Saturday, May 16, 2009

Serb Hall: Under New Management

Given a number of circumstances in our lives, my family decided to have dinner last night at Serb Hall, even though we were just there last week.

In case the reader is new, or may have forgotten, Serb Hall's Friday night fish fries have been a long time family favorite of ours. Unfortunately, due to the mismanagement of a pencil-necked geek who didn't appear to have a comprehension of the dining peculiarities of the average Milwaukeean, this once proud standard bearer became a vulgar joke.

During the glory days, Serb Hall would have a lengthy line of people waiting to be seated. Even though the crack crew would keep things flowing at a real good pace, wait times of 30-45 minutes were not uncommon. After the change, there were no wait times. The parking lot, which was often full of both parked cars and people circling around looking for a spot, was darn near empty.

In other words, the new manager was drove one of the most popular fish fries into the ground.

In an example of too little too late, the new manager, John Cwiklik, started restoring some of the previous practices that had made their fish fry so popular.

Imagine are surprise when we walked in last night and were greeted by Tim, the usual host, who immediately told us that Cwiklik was gone and introduced us to the new manager, George. (We later found out his last name is Sweet, or something like that.)

Of course, due to it being a personnel issue, we never found out what just happened, but we heard a lot of rumors from the floor staff. I think that the obvious answer is that Cwiklik had driven the business into the ground and that he never got it back. The last straw was probably the very disappointing Lenten season they had.

George has much more personality than Cwiklik ever had, and hopefully will also be much more knowledgeable in how to run a business like Serb Hall. It is too soon to tell if he will be able to bring the people back in the numbers that they once enjoyed, but I certainly hope so. Last night, the parking lot was once again nearly empty and there was no waiting time whatsoever.

But for selfish reasons (I really do like their fish fries, and we do have a friend that works there) and for the sake of a regional institution, I sure hope that they can pull it around.

I'm sure I'll be letting you know of how it goes, but what would be better is if you gave it a try yourself.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Capper,

    The article is nice until you get to the pencil necked part. He's just another fellow trying to make it in the world more than likely. I think that we can draw a parallel to the Scott Walker issue here.

    Attitude is everything said a past and wonderful Milwaukee County Sheriff. How do you come at a problem? Do you come at things as a rugged individualist? Have you told yourself that you are the only one that can do this job "the right way?" Scott Walker has come at the whole issue of running Milwaukee County with the idea that, he knows and you do not. He did not listen or come to the budget listening session that I attended. What could Scott do at that trial? Walker is not a lawyer. Walker is not a college graduate. He needed to listen to his constituents.

    Scott Walker does not seek compromise or consensus. Mr. Walker has a reactionary ideology that drives what he wants and does and cannot countenance any dilution of that ideology.

    When I go into a job as a consultant, the most important thing I can do is listen. I have to smile press the flesh and then remind myself to really listen again. I am a consultant but I am on the company’s turf. I am in the company’s living room and I owe it to them to be courteous and kind. I have to see all the positives that they have and see that this company is well meaning and they just need a problem handled. I include the principals and then seek a solution through collaboration, compromise and consensus.

    I think I learned this on a playground somewhere. You gotta play nice until there is a clear and obvious reason to not be nice. Keep the people included and be good to them and they may (nothing is certain) play along. You could form life long friendships that will take you through the rest of your life. { Now that’s a RANT }

    Dave 2022

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