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Closing Time At Microsoft's Campus Pub
theodp writes "Just three days before the Spitfire pub was to open on Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division campus, TechFlash reports that Microsoft got cold feet and pulled the plug on the project, leaving the bar's owner and his 22 employees in the lurch. 'I am completely stunned and disappointed by the decision,' said now lease-less owner Jonathan Sposato, who's stuck with space built out as a pub, complete with a giant bar, a fireplace, and eight beer taps. (He says it wouldn't be economically viable to refit it as a restaurant.) Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos confirmed the company's sudden change of heart: 'The goal was always to create a cool gathering place for employees, but to do so in a manner that's consistent with a business environment. We decided we should do something more appropriate, and that meant not having a pub.' The new pub had been in development for more than a year."
What would that proof need to consist of?
Would you believe if I told you the names of the Mormon leaders who visited? Would you believe if I told you the names of the management visited? Would you believe if I gave you the dates and times of the meetings between them?
Seriously. What would convince you? Because if I were incredulous, those things wouldn't convince me. They are just pieces of information that could be gleaned from the web or completely made up.
So here's the problem. You either go on living in your incredulity or you accept that perhaps there was something going on behind the scenes that is not public knowledge. It's no skin off my back either way.
And this is why we MBAs and CEOs pay you code monkeys jack diddly and squat compared to our nice big comfortable salaries; your incapacity to logically consider more than one possibility or express yourselves coherently and directly without resorting to base profanities.
Yes, post is off-topic. Please mod it as such.
Having worked in the bar scene here in Canada for many years I have to comment...
Seriously, beer taps are COMPLETELY different to any other type of tap. They are designed for beer, and beer only. They are designed to keep beer (not juice, soft-drink (or as you Americans would call it pop or soda), or even water cold), reduce froth in beer, etc
It really depends on their setup...most of the bars I worked at all used a CO2 system for delivering pop, juice and highball liquor to a set of guns. Many restaurants use the same kind of system. If they keep their kegs centralized they may use CO2 to deliver draft as well.
Such a statement is so stupid it's not funny. The guy has obviously spent thousands of dollars fitting out the place to be a bar (fridges, taps, bar, furniture) that to refit to anything else would put him so far out of pocket he'd bankrupt himself.
It's not that stupid of an idea. When you get a liquor license here you are often technically classified as a restaurant and must comply to the same heath and fire regulations. Things like fridges, bar sinks, coolers and tables are used in bars and restaurants alike. He shouldn't be that far off and can sell off any equipent like beer fridges if he can't use them. The only difficulty may be the renovations involded in putting in a kitchen.
Not only that, but bar staff are different to wait staff. They are trained to do a different job, at least here in Australia they are. They require an RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) certification and need to know what drinks to mix, etc. Meanwhile, wait staff need to know the difference between various dishes, how long they can be left, how to make a decent coffee, etc.
That's pretty crazy because here bar staff don't require any sort of training at all. We used to literally hire people out of the crowd sometimes. Instead of certifications the liquor control board simply fines the business when they catch the staff doing something wrong (like serving liquor after close). Wait staff don't need any more trained than a server at a bar, if you can read a screen or paper slip you can determine the difference between items.
It seems the owner's best avenue would be to sue, but unfortunately MS will fight that until he's broke. So either way, he's fucked 6 ways from Sunday.
If he tries to sue he won't have much of a case, if Microsoft owns the property they can do what they want with it. Even if there's a lease it probably contains a clause which they can use to kick businesses off their campus if they decide to. And yea even then Microsoft's lawyers would erode his money away to nothing.
The clash of honour calls, to stand when others fall.
And your post has... what, exactly?... to do with Washington and Microsoft?
Oh wait, nothing. It's about California. California has *nothing* to do with Washington. (Except that we can't get them to stop moving up here.)
I live in Idaho,and just last week, I heard an offensive ad on the radio denouncing some stimulus bill because it relaxes the number of alcohol permits. I wonder who paid for this ad?
Why don't you research it and find the fuck out, instead of just assuming that your personal boogeymen did it? And then shove that supposition all over Slashdot as if it were fact?
Comment of the year