Jillian’s is FUN! Community Blog

Greeting your guests for the holidays…

It’s always this time of year when we all get so busy and the month of December seems to fly by. It’s also times like this when our clients come to Jillian’s to have fun and relax. SF makes it a point to personally greet our hosts and thank them for hosting their parties with us… Make it a point to shake as many hands as possible this season - guests remember good hospitality!!

Disney Star Kyle Massey’s 18th Birthday Bash at Jillians’ Universal

Kyle Massey star of That’s so Raven and Cory in The House celebrated his 18th birthday at Jillians Universal Citywalk. Fellow Disney stars Raven Symone (That’s So Raven), Dylan and Cole Sprouse (Suite Life of Zack and Cody), Mitchel Musso (Hannah Montana), David Henrie and Jake T. Austin (Wizards of Waverly Place) walked the red carpet and talked to reporters from Bop, Tiger Beat, and Teen TV. Once upstair’s Kevin Dees conducted on camera interviews with the stars. Guests enjoyed bowling and Guitar Hero while DJ Marz kept the dance floor going all night!

Making it our own with long lines for Jake’s Burger

I am not too sure if many of you have heard of Pink’s Hot Dog in Los Angeles but, it is one of the most well known small town eateries in the United States known for their hot dogs. They are known for their long lines late at night for hot dogs. Well, Pink’s has finally made their match in Pasadena. Their competitor is Jake’s! Wow, this past Saturday night was a special night. The Rose Bowl hosted a friendly soccer match between LA Galaxy and Barcelona FC. Their was an estimate of 90,000 people to attend the game. So, we were very prepared for this day planning ahead. Great planning came with great success, total sales for the day were well over $9k and for the figure that were all proud of total food sales were over $5K.  Well sold over 650 build your own burgers for the day. That is a lot of beef! I have to thank all the great staff and management team members for doing a great job! I would have to say the greatest thing to see was a huge line outside our doors for people about 40 deep waiting to eat our burgers. I over heard a couple say, “Wow its busy in here! I can understand the wait with so many people and, I have to say it was worth the wait. I have never had a burger like this. I would wait for 3 hours just to wait for the single taste of a Jake’s Burger.”

Jaime

Measuring your P-Mix

Working on a side project for Jake on how the new menu is working for us, I have been using our P-Mix to find out and this what I have found out for using our new menu for a year….

In one year, we have used 13,388 lbs. of ground beef we sold in burgers that is an equivalent of 2 school buses.

In one year, we have created 196 gallons of chili that is 20 full tanks of gas for an average car.

For the amount of burgers sold, we have sold 52,170 that is 26,085 feet of burgers if you were to line the burgers up side by side, which is almost the size of 3 golden gate bridges, 72 Rose Bowl Football fields and is the distance of 4.94 miles.
 

Jaime

Lights, Drapes, Launch!

NueroBrands, a trendy up and coming beverage company, hosted their Haralambos Launch Party at Jake’s.  Lindsay Lohan is a huge advocate of NeuroBliss,  & Lada Gaga is showcasing NueroSonic in her most recent video, are a few celebrities backing this brand, adding to the pressure of making everything perfect.  All involved were surprised at the transformation of the VIP Room when the set-up was done.  Even our visitor Tony Humphreys was shocked with the white linen walls, coordinated lighting, and creative touches throughout the room including product bottles for condiments, cupcakes molded in the shapes of the bottles, empty bottles for cocktail table vases, and food sign holders made out of the bottle lids.  The team really pulled together on this one everyone adding their own little touch and putting in hard work and long hours, without this the end result would not have been so impressive.

Jake’s making a monster opportunity out of a hand sized monster!!!!

You probably have seen those crazy eating competitions on the food network and tv, from huge pie eating contest or to eating hot dogs till you explode. At Jake’s, we try to bring that same kind of commroidtry and competition with the flare of our burgers. Speaking with Jake last  “Wow, its great to see how much attention we get with our Monster Burger displayed on our window I have been only standing here watching for no more than 2 minutes and 25 guests walking by had to stop and simply look at the burger. There were many people who even stood, posed, and took pictures with the massive burger.” said Jake. Jake and I agreed using the monster burger display we generate an extra $200 in food sales because it looks so good! So, the following day Ray and I were discussing club ideas and our two servers Jason an Lincoln, came to us saying, “Someone has accepted the Jake’s challenge.” His name was Jeremy he said ” That burger looks pretty good I think I could eat it.” I replied, “All right you got it! If your able to finish this challenge you will be the first!” He accepted the Jake’s Challenge. The parameters of this challenge is that you must complete the entire burger of 5 patties 5 pieces of american cheese, and 10 pieces of bacon on a standard Jake’s Burger build in 10 minutes. Jeremy had started on a good pace eating meat first in quarters then eating the bread. ” Wow! this burger is so good but, its fresh its burning my mouth from mouth for being so hot.” He said laughing. His friends shouting “Shut up and eat you only have four minutes left!” At exactly 9:59 he ate his last piece of the Monster he was the pioneer of the Jake Challenge. He ate about 2.35 # of mouth watering goodness! “I never knew something so good can make you so full!” Jeremy laughed. As his reward we bought his burger and gave him a filled up Lucky Seven card stamped for another burger. Already, word of mouth has started and people wanting to break Jeremy’s record! That’s why at Jake’s we can take something as simple and a delicious traditional hamburger into a monster of free advertising of word of mouth!

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Jaime

Jake’s Cooks make it their own…Making perfection…

The warmth of Southern California has come once again to the street of Colorado.  You can see the many new faces and visitors of Pasadena walking up and down Colorado looking for a quick bite to eat. Then the smell finally hits them, the intense stong smell of the best burger of Pasadena Jake’s! It has been great to see such a turn around I’ve had with my cooks. We had a very strong amount of food sales in December around 9K a week but with their hard work, dedication to small detail, helping each other out, and most importantly passion for the love of the food they make we are averaging just short of 15k. “It takes a lot of time and planning to work in our kitchen.” say Everado Patino. “At first we use to laugh at Jaime about how much we should plan ahead and organize ourselves in the kitchen like office work or the military like it wouldn’t pay off but, when you have the cafe filled with customers wanting to eat “my” burger we have to keep our guard up and give them our best.” I have them constantly working with the tools I used in my training we have become legends when we use our Lettuce system we love the p-mix because we have the correct gauge on how much we need to prep and order. We also love the Kitchen Financials because we all sit together and organize the best times to fit the schedule and how much to prep. Yet I may have shown them a few tricks here and there with the Lettuce program, they impressed me with what they gave me this following week. My cooks have made their own daily cleaning program. They worked on what was the best time to get the kitchen clean to “our” standards. I was very impressed what they came up with and how dedicated they have been on getting it done; especially with our new dish machine and the installation of Butler Chemicals. Their doubled efforts have carried on another trend another perfect score from the Health Department. Now their next goal is to be the best burger in Southern California. And I believe to the fullest they will do it and do so much more!

Jaime�

Bar Fights at Jake’s

Street Fighter IV was released with great anticipation in January of 2009 and sold out before it was even on shelves in stores.  Despite it’s popularity we were not too sure of the success that could come with hosting a Street Fighter tournament at our club.  Not willing to turn away any possible sell whether it be $200 or $2000 Jake and I met with someone interested in doing a tournament here.  After a few meetings we decided that the event was worth trying if nothing else but to get 100 people in our club that wouldn’t normally come. 

Shortly after we started to realize how “BIG” this community of Street Fighter acutally was.  Our host Ryan is one of the top players in the nation and had committment from the other top players in the nation.  It turned out that Ryan “Gootecks” has his own very well established website and was a star within this community.  The excitement started to build when he came in and filmed a mini commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A4rHDgt8Vg&eurl) talking about the event and Jake’s, and informed us that people from Japan and Canada wanted him to stream the event for them.

Although there seemed to be some buzz about the event we never would have imagined that it would turn out to be as “BIG” as it was.  The event was scheduled to begin at 5:00 pm, but we had guests starting to arrive as early as 12:00 pm.  By 3:45 we had a line that stretched down the alley to Colorado Blvd of the attendees that wanted to enter the “Beat a Pro Contest”.  We realized by 5:00 pm that we were at our 278 occupancy and we would have to start a line.  We had employees from neighboring bars coming over to see what was going on, we even had the Pasadena Police who were eating next door perturbed at the amount of people waiting to see this event.  It turned out that the Pros were all stars within the community, there was filming, interviewing and tons of picture taking.  

The best part of all was that these were people coming in to just watch so they were generously purchasing food & drinks.  In order to take the event to the next level we set-up promos with Jager and Bud Lt to have their girls come out, and we had a sampling from a new beverage company. 

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Team SFO Kicks-off Q1 with Great Communtiy Service

As you all know each Jillian’s & Jakes location must participate in one meaningful Community Service effort each quarter.  At the beginning of each year at our Annual New Year Managers meeting I pair the entire management team to head up one or more initiatives per quarter.  

To kick-off Q1, RaeAnne Turner ESM and Gil Frias AGM selected a great effort. Jillian’s of San Francisco Adopted a City block.  In conjunction with the City of San Francisco Public Works Department the team cleaned up an area just down the street from the club. The main area is the over and underpasses to HWY 101 and a major transportation route out if the city.  So on March 27th they, Gil and RaeAnne and a few trusty warriors headed down to the fwy area to start.  The team picked up garbage, swept, removed and painted over graffiti and the general clean up of the area are just a few of the important jobs they completed. 

Many people stopped to watch the team in the “Jillian’s Volunteer” shirts and thanked the team for helping keep our city clean.  In the coming weeks there will be a sign posted that the block has been adopted by Jillian’s of San Francisco.  it will also serve as great exposure as this route exiting the city is very heavily traveled.  I was blown away by this effort and even more grateful for the effort once I found out the team will continue with this effort once a month.  Wow, is all I can say!  We have once a month clean up and from last year we have continued with on-going Volunteering at the world famous Glide Memorial Church Soup Kitchen (seen in the Will Smith movie Pursuit of Happiness).  

Thank you team for giving your on-going efforts to the community and city at large. You are all truly making a difference in this world one person at a time.  

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Universal and Pasadena have become old pro’s at teaming up to get our name and venues out in any way possible.  We start scheming weeks in advance about how we are going to do something with our set-up, presentation & materials that will make us stand out from the rest.  Thanks to our organic mini-cupcakes, awesome Nintendo Wii set-up, and our “green friendly” sales kits on Cd’s we defintely stood out from the rest.  Not to mention we were the only ones without the standard white table cloth.  We were told by almost every attendee, not to mention multiple vendors that our booth was the most elaborate and impressive.

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a little thanks goes a long way

sf hosted a party of 5 ppl in our martini lounge to watch john hopkins vs virginia in a game of lacrosse - the party netted $200 - we left a message for the client to thank him for hosting his event with us and to make sure it was a great time. i got a call back this morning thanking us for calling him and saying how he plans a ton of parties a year and his biggest pet pieve is when he doesn’t get a thank you follow up call.  even if the event went well and he doesn’t get that call he doesn’t rebook with them… note to self - call everyone to thank them and keep taking those little parties!

Award winning karaoke at its finest……only at Jake’s

On these chilly nights we have been having in Pasadena only the warmth of our fiery and hearty old fashion chilly could keep up with the daily travelers of Pasadena until one night. All the lights were lit, the stage was set and people were ready to party like no other. It was a Thursday night, one to remember, one night to start for a brighter future our guests. The suspense was like no other for our first Karaoke Competition night. What started to be only one or two names wanting to join turned out to be 32 people. Jimmy B. was on fire getting the crowd going and the emphatic cheers of their favorite songs being sung by Karaoke Heroes. You can hear the latest hits from Chris Brown and No Doubt to Smokey Robinson and Blondie it was intense. Even Simon couldnt cut a knife into our crowd for being so energetic and singing along. Plus, great drinks made by our infamous Jake’s bartenders kept the crowd wanting more. Even our famous Paddy-O came out to sing “Comedown” by Bush. With the patient waiting we had our winner, he was from the newly founded Pasadena Karaoke group who were looking for a place to perform. They said’ ” We have to thank Ray and all the Jake’s staff for putting together such a great event. We think we found our home, Jake’s is our place to be!” Ever since that night Karaoke has been the place to be in Pasadena and I thinks its going to be that way for quite awhile.

Jaime

Picture Perfect!!

Love may not always happen at first sight, but snapshots can last a lifetime! Armed with a wireless card, digital camera, and some cheesy pick-up lines, Jillians staff captured our guest’s precious Valentines day moments and printed them off for sale, proceeds going to the Jimmy V fund.  Guests and staff alike, enjoyed the positive interaction and were more than enthusiastic to smile and pose for the camera!  David Flood, a former Jillians of Seattle server, offered his technological assistance and hardware and helped us set up for our first run- no better night to launch a photo-op than one you can share with those you love! We recieved so much positive feedback that we can’t wait to incorporate photography into our weekends, events, and promos and make it our own!!

JILLIAN’S HANGS OUT BACKSTAGE AT THE GRAMMY’S

Awards Season is here and Jillian’s Universal was lucky enough to be present at the Backstage at the Grammy’s Media/Press Junket Event!   This event, put on by Westwood One, America’s largest Radio Network that services more than 5,000 radio stations all over the world, took place at the Staples Center Los Angeles on the Thursday and Friday prior to the Grammy’s Awards show this past Sunday.   Over 40 Radio Stations from all over the world set up to interview musicians, celebrities, and industry people regarding the upcoming Grammy’s Awards and Nominations. 

     Jillian’s Universal was given the chance to be the only company to showcase our venue by gifting the celebrities leaving the Press Junket.   Sarah and Marie put their heads together and invented The Hi-Life Club.   The Hi-Life Club is an Exclusive Members Club that will exist at Jillian’s Universal. Each of these celebrities were given an annual membership to The Hi Life Club which entails them to VIP access including: 

• Jillian’s Concierge Services
• Your personal Jillian’s Event Planner
• Our private Suite for any Sports Event
• One hour complimentary room rental on any booked event
• A Guitar Hero World Tour private party for up to 15 guests
• No cover and VIP access to Jillian’s Friday and Saturday club nights
• Double the fun on Jillian’s Amazing Game Room cards

    We gifted a long list of celebrities including – Randy Jackson, Wayne Brady, Duffy, Joey Fatone, Akon, Andy Dick, Kathy Griffith, Eric Benet, The Kardashians, Nick Lechay, Anthony Hamilton, Musiq Soulchild, Dr. Drew, Busta Ryhmes, Sara Bareilles, George Clinton, Sway, Heavy D, The JabbaWockeez, Boyz II Men, Charlie Wilson, David Banner, Tia Carrerre, Colby O’ Donis, Fonsworth Bentley, Harry Hamlin, Steven Adler, Static X, Kevin Griffin, and many previous American Idol Final Contestants including – Kimberly Caldwell, Melinda Doolittle, Elliot Yamin, and Blake Lewis.  Alongside from being able to gift these talented celebrities, we were also lucky enough to see Katy Perry, Jason Mraz, Smokey Robinson, Billy Bush, and Death Cab for Cutie.

   We received a tremendous response from most of the celebrities as well.   Anthony Hamilton told us that he goes to the Jillian’s in Charlotte.  Blake Lewis told us about his wonderful experience at the Jillian’s Seattle.  Dr. Drew was mostly excited about bringing his children to Jillian’s Universal, which also happens to be right down the street from him.  Joey Fatone, Andy Dick, and Sway all admitted to having an undying passion for bowling and inquired about bringing their personal bowling balls to Jillian’s.  And more importantly, record label executives including Jive and Sony BMG, management companies like Rogers and Cowan, and tons of Radio Stations were inquiring about holding future events at Jillian’s.

            Overall, this was an unforgettable experience that allowed Jillian’s a rare and exciting opportunity to mingle with today’s music legends.  If your interested in seeing more celebrity photos feel free to reach out to Universal.

Christian Makes It His Own!

CHRISTIAN MAKES IT HIS OWN…

(Written in December 2008)
Winter break is here and the kids are out of school!  Monday was the first day of winter break.  We were lucky enough to have two 13^th birthday parties booked during the day!  Because of the Holidays, both mothers solidified their reservations the week prior.  Monday morning I get a phone call from one of the mothers who is calling to confirm if she had ordered a cake.  Unfortunately, she didn’t and we didn’t have enough time to order from our bakery.  So, I told her the bad news, but let her know that we could make a big brownie platter with birthday candles in place of the cake.  She loved the idea and was relieved!  So, I went to the kitchen and notified our awesome kitchen staff that day- Tony and Christian.  They smiled and assured me that they would be able to pull it off!  Not 5 minutes later, the other mother from the party called asking if it was too late to order a cake.  I let her know that she wasn’t alone today and told her what we were doing for the other party.  She loved the idea too!  So, again I went back to Tony and Christian and asked if they could pull it off for a larger party of 20 guests.   They assured me once again that they would be able to work their magic.   About 30 minutes later, Tony called me into the kitchen to show me what Christian had done.   Not only did he pull off two last minute brownie platters for parties starting in an hour, but he put his own twist on it and made a double layered brownie cake.   Check it out!

Decked out in Manchester

Manchester found a way to Embrace Opportunity this week….it all started with a customer requesting a deck of cards.  Rae, their server asked me if we had any.  After we searched the office, she returned to tell them that we didn’t.

We have our first comedy show coming up next weekend.  I challenged the girls to go out and try to get their customers to buy tickets.  I told them that I would give them two movie theater tickets if they could sell two of the comedy tickets.  Rae went out to her guests, and the ones that had asked for the cards said that if we could find a deck for them, they would buy two tickets from her.

Of course, Rae was bummed because she knew we didn’t have any cards.  I asked her if she could get someone to watch her section long enough to drive the couple of blocks to the convenience store down the street.  I gave her $2.00 and she came back in less than ten minutes with two decks of cards.  As promised…her customers bought two comedy tickets from her.

In the end, the customer was happy to get the deck of cards….Rae was happy that she won two movie tickets, and, of course, I was happy that we were able to sell two comedy tickets.

Manchester embraced an opportunity….and we all left that night with smiles on our faces!

Melissa �

San Francisco gets a “handle” on FUN!

San Francisco ESM’s keep serving up celebration! With the success of the inaugural party on Tuesday-

Jennifer and RaeAnne posed with the “Ale to the Chief” handle to commemorate the success of the early AM party!!!! (The GM’s weren’t the only ones serving it up)

Stay tuned for more fun from San Francisco!!!!

Make it reign!!!! With a Jake’s Original!!!

It started off raining in Pasadena, sometimes can be a turn off to many buisnesses but, I was able to put a smile on my face. I see the advantages of the rain. There is a local bus stop going across 5 cities and a majority of those stops do not have any cover from the rain. I sought this as an opportunity. I spoke to many people asking them to come inside in the cafe and take a seat out of the rain. From there was where I wanted them. They sat down smelling the juicy hot tasty burgers. They can sense the aroma of our fire hot home made in house chili. Then people started taking food to go on the bus. I had one couple who moved from Pasadena about 8 years ago and was forced to take the bus due to their car being in the shop. They use to eat at Jake’s a long time ago and saw our new cling. They took the challenge of creating their own burger and the end results we won!. We sold to our guests that having a traditional burger can never go wrong when you make it your way. The guest said ” I have to tell you, I am going on that bus with over 25 stops and 3 cities I go across and I will tell everyone about how great those burgers are!!!!” Jakes is back with the blog!!!

Manchester Goes Up in Flames!

It may have been cold outside on Saturday night, but it was hot inside Jillian’s Manchester!! A new band, First Shot, was playing. One of it’s members is a firefighter and one is a police officer. By 8 pm, our club was already full…and as the night went on, firefighters and police officers continued coming in to listen. 

As part of the festivities that evening, we also had a VIP Buffet for them, as well as, a fundraising event for one of the firefighters that is raising money to do the Scott Firefighter Stair Climb in Seattle Washington in March. He….Mr. Ed, as they call him, will be climbing 70 flights of stairs in full gear to raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, as well as The Abigail Crooker Fund (a local infant battling cancer). Firefighters rotated at the beer tub selling beers, and all tips they received went to Mr. Ed. They collected a total of $146 in two hours. This is the second event we’ve had for Mr. Ed and he has collected almost $600 right here at Jillian’s.It was an exciting night as the band played…the guests danced…and Budweiser walked around handing out all kinds of goodies.

Obama Rocks The House!!!

Manchester and their guests got to experience history being made today! Guests started arriving just after 11 am to make sure they got a great seat. By 11:30, the club was full and you could feel the excitement in the air.

There were table tents on the tables with pictures and descriptions of our Yes PeCan Dessert, and pictures of our Barack Rocks drink special on the bar. The club was decked out in Red White and Blue, as the servers walked around greeting our guests and telling them about our Obama Beer Tap Auction.

As President Obama gave his speech, the crowd cheered and clapped. Although most were here on their lunch hour and had to leave afterwards, we will be replaying it tonight, and Obama will Rock The House, again!