Post #210677 by Humuhumu on Thu, Jan 26, 2006 11:37 PM

About a week ago, Hanford & I decided to get some drinks & a few tidbits in the bar in Palo Alto, to see the bar in its "before" state one last time, and see if we could learn any more details about the remodel.

After we've had a chance to establish a friendly rapport with our bartender, I ask him what he can tell us about the impending bar remodel. He looks at me like I've just asked him what he thinks of the giant rhinoceros in the parking lot. He tells me there are no plans to remodel the bar, but I get pretty specific with him about what I'd heard -- more tikis, expanding into the side dining room, dimmer red lights, etc. He now looks a bit puzzled, almost concerned, but says he's pretty sure there's nothing like that being planned, and continues his work. A few minutes later, he's feeling itchy enough about it that he decides to ask his manager. He comes back, now with a look of shock on his face, and says that everything I said was true. He was pretty pleased to hear that the bar was expanding -- more business for him. Through the rest of the night, he jokes that he wants to know what else I know about Palo Alto (had to tell him, nuttin'), and who my sources were.

On our way out of Trader Vic's, we picked up the newsletter they have on a table by the entrance, like we always do. Right there, top of the damned page, with a big headline that surely could be read from many feet away, is a couple big paragraphs heralding the new bar makeover, coming in mid-January! So, I ain't so special after all. I'm not sure which is more odd -- that the Palo Alto TV management is more on the ball with communicating with their customers than with their staff, or that the newsletter is completely off the staff's radar.