20 Questions: With a Pub Manager in Prague, Czech Republic

Francis Foley is a manager at U Draka, a pub in the center of Prague, and I recently sat down with him over a beer to ask him twenty questions about what it's like being a pub manager in Prague.

1. How is managing a pub here in Prague different than in the US?

Don't know. I've never worked in a pub before this.

2. How did you get this job?

I used to be a customer. I was a regular for about eight months or so. I got to know the owners, we started talking about business philosophy and all that, the way a pub should be run, and when a vacancy came open, they offered the job to me.

3. What were you doing before this?

I came here to be an English teacher, like just about everybody else. But I grew pretty disenchanted with that pretty quickly.

4. How so?

Where do I start? The pay, the clients, the schools, they're all pretty bad. I don't want to get specific, but English teachers pretty much get the short end of the stick here. There's an attitude that English teachers are disposable, easily replaced. I don't think that's true, but that is the perception among schools and students.

5. So you prefer working in a pub? What are the advantages?

I like my boss for one. That's definitely an advantage. And the clients have realistic goals. A good beer served in a comfortable environment and clean toilets. That's pretty much what we provide here. And mostly everybody's in a good mood. I'm probably the biggest grouch in the place.

6. So, what exactly do you do?

Good question. Everything and nothing, depending on the need. Managing the staff, schedules and payroll is probably the most aggravating. Managing the inventory is not very difficult, it's just time consuming and mostly a bit boring. And then I work the floor when it's crowded.

7. What does working the floor entail?

The way I do it? Basically just saying "hi, how are you? I'm the manager here." But a lot of times I wind up having real conversations with people. Especially the tourists. Of course, I get to know all the regulars, but I usually try to meet the newcomers. Kind of welcome them to Prague, answer any questions they may have about the city. I recommend restaurants, explain the metro, whatever. I guess I'm kind of a concierge.

8. What's the hardest part of the job?

Dealing with the staff. No question. They don't get paid enough, they have to work late nights and weekends, and they're generally unhappy people. And people who work behind a bar usually have strong personalities. So, there's always going to be conflict.

9. What's the worse thing you've had to do?

Other than clean up vomit? Work behind the bar by myself one very busy afternoon; the bartender punked out and didn't show up, so I was called in; I'm not supposed to work behind the bar, I work in the office, I work on the floor. It was nothing but shots and beer that afternoon; I wouldn't sell any other drink. I know how to work the coffee machine, but I'm not a bartender, and I wasn't about to learn under fire. I pulled draughts and poured shots, that was all. Only a few people found that peculiar, so it was okay.

10. What about the best thing?

I got to fire the sorry ass of that bartender. And I loved it cause he took it really hard. He was practically begging me for his job. But, hey, he was routinely late to his shift, and he almost never called. And that afternoon, he was supposed to open the place. The place opens at 11, the owner gets a call from a regular at 1 asking why the pub's not open. The owner's up in the mountains, so I got the call to come in early and mind the pub for the afternoon shift. So, the kid really deserved to get fired. I don't care if the tips are bad in the afternoon. If you want a night shift, you've got to earn it.

11. What do you sell the most of?

Beer. And there's no close second. Nearly all the bottles behind the bar are little more than decoration. I'd do away with all of them, but people like to sit at the bar and look at them. I'd say a third of them have been sitting on the shelf for six months, and they've never been opened. There are two that have been here for more than five years and have never been touched. They're nick-nacks that have to be dusted on a regular basis.

12. What kind of customers do you get?

All kinds of course, that's what happens when you unlock the door. This is a primarily English speaking pub in the center of Prague, so that means all kinds of expats. Not just from the English speaking countries, but from all over Europe, even South America. But English is the common thread. We're not listed in any of the popular travel guides, so we can't count on the tourist trade. A lot find us, of course. There's a pretty nice B&B right next door.

13. Any Czechs?

Not as much as we would like. But we do have some regulars who live and work in the area. There's one guy, an architect, comes in twice a week with his dog. Nice guy. Ideally, we would like to have Czech and English language conversations going on simultaneously, but even in this day and age, it's something I don't see happening anytime soon.

14. Who are your regulars? How would you describe them?

A general profile? Expat, male, not married though probably more than half of them have steady Czech or Slovak girlfriends. They make enough money, but truth be told, they're not exactly happy with their work. But I guess pubs in general don't attract people who are happy at work.

15. You have a sign in the door "No Stag Groups," why?

We don't want them in here, to put it simply. Stag groups drive out the regulars. They drive out tourists, and they drive out women. Inevitably, they make some kind of inappropriate or unwanted advance on a female patron. And that's not the kind of place we're trying to run here. Don't get me wrong, we're all for singles meeting other singles, but stags are usually too drunk to be anything but annoying. And the thing is, if you accept them, you become dependent upon them. You get a reputation as a stag bar, and all your other customers leave. And what's going to happen if the all the stag groups decide to go to Bratislava or Brno next season? We're left with an empty pub. No. I'd rather deal with the local expat crowd, tourists, and Czechs from the neighborhood.

16. What about the police? What kind of relationship do you have with them?

None. At least that's our goal. Nothing good can come of any relationship with the cops. I wish it weren't true, but that's just the way it is. I've heard a lot of stories, and I know at least some of them are true. Give a cop a free beer, he'll be in every night, you'll never get rid of him. Pay a bribe, and forget it, you're indebted to him for the rest of your life, or the life of the pub. You'll just keep paying and paying. I know a guy who's got a place out near Palmovka, a new place, and the local cops come in every night sniffing around. They're trying to break him down. Here, we run a nice quiet place. We keep the music down to a reasonable level, we keep troublemakers out, basically we run a clean, respectable joint. We don't give the police a reason to come here, and we pray they don't.

17. So there are no drugs here?

No. Not really. Do people go outside and smoke, yes. Because we don't allow it inside the premises. Have people done coke in the toilet? It happens everywhere. It's discouraged here, but if people are discrete enough, they can get away with just about anything. That's the way the world works.

18. You mentioned smoking, you're talking about marijuana, but what do you think of the proposed legislation regarding non-tobacco-smoking areas in pubs and restaurants?

It'll never pass, so we're not really concerned. Eventually, we will have to confront the issue. I'm in the minority around here, but I'm hoping the EU will protect us, cause frankly I don't trust local Czech authorities. It should be an all or nothing thing. Meaning all pubs should be smoking or completely non-smoking. Non-smoking areas don't work in general and would be a disaster in this country.

19. Do you have any advice for foreign visitors?

Always watch your possessions, drink the local Czech beer cause it's the best beer served in this country and the cheapest, and tip your server 10%.

20. What does U Draka mean?

At the Dragon, hence the picture sign of the dragon outside the door.