Security Guards for Restaurants and Lounges

The turn from dinner to late night

Most restaurants that call Price Protection are not bars, but for a few hours on a few nights they run like one. The lights go down, the music comes up, the patio fills with people who did not eat, and the host stand becomes a door. The staff who were serving a family at seven are pouring for a bachelorette party at midnight, and the general manager is the only person with the authority to say no to anyone. A restaurant post is written for that turn: one unarmed officer, arriving before it happens, standing where the manager needs a second person, and leaving after the staff do.

The post orders are written with the general manager and the bar manager. They cover the hours, the dress code if there is one, the patio capacity, the rule on re-entry, who at the restaurant can decide a refusal, what the bar’s cut-off looks like in practice, where the cameras are and who can pull footage, where the staff park and what time the valet leaves. Officers do not touch the bar, the register or the reservation list. The job is the door, the room, the patio and the lot.

Where restaurant incidents actually start

They start at the bar, at the host stand and in the lot, in that order. At the bar it is a guest who has been cut off and will not accept it, or two tables that started an argument over a seat on the patio. At the host stand it is a group that arrives at midnight already loud, or a party that was told the kitchen is closed and wants to stay anyway. In the lot it is a vehicle break-in while the owner is inside, or a confrontation that started at the bar and moved outside. The officer’s position moves through the night to match: the lot and patio early, the door when the room turns, the bar area when the bartenders signal, and the lot again at close.

One officer, the door and the lot

A single officer covers a restaurant because the building is small and the manager is close. The officer at the door sees everyone who comes in and is the first person a departing guest passes. A walk through the patio and the lot every half hour is enough to see a car with a broken window or a group gathering by the dumpsters. The officer does not need to be large or loud, and the de-escalation training every officer receives matters more at a restaurant than anywhere else: the aim is for the surrounding tables never to notice. Restaurants with a large patio, a second bar upstairs or a lot shared with a strip center are set up with two officers on their busiest night.

Working alongside the general manager and the bar

The manager decides; the officer carries it out and writes it down. A bartender who wants a guest gone signals the officer, not the manager, so the manager keeps running the floor. A server whose table walked out tells the officer, who pulls the camera time and the description. The report the next morning lists every refusal, every cut-off and every walk-out with times, which is what the owner reads on Monday and what the restaurant has if a guest complaint turns into something more.

Booking the post

Restaurants usually book a weekend post for Thursday through Saturday, from the last seating to the walk-out, and add nights for holidays, a private buyout or a big game on the televisions. Dispatch needs the address, the nights and hours, whether there is a patio and a lot, the cut-off and re-entry rules, and a contact for a short walk-through. A new restaurant post can usually be on the door the same week, and often the same night when the manager has a reason to hurry.