Kick A Dry Turd Before You Clap Back

St. Patrick’s Day at a neighborhood bar looks simple from the outside: Guinness, green shirts, and a packed room. From the owner side, it’s also aching knees, a to-do list that never ends, and that quiet worry of “what if people just stop coming?” We talk through the real rhythm of bar ownership at Paddle Bar in Sandusky, Ohio, including what keeps us excited about hospitality even when the business feels roller-coastery.

Costs are front and center. Fuel prices creep into everything, from deliveries to the products behind the bar, and we break down why raising prices is so hard when customers already feel the squeeze. We also share a practical win you can copy: shopping utility suppliers and making a few phone calls to cut a natural gas rate before variable pricing bites. If you’re into small business budgeting, restaurant margins, or just want smarter household cost control, you’ll get real numbers and real takeaways.

Then we get into the stuff nobody posts on Instagram: the repair of the week. Wind loosens signage, toilets break at the worst time, and inspections always seem to come with a bill. We also dig into social media pressure, keyboard warriors, and how a single negative comment can spread faster than ten good experiences. Our best advice is simple: don’t react when you’re hot. Wait, then respond with a clear head.

To balance it out, we swap favorite regional bar picks like Hooples in Ohio City and the G&R Tavern in Waldo, plus why these places work as a true third place for their towns. We wrap with updates on Drunk History nights and a staffing lesson learned the hard way right before the holiday rush. Subscribe, share this with a bartender friend, and leave a review with your best bar story or your worst “repair of the week.”

Transcript

St. Patrick’s Day Kickoff

SPEAKER_05 0:03

You can eat that. Hey, Barcod is getting started. Episode 11. It's frickin' St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, it is. I've already been down a dating for guess. My morning is normally on St.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Patrick's Day. Um, a uh bangers match, uh corn beef, uh finish. And and a Guinness. And normally it's coffee and smoothies, but now it's coffee and Guinness and stuff. Uh I got the kids ready for uh school this morning. You all had kids. Did you?

SPEAKER_05 1:00

Yeah, yeah. Kids love it. Kids already got no. Did you have more green? Yeah, yeah, they did. And they're they're wearing green. Um we we uh Ren actually, Ren Foster caught uh they caught they set up a leprechaun trap last night. Oh they caught a leprechaun. They didn't catch it. He rooted around in their trap for a little bit and left some candy and cookies. So I think he he got caught in the in the uh left trail.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

This feels inappropriate.

Women Who Keep The Bar Running

SPEAKER_05 1:25

Yeah, it does it does. What do you it's seeing old? Hey, all right, on that tensive. It's episode 11 in St. Patrick's Day. Uh hopefully this is gonna come out uh on St. Patrick's Day if I can get my crap together and get it vetted. Um Paddle Bar is opening today, uh uh St. Patrick's Day, and it'll be open for two hours for the rest of the season. So we're rocking and wrong. Yeah, we're right in the Tuesday. Yeah, we're Tuesdays. Oh, what's happening? Okay, I like it. Um but we want to start out, uh, you know, this is Women's History Month. It is. And we gotta give a shout out to uh our wives, Mackenzie and Amber, uh, for keeping us going and helping us out during this.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Uh they both are involved in the bar, keep it going with family business.

Aging Pains And Boomer Story Names

SPEAKER_05 2:09

And of course, shout out to our mom, Leslie, who let's face it. You've been to Paddle Bar, there are a lot of plants. If she wasn't around, they would all be dead. She is the local paddle bar arborist. So shout out to the ladies who helped things going around here. Women's history. What are we drinking here? Um very obviousness. Well, we're drinking extra strout. Yeah, we want the extra strout route right now. Which I haven't, which is a little bit more bitter than the regular in a good way. It's good. I like it extra. I think Guinness, it's funny, Guinness only gets love. Um, a lot of love this time of year, but man, it's good beer. It is great beer. It is great beer. Um, let's talk about some things that we've been uh struggling with struggle. We're gonna open with struggles. Well, struggles. Uh I don't know about you, but my knee has been just not liking all this running around as we are getting busier already. Yeah, yeah, I gotta do something to go now. All of a sudden, now my lower back issues have come back. It seems like it seems like now it makes sense because look who's doing the show, right? But a couple 40-year-old guys. Uh, it seems like this is a this is a thing that comes back, uh piece of information that comes back up every podcast for the last couple. But yes, my lower back is not good. We're gonna end up calling this geriatric bar. You know, yeah, I don't know, boy. You know, and I funny, I have a little I have a little note here. Just something you notice or hear. And you ever notice, I think we hit on we hit on some Gen Zeers last time in our last podcast. I'm gonna hit on the big side. The boomers. I'm gonna hit on the boomers. Well that's uh, and we can you know wrap that into drunk history, which is now on its uh coming out its third week. It's going so well too. It's keeping us. Um but you ever notice that people, I would say I put the I put the line right around 60, probably, 55, 60? Uh when they when when the boomers tell stories, um they tend to refer to people that you have no idea about by the full name. You ever notice this? They'll start telling a story and they'll say, you know, in uh Jim Smolinka down there, you know, we made a fortune in ball bearings. Uh anyway, and then they'll continue on their story. They always, it's not, it's not a buddy of mine or a friend of mine, it's always the full name. It's the full name. That's a boomer thing? That's a that's a baby boomer thing.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

All right.

Staying Creative When Business Feels Fragile

SPEAKER_05 4:32

I and I love it. I hope it never stops. I hope somebody I hope the younger generation adopts it. No, I don't didn't do it. We didn't do it. I don't do it. Usually it's never, I feel like, I feel like when I tell stories, it's either a buddy of mine or I say, yeah, uh, my buddy Matt or you know, my my my buddy Greg, but but with uh the older you use the full name, you use the full name. Yeah, because you know, after the story, you I'm we're you're gonna need to look it up and talking about the little story and yeah, yeah. You know, we're down there. Uh you know, Patty Smith, she's uh and it's just like you go, oh I love it. I love it. Jenny's percentage. Johnny's percentage. Anyway, that's my little that's fun. I'll tell you, okay, that's fun. Uh before we get too geriatric, uh, one of the things that I'm uh working on, and I gotta tell you, you know, you're always trying in the bar world or a restaurant, hospitality in general, or I guess really anything you're doing, sure. Always trying to stay creative, stay on top of everything, yeah. Um and man, I keep the wealth growing dry. Because once in a while you're just like, how can I keep this up? For example, drunk history is a great example. Luckily, that was a good idea from once again uh Mackenzie had that idea. Yeah. Um but it's like I sometimes like stare at like page and I'm like, okay, how do I keep this thing going? Creative, I'm creative. You know, everybody talks about. You know, let me tell you one of the things that stresses me out. I have a hard time. And it's funny because it's kind of kind of it goes along with the it's it there's some hypocrisy here. The nostalgia of a good bar. Yeah. People talk about, oh, we used to, this bar reminds me uh, you know, the bar that Jimmy Schmerdoff used to hang out at. And I know where you're and uh, you know, and it was the highway house on the corner of uh Smith and Wesson or whatever. And it's not here again. Yeah, it's not and it's gone. You're like, well shit. Is that where we're headed, right? Right, right. So I'm always worried uh about uh how do you keep it going? And you know, because the bar industry is a very, it's very roller coastery. You know, you've heard of so many bars that are hot, hot, hot, and all of a sudden it'll go to there.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

And I'll tell you what, that's a fear I have a lot. Uh I you know walking into the top store, man, we put a lot of money into this.

Fuel Costs And Price Pressure

SPEAKER_05 6:44

Wouldn't people just stop coming? I'm glad they stopped coming. I'm glad you went there. I'm glad you went there because uh we we made a um we we said we're gonna make an attempt to keep pushing and talking about the actual bar on this podcast. Yes, that's what we that's why we started it. Right. It's fun to talk about funny stuff, which we will continue to do. Of course, of course. But but I'm glad you brought it up because you're right. Uh Amber and I had that discussion the other night when um I was down at the bar with uh you know Steve Irwin. Anyway, um, but you're right. We had the discussion, like it is our livelihood at this point. Oh yeah. So I think I think maybe people on the other side may not think of it that way or see that side of things, but and and we like you know, what on on the on the uh the front of things, we're always happy and real lucky and having a blast here. But at the same time, in closed doors, sometimes you're you said the uh the realness of it kicks in and you you think, well, man, what if it what if things would change? Or what if what if we would hit a real economic downturn and all of a sudden people don't go to bars? Right. What if what if it like you said it just doesn't, it's not hot anymore. Um so it is a what if regulation gets steeper and it's and the liver license gets taxed more? What if like there's a million different things that can just you know scare you a little bit? Yeah, yeah. I mean, and and then to be to be fair, that is every business holder. Every business holder's just bars, but I feel like with bars it's a little anti-fine glass. Yeah, I mean, and right now for me, I'm doubly sensitive uh because as you know, we're building Teaks over there at Bay View, and you know, it it's it's there's there was a budget. Yeah, uh, we went through it. Yeah, um, and you know, so you're like, okay, now as far as I'm not taking um, I it's okay, it's risky, but not risky. Now it's becoming more risky, you know, put a lot of your own equity into it, sure, and things like that, and you know, you know, pray to pray to whoever you want to pray to to hope that it works. So that's a challenge in this business to make it. Do you say St. Patrick? St. Patrick's your friends. Today's St. Patrick's. Yeah, yeah, St. Patrick. Uh so yeah, try to keep things going can be a challenge sometimes, and you're always looking for new ideas. Um, always and and you know, and you want to be original too. Like I I'm a big proponent of uh of uh working with other bars around and and but offering a different product because I want to go to another bar, just not like the same one that I operate. And so I we I think around here most folks do a pretty good job. Um you know, and that's I think that's an important thing. I I I yeah, I like that you brought that up as well. The we we have that is another thing that we have in growths around here, which is positive, uh positive. Bar can be I think in general, uh we have a pretty good uh pretty good bar owners, restaurant owners, other entrepreneurs, and jobs at that general. Now there's a yeah, that's something I think if you're and that's again, I don't really think we see that in this industry area, but you know, a lot of bar owners can't think outside of I gotta beat Johnny down the street. I think that's probably more of a big city. I think it's probably yeah, yeah. Like that's not the way to do it. Work with the other and that, you know, it's the well saying. What's good for the goose is good for the gander? Yeah, all all ships rise with high tides. I mean, you know, same thing. Yeah, what's the deal? Lotons of knowledge today. Lotons of knowledge. What's a gander? Is that is that a group? Is that a group of geese? No, that's a that's a flock. That's a gaggle. That's a gaggle. That's a flock. No, it's a gaggle. It's a gaggle. So what do we what's a what's good for the gang? Do we know what a gander? Do we know what a gander is? What's good for the goose is good for the gander? Gander sounds like something you I don't know. Maybe it should be what's good for the goose. Your nether region is deodorizing. Oh, gander. Like gander? Little gander powder. Like a little gander. Well, here a little. Oh, gander. Yeah, it could be that too. Uh anyway. So there's that. So that's that's just something that you're always kind of working on, struggling with a little bit, uh, is staying creative and and looking. So a lot of it is, you know, experiences lead to that. You know, travel, go to other places, and you're learning things. So hey, bring it back to yours. And so there's a fun little thing, right? Anybody, if you ever uh we love we love suggestions for everything, not just for bar drive. You ever got any cool ideas for the bar or like a cool night or something? Talk to Chad. Yeah, I was gonna say, do not email or text Ryan. Yeah, all right. Yeah, talk to Chad. He's a little good at possible feedback. Didn't you say at one point we should make a t-shirt that says you know what you should do? Oh, yeah, you know what you ought to do. You know what you know. That's a that's a that's a banger. I like it. You had a t-shirt for a while back in Quentin Bay days that said, figure it out. And then on the back it said, what's the rush? Love that. Love somebody got that from the college. That's a great shirt. Uh speaking of things that are a little scary, uh man, I'm a little concerned about fuel costs, man. You gotta you gotta electric car, you're well now I'm not personally, yeah. I drive an electric car. I'm sitting here like, you know, kind of like that sea, that uh the capital movement, everybody just yeah, yeah. Uh but uh not so much that, but I'm I mean, the prices are already going up on all of our products because of fuel. And you're gonna start seeing, I can almost guarantee, I can't reason this off the fuel surcharge cost is gonna go up. Well, that's in this industry isn't, you know, it's not like it's tight already. So now we're tightening up with fuel costs. Yeah, you're concerning. It's already started. I mean, have you looked at have you looked at coffee lately? Yeah, coffee has heard. Dude, so like a regular uh large everything is creepy. Everything well, because like you said, it's because of fuel prices. Yeah. With rising energy prices come rising after 10 crisis.

unknown 12:12

Right.

Social Media Blowback And Staying Careful

SPEAKER_05 12:13

Uh wait until like wait until fertilizer. You know, by the way, the Strait of Poor Leaves that's having issues right now because of our us. Um wait until that has fertilizer prices and you're gonna see food prices skyrocketing. Oh, of course. That's what I'm nervous about because a lot of fertilizer comes through there. Right, right. Uh right. Uh yeah, prices. And it's like you don't want to raise your prices. And if you do raise your prices, then you have to figure out how to communicate that with your customer. They're pissed off because they're already paying more on their end. It's a it's a not a good not a good cycle that we uh that we are always uh we need some stabilization. We need some stabilization. Just chill the fuck out of everybody. Did you see something more pop culture? You you know Timothy Chalamet. Shalam Shalameth. A little a little bit of it. A little bit of it. Um, but so this actually ties in with what I was gonna talk about. He got ranked over the Coles joke wise at the Oscars. Timothy Chalamet. Everybody was poking fun out of him.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

Well, because he he said, what do you do? He said opera is bad.

SPEAKER_05 13:10

So him and McConaughey did a open, like a two-hour CNN like discussion live. Green lights. Yeah. Remember, remember the yeah, booger's book. Man, I like McGah. I like to. I do too. McConaughey is that. Alright. Yeah, dude, his his uh his character in the first um uh detective uh what's it called? Detectives on HBO. Oh oh true detectives. True detectives. Yeah, that first season where he's sitting there drinking those lone stars. Oh, dude, it's so good. So good. Yeah, I might have to revisit that. That's a great, great, great uh series. Anyway, I just back to Timley. I gotta tell you one show I revisited, which don't do it because you will really get freaked out. Well, I started watching uh uh Man the High Castle again. Oh, dude. Don't do that shit. Not right now. Don't the bad timing. Because that's if that's what happened.

SPEAKER_04 14:01

That's basically the world if the Nazis and and on World War II rather than the the Nazis and uh you know the the West the Japanese, you know, the the the oh man dude.

SPEAKER_05 14:12

Oh but they did have so the it's it's it's if the access walk is one, and then like there's like there's yeah, the the West is like Japan. So we're saying it's the parallels to today. It's uh freaking it's freaking out a little bit. But I will say this thing did have Concord Jeffs, so there's you know, couple, you know, some good fans. Oh, there's of course the way it's ordered now, there's certainly waiting in fucking TSA life, won't you? Full circle. Anyway, back to Shadow Mouse. So he said during that thing they were having a discussion, everybody it was going well, but and then he said he made a little a little dig and said, ballet, the ballet and opera are dead. Nobody really cares about them, right? And so we know, you know. And he's just fucking around on the podcast. He's just guessing on a live discussion with Matthew McConaughey. The Matthew's podcast, does he have a podcast? No, no, no. It was a it was a uh, what do you call it, sit-down with him and McConaughey on CNN. Oh, oh, okay. I forgot what they call it. Oh, I can chip the CNN Town Hall. Town off. Town off. Thanks. Townwall. So anyway, so he said that. And the reason I wanted to bring this up is because it's something in today's society that you legitimately, even regular people have to worry about. Um is mistakes on because of social media, mistakes in the public eye just get absolutely inherent. Which I you know, and that's a discussion we had before before doing this podcast. We did, and we are putting ourselves out there. Yeah, like so. When, like, you know, I've never had my face on a camera, like yeah, I know. It's a little scary. You're already out there because you're behind the bar a lot, right? You know, face-to-face people seem to be a lot nicer. But see that they become keyboard warriors and uh they become pricks for the most part. Yeah, but the minute that your face is out there out there on a digital platform, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:54

You're you're you're inviting it.

Utility Bills You Can Actually Cut

Repair Of The Week At The Bar

SPEAKER_05 15:56

Yeah, you even if you delete it, you you know, or something or something, it's still there. It's there for all eternity, basically. Yeah, yeah. Um, but anyway, so that it's just it's crazy how in today's society, today's culture, you really have to be careful on social media. Yeah. You really do. Yeah. There there can be now, granted, luckily people forget about it quickly because we all have the attention span of a goldfish at this point. But man, you can get raked over the coals quickly. Yeah. Especially it's like the old saying, we're we're doing a lot of gold says. It's like if somebody visits your restaurant or bar and has a good experience, they'll tell one person, maybe two. If they have a bad experience, they'll tell ten. It's the same way with negative. And that's always been that's been the that's been a thing. Um, you know, always, but it you know, was just word of mouth. Now it is everybody has an amplification device in their pocket blown up to tell everybody how much they uh, you know, kind of weight or whatever, you know, whatever complaint they have. Uh yeah, that's true. It's uh I don't know, you gotta be careful, I guess. Oh it's a thing. You know, I'm gonna talk about why it just came to my it just came to my uh my little brain here. What you got? You remember the Columbia gas discussion we had? Oh, yeah. I let's just for a second, I took care of it. You did? I do I don't think we ever touched on it after. Bring it back. What's going on? Two episodes ago we talked about how you have to be on top of your utilities. I'm just gonna yeah. I didn't even, I wasn't tapping it. You've been tapping it. No, there wasn't. I was trying to tap it. There was no taps. Uh don't rewind it. Uh Jimmy, yeah. I put the little camera here, and I think that'd be a whole signal. Rewind that in VHS thing. Um, but anyway, so two episodes ago, we talked about how you really have to stay on top of utilities. They'll just jack it up and you won't know a second that's a bit of a lot of people. It's huge. I made I made some calls. I it took me a few. Did you talk to Janet in accounting? I said I talked to Janet in accounting. No, actually, her name was Amber. I'll live in that. No, okay. She was really good. Uh, but it was a supplier base out of Columbus, which I like because a lot of them are based outside of the state. And I got mine down from$1.08 per CFS to 64 cents per CFS. That is That is how they measure natural gas. Cubic, cubic zirconia? That's not no, that's a fake diamond. I'm not no, I don't know what it is. Feet per I don't. I don't know what it is. I actually don't know this. Somebody will know and they can tell us. But yeah, the the point being is I almost knocked it down by half by making a phone call. Wow. Now it takes one or two cycles to take place, but that means for next year, come winter time, I'm gonna be in great shape in our household. So there it is. Make some phone calls, change your supplier on a yearly basis so that the variable rates don't kick in and and and you can do it. That's that's good. No, that's uh little life advice there to say a little money in a uh in an interesting time. Yep. Um speaking of money, okay. Do you have one thousand dollars for me underneath the table? I do not. Yeah. Uh let's talk about repairs, which is another thing uh that comes along with owning a bar. This is a shitty stuff. Uh this is gonna be a new segment, I think. Every week there's a repair. So we're gonna have the welcome. Welcome to I got that. That's nice. It's coming. Welcome to the repair of the week segment. Repair of the week in the bar. I like this. We'll start with the crazy weather uh that's been going on here in Northern Ohio. On Monday, or I'm sorry, I'm saying that 27 degrees. Monday, it was 29, and today, St. Patrick's Day, it is 22 frickin' degrees outside. But that brings me back with all of that uh crazy weather and ups and downs. Not only does my knee hurt all the time, of course, uh, but it's windy, extremely windy. So, of course, I get a text from Chad on Saturday. Hey man, the sign wasn't a little funky. Uh should we be worried about this? We'd be worried about this. So the sign outside was uh the bolts got loosed up and it messed up the mortar. Uh so okay, so fine. I mean, I can fix it. The last thing you want is that just like come up on Sunday morning or Saturday morning, you know, like okay, let's uh I gotta go to Lowe's, get the joint compound, okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:56

Gotta get a ladder, all right, let's do that, let's get that done, open up, okay, gotta get some tap cons.

Great Regional Bars Worth The Stop

SPEAKER_05 19:59

All right, that's fixed. Yeah, and I came in bartended for you for an hour so you could I could do it. Yeah, yeah. And then on Sunday, I was uh down here, whatever, restocking or whatever, and it's and I left. As soon as I get home, I get a text from the bartender. Hey Matt. Uh the toilet and disco bathroom's broken. You still here? No, of course not. I just left. So, all right. Come back down, find out what's going on. Luckily, it wasn't the horrible, need to need a new handle. Somebody didn't have a deuce in there. No, it was not. Luckily, it wasn't a mess. Oh, that's it was just a it was a mechanical issue. So, but once again, back out to Lowe's. Sure. Uh, to get the right part and actually just fixed it. Had to do the out-of-order thing there for a while, which at the end Sunday we were really busy because of the weather. Yeah. So like it kind of sucked to put a bathroom out of order. Of course. There's nothing. It was at the end of the day, right? Starting slow, but it's still busy enough where people were like, I saw this poor girl sitting outside, but she really does. I'm sorry, I uh I can't do it. So I was like, I tried, I told her she should go across the street to Bolshevik. Is it one of those reverse thread panels? Yeah, it's a reverse thread thing. I had it fixed out on my I don't know. So see, and that's another thing. The things that you learn, like I have replaced many toilets, I fix it, but I've never had to replace the little uh little handle before um in that way, and so I learned it was a reverse threat. Uh so yeah, like that's that happened to we're always fixing stuff. I yeah, just if you ever do want to open a bar or do want to open a restaurant, talk to me. Uh I'll tell you about all the things you do. Do you remember we've said it before, and I'll say it again. Owning a restaurant or a bar is basically 10 times more work than a house. Oh, yeah. Way more stuff breaks because people are using it all. Nothing is built. Uh, this idea of commercial versus residential is uh is bullshit. It's all built like crap. And at bars it just gets used more bricks. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's done. Matter of fact, we just had, you know, the other bring back the old 800 bucks that we had to pay. The the fire uh that was that the fire test guy was just used this morning to test all fire alarms. Now, granted, we do need fire alarms, but like, you know, oh, there's this and that, you know, you ought to do this. And it's like the only thing that's cool about that is when we use. I don't like anything that he comes. I don't like it when he comes. No, it's not. It's always a bill. It's always a bill. And then you know, you know, every time he comes, I'm like, oh, what sensor's gonna be broken? It's gonna be broken. What's gonna be like today? It's like, well, the sounds are gonna wick a little rough. So if the fire alarm goes off in the middle of July, the bar is, you know, is completely full, and there's people up in the Airbnb. Just saying what's gonna happen. Oh, and when it happens, it'll be 2 30 in the morning, so I'll be in bed. Of course it will. We're covering a lot of bar stuff this time. A lot of bars, like this is a little bit more bar uh bar friendly today. Speaking of covering bars, I know where you're going to like it. Um great regional bars. Now, we talked about Johnny's LaBar. It's probably your favorite as well. It's the next thing. As a matter of fact, I just got an invite uh from uh uh the Patrick's uh some uh regulars here, and uh they are opening day at uh the Guardians. Oh and we are starting out at Johnny's at noon. We got a we're gonna get a table, sit in the corner, some burgers, some beers. Oh man, I'm excited. So Johnny's uh someone on the TikTok, the TikTok. Like I'm saying the Walmart. You put it when you put uh my eight right there. Yeah. Uh so uh so TikTok, uh somebody got a lot, we got a lot of feedback on Johnny's talk? I know. Somebody was very angry that I said it was downstairs. They had to correct me and said it's behind. It is. And I said, Who fucking cares? It is settle down. Oh, really? You took it. You took a minute out of your day to make that. Well, it's like we talked about. You put your face out there, you put your info out. If you're watching the last bar pilot, I'll tell you what, dude. Do something else. Jeez.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Yeah. Well, I just wanted to correct us.

SPEAKER_05 23:36

Come on. I actually comment. I love the comment, did you? I said, whatever. There's something like that. Because the remember, because it'll be fine. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. The upstairs, remember the upstairs there's a carpeted album. We all know it. It's a great bar. It doesn't matter if it's on the rooftop or downstairs or wherever. Who cares? It's a great so so I did put a note in ours about another great bar down there, which I'm sure you were just about to bring up. Which is in my thunder. Which is gonna let you do it. I said, which is it is on the banks of the coyote. Right by a bridge.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:09

What is it? It is Hooples. Hooples. Great Tavern. What's the is it collision vent? No, what yeah, I think it's collision vent right there. Right there? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's collision band. That's collision band. Watching a freighter uh come through there. I was talking to the bartender last night. Actually, you were there. Uh it was before we went to that. That big one came through. Uh big one was coming through, and the bartender was saying how at nighttime they'll shine the light uh from the freighter right in the bar. Right in the bar I was like, Whoa! Uh the headlights. Great, great bar. Yeah, that's a good bar. Good regular crowd. You can tell that's old school Cleveland. Is that technically in the city? Oh, it's Ohio City. I think that's Ohio City. Okay. Yeah. I think so. I don't know my. Yeah, it doesn't bring the bomb on the delineation. I'm not that good on the delineation lines. To me, it's all kind of it's like Lakewood, Ohio City, Cleveland. Right. That's kind of what I what I what I have. Or West Side. Or West Side, then you know, you're just in the West Side. Uh, but that's a great bar. That's the one thing that I need to get even better about because Cleveland has a multitude of great little neighborhood diving. Not even a dive. I mean, Louis is a dive bar, but not, I mean, it's not like either it's not a dirty bar. But weren't they known for like a really like a lot of like they used to have uh a lot of good music so far? Matter of fact, the guy who played for oh, I'm blanking on the band right now. He played there forever. Uh he was oh boy, somebody could comment on that. Tell me what uh what band he played for. I think he played with uh Glenn Fry from the Eagles played with this band at one point. Oh boy. I should be kidding this. I don't know. I I want to say grand funk. That's not no, but it's something, it's it's in that genre. Anyway, he played there for a while. Okay. And I guess it got a little he's he's R I P. But I guess he got a little loony towards the end when he was playing at um playing at Hopels. Oh, there's the see there's the beer guy calling right now for premium. Oh, for premium. He's gonna be here in 20 minutes. Let's just take the call on air. Oh, there we go. Let's do it. On air? Hey man, what's going on? Hey man, how long you got?

unknown 25:58

Uh 20 minutes out.

SPEAKER_05 25:59

Oh, that sounds good. We will uh see you in 20. All right, bud. Thanks. You nailed that like leopard. 20 minutes out. I bet you he doesn't know he's gonna be on barpod. No, he's am I violating the rules? Are you not allowed to do that? I don't know. He's gonna sign something, we gotta have him sign something. No. But anyway. Anyway, so that's our yeah, beer delivery. Now you got another one down by uh where closer to where my wife is. So I was down, and I'll talk a little bit about this too. I was down at a uh uh a it was an entrepreneur event. Um it was actually more developers, made me feel kind of kind of weak because they all had like staffs and employees and all that stuff. But anyway, uh but we did go to a great bar in Waldo, Ohio. And if anybody knows this one, I'm sure they have, is called the GNR Tavering. And those bologna sandwiches. Dude, they're like wow, dude. They're like this. That was my first experience. Yeah, you get the raw onion on there. Raw onion. I had I had onion uh and mustard on mine, dude. Dude. Toasted bun. Yep. I think it's five bucks. Yeah, yeah. Their prices are insane. That place, that place is, you see me not trying to try not to be. Yeah, you're doing a good job. Uh that place is the quintessential Americana of bars. And it's got the old school drop ceilings, and it was packed. One o'clock in the afternoon on a Friday. It's all the price was lined out the door. It's always packed. Anytime old school. Amber's from Mary, of course. So anytime we get down there, we try if we can, we try and make it. But you're quintessential. I mean, I have to Ohio State bar because it's so close to Columbus. Yep. Uh, but uh recommended stop. The GNR tablet walled. They got all the do you notice behind the bar? They got all the old school cans and bottles all the time. They're very, what was it um Strobes? Stroves has really loved the fire brewers, fire brewed strokes. Now firebrew anymore. No, Gene, do you remember, do you remember what, and I've told this a thousand times. Do you remember what um our grandfather uh on on our dad side used to say about strobe? Uh no? I remember doing this. We were 10, you know, didn't didn't he'd say, yeah, he'd be out drinking and you know why, listen to the uh Indians game. Yeah. Do you see how it says fire brewed on there? Yeah, it's because it'll burn the piss right on it. Hey, there it is. You know, that goes to show you, and we've talked about this before with a third place thing. Yeah, uh, you could tell there are a lot of locals in there as well. Like a bar can bring a neighborhood together. Hell, it can bring a whole town together.

SPEAKER_04 28:17

Yeah.

Trolls And The Dry Turd Rule

SPEAKER_05 28:17

A good bar, good place for people to go, have some beers, have some drinks, and and uh to talk to each other, and and you learn a lot. You do uh but yeah, that bar had that vibe to it. I mean, it looked like there wasn't one other place in Waldo across the street. I don't remember the name of it, but that was the only one I hope on Friday. I mean, there's not Waldo is not exactly uh you know a metropolitan, you know, except it's like probably 300 people. Small, yeah, very small. But yeah, everybody that that town is thriving because of that bar. I love to see it. Can I uh can I switch gears for a second? I just looked down at the notes that you printed. Yeah, what you got? Uh it says kick a dry turd on there. Yeah, yeah. So we'll make it into that. Actually, you've transitioned perfectly.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

Transitioned perfectly into the troll segment.

SPEAKER_05 29:01

Now we're not gonna talk about any uh specific trolls. No, we're talking about social media. So you got your Facebook trolls, your Twitter trolls, yeah, we're trolls. People that you know mostly live in an office basement, don't have much else to do, and they just like to live uh unhinged comments about whatever. They a lot of e-board, they rate things up, they lie a lot. Um so I we had a troll uh last week. Uh we were open. It was a beautiful day outside. Uh they took a picture, uh, edited it from our Facebook page, edited it, and said, look at these people drinking and and having a good time. That's probably at six o'clock, and they're trying to judge people for being off work on a Monday. It was six o'clock, by the way. Um, and uh and then they like gave us a little shade and said, Paddle and climb used to be a family-oriented place, is now just a bar. We're still family-oriented, by the way. Yeah, kids love this place. Yeah. Uh during the day. So, but anyway, I'm getting fired up. And the quote I heard is and it basically means if you get a, you know, and this works in life, not just social media. Yeah. But if you got like a troll or someone's really annoying you, you know, you want to snap back right away. Don't feed the troll. Usually don't feel usually when you don't make the best, you don't make the best decisions when you're just flying back. Yeah, of course. So someone said, listen, you know when your dog takes a shit?

SPEAKER_04 30:20

Wait till it dries. Never kick a wet turn. Kick a dry turd.

Drunk History Nights And Local Stories

SPEAKER_05 30:23

That's your really good advice. That is brilliant advice. And it ties back to when, you know what? Yeah, I guess you could say never pick up a wet turd. Never pick up a dry turn. Or knuckled it. Just just just kick a dry turn. That is good. I think it's I think it's a great thing. Yeah, because when you're hot, you don't make decisions when you're hot. So chill it out. And I've tried in the past I've done that. Like if I've just when I used to work in like PR and stuff, when I had fire up things where I was sure, either write like a like an email that was going to be a Rachel or something, I would write it the night before, save it, and then read it the next morning and go, wow, that was not. Chances are you had to heavy edited. Right, right. I think Abraham Wincoln, actually. That was one of his things. Oh, he was shooting out emails? Uh well, not yeah. Turns out you didn't know this. Abraham Lincoln, first one to use the he might have, dude. With the way things are going on, they probably had iPhones back then. Yeah, no, yeah. He had a he had a 14.4 bog modem. Anyway, uh speaking of Abraham Lincoln, drug history. Uh, that's kind of the last thing we're gonna cover today. Yeah. We had the first one was uh uh Jim Miller, uh local storing, was also the uh the chairman of Sebista Bank. Crushed it. Uh and he was fantastic. Uh talked a lot about the waterfront development downtown Sandusky. Last week, we had our dad uh doing drug history on basically old bars in Sandusky. He got a little loose. He killed a few things, and I was going, ooh, I tell her that room. It's fine. It's totally fine. It's fine. That was fantastic. And that's one of those things, well, again, we we know that idea has been great, but filling up uh you know Wednesdays and March aren't exactly uh uh bangers, so that's been filling that up. And then uh this week, tomorrow, um Tom Horseman Wednesday, so depending on when you're watching us, Tom Horseman is be talking about the uh development of Sunetsky, so like how the roads got laid out, where certain buildings went, and also talk about the projects, the projects that didn't come to fruition. That would be really cool. It will, so not gonna be a lot of them. I'm excited to live. I'm excited to hear Tom. Yeah, I think we need to get a few beers in town. Yeah, yeah, we gotta get them. He's gonna be he's gonna be awesome. That was not gonna broke last week. The amplifier, remember? Oh, that's true. That's true. Oh, yeah. So that's every day.

SPEAKER_04 32:37

So drunk history, and then we uh yeah, we're continuing that. Uh pretty fantastic.

Staffing Lesson Before Holiday Weekend

Hours Music And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_05 32:43

Um what else did I have? I think it's kind of all I got. Uh this bar pod. You got anything else going on? You know, don't forget Yanik? A quick hit, I'll bring it up again. Bar opens in 50 minutes. We're 50 minutes today because it's St. Patrick's Day. We're opening at noon. Uh there's live music today. Uh you know, I do have one more thing. Which we got we forgot to touch on. Oh, yeah. So I mean, this is another bar, a piece of bar a lot of uh news. So Ryan brought up how things break, and uh, you know, we also talked about staying on top of things is hard. Creative constantly is hard. Um, another thing that happened to us this week. Um We are usually pretty good at anticipating anticipating the needs for the bar staffing-wise. Yes. Okay, we're usually pretty good about it, but we got blindsided this week. We the both of us did. Didn't make the best decision. No, we didn't. And and I worked Friday all day, and then so you worked the Friday first shift, but you got you got crushed. I mean Saturday. Saturday, I'm sorry. And I was busy, but not crazy. No. Uh and that's when I came down to help me sign anyway. Anyway, we um made a judgment error. We did not realize that dailies, great bar in town, of course. Um friends down there. I was up this morning. That's where I used that this morning, decided to have they they have their um big party for St. Fantasy's Day on Saturday. Which is so I didn't know that. St. Fantasy's today, which is Tuesday, but they decided to have their their big party on Saturday, which makes sense. We didn't really put two and two together. I wasn't well, and not just dailies, just in general. We're celebrating St. Patrick's Day starting Saturday night, yeah, and continuing to today is St. Patrick's Day. I guess how multiple. I guess I'm just bringing up dailies because they're the quintessential. They're the quintessential big draw for St. Absolutely. So anyway, we only had one bartender on staff like a normal Saturday this time of year. Yeah, yeah. In the summer it's different. In the summer separate. He got absolutely smoked because it was crushed. I mean, Saturday. I bet that kid lost 10 pounds just to run up and down. Yeah, he loved being busy. But at the same time, um, you had to come in and help, yeah, do ice, do beer, serve some people, blah, blah, blah. So there's another thing that we don't talk about a lot, but it's just another thing that you have to constantly think about. Staffing for uh the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, and we we messed it up and didn't have enough people here. Try to keep your staff up. I'm not talking about a bag or hey, yes. No, keep your staff. Keep your staff up. Well, like your wizard staff. I see what you're saying. I mean keep staffed, and yeah, you're right. We uh we we we botched that one. We botched that one. So again, another thing I said, and I listen, maybe this is me. You're you're you're full digital. I'm old school sometimes. I need an old down here somewhere. I need like a a big calendar with like a whiteboard situation. So every time we walk by it, we go, oh crap. There's a I'm it's right on the other side of that wall. There's a full calendar that you could do. I know we didn't do that. I'll move it. Yeah, I'll move it. But put it somewhere down here so we walk by it. You put it somewhere, take some initiative. No, no, I'm get your staff up. Your staff up. Your staff up. But we gotta get on that. Uh hopefully, um well, summer, we you know, we're a lot more prepared in summer. It's coming. Yeah. Uh, but then these wild weather swings are screwing with me, too. Dude, it's somebody was jamming 75. You're gonna help out there, help help Tom a little bit. We didn't need to, but it's like it's just yeah, it's this Ohio weather this this time. Again, today. It's it's more crazy. There's a meteor today. What is that? Oh my god, dude, what's happening? Well, you know what? For today, let's forget all about the craziness and we'll have again. Hey, it's St.

SPEAKER_04 36:18

Patrick's Day. Uh happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody. Uh, this will be coming out St.

SPEAKER_05 36:22

Patrick's Day evening. Yes. Uh so you can uh when you're uh feeling a little off tomorrow, uh you can listen to Barpod. Hopefully the suiting sounds of Barpod will bring you out of your angle. Happy St. Patrick's.

SPEAKER_04 36:36

That's all I got. Hey, uh Barpod.net is where you can find us. Uh obviously you're finding us somewhere. Uh Barpod419 on the socials. Um, we're on TikTok now. Check it out.

SPEAKER_05 36:48

And if you like the show, tell a bartender. If you don't, tell a bouncer. Take it to yourself. We don't have a bouncer. Tell a bouncer. No, we don't. Maybe we will. Maybe we will. All right, guys. Thanks a lot, and happy stay back here, stay tuned. Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Right.