Cleaning Toilets Leads to Yet Another Great Idea (Day 26)

Our grand opening event on Sept. 24, began with a speech.  Every night from here on we will ring our last call bell and I or someone else will speak in some fashion about something.  This may or may not be riveting but it will be ours and it will continue.  

Below:  Toto from Wizard of Oz

Also Below:  Toto - toilet at the Civil Life

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So owning a brewery is really great.  But there are a few things I do on a daily basis that makes me think I should have paid attention in school and maybe I would have ended up as a poet laureate, surgeon or maybe even a Belgian Monk.  

Instead though, I today am a proud owner of a brewery start-up and quite frankly it is as honorable to me as any of the previous mentioned professions. 

I believe the smallest most insignificant tasks and the smallest details are actually the most important to our success.  We are still working hard here to get the place into perfect shape as a full year of construction still has some straggling issues especially since our focus is now on running the place.  But it will always be the details that make a place work for me and most of these entries are just that, details. 

I have always done our best to keep our bathrooms clean and when we were designing the Civil Life thrones we put care into making sure we made the right decisions to cut down on waste and thus allow them to remain cleaner throughout a busy night.  We use hand dryers rather than paper towels (more economical and way less waste)  and our toilets are superbly designed and use very little water.  But every time, I look at them I think toto is the dog from the Wizard of Oz not a toilet.  

But I digress, the reason behind this post (if you somehow made it through the dribble) is that today when I was cleaning the toilets. Which I do in a very specific way,  Spray all the toilets with disinfectant, then come back and scrub with a cloth then come back with a clean wet cloth and wipe down one more time.  I get down and reach into those areas that no one really wants to look and I would really be worried about you if you inspected anyone but your own bathroom in this manner.  Regardless, I clean the bathrooms, it’s not my favorite job (that is pouring a pint) but it is mostly my job as I am head of the cleaning department.  

This is going somewhere.  Wait for it.  

So today, about an hour a go I was cleaning the toilet and it came to me.  All of my great ideas seem to come when I am partaking in a mundane task.  Except of course, opening the brewery.  The “Last Call” bell was missing something.  Last night I rang it for the first time and then I said, “Last Call”.  Sure that was it’s intended purpose but everyone was looking at me and I really felt inside I could have said something a little more than the obvious.  I felt a little underwhelmed by the whole experience.  I rang the bell and then basically read what was on the bell.  Lame, I say. Lame.  So the process of “Last Call” must be improved and I have found a way. 

So tonight and heretoforth and from henceforth so on the bell will be rung every night we are open (T - Sa).  We will ring the bell if there is one customer or a thousand.  At the moment the silence settles upon the congregation as the bell resonates throughout the bar I will or someone appointed  by me (Customers welcome in a few weeks) will recite, read, say something and then verbally finish with a second announced Last Call by the head bartender which will 99.8% of the time be me.   When we ask someone to come up with a reading or partake in the “Last Call” ritual it will be considered the highest honor we could possibly bestow upon a cherished Civil Lifer.   

So for whom the bell tolls will be me tonight and me most of the time, but it may toll for you.  In a few weeks we may allow customers to partake.   Just let me know down the road if you want your chance at 20 to 30 seconds of fame.  Obviously your message will be monitored by the Chinese government in me but don’t let that stop you.  Most messages will be just fine.  

So tonight it begins and tomorrow it will continue.  And yet another reason has come to make the Civil Life part of your life.

Now I must scurry away and find the quote I read on the window of a Dublin bar to read tonight during that 10 to 10:15 slot when the bell rings for it’s second time.  

Cheers!

Jake