>
> Bloody Mary Supplies - how much of what did we buy? was it enough?
> what should we bring next time?
>

We talked about this a lot on the long ride back, and actually
took a bunch of notes.  I left the notes list at Ryan W.'s
house, by his computer;  hopefully someone can type it in at
some point.

Some improvements we were thinking of:

- Put custom mix-in liquids like beef broth and hot sauce in a
more-manageable container.  Maybe a pump-top bottle like Italian
syrup bottles (http://www.espressoparts.com/product/FAB_PUMP),
or something with bartender spouts
(http://www.bartv.com/bar/default.aspx?cat=bartools&code=pour_spout&type=1).

- The pre-mix in the Ale Pail was a big hit with the bartenders,
but the fact that only one of them could use the thing at
once was a problem.  We were thinking of fitting a bucket with
a couple lengths of tubing that have hold-to-open valves on
the ends.  Or we could just have two buckets.

- Virgin drinks were rare;  non-spicy and vegetarian drinks
  not-so-rare.  The pre-mix should have tomato juice, vodka,
and lime juice, but no broth or hot sauce.  Virgin drinks
can be made by hand when necessary.

- Mixing drinks in people's weird-sized cups was a pain.
Having standard mixing cups (heavy plastic) with lines drawn
on them for liquid amounts would help a lot;  we could mix
in those cups, then pour over the ice that's already in the
customer's cup.

- We brought 46 * 64oz tomato juice, and that was definitely
not enough. I'd like to see if we can get big (5 gal?) cans
of tomato juice;  Ryan W. says he knows someone at Sysco who
may be able to hook us up.

- We brought 25 * 1.75L vodka, and that was a little too much.

- We brought, I think, two large containers of Old Bay, and
we probably could have used one or two more containers.

- We brought, what, two or three things of Texas Pete?
Probably could have used 6 or more of them.

- We brought three jars of horseradish, and could have used
at least twice that.

- We brought two big boxes of beef broth, and I think we ran
out.  Four boxes should be more than enough.  One complaint
was that the boxes were a pain to pour from, which is why we
thought of putting the broth in a pump bottle.

- We brought, I think, six 1L bottles of lime juice, and
we could have used another three or four.  Maybe bringing
concentrate and watering it down would have been better
(I had bought fresh-squeezed-strength juice).

- We filled a small cooler with celery, and ran out early.
We could have stretched it further by cutting the pieces
smaller from the start; we were giving out big chunks at
first.

- I think we were ok on the other spices (salt? pepper?).

>
> Bar - did we get the design right? how much lumber? how many nails?
> how much paint?
>

We talked about this a lot.  A problem with having an obvious
bar at the side of the road was that people would come up at
all times of the day and demand drinks.  There are a couple
solutions:

- Have an obvious OPEN/CLOSED sign, with the closed sign hanging
right where the bartender would be.  This would probably work,
but the big CLOSED sign may stop people from showing up and
hanging out.

- Move the bar to the inside of the camp, and have a "NOW
SERVING BLOODY MARYS" sign we can put on the road when the time
comes.  This would get more people hanging out in the camp,
and would keep people off the road. When we're not serving,
the bar can just sit there empty, but we can still easily
make drinks for cool people who stop by.  This would also
make the bar better positioned for use during camp parties.
(This is my favorite solution).

Also useful would be a whiteboard that we could use for pleas
for ingredients, so we wouldn't need to make new signs every
time.

I wish I had held on to the list we made;  there's a bunch of stuff
I know I'm forgetting written out, there.  But that's it from me
for now.

--dbort