[jtown1010]

I think you should try to be friendly with your employee's as long as they do their job, and only really be a hard-ass when they make the same mistakes multiple times. I worked in the service industry at the end of high school and all through college. The managers that I would really bust my ass for were the ones that treated me with the most respect, if a manager was basically always talking down to me I would do my job as well as possible to avoid them, but wouldn't go out of my way to make their job easier. You have to be tough but fair IMO, and 98% of your employee's will try to rob you blind to hook themselves up with cash and their friends up with free food. I know of some restaurants that won't let the kitchen staff talk to the service staff, so they just use expeditors for the food. I have no idea how you could cut down on the drinks being given away other than using airplane bottles, I've heard about that but never saw it personally. It sounds pretty weird and potentially expensive unless you're really getting killed from servers/bartenders giving out free drinks.