New Characters, Same Script

I had a long Saturday night and decided to see what was up at Night Shift, since I hadn't been there in about two months under the new ownership and since it has a reputation for being better on the weekends and I was able to get there early enough to see how the night would develop.

Some cosmetic things have changed. They took away one of the large TVs. There are now only two TVs over the bar, plus one as a backdrop to the stage. The TV that was sort of above the bar and angled at the stage is gone. There are still the two small TVs towards the back of the seating area that were installed towards the end of the tenure of the old management. The TVs above the bar and one of the small ones are still TVs, but the large one behind the stage and one of the small ones are in-house feeds, showing a rotating slideshow of stock footage and menu prices. Is that an improvement? You decide.

The new management is trying pretty hard on the customer service front. When I asked for one of the TVs to be tuned to the World Series, they were more than happy to promptly grant my request. Sky (the new owner/manager, I guess) has seen me once or twice, she circulates around the floor and checked in with me periodically. For the first time in a long time (or possibly the first time ever at Night Shift), I was asked to show ID and empty my pockets before even entering the building. Maybe this was a function of my not having been there in two months and new people not knowing me. Maybe you can expect it every time now. Who knows? But they were polite about it, it didn't feel heavy handed.