The crowds. The pace. The pressure. There’s nothing quite like Masters week for Augusta-area bars and restaurants. Take the scene at Tbonz Steakhouse, a local institution just down the road from the gated entrance to Magnolia Lane. Though it does a robust year-round business, Tbonz knocks out 12 percent of it annual sales from Sunday to Sunday of tournament week, when lines spill out the door into the parking lot. The crush of customers requires all kinds of reinforcements. We asked Tbonz co-owner Mark Cumins what it takes to prepare.
Extra meat and potatoes
Last year, Cumins bought a little more than three tons of beef for the week (6,300 pounds, if you’re keeping score) and went through all of it. That’s roughly three-and-one-half times what he buys per week the rest of the year. In a single day last year, while selling 113 8-ounce filets, Tbonz also cranked out 800 baked potatoes. That’s four times as many taters as the usual rate.
More beer and booze
Tbonz is not a fancy cocktail joint. But for tournament week, the bar busts out a Masters Mule (local vodka, lime juice, ginger beer). Cumins also adds about 15 high-end labels to his wine list for customers in the mood to splurge. “We’re not in that price range of a Morton’s or a Smith & Wollensky,” Cumins says. “We’re more in that Outback territory. But it’s Masters week. People aren’t opposed to drinking something nice.”
Added bussers and bar backs
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Though Cumins hires live bands to keep customers entertained outside why’ll they’re waiting for a table, he needs turnover to happen without a hitch. That means beefing up his staff. During a non-tournament week, Tbonz has 12 servers on the floor, plus two bartenders, two managers and two hosts. Come the Masters, Cumins bumps the waitstaff to 19. He also adds a bartender and two bar backs, and four to six bussers. “Usually a few football players who are really strong and agile to do all that carrying through the crowds,” Cumins says.
Supplementary seating
During Masters week, Tbonz adds tables, bumping its seating capacity from 170 to 200. “It’s a little more intimate,” Cumins says. “But not to the point where you feel pinched in.”
Maintenance matters
Prior to the tournament, Cumins brings in HVAC contractors to check his systems, and roofers to inspect for leaks. “It’s Murphy’s Law kind of thing,” he says. “If something can happen, it will happen. And the last thing you want is for your air conditioning to go out, or the roof to spring a leak during a rain storm.” Always finicky about hygiene, Cumins also makes sure the kitchen is spotless every day.
A streamlined menu
To preserve the quality and consistency of the food — and to ensure that everything still comes out quickly — Cumins trims the menu by a little more than half, offering a number of combo plates to cover a surf-to-turf variety of options. “If you’re a vegetarian we’ve got something for you, too,” Cumins says. Vegans, he concedes, might have tougher luck. One dish he won’t sell you is a hamburger, unless you want it to go. Seats are too precious to sacrifice them for small-ticket items. “If you want to take that burger with you, you can. I might even buy it for you,” Cumins says. “But if I let one person order one sitting down, then another diner wants one, and another. And then you’ve opened a Pandora’s box.”