food at Tonic

[Jeff Perlman <jeffrey.perlman...>]

Hey all,

sorry for being slow at keeping up my part of this thread.  and sorry to 
the bands for not being as explicit as I will be right now.

For the last few months there has been no food at Tonic.  This is because 
both food/bar people quit.  They did not hire a replacement because in 
general they were losing money on the food when the often small audiences 
(also, audiences were not tipping the bar people well, which did not help 
to keep them around).  I suggested that bands could buy and serve bagels to 
their audiences - as I have done at a few recent shows.  This has worked to 
some degree - although I don't think the voluntary "pay for your bagel" 
system has ever recouped the cost of bagels for the band.

I wholly agree that food is a necessary part of a brunch.  However, profit 
is also a necessary part of a business.  big audiences = incentive for 
tonic to hire a new person to sell food .  small audiences = no food, no 
incentive
Tonic has never done a lot to advertise the brunches, except for getting 
the listings out into papers (the same as with other shows).  The bulk of 
the burden at bringing audiences has, for better or for worse, generally 
fallen on the bands.  young out of town college bands have often drawn 
better crowds than professional local bands because they email all their 
friends and family in the city and its novelty for them to play in a 
club... they create some buzz for themselves.

I've been trying to get Tonic to tell me exactly how many people need to 
come for the brunch (with food) to make it profitable for the club (I think 
its somewhere around 30-40).  Then I was thinking of asking bands, if they 
want food to be served, to guarantee that number of people will show.  If 
the audience is smaller, the band will not get a cut of the door.  The 
bands can also opt for no food, and a smaller minimum before they see a 
door cut (maybe 15), or no minimum at all.  Right now bands get a cut (60%) 
no matter what, even if only 3 people show up.  I'm not sure if Tonic will 
go for this, but does it sound fair?

Thank you for understanding that
a) I'm new at this.
b) I've never actually met any of the folks at Tonic responsible for all 
this although David and I keep trying to set up meetings with them.  we 
have exchanged only brief emails and phone calls.
c) I love Tonic, I love going, I love playing there, and I want to keep 
this thing alive.
d) The Tonic Klezmer Brunch is a labor of love for all parties involved 
(including Tonic - both club and staff) as no one really makes money 
commensurate with the amount of time they put in.

thanks,
jeff


***********************************
Jeff Perlman
917-287-7702
jeffrey(dot)perlman (at) aya(dot)yale(dot)edu

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