue basting every 20 minutes until it is done.

This is my ritual. I stick to it every year, and the bird comes out delicious. I do not necessarily recommend this ritual to all, but the heartiest of cooks who are in tune with cooking their turkey (and holding their alcohol) will appreciate it!

SAFETY

Various types of foods should be kept separate from each other during storage and preparation.

• Never store ready to eat foods next to raw meats. Bacteria that may be present on raw turkey may contaminate the ready-to-eat foods. It is very important to wash your hands often during food preparation to avoid transferring harmful bacteria from one food item to the next. For example, if you were handling raw turkey, you would want to wash your hands thoroughly before chopping vegetables.

• If cutting boards are used, it’s a good idea to use one for meats and a different one for fruits and vegetables. Regardless of the material they are made from, cutting boards should be cleaned thoroughly after each use.

• The knife that was used to cut raw turkey should not be used to chop vegetables unless the knife has been washed thoroughly prior to use.

• When serving cooked turkey, do not place it on the plate that contained the raw meat.

THAWING

• When thawing turkey in water, make sure the water is very cold and if the original wrapper has any punctures or tears in it, the turkey should be placed in another plastic bag and sealed.
• The water must be changed every 30 minutes. Do not allow turkey to reach room temperature before it is cooked, as this can promote the growth of harmful bacteria.
• Turkey should be cooked as soon as possible after it’s removed from refrigeration. Raw turkey that has been thawed should never be refrozen because this increases the risk of food poisoning.

After the turkey has thawed, the packaging is removed. The neck and giblets are usually found inside the body cavity, so these can be removed and discarded. If they are to be used, they should be washed with cold water and patted dry with paper towels.

The turkey should be washed thoroughly inside and out with cold water and then patted dry. Proper food handling practices must be followed during the preparation of the turkey in order to avoid possible problems with food poisoning. After handling the raw turkey, your hands will be contaminated. Do not touch any other food items and as few surfaces as possible before your hands have been washed thoroughly.

• Cutting boards and utensils must be washed thoroughly after preparing the turkey for the oven.

• Do not place cooked food on the same plate that held the raw food.

• Besides using soap and water for cleaning surfaces, bleach or an antibacterial soap may be used to help kill any bacteria.

STUFFING

NEVER stuff the turkey in advance. The stuffing may promote the rapid growth of harmful bacteria.

• Always cook the turkey immediately after stuffing. Stuffing that is placed inside the turkey is often undercooked because many cooks do not allow for the extra cooking time required for a stuffed bird. Undercooked stuffing increases the chance of food poisoning.
• Always use a meat thermometer to verify that the temperature of the stuffing has reached a minimum of 165 degrees. Consider cooking the stuffing separate from the turkey in a baking dish, which reduces the risk of bacterial growth in the body cavity of the turkey and also allows the turkey to cook faster.
• All of the stuffing should be removed from the turkey after it’s cooked. Leftover cooked stuffing should be refrigerated and used within 1 to 2 days and should never be frozen for use at a later date. Leftover stuffing that has been cooked inside the turkey should be reheated to a minimum temperature of 165 degrees.

COOKING

A turkey should be roasted at a temperature ranging from 325 to 350 degrees. Higher temperatures may cause the meat to dry out, but this is preferable to temperatures that are too low which may not allow the interior of the turkey to cook to the proper temperature. Roasting a turkey for long periods at a temperature of less than 300 degrees is dangerous and may cause food poisoning.

A meat thermometer should be used to determine the correct doneness. When the interior of the breast meat reaches 170°F and the interior of the thigh reaches 180°F, the turkey is properly cooked. When the meat is pierced with a fork, the juices will run clear. Some whole turkeys are sold with pop-up timers that indicate when the turkey is fully cooked, but a meat thermometer is still the most reliable tool for determining the proper doneness. If the turkey is done cooking before you are ready to serve it, it is safe to keep it in a 200°F oven for a short period. It is best to cover the turkey with aluminum foil during the holding period to keep it from drying out. The general rule is to cook a stuffed turkey for 20 minutes per pound; so a 20 pound turkey would need to cook for six and a half hours at 325 degrees. Allow your turkey to rest for about 15-20 minutes before carving to allow the juices to settle.

LEFTOVERS

There is nothing better than taking your leftovers and making sandwiches later on in the evening, or turkey pot pie the next day. Just be careful because the longer the turkey stays out at room temperature, the more bacteria will grow, increasing the risk of food borne illness. Make sure you cover and refrigerate all unused turkey immediately. Be sure when reheating the turkey that you are heating to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

~Chef Paul Katz

We only have people that work with us. This sounds like splitting hairs, but it is a core and critical philosophy of our company. Today we have 385 team members and 5 venues, and with the opening of our next restaurant at the Tribune Tower, we will easily pass 500. As we have grown, we have spent a large amount of time grappling with the issue of building a management structure that represents our ideals, while maintaining our culture and values. I recently came upon a leadership quote that got me thinking about how we build our teams now and in the future. Dwight D Eisenhower said, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” I think this is not only a great message to reflect on personally, but also a mantra to live by for everyone in a leadership position, or desiring such.

So how do we attempt to identify leaders and equip them with the tools necessary to be successful? I think that is actually a two part question.

• First of all, leaders will identify themselves. They may not personally identify as leaders, but they demonstrate leadership to their peers through their work ethic, commitment to a task, quest for constant personal growth and loyalty to the team and its mission.

• This leads to the second part of the question. When we see a team member exhibit the traits listed above, it is up to us to give them the tools necessary to further their career ambitions. Whether those career ambitions are with our company, our industry or a totally different career, we want to put them, or keep them, striving for this goal.

I believe that this philosophy is essential to Bottleneck Management’s culture. We truly want our teammates to excel in whatever their true passion is. If that is with our company, great; if not, let’s identify that passion and see what we can do together to help achieve it. When talented individuals understand that you are aligned with them on meeting their career objectives, together you exhibit the values we want to permeate the entire company. This also has the pleasant side effect of creating the leadership culture described by President Eisenhower above.

Finally, when building a team, it has been my personal preference to always choose the individual with large goals and the motivation to accomplish them, rather than an individual that may have more technical skills, but is happy with where they are at. A manager who is constantly seeking personal growth will seek more responsibility and desire to achieve company goals with the same passion as those who set these goals.

At Bottleneck Management, we continue to have large growth goals and if we are to achieve those goals, it will be essential to continually identify future leaders of our company.

~Chris Bisaillon, Owner

In fact, 10 of the top 20 “most watched” events in the history of television are Super Bowls! So when you are looking to get together with some friends on football Sunday, there are some things you should know before you decide where you will spend your time and money.

KNOW YOUR VENUE AND PICK THE ONE THAT IS RIGHT FOR YOU

Deciding where to go is often the most difficult choice on football Sunday, but it’s critical to ensuring a Sunday Funday…

Loud or quiet? Dive bar or flashy and new? Jerseys or no jerseys? Sound for the game or music?

These are just a few of the decisions that need to be contemplated before choosing where you want to be. Be sure to pick one that is right for the type of day you are looking to have. Nothing is worse than being “that guy” in the Cutler jersey asking the bartender if he can “pretty please put the sound on for the game,” while everyone else in the joint couldn’t care less.

TO DRINK OR NOT TO DRINK? THAT IS THE QUESTION…

The Churchill Bloody Mary; pic courtesy of "Brunch Munch"

Hanging out and drinking on football Sunday is an art form. Too slow and it’s boring, too fast and you spiral out of control! But if paced correctly, it can be the best time ever! The best way to ensure proper pacing is to deviate slightly from your normal routine. Bloody Mary’s are perfect for this, as they naturally lend themselves to two things: paced drinking and moving on to something else once you get a couple in ya! Find a place that does a great Bloody Mary, like the Churchill at Old Town Pour House, so you can taste greatness. Or, a place that has a fantastic Bloody Mary bar, like Sweetwater and The Boundary, so you can make your own version of greatness.

KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE, AND YOUR ENEMIES…

Choosing who you spend your time with in the final hours of the weekend may just be the most important step of all. You can be in the best spot in the city with a perfect table, but it doesn’t matter if you are surrounded by people who are not on the same page.

Be sure to consider all things before sending out that mass text on football Sunday saying, “Sunday Funday anyone?” Because if you take the time to choose the venue properly, pace yourself, and surround yourself with good people, there is a pretty good chance you will close out the weekend as well as you started it!

Although this quote is from an Olympian talking about what running and racing means to her, the words themselves could be applied to any walk of life. Whether you’re donning a pair of running shoes or a Chef’s coat, digging deep down and pushing yourself to see what you’re made of and striving to go beyond what you had previously considered your best, is the challenge for anyone who seeks excellence in themselves. Here at Bottleneck, these are the things we ask of our management teams and employees; to embrace and overcome life’s daily challenges and seek to become the very best they can be. And like the runner who pushes herself, we too are driven to go beyond where we thought we could go, because the way we see it, this is what we do.

Monster Dash

In keeping with this spirit of pushing ourselves, we are happy to announce our latest employee initiative, the “Bottleneck Race Team.” Over the next several months we will sponsor groups of our employees as they run some of the 5 and 10K races in Chicago. The goal for us is to:

•Encourage healthy activity

•Promote teamwork and morale between our stores

•Offer our people a fun and energetic divergence from the work week.

By promoting an initiative like this, we hope to encourage our employees to embrace outside of work what we ask them to at work – the notion of pushing beyond, of finding out what you’re truly made of. And of course, a great bonus is having healthy fun, surrounded by teammates and the beautiful Chicago skyline. But just as important, we see supporting our employees in these runs as a metaphor in practice for one of our core beliefs, and one that’s shared by runners everywhere; that you aren’t measured so much by the others in the race, but by the desire to be the best you can be. As Ms. Plumer says, this is what it’s all about.

Leaders like Shackleton, Dick Winters of Band of Brothers fame, Lewis and Clark, Churchill, Lincoln, Lombardi and many others, offer tremendous examples of leadership under the most extreme circumstances.

Winston Churchill

Of course, people from my personal life – siblings and parents, past coaches, even some of my debaucherous friends have provided the most tangible examples of leadership, and they’re the ones who have most shaped me over the years and continue to do so.  So after reflecting on the great leaders I’ve both read about and known, I’ve realized that despite their different backgrounds and varied makeup, they seem to share many of the same qualities.  And no quality is seemingly more prevalent, or less simple than this: they provide and care for the people they lead and do so in a manner that borders on servitude.  I read somewhere that in between defining reality and saying thank you, the great leader is in essence, a servant, and that’s always resonated with me. Being of service to those one leads requires a steady head, for certain, but it also involves a fully engaged heart.

Men like Shackleton and Winters didn’t just give orders and dole out discipline, they cared for those under them and offered guidance, fairness and empathy.

Major Richard "Dick" Winters

The truly good leaders, while never pushovers, seem to share a genuine affection for the people they lead and their actions serve the needs of those same people.

What does any of this have to do with Bottleneck Management or the service industry in general?  Quite a lot, actually.  One wouldn’t necessarily draw a correlation between the leadership styles of explorers, soldiers and statesmen to our business, but why not?  Those examples were leaders of people, and our business is based on the success of people.  An infantry unit’s success is dependent upon words like training, morale, preparedness and teamwork; all qualities that stem from good leadership.  We in our industry may not be in life or death situations, but we do have goals to meet and challenges to overcome.  Training, morale, preparedness and teamwork apply to us as well.  Esprit de corps is not just for the Marines.

OUR PEOPLE

So while Bottleneck strives to be a leader in its industry, we know we can’t reach that lofty goal without first being great leaders of our own people.  It’s a human engine that drives success in our business, and that living, breathing engine needs to be serviced and ultimately led.  Thus, our employees must have good leaders who do so with their heads and hearts. It is in respect to this concept that we talk with Bottleneck managers about the idea of serving our employees.  For us that means we do all we can to ensure that our people have the proper tools and training, their voices are heard, they’re motivated and prepared, and that we provide the best possible environment for them to work in.  Being the good servant to our people also means that empathy, fairness, compassion, and occasionally inspiration exist in equal measure with accountability, protocols and standards.

OUR MANAGERS

As managers of people, we may need to remind ourselves of these tenets from time to time, but they represent the core of our managerial philosophy.  At our very best, our managerial authority aspires to serve our people with heart and vigor. I believe Dee Hock, founder and former CEO of Visa, said it best: “If you don’t understand that you work for your mislabeled ‘subordinates,’ then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.”

-Bart Vivian, Director of Operations

Weather

• Expect it to be sunny. Really sunny! Bring sunscreen, or wear some to the fest if you don’t want to carry it. Sunburn makes for a miserable experience.
• Expect that it will rain! Even if the forecast doesn’t call for it…expect it! Which leads us right into tips on what to wear…

Attire

• Wear shoes that you don’t care about ruining. Mud and Lollapalooza go hand in hand. It’s no Woodstock, but it can come close. We suggest leaving your favorite kicks at home, no matter how cool they are.
• Close-toed shoes will be helpful too. Whether it rains or not, people spill beer everywhere, you’ll have to deal with port-o-potties, you’ll be walking a lot…so trust us, flip flops aren’t the best call.

What to Bring

• Water bottles. Lolla allows water bottles (sealed) into the fest. Hydration is key, and while we prefer beer, water always comes up big at just the right time.
• Hand sanitizer. The port-o-potties always run out and there are plenty of germs floating around, so why not take care of the ones on your hands?
• A fully charged phone! Your battery will be sucked dry pretty quickly with all the text messages that will be flying around as you try & coordinate with friends. Speaking of phones, download the Lollapalooza app, it’s wonderful. Complete with full map & schedule, amongst other useful features.
• A PLASTIC BAGGIE! We can’t stress this one enough. We won’t go without one. If it rains (and it will), this is a safe haven for your phone (and other electronics)! Seal it up and you’ll be worry free.
• A backpack. Being hands-free is unbeatable.
• If you are meeting up with people, it’s clever to bring something like a kite (pictured here), so you can be spotted easily.
• Tickets/wristbands – don’t forget
• I.D. This one goes without saying…but we said it anyway.

These tips should help ensure enjoyment and comfort. We hope they’re helpful for you. Now get out there and ENJOY!

We’ll see you there…or at Sweetwater before or after the show!