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Staying on top of
what’s going down
Question: What's your basic work responsibility?
Answer: My shift involves actually running the restaurant as the manager on duty every day, about five days a week. Added on to that, as beverage operations director, I control the cost of the product that we pour, control the inventories, do the ordering. I also do the scheduling of the bartenders and cocktail servers, the upkeep of the bar ...
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Who: Justin Brownfield Title: Beverage operations director for Compadres Bar & Grill, Ward Centers Job: Oversees staff of about 50 when on duty and manages the restaurant's beverage program
Justin Brownfield is the kind of guy who can put out fires, metaphorically speaking, which is one reason he quickly rose through the ranks to become a shift manager and beverage operations director at Compadres Bar & Grill at Ward Centers. He'll also be putting out fires literally, once he begins training with the Honolulu Fire Department, starting this month. Brownfield, 23, a Hawaii Mission Academy graduate, said a fireman typically works 24-hour shifts for about 10 days a month, so he expects to have enough free time to keep working at Compadres. Brownfield is unmarried and lives near Punchbowl.
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A: About six. Cocktail servers, about 10. Our whole staff is about 50. I'm in charge of all of them on their daily shifts.
Q: How long have you been working for Compadres?
A: A little over four years. I started out busing. I did that for about four months, then got promoted to being a server. I also had a job over at Angelo Pietro's (on Kapiolani Boulevard). Then about a year and a half later, I got offered a management job here, so I quit Pietro's to come here full time.
Q: Do you deal with liquor salesmen?
A: Yeah, definitely. Every week, twice a week.
Q: Are there a lot of them?
A: There's not a whole lot. There's three main companies that I deal with -- Paradise Beverages, Southern Wine & Spirits and Better Brands -- and we get a few miscellaneous items from some other companies.
Q: How many different kinds of liquor do you have in stock?
A: The main thing that we stock is tequilas. We have the largest inventory of tequilas in the Pacific.
Q: Do the bartenders at Compadres have much leeway in how the drinks are made?
A: We free pour, but they all follow the recipes that we've established.
Q: What's the biggest-selling drink at Compadres?
A: Definitely margaritas. I'm not sure percentagewise, but for awhile it was about 70 percent.
Q: What's the second biggest-selling drink?
A: We do a lot of Mexican beers. Also mojitos, a drink that's made with rum, fresh mint, a little bit of sugar, lime juice and soda water. I think it's a Cuban drink, and it's kind of gotten big at a lot of places.
Q: I'm told that Compadres has introduced some drinks of its own over the years. Like what?
A: We do have one that I believe was an award winner: Local Boy Margarita, a ling-hing mui margarita. It's extremely good. We also made a Local Girl Margarita, which is strawberry ling-hing mui.
Q: Do you have much paperwork to do each day?
A: We have to do the inventories for the restaurant every two weeks. So that's the main part of the paperwork. The accountant might disagree, but day to day, it's not a whole lot.
