 5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe. So class, we've recently become versed in how to tick off the chef, deal with drunk party guests and overcome booze-induced suffering. Today's lesson? How not to send yourself into self-inflicted Prohibition by being a general pain in the gluteus maximus toward the barkeep. Our visiting educators are Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark - the comedic vixen mixologists behind the virally infamous McNuggetini. The dynamic duo took a break from shaking (and stirring) up the cocktail world with their new web series, Drinks with Alie & Georgia on Food2.com, to offer up their tips on ensuring the bartender doesn't spit in your Sour Appletini. Five Tips on Not Pissing Off Your Bartender: Alie and Georgia 2. Tipping: It’s Not Just For Cows! The point we’re trying to make is, do you really want to be on the cheap side of the tipping fence? Service industry folks rely on tips for survival, and bartenders are no exception. Here’s the rule, which is really more of a jumping off point: a dollar a drink. Tattoo that to your forehead. Anything less is just plain rude. But with the high-end mixology world booming, your drink may have required any of the following: muddling, infusing, spritzing, ice picking or very-tight-vest wearing. If this is the case, or your bartender created something specifically tailored to your tastes - it’s in good taste to lay down an extra buck or two. Don’t have that kinda money? There’s an awesome dive bar around the corner that serves up a mean vodka-cranberry." 3. Hit on them at 2:01 am In case you haven’t caught on yet, we’re employing the literary device of irony, which means that we think it’s a VERY bad idea to hit on a bartender/tendress. Especially when the bar’s floodlights have just gone up, and they are screaming at you to leave their establishment. If you must hit on this beguiling barkeep, here’s a tip: wait for another chance to strike up a conversation when you’re good and sober. Perhaps early in their next shift, before you’re wearing your tie as a headband." 4. Long Island Ice Teas A Long Island Iced Tea is a very unsexy badge of thrift, but it is also a signal to the world that your future involves falling to the floor. Or worse, your best friend holding your hair back." 5. Barfing. Anywhere. A good rule of thumb for keeping your wits about you and your dinner inside your body? One drink an hour followed by a glass of water, and no more than four cocktails per night. This not only abates unsightly regurgitation, but it will also keep you from waking up without pants in a bus station. Remember: moderation does a body - and a bartender - good." Bartenders - what other customer behaviors would you like to see get nipped in the bud? And readers, do you agree with the above grievances? Is there someone you'd like to see in the hot seat? Let us know in the comments below and if we agree, we'll do our best to chase 'em down. |
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Tipping is not that complicated. The reason people tip their server or bartender is not to pay a wage, it is to procure excellent service. This is the origin and intention of tipping. Reading this post and the following responses has lead me to believe that the concept of tipping has been mangled and mutated to mean a different number of things.
Any person that sits at my bar is treated with the same decency and respect as the next. Different bars influence different expectations from patrons toward their bartenders. At certain establishments, the guest is more pleased with conversation and great amount of detailed attention where at another place the guest may be more interested in getting a quality drink in a timely fashion. Tipping in these two situations will guarantee a different type of service but it will guarantee that you will be well taken care of. Tipping is a way to mind your manners and get great service.
I think it is interesting that this article generated conversation about tipping and wage more than any other topic. I think this article is about treating that guy or girl behind the bar with a certain amount of respect as you would any other person you may be doing business with. The most difficult thing about being a bartender is keeping a smile on your face and a great attitude when you are treated like a less important human being by the person expecting your service. This happens all the time in all variety of ways not just in the form of a shitty tip. It is refreshing and nice when a person can look you in the eye and listen to you as a transaction is being made instead of just talking at you.
Serving and bartending is difficult, draining work but it also fun and rewarding. It is wonderful to meet all types of different people. Tip according to the standards set in place and the service you desire. Look at your bartender as a person, not just your servant so that we may see you as a person and not just a patron. That is how you expect to be treated after all, isn’t it?
I work in a private club, and I don't expect tips for simply opening a can of beer. I don't expect tips for opening quite a few beers. I think a dollar a drink is ridiculous unless it's something terribly complicated. The only time I get mad at people is if they make me run all over the place for whatever little thing they need and don't tip me. Other than that, I don't care because I make a regular wage. If I don't make a tip all day, I'm still getting a regular paycheck. These kinds of articles tend to get my dander up because while I think you should always tip good service, they can come off as whiny. What's wrong with a Long Island Iced Tea? I love them. Nothing wrong with that. I enjoy many different kinds of drinks. You know what REALLY pisses bartenders off? It isn't so much the tipping as it is what kind of customer you are. If you're a cool old dude, I don't care if you don't tip. If you're an asshole who thinks I'm a therapist and tells me things I don't need to hear, I can't stand you. Bartending is about people and personalities, not the tip percentages.
Well jeez... I guess we should all just stop going to bars altogether if that would be the best way not to annoy any bartenders.
While I didn't learn too much from the original article (I've been pretty good at avoiding hurling in a public place), I really got an education from the posts here. It seems that the suggestions offered regarding high tipping would be most useful in a place where there's a substantial crowd, but I usually avoid such situations.
Being as I live in (and cannot change) a situation where servers makes subminimum wages, the IRS treats them all like criminals, and many bar patrons have attitudes that will put a server in a foul mood, it's useful to have ideas on how to distinguish myself from the herd when attentive services is needed. For that, I thank all the posters above, both reasonable and pissy, as you are part of the environment I sometimes find myself in, and I appreciate the insight into your thought processes that you have offered.
One thing, though, I feel that tipping a buck for a $3 bottle of beer is a bit much. On the other hand, I go to a bar to have a great craft brew on tap, and pouring that is an art form. It takes time to do an honest pour, without two inches of foam at the top in a standard shaker glass. I'm happy to tip a couple of bucks on a high-end microbrew that is served at the right temperature, in a clean glass, with a good fill level, from clean lines. I can't get that at home.
This article was written from a female's perspective, cause most of the male bartenders I know live for the drunk girl hitting on them at 201 am. Here's my list of the 5 most annoying things a patron can do:
1-Being rude. Just don't be an ass. I never mind when someone asks politely for something, "when you have a moment..." is just an expression meaning I'm not dying for that drink this second. Being a tool might get you your first drink qucikly, but don't expect to get your next rounds with any musto gucho.
2-Don't flag the bartender down waving cash with a desperate look at a crowded bar, then start to decide what to drink when they ask what you want. Make a mental list, get the tenders attention, order your drink or drinks. If you're wasting the bartender's time they are going to skip you and go to the next person if you can't pull the trigger.
3-Know your drink dumbass. Don't get pissed when you order a purple fuzzy shangra-la and the bartender asks you what's in it. A young lady once ordered a slippery nipple from me, only to realize she wanted a buttery nipple after she drank it. She was rude and didn't want to pay for it. What, am I the Mentalist? She said, "I hope you don't expect a tip?" I replied, "No but I was hoping you would leave." And she did.
4-Overly complicated or blender drinks. I don't know any bartender who loves to make anything frozen. If you are at a bar, a real bar, try to avoid it, especially at peak periods. Its one thing to be at Fat Tuesdays or Chevy's and order a frozen or fruity drink, but you're just a speed bump for everyone else trying to get a beer or martini during happy hour, even at the Ritz .
5-I know the owner! Who cares, everyone knows the owner or manager. This immediately puts your bar tenders on alert. Are you pumping me for free drinks or indicating that you are high maintenace? Either way I am wary of your pronouncement.
I don't know a whole lot of bartenders who won't agree with me on these bullets. Yes vomit and poor tips are unpleasant, but that comes with the territory when you step behind a bar. You see it at college pubs and country clubs.
Like many people these days, I rarely have cash on me so I run a tab and pay at the end of the night. This works out better for me because I can tip based on the service I received throughout the night. Good service gets a minimum of 20% and any money I save on free drinks goes right back to the bartender. They always seems to respond well to this and give me good service on subsequent visits. Tipping abnormally high in the beginning is, I believe, insulting to both myself and the bartender. Why should I have to bribe for good service? And why should I assume I have to?
Oh shut the hell up and stop acting like you're doing the world a favor. I'll tip you when you provide good service...I'll tip you even more if you go out of your way to provide good service when you're really busy. Moron.
This is why I never go out anymore.
You're right..if you "deserve" that tip and decide to take it out on your customers, we won't patronize you anymore. Slitting your own throat, I'd say.
Let ME, the CUSTOMER, make that "deserving" call.
I've been saying for years... we ought to require a year in the service industry like some countries require a year of military service. Make a little money, learn a little humility = win/win.
most people don't understand freakonomics. that's why that the examples in the book exist.
you can distill alcohol from your garden, for free.
you can buy beer at the grocery store, with no tip.
but a bar, is not a store. it's a meat market... it's a social experience
it's different than starbux, because the longer you stay the drunker you get.
the bar doesn't WANT you there for 8 hours, drinking.
that would indicate that you're socially broken.
the bar exists to facilitate social interactions.
the rules are there to expose the losers.
the 50 cent tip, exposes a loser, without a clue.
(so do blog comment sections, btw... ya can't hide stupid for long)
you play by the unspoken rules of society
and get the experience that you deserve.
if you are smart, you learn about the rules and do things to
benefit yourself, such as high tips on the first drink.
compliments on a drink suggestion that you ASK FOR
"can you recommend a great local brew?"
"thanks, that is really good" (high tip)
why? because, the next round is served up faster
and the girl you're with isn't waiting for very long.
but the loser, quoting marx, pulling OUT 50 cents
when the change was all ones... THAT GUY
that one will wait. and wait. and ok fine, order...
and will be treated as if they don't exist.
if they're with someone (a buddy) then the bartender
will look at them like they're an idiot. and coldly take
their order, then no bother to look at the tip the
second time around.
the loser says "this place sucks" and leaves.
Then, ironically... it sucks less! the bartender did
their job correctly. remove the loser.
then it's a "cool bar".
-Steve
There is a better way. One of the greatest thinkers of recent memory has shown us the light:
I don't see where this sense of self-importance is coming from. TV and movies have obviously glamorized the occupation a little too much. This is why most of the time I'd rather sit in a gutter with a couple of bums and a few bottles of Mad Dog than go to a bar where some boring college dropout with kitschy tattoos charges me $12 for a watered down cocktail made with bottom shelf liquor and then has the nerve to complain on his blog that I only felt like tipping him a dollar.
To all the friendly, helpful, down-to-earth bartenders I've met out there, I'm sorry you have to work with people like these.
Does that mean she is Hardstark naked ?
What is a Georgia Hardstock anyway ?
"In case you haven’t caught on yet, we’re employing the literary device of irony..."
No, you're using the literary device of sarcasm. The fact that you don't know the difference is rather ironic.
re: #4
Let's divide up the labor. I decide what I want to drink. You pour it. I don't need to know what you think I "should" drink.
'There’s an awesome dive bar around the corner that serves up a mean vodka-cranberry."
Here's an interesting note for your "mixologist" training. It's called a "Cape Codder." Learn it, use it: I won't mistake you for an unlearned douchenozzle, instead of a professional bartender.
That last one is using the literary device of irony sarcasm. ;)
5 tips on not pissing off your readers
1. don't tell me what to order – my drink order does not need to be sexy ... and who gives a s*!t about the bartender's opinion of my thriftiness
2. don't tell me how much to tip – do you tip your server at McDonald's a dollar per drink? Why not?
3. don't treat bartending like some esteemed profession that deserves reverence – its a low skil job that relies on social pressure rather than added value to increase income
4.don't claim to be comedians and then write something that is not funny
5. don't imply that it would ever be OK for a bartender to spit in my drink .. or assume they would survive if caught
Also, tipping customs vary by geography and culture. This article is obviously US-centric.
No hard feeling ... I'm sure you'll do better next time.
You cant smoke in bars or even really get drunk anymore. Now someone thinks there should be some other rules governing how I waste money in a bar? Bars should be grateful that anyone is stupid enough to go in them anymore. So I will have a pitcher of long island ice tea when you get a chance.
You cant smoke in bars or even really get drunk anymore. Now someone thinks there should be some other rules governing how I waste money in a bar? Bars should be grateful that anyone is stupid enough to go in them anymore. So I will have a pitcher of long island ice tea when you get a chance...
The whole tipping system is flawed to begin with. Your employer underpays you, you take the job and expect additional money from the customer because you are underpaid, regardless of level of service. This lousy article suggests that you get big tips just for a customer to get service at all, among other nonsensical points. So, you, the minimum wage bartender are the BIG BOSS to decide who gets a drink and when and you expect extra just for getting around to the customer? You high school graduates compare your $200 dollar tax free nights to an hour of an attorney's time? Go to law school then! Bartenders . . . be nice and be prompt and you deserve NOTHING. But if you are, a customer according to custom, should tip you. Simply because you took an underpaid job.
i've been working food service for half my life. i've worked all positions in a restaurant, including bartender. coming off of 14 hours in the kitchens of two restaurants, today, this post reminds me why i prefer to be cooking. you guys are assholes. yes, you, the customers who make the ridiculous argument that you don't need to tip at all because it took seven minutes to get a beer, and yes, you, the barkeeps who argue that someone is terrible for wanting to go out and tip $1 on a $2 beer. yes, YOUR tits could probably help you make more money selling cars, and yes, YOUR daddy could have easily opened a bar instead of a dealership, and yes, YOUR precious salary ('t.i.s.p.s.') could be sent to hell once your sturdy little position gets out-sourced, but these are ifs. the fact is, if you are tending bar you are considered a waitron, which means you make somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 and change an hour (maybe a little more, if you're good at your job, or working for a higher-end establishment). nobody can pay rent on $2 an hour. so, next time you are out eating/drinking, take a look around you. think about how many people are there. think about them all tipping the same as you, and divide it by the number of servers/bartenders there.
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: servers/bartenders, tip your dishwashers. it's no secret that they're doing the crappiest job in the restaurant (we all know who ends up cleaning tip #5), so give them a couple of bucks at the end of the night, and they won't think twice when you need some ramekins on the fly. and, if you have a really good night, the kitchen staff doesn't expect, but always appreciates a little something extra, too....
And Mr. "The World Owes Me Tips" here is so jealous of his customers that he is seething. Big man suggesting that his dishwashers get $2 at the end of the night in addition to their minimum wage, when he scoffs at a $2 tip on ONE DRINK that he serves. Mr. Entitlement then has the nerve to complain that someone else's "daddy" gave them something, so he deserves his cut. Go back to school if you don't want to wind up a dishwasher yourself.
who's scoffing at a $2 tip? my point with the dishwashers is that they tend to work very hard, doing a thankless job, for minimum wage. give em a little something to show your appreciation at the end of the shift. this is in the truest nature of the tip.
as for this 'if you don't like it, go back to school', it doesn't always work that way. you should be able to work hard and pull a living wage out of any of these jobs, regardless of your education level.
You guys are not entitled to crap. Get a staff job that pays a salary if you are unhappy. You guys deserve to be audited every month for lying about your tips. The most you get is 15% from me if you're lucky.
One way to always assure a quality beverage order is to find out what the bartender drinks. Order their preference and you will always get a premium drink, and additional consideration. As a professional server; I select my favorite flavor of chap stick early in the evening, and kiss as much butt as it takes to make an evening. I would never discuss my gratuities with anyone. I enjoy serving individuals who know what they want and how they prefer their beverages be served. "Make me a drink," doesn't narrow the field. I don't know you. I don't know what you like. However with experience something sweet and fruity for the lady; something distintive for the gentleman. What do I drink? Gold Medal Jack straight up. If your usual spot's top shelf is black label; that maybe the reason you dwell on this topic and I may never get the chance of being of service to you. Remember it is OK to drink; just let someone else do the driving. Good night,
Tips on Tips -a poem by Don Hoffmann
Gratuities given grant no special rights
Nor give to the donors unoffered delights.
A tip’s not a permit to fondle or paw.
A tipper does not get to insult or jaw.
No giver’s entitled to anything free.
No server’s expected to sit on a knee.
No one has to laugh at a weak show of wit,
But good tips should lower the odds to eat spit.
You can really tell from the postings who has NEVER had to work with the public as a waiter/waitress/ bartender. I think should be mandatory that if you don't go into the military at a certain age then you have to work as a waiterr/ waitress for 1 year. I think people would be a lot nicer to one another after having to deal with the luncay that is a segment of the population. But then sometimes those clowns never know that they are the ones that the professionals loathe... and sometimes do nasty things to their orders.... not me.. but it has been known to happen.
You bartenders and waiters are really a sick bunch. I had no idea. You are the "professionals" who took a sub-mimum wage job and your customers are the "clowns" who simply expect good service when paying 10 times what a drink costs? You berate the "clowns" that keep you in business and the "clowns" are expected to tip you for such a good attitude? Speaks volumes.
poor misguided non capitalist.
the drink isn't 10x what it costs. the experience is
9 parts atmosphere, 1 part alcohol.
if the atmosphere is too expensive for you, walk.
-Steve
Tips are rewards for good service, not bribes. Treat me well, and you will get a good tip. Comment on any tip and find out how much a customer can make your life suck. Who do you think calls ABC about the "21" year olds that getting served. Treating people nicely and treating people like dirt are both two way streets. If you don't like the tips, then maybe you suck as a bar tender and should search for another career. I have had several friends tend bar, and the professional ones with professional attitudes do/did well. The constant complainers were usually their own worst enemies. BTW, if you choose a job where you constantly deal with drunks, you should have already realized that most drunks are jerks.
I was a bar back as a kid and spent some time waiting tables after that. If you have a hissy fit every time you don't get what you feel you "deserve," then you are going to get weaker and weaker tips. Nobody wants to tip a crybaby. YouGuysAreClueless writes the truth.
Damn straight. Finally someone to put the twenty-something half-wit bartender, who thinks the world owes him a living because he has control of the spigot, in his place.
Restaurant and bar owners, others in similar service industries as well, do very well in earnings, thank you. So why don;t they just pay their help a good wage? Paying for my meal and paying again for my server to bring it to me I find ridiculous. I go to a friend's home for dinner, I don't tip his cook and maid. No tips at McDonald's or Burger King, etc. Oh, I see, waiters and bartenders don't make enough! So that's the diner's fault? I don't think my doctor's or dentist's or attorney's assistant make enough either. So tip them as well? How about the bus driver, the train engineer, the stewardess on my flight, the bank teller? Gimme a break with this tipping. I paid for my service already. Paying taxes and tipping – one I have to do, the other I don't.
And in other countries they do not generally have such a warped system. I suppose the logic goes something like this . . . any person generally lacking in other skills can bring you your food and drink. But some had such a good attitude (unlike EVERY server here) that people would pay them extra. Uncle Sam said, "Hey, we know you are getting extra, so we want some of what the customer gave you in taxes." Then the employer said, "Hey, it's not enough to pay employees the minimum amount by law and charge customers the most we can for food and drink, so we'll lower the wages so we get some of that tip money too." Rather than the server blaming the government or his employer, he will blame the customer if the customer doesn't now make up the difference between what THEY take and an otherwise good sever MIGHT get. That's bad enough, but here we have all of the severs judging the customers and thinking they are just as entitled to the customer's money because, according to them, they deserve to have a 'good living' just like the people they serve. These folks are in for a harsh reality as the economy continues to tank.
Anyone else ready for the day when bartenders are finally replaced by vending machines?
I ran high volume fine-dining bars for 37 years and fired bartenders if they were these type of prima donnas. You're in the service industry with no remarkable skill sets yet. Shut up and get our drinks and if you impress us we will tip accordingly. ANYONE can do your job and there are plenty of establishments where the bartenders still have class.
Thank you.
As an inside observer I notice restaurant owners if successful make major bank. It is a cash business to a great part. Servers have allowed themselves to be cowed into the position of not being paid fairly by the business, thus must rely on being paid at the whim of the public. Never a good idea as the public are in general ignorant assholes.Once it was OK to be paid in cash, as the IRS was lax in enforcement and even then, the business often ignored the rules. But really what do I care if I pay $10 for an item plus $3 tip or $13 to begin with. The system is set up to game the servers and public by charging less that the real value and leaving the servers compensation to chance. The business owner wins and the servers take inordinate risk they will not be compensated fairly. Thus the bitch session heretofore. The system is the problem and until it is changed by the servers it will remain a marginal job, Fun but not fair.
Rik in Atlanta
Agreed on all counts except "fun but not fair". What is unfair about taking a job where you know what the pay is? If you are exceptional, you will probably make more. If not, is it fair to blame the customer, or even the business owner?
Rik from Atlanta, I agree that it is a way to get out of paying actual salaries and wages. I am a bartender and I have seen the mechanism of chance used to pay a variety of the workers in a restaurant, not just the bartenders.
For this particular establishment we are paid $2.65/hr even after being employed for five years-servers and bartenders will never ever get a raise here, as with most restaurants. The bartenders pay the wage for the dishwasher- we pay him a base line of $30 no matter what our tips are for the night, plus 1% of our tips. He used to get minimum wage hourly but now he is paid $2.65 like us and we make up the rest of his wage with tips.
We also pay the food runners, they get all of the tips owed to us by the servers we make drinks for. The managers get the best bartending shifts and this is how they are paid, and of course we pay our barbacks 20% of our tips but they bust their asses for us. It really is how restaurants pay the bulk of their employees. I don’t think its legal. I often ask myself if I would rather have a solid, decent wage of $10-$15/ hr or risk a $7/hr night in hopes of getting a $30/hr night.
Oh and thank you for that $3 on $10- that is a badass 30% tip :)
As an inside observer I notice restaurant owners if successful make major bank. It is a cash business to a great part. Servers have allowed themselves to be cowed into the position of not being paid fairly by the business, thus must rely on being paid at the whim of the public. Never a good idea as the public are in general ignorant assholes.Once it was OK to be paid in cash, as the IRS was lax in enforcement and even then, the business often ignored the rules. But really what do I care if I pay $10 for an item plus $3 tip or $13 to begin with. The system is set up to game the servers and public by charging less that the real value and leaving the servers compensation to chance. The business owner wins and the servers take inordinate risk they will not be compensated fairly. Thus the bitch session heretofore. The system is the problem and until it is changed by the servers it will remain a marginal job, Fun but not fair.
If you think that about the general public, that pretty much means you too, since you are part of the general public. Self hatred is sad.
I own two small businesses in the food service industry, I have a degree in business administration, and I’ve gone out of my way to study business models that rely heavily on hospitality.
From a management perspective, tipping is very important for me because it gives my employees a greater incentive to provide prompt and courteous service, and that frees me from constantly micromanaging their behavior.
However, it’s unacceptable for me if one of my employees decides to provide poor service to a patron that they feel is annoying or rude. As the proprietor, I am ultimately the one who is providing the product and service, and I have the right to set the standards and expectations of both.
I constantly remind my staff that they are professional servers and not servants, and that I expect them to conduct themselves professionally at all times. My advice to them is to assume that every single customer they serve is a jerk, and that the primary objective of their job is to provide jerks with excellent service.
If a patron is disrespectful to the point of being abusive, then it is my job to intervene and ask that customer to either restrain him or herself, or leave my establishment. At no time do I permit my staff to take matters into their own hands and provide a level of service that is below the standards that I set. By doing so, they are screwing with the product I am trying to provide in the interest of commerce, and that is the same as screwing with my business.
Hey bartenders: That's fine if you're working the job temporarily to put yourself through school. So do strippers. Doesn't change the fact that you're being paid for good service first and tipped for excellent service second. Your boss expects you to serve every customer with at least a modicum of expedience and equality. The fact that you would place such service into a realm of extortion for tips is proof that you clearly do not have the business's success at heart and if I were your boss I would fire you in the time it takes you to pour a Long Island Ice tea.
A buck a beer; a buck a glass of wine; two bucks for a mixed drink; simple. There is not a bartender out there who would NOT take that if the knew that each and every person would tip that way. Come on.
I never cease to be amazed at the stupidity of an article…
1. “When you get a chance...” means hey, you suck so bad at having the awareness of who is next in line that I have to get your attention because you are not professional enough to pay attention or see 3 (hit on them), you, not the customer, is trying to hit on the hot girl at the bar by tending to her first even though I have been waiting longer; see 2 (tipping)
2. Tipping: It’s Not Just For Cows! See 1. The fact that I have to say “when you get a chance” means you suck and so is your tip.
3. Hit on them at 2:01am Wow…narcissist. You know what this means, right?
4. Long Island Ice Teas If I want an f****** long island tea, I expect you to pour it for me, drink Nazi!
5. Barfing. Anywhere. Agree, thanks for the ah ha moment. None of us could have figured out that barfing on the bartender or our buddy is not cool.
Maybe you should consider another line of work. What I mean is you’re not really good at this one.
I hate servers and bartenders that say they make $2 something an hour. Why don't you ever say what the second half of the rule is? You only make $2 something an hour if your tips don't bring you up above minimum wage. Otherwise, your employer is responsible for bringing you up to the minimum wage. My tip or lack thereof has nothing to do with you not making the same minimum wage as the rest of us.
TIP must be earned. just because you bring my food and drink doesn't mean i have to tip you. If a humanoid robot can do it you will be out of that job. if you don't like the job go find something else. However, if you are pleasant and nice and prompt then i would definitely tip you good. If my water is not refilled and i had to ask you for a couple of times or wait on you until i am done with my dinner then you ain't getting any tips!!!
Regarding Number 1 "when you get a chance." All I ask is for eye contact and an acknowledgement that I will be taken care of shortly. Ignoring me just pisses me off and will hurt the tip. I don't care if he/she is working hard. It's customer service and eye contact and recognition are key. No one likes to be ignored.
Servers and bartenders are the most uncouth whiners. You're all always complaining and miserable and acting entitled as if you perform God's work. Every one of you whining on this board should be fired. If you don't like your job, quit. If you can't deal with the public or the foibles of working in a bar, quit. Maybe you don't get tipped the way you want because you're miserable beings. Maybe not everyone can afford to tip what you would like. We all would like to make more money and think we deserve it. Grow up. Maybe you don't deserve the tip. And saying that you will make a drink stronger if someone tips you "right" or if they're a friend shows your character, as does saying you'll ignore a customer if they don't. You'll rip off your boss if your own tip is right, and drive off customers if it isn't? You are probably the types that spit in people's drinks, and think it's funny. You're the reason it's no fun and pointless to go out anymore except to the very finest of establishments that don't tolerate such conduct. Be thankful you have a job, a true profession remains professional at all times, not just when circumstances suit them.
So according to alot of the bartenders in this comment section, the tip goes towards paying for their skill in mixing a few drinks?
NO! The tip is there to reward GOOD SERVICE! If you've spent
all of 5 seconds to hand me a beer don't expect FREE money from me! Are you fools under the impression that anyone that walks into your bar is rich?
By all means, even though I think it's a stupid social expectation to leave tips,
I will still leave one for a waiter/waitress/barman/bargirl that impresses me.
You think being rude or keeping me waiting is going to change that situation? Then you fail to understand that you are paid to
a) serve drinks
b) smile and nod when I make an order
c) clean up after me
Fail to do any of those things and you will not enjoy my patronage ever again and I will tell everyone I can about how rubbish your service/establishment is.
Oh and I do NOT care that the bar owner pays you so little, again, if you want my money then don't be rude or cheeky about it.
If you own the bar, it was your decision to start a business in the service industry, you think all your patrons are pigs? Well then go ahead and invite only the patrons you like
and see how long you stay in business!
Final point of this rant: How dare you presume to discern my personality based on what drink I like? If I want a Long Island Ice tea, whether it is because I like it or because
I do not have the means to spend alot of money then please note that you are after all in a job that requires the most basic level of education, do not expect a PhD level pay
for doing something EASY!
Wow, I got about an eighth of a way through this page before I had to stop reading. No one is standing a middle ground as far as I can tell. You're all so quick to just be pissed off about what other people are saying. I work at Double Down, and I never realized how pissed off customers can be as well. At the same time, I would never go to a bar where people constantly treated me like shit just so I could bitch about it later. Tip properly, and be nice, even if you're faking it. Bartenders; yes you can give preference to high tippers, but no one should ever have to wait ten minutes to get a drink, even if they are tipping you fifty cents per beer. You are hurting your bar by ignoring people and by being rude. None of us should be so high and mighty. If everyone just tried not to be a dick and followed closely to the social standard, we'd all be okay. Let's be honest, if you order two beers, and I pop two caps, I would love two dollars, but I'm not going to spit in your drink because you only gave me one. Some people are broke, and I would love to say "if you can't afford to tip, drink at home where it's cheap." Well that's just like robbing a few dollars from your bar. Too broke to tip usually means too broke to drink for more than a half hour too, so that's a problem that fixes itself quickly. Unfortunately for us, tipping is voluntary. Try harder to get a better tip. If someone doesn't tip, you either suck or they're cheap. No one thinks we're actually getting minimum wage plus tips, they are just cheap. If you suck, work on it, if they're cheap, not much you can do besides piss them and yourself off by saying something. This whole page feels so anonymous, all these people saying terrible things behind screen names. Here is my full name, here is how I feel, everyone calm the shit down. Angrily posting is not going to enlighten the other side, and no one is going to change their minds because they read any of this.
We are tired and sometimes irritated, you are drunk and sometimes douchey, we want tips and smiling faces, you want fast service and good drinks. We should all be able to provide, and we sure as shit shouldn't hate each other so much. If your bar treats you like shit, go somewhere else, they're not all like that. If your customers treat you like shit, work somewhere else since you're so miserable. (Then tell me where you used to work because I need more shifts.)
I will end with a thought. If you are a douchey hater from either side of this argument, and you feel the need to post something rude underneath my comment, shame on you. You are part of the problem.
Bravo. Thanks for such a reasonable and thoughtful comment. I can't believe how angry and rude some of these posts are. Insulting the authors' appearance? Insulting people in the service industry? Insulting customers? That's pretty disgusting behavior. I'd love to see some of these people's e-mail addresses posted along with their comments. Then they can deal with the anger they'll receive. Anger that they themselves created in the first place.
Like someone said, karma works.
Ok- the UN has rules that sound barrages are considered torture.
So what about bars with mulitple TV's all on different channels and all with the sound booming?
Often with music playing over them?
How about bars where the staff has no idea how to turn on the captioning function of the TV?
How about bars where you spend 30, 50 or a hundred dollars- and the staff isn't allowed to buy you a shot?
How about pint glasses that have an inch of glass at the bottom so that pint turns out to be a 12 ounce glass?
No question the things listed here are true. But it ain't a one way street!
for that, the staff can buy you a shot. Out of their own pocket, and it shouldn't be a problem if you are tipping them that well. It is not required, and most don't though. I don't know how to work the closed captioning on my bar's tv... I don't honestly feel bad about that though.
And this is probably why I don't go to bars. :P I ONLY like the "girly drinks." I can't stand regular alcohol. I also don't like the idea of tipping being required. A tip is supposed to be for good service. If the bartender sucks, then why on earth would I tip him or her? To encourage the idea that it doesn't matter how well you do your job, you can do whatever, it's ok YOU have the power and control anyway, fuck what people want? Can you do that in any other job without repercussions? No, you cannot. Maybe a waiter/waitress/other server job, but I keep noting this specifically with bartenders. Other places say that it's ok not to tip if your waiter sucks, but it seems like in ALL circumstances you MUST tip the bartender. No. Just...no. They actually have to be good. I don't require perfection of anyone by any means, but if they really suck, you know it.
And like other people have said...why can't we as a whole manage to pay everyone minimum wage at least? And make tipping so it really IS for good service? I don't see why I should have to make up anyone's wages, much less if they suck.
That'd be nice, we are breeding a massive group of douchey 'tenders. At the same time, I think some people feed on the dive bar asshole bartenders. It's like an accomplishment in life to be so cool that the asshole bartender serves you first. That's their problem, not enough hugs from an alcoholic mom or something.
What's up with all the people who are angry at the thought of tipping? If you're so cheap that you can't add an extra dollar to your drink (to pay for the service, the ambience, the fact that you are not sitting at home alone making your own drink), then you just shouldn't go out at all. Be kind to your fellow human beings, and don't treat them like second class citizens because they're on the other side of the bar!
Wow, the vast majority of the service industry types commenting on here have it extremely backwards. It is ridiculous to take the position that you are owed a tip from a customer just by doing your job. You are being employed to take drink orders and serve drinks to customers, no one is coming to the bar/restaurant to enter into a contract with you for you doing your job. Your contract is with your employer – where exactly does the nature of your job give you discretion to treat customers poorly if you don't get what you think is a worthy tip? If the business manager of the place had any savvy they'd fire employees who pulled that kind of crap and would require excellent service regardless of how the customer acts, that's the way most other service based businesses are run at least. This has nothing to do with class/status/education levels, this is common sense.
If you are one of the people who've made a comment in the vein of 'go drink at home then or you're not welcome if you don't tip' please share this to your employer, I'm sure an employee of the month award will follow shortly after.
I
yes
1. I use the when you get a chance line because often bartenders will acknowledge you with eye contact or verbally while working on an order going to the window to be run by a server. So even though i'm not intterupting them it lets them know i'm not expecting to be put ahead of the order that's already in the making that popped out from the POS from a waiter halfway across the restaurant. If the bartender decides to take advantage of that courtesy and take another POS order before mine then that lowers their tip. There's a difference between me not being a bitch and me letting you walk over me.
2. I tip at the end of my tab. Not per drink. You are not guaranteed a 20% tip on a 5 dollar cocktail. I've been a waiter. I know how hard it is. As a waiter I got paid even less hourly than the bartenders and thus had to make up more. At the end of the night when I tab out, if you were amazing and awesome I ordered complicated drinks or you tailored drinks to me or you had to learn a new drink I recited the recipe to you for hell yeah you'll get a 20 to 25% tip. However if you sucked ass you're more likely to get 10% or less. Never tip nothing. Tipping nothing doesn't get my point across, many will simply confuse me tipping nothing as being cheap rather than displeased.
3.I have no problem with this point. However the literary device you used was SARCASM, not irony. This is why i'd have no problem not breaking number three with you at least. I don't find dumb people attractive. Learn the words you plan on using before you use them. Your point would of been better made using satire, because you used obvious sarcasm and then acted like your entire readership are morons. :)
4. Don't like people ordering Long Island Ice Teas, the price them appropriately. If you're offering a drink that gets them more bang for their buck the people that don't care what they're drinking will order exactly that. The bar/restaurant/wine store I worked in priced our drinks according to the alcohol content in them. That solves the problem of people looking for a cheap drunk stupor.
5. If you're continuing to serve them to that point in some cases you would be legally responsible for what happens to them. It is the responsibility of who ever is serving a patron to cut them off if they're drunk and most people aren't at the throwing up threshold if they're simply buzzed. In fact you're not supposed to knowingly serve a drunk alcohol. So anyone giving your average drinker enough to vomit is putting themselves at risk of being in deep sh*t.
I noticed the sarcasm, not irony thing while I was reading it and said nothing. Congratulations on being well educated. Congratulations on being an ass and rubbing it in people's faces as well. I bet people like you.
Im sick of all these fucking lists of shit that people who cant get their shit together and get a real job bitch about. How about this, Do your fucking job. If you can pay your fucking bills with the job you have, spend less, get another higher paying job or organize and go on strike. Fuck me, When did all the god damn pan-handlers become servers/barkeeps and hotel maids?
Most excellent argument, sir. Your mastery of the English language is unsurpassed. If I could attend your University, I would. Nay, I would encourage every person I have acquainted to join the alumni along with my meek self. Hail Tippedout!
I joke. I actually agree with your statement.
wow must be an english major
Who drinks only "4 drinks max"? Besides the pity party for bartenders, THAT's the funniest thing in the list.
A buck a drink? I hope that doesn't apply to bottled beer. I won't pay someone a buck each to pop off a bottle cap. I may give a buck for 2 or 3 of them. If bartenders wanted to make real money, they should have stayed in school.
Tipping is just courteous. Your bartender, regardless of hourly income, made you a drink, hopefully with skill & manners. Give him/her a dollar & shut up about it already.
the literary device you are using isn't irony, its sarcasm. go back to school
the litery device you are using isn't irony, its sarcasm. go back to school
This is incredible. This just goes to show how big of a head bartenders have and their false sense of entitlement. The article in itself was a little aggravating (of course don't puke in a bar, or anywhere else in a public place for that matter) but everything else... really?! The comments are what get me the most though. Some of you think you should be getting bank for doing your unskilled job just because you have to multitask? It's the same with all of the service industry. You think it's so terrible to work for minimum wage and for tips in an unskilled job. That just boggles my mind. You think that everyone should just be forking over their money to you because you served them a beer. For the record, I have no problem with tipping for good service but I am not going to hand over 50% of the total for asking you to get a glass, flip a tap, and pour me a pint or throw some soda and one kind of spirit together. Or god forbid, 2 different kinds of spirits! News flash, anyone can do your job. You don't like getting paid minimum wage and having to work for tips, GO GET A DEGREE.
I love all the bartenders complaining "you don't know what we go through". Oh yeah? You ever paved a highway for ten bucks an hour in a hundred degree heat? You ever work twelve hour shifts picking fruit for minimum wage? You work in an environment that, while it is very faced paced at times, is one of the most lucrative blue collar jobs around as far as pay-per-hour goes. Jesus I have never heard someone building a bridge bitch that no one tipped them for making other peoples drive safe and easier. And for the guy who said he makes as much as a lawyer does in one hour, that's because the lawyer spent a quarter million dollars on education and thus the profession demands a high wage.
Here is an idea...get a REAL job leave the bar tending to the college students. This is just a bunch of whining people who think they are worth more than they are. My friends and I do not even go to bars anymore, not only is it cheaper to have your own parties, but what better way to stick it to these pricks than no customers at all.
wow, this article sounds like it was written by someone who didn't graduate high school.
A timely and succint reminder of why I hate bars and the people who drink in them.
On a side note, I've been told I make the most delicious Long Islands ever, and I'm happy to make them.
Stay optimistic and you will always be surprised by the generosity of people.
A pessimist will never make enough money to be happy, regardless of their profession.
Most bartenders are pretty smart. I work three nights a week and get by just fine. This doesn't mean I'm overpaid–it means I'm damn good at what I do and I work my butt off. Honestly, if you are polite and easy to serve, I won't waste my time getting upset because you don't have enough to tip me. If anything, I'll feel sorry for you. I am a big believer in karma, remember what comes around goes around. Keep in mind that we are all here to have a great time-even me, the bartender.
I've waited tables. I've tended bar. I also put in 20 years in the Army and became a doctor. I rarely go to bars now. Maybe a restaurant once or twice a month with the family. Even then, I don't order at the bar. I wait until I am seated at a table and then order my drinks. I'm too old to stand at the bar and play 'eye tag' with with the keep.
In spite of the fact that I'm not rolling in money, I do tip well if the service warrants it. Usually not more than 20%. If the service is just fine and appropriate. I tip 15%. If it's sub-par, I tip closer to 10%. If it just sucks out loud (crabby personality, mixed up or wrong order, what have you) I will tip 5%. I never tip nothing.
I was always very solicitious when I was in the service industry. I found it made very little difference in how much I was tipped, really. Most people don't put as much thought into the process as I do, and are just going to give what they give when the give it. Sorry.
most of the gripes are fair but some of us simply like Long Island Teas and are not trying to just be thrifty. Besides, you are a bartender why should a customer really care what you think of them for what they order? (unless of course you weren't serious about #3)
it's illegal to serve more than 2 oz. of liquor in one drink. A long island or teas iced tea is no more alcoholic than a double. They aren't being thrifty, they just like something that you don't.
All reasons we cook at home, eat there, and have friends over. I'm sick to death of Restaurant Culture and the people who flog it, and the petty power games, and the chicerie. Plus the food usually rots compared to what we can do at home.
Whatever...
Same as for everyone else working shiat jobs... you don't like it, go find another job. Otherwise, quit your freakin' whining.
Send the first two drinks back. Doesn't taste right. Tell 'em their football team ie the Cowflops suck. Stiff 'em on the tip. Didn't see those on the list.
I've never seen such whine before in my life.
Having been a hotel valet/bellman for two years and a server at a restaurant for about as long, I understand what it means to work for tips. That said, some of you bartenders are just way out of line with some irrational expectations.
Understand this, and it doesn't get anymore basic than this:
-you are there for the customers/patrons. They are not there for you.
-no one placed a firearm up to your head and forced you to be a bartender. Like so many have said, get an education and find a better job; if you find yourself busy out of your mind on a Saturday and people ask 'when you get a chance', freakin deal with it; you are there voluntarily. The only thing your whining in this article is going to do is put a chip on the shoulders of patrons and cause them to be on the lookout for this behavior, and compel them NOT to tip when they see that behavior
-most of us do try to tip. Me being a former valet/server, I tend to tip very well. I don't think I've ever tipped below 15% even for lukewarm service.
Look, we all know there are people out there that don't tip and expect something for nothing, etc. But if you have been a bartender long enough, you know it comes with the territory. We understand your grief but are probably not very sympathetic, as you are the ones who chose your profession.
I think there are a few things to take into consideration. If you're drinking in a high-end establishment, you're expected to tip higher for the same drink that may cost you half as much at the dive across town. You're not just paying for the drink, you're paying for the ambiance. That being said, bartenders and staff at higher end establishments should be expected to be friendlier and more attentive than Joe Schmo down the street at the dive bar. If, as a customer, you cannot afford a decent tip on a ten dollar drink perhaps you should be drinking at the dive bar and not the high class establishment.
I have worked in a bar for 8 years, not as a bartender, but as a door person, and the bartenders work for their tips believe me!! As a customer of these bartenders, I always tip them well. They work for the tips and I do not feel in the least bad about tipping them well. Please no flaming about my comment :-}
You disgruntled servers could always put yourselves through college and get out of the service industry. Many others have used service and retail as stepping stones to _good_ careers.
Five things a bartdender should always remember:
1) Please try to smile and pretend you halfway enjoy being there. Nothing worse than having Debby Downer as your bartender
2) Don't spend half your shift talking on your cell phone or talking with your friends who are visiting the bar
3) If a customer requests that you turn one of the TV's from 'American Gladiators' to something else (anything else!) please don't act like it's the end of the world
4) If a customer has been tipping heavily give them a free beer or shot, at least once. The heavy tipping will probably increase.
5) If a new customer comes to the bar and is waiting for you to serve them, acknowledge them. You don't need to drop everything to serve them right away, but a simple "I'll be right with you" will go a long way.
having opened my pub/bar back in 1998 this article gets a number of things wrong. here is my list of please don't do to the bartender,
don't tell them your drink is weak, you shorted them, add more liquor
don't make us flash lights, or repeatedly ask you to leave after closing time, when it is two it is time to go
don't ask for freebies, if you are a regular and polite we will remember, pester us and you will never get a freebie
don't run a tab then make us out to be the bad guy when it come time to pay, it was you who bought drinks for all not us
don't argue with the bartender period
don't get so drunk the bartender is forced to cut you off
don't ask to borrow money or start a tab at a bar that doesn't do tabs
don't try to hide a mess, drinks, food or puke from the bartender, tell them asap
do understand the bartender on a busy night is multitasking at an extreme level so give them a break, the job can be a lot harder than it looks.
lastly do be courteous also to the other customers be it by getting in and out of the restroom quickly or by not being so loud and obnoxious that the people next to you get up and move. everyone there wants to have a good time and the bartender is doing their best to make that happen.
people are great for the most part, at least at my establishment and the only thing i've mentioned that does happen regularly and we hate to deal with is bugging people after closing time, please, please, when it is two in the morning don't make us ask you to go. we were glad you came but now is the time we have to clean up and prep for the next night. that means after the last person leaves you can add another two hours on to when we will get to go home. it is nice to get home before the sun comes up, really it is. most important to remember is again, everyone is there to have a good time, remember that and pretend you are all at your home having a party and act accordingly.
yes, good, exactly. Also, if you don't have the common courtesy to take a shower, don't sit in the middle of a bunch of people at the bar. Understandably, some of you may not have showers. It's wonderful what deoderant does, and it only costs the price of about one beer.
“When you get a chance...” is actually a friendly request. As with any of these examples it's all on how you ask it (not just to bartenders). In my experience, bartenders make ALOT of money and have come to expect large tips and for what? Opening a beer? I tip for service not for opening a bottle, if your a jerk bartender don't expect much please.
I think alot of it comes from the trend of hiring pretty 'women' as bartenders who've been spoiled their whole lives into thinking they're princesses, they can't be bothered to do more than one thing at once. Oh and you better bow down to them.
I really hope you don't have this disgusting attitude toward all women behind the bar. Some of us really do work very hard for you and love our jobs.
oops, the first post said it was a duplicate so I typed out another comment. Oh well.
Oh it's going to be a fun friday night.... evil cackle. "When you get a chance, could I get a LIT?" LMAO!!!
Can I have a long island tea...when you get a chance, of course. LMFAO!!!! I'm going to try that this weekend. Hee-Hee
I say drink at home or with friends at a friend's house. Problem solved.
Put these ungrateful high school drop-outs, who live under the delusion that YOU owe THEM something EXTRA for doing THEIR job, which they clearly DON'T appreciate, and POUT because their blue-collar, low-skill, low-paying job isn't bringing them the lavish lifestyle they're expecting (so they take it out on the very people who are keeping them IN a job), OUT OF A JOB ENTIRELY.
Mind you, this does NOT apply to those who APPRECIATE the extra, rather than EXPECT it. Kudos to you, you'll get at least a 30%+ tip every time from me.
I didn't know bartenders didn't like to make Long Island Tea's. They are really good. I wouldn't sit and drink 5 but what's wrong with having just 1? :(
Nothing is wrong with ordering this drink.. the author was just being snide.
I don't mind making long islands, and I don't know any other bartenders that have a problem with it either. Don't let this article stop you from enjoying them.
Ugh, don't even bother with bartenders, even when they're coworkers with a bartender friend of yours. I got a good word put in with her, we went out, things were going well, then we messed around. Never got a call back from her after that. B*tch.
Absolutely against tipping. Why should I pay their salary/income? They should get a better contract, a union, change jobs, etc. I don't want to "have a relationship" with a bartender, a waiter or anyone for that matter. As a customer, I pay for the service and the goods. If they expect or require a tip, the "industry" should indicate that clause in their menus or price list.
Actually, a lot of bars and restaurants do post a notice stating that a gratuity is automatically included in the bill.
Come on, you can't tell me that you don't like having a pleasant soul wait on you and serve you drinks and food? Eat, drink and tip. It's fun.
I agree with all five points. I, also, would like to add, be ready to order. If you're gonna flag me down, which you shouldn't do, don't order your drink, then turn to your friends and ask them. It's all about serving as many customers as possible. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
I almost always order LIT's. I never have that much liquor on hand at home, so why not get it at the bar paying $9 a pop? And for the record, my friend never has to hold my hair back nor have I ever fallen to the floor in a bar. And I tip really well. Besides tipping well, I have always made friends with my bartenders . So I don't see how buying one of the most expensive drinks at the bar is a problem..... (and btw, where I am from, $9 is how much the most expensive drinks at the bar cost).
For Bartenders: What's wrong with Long Island Ice Teas or any drink for that matter??? You can't tell someone what to order just cause it's convenient for you. If you don't like making a particular drink, then don't f**king be a bartender!!!!
My tip also includes service. I don't appreciate waiting an half an hour for a drink, busy or not. If you can't handle the pace of working happy hours and weekends, stick to the day shift.
10 years as a bartender ..and i love the ups and downs .....this article is dead on ...ive worked in corp restaurants ...private club ...dance clubs...weddings ...private neighborhood parties...festivals....and they all have in common the tipping aspect...some peeps tip and some dont ..do i expect a tip ????.nope....do i deserve a tip ...depends on me ....do i think you should tip regardless of the service ...nope ......
there are 2 types of bartenders the worker bee and the talker bee .....you ve seen em ...im a worker bee ..if im hustlin im not smiling and that effects my tips ..im not mad ..im in the zone..im trying to do 5 things at once and people dont realize that ..
the higher the tip from you regardless how busy i am ..your 1st in line ..and can cut in line ..im taking care of you all night
now the person who asks how much is this and this and thiis ..you re taking time away from my other guests and money
in a slow atmosphere there should be no problem tipping ..unless the service is bad
tip your bartender well if they deserve it ....bottom line ...something is sometimes better than nothing..
if they dont deserve it ...then dont tip ...they might not need your money ...
Let's just make this easy. Automate the entire damned process. Self-serve...walk in, press the button that reflects your selection, grab your drink and have a seat. I have NEVER heard such whiny, 'give me more money' bull in my life. If your job/life is so bad.....do something else. I'm serious.....automate it and get rid of the damned 'bartender'. Then, you'll never have to worry about being stiffed again. Everybody is happy.
In this case, you can just drink at home. I wouldn't normally say that, but why would you pay bar prices to sit around a bunch of people you don't know and drink your drink? Besides, the drink would be a lot more expensive to pay for your automatic drink maker. Then I would get rich for inventing the machine that does your job. And as long as we're dreaming, I have a pony that shoots fire out of it's mouth.
Terribly written. What a joke. It's like these bartenders think we're there to serve them, not the other way around. The next time I tell a bar tender "When you get a chance..." and feel bad about it will be the first. If I'm at a bar I'm there to be with my friends and not continually wait for a bartender's glance to come my way. If I say that to you it truly means, "When you get a chance, no rush, here's what my request is now you deal with it and I'll get back to my conversation so I don't keep watching you like table tennis match as you run around." Nice try ladies I hope you serve better than you write.
If you want good tips, bartend at a gay bar...
1) Bartenders, Cool out a little. It is a service job, do what is asked of you. 2)Customers, None of you are the King of anything. I have been working at bars for years. There are no requests I won't try to handle as long as you are polite. Do you have to tip? No. Should you? Absolutely. I work in a very affluent area in a high volume bar and do very well. I will do whatever it takes to make every guest at the bar happy all night as long as it is within my means. But I am not a "slave" or a "servant" and I refuse to be treated as such. I am a service pro. Order a long Island I don't care. Don't want to tip for me "pulling a handle" I'll have better luck next time. We are all grown ups. So grow up. Nothing is worse than going into a bar and being treated like garbage. Especially when I tip 50% as a by-product of being in the industry. I have gone places left huge tips and still gotten rotten service. There are multiple tiers of excellence in every proffesion, your(customer) job as well as bartending.
that's the right idea/attitude people should have.
TIPS does not mean "to insure prompt service". You're taking the word of "insure" and using it like it was "ensure" but they have a totally different meaning. It should be TEPS if it was the case. The word TIP was around the early 18th century and acronyms (T.I.P.S) were not even close to being used at this time in our history. Acronyms came later in the 20th century.
Cheers!
Entirely correct. I wish we could squash that little myth.
i think the problem nowadays, that many others have also mentioned, is that people think that the 'tip' is something that they deserve no matter what and is a right/automatic... well it's not. the tip in it's essence is something that a grateful patron gives to someone that has provided service which makes the patron feel that the service provider has done a good job, the better job the better the tip. when it comes down to it, you don't need any skill to pour a beer, or even to mix a drink (although you do have people who mixes better than others), the factor which should make the distinction in whether you get a good or bad tip or even a tip at all is HOW you provide the service... with a smile, with a frown, with warm personality or cold deference... you don't get tipped just for pulling a lever or pouring a few different liquids into a glass, you get tipped on how you get that drink to the customer.
My favorite is the "automatic" gratuity for parties greater than x. This is illegal and you can make them take it off the bill. You cannot force a gratuity. This really gets me because generally I would leave a larger tip than the "automatic" gratuity but end up wanting to spite the practice and leave the exact amount. They get a smaller tip than if they would have left it up to me. Then I feel guilty and leave more. Why should I fell guilty?. I know this practice is in place to protect the server, but why should the server be protected? If the establishment is willing to accept large parties, they should be responsible for protecting their servers. If they are not willing to do so, then don't accept parties greater than x.
The HUGE flaw in articles like this is assuming the bartenders are actually competent:
1) if a customer is saying "when you get a minute", it means that customer has been waiting too long and gone unnoticed. How to fix that? Beat them to the punch. Here's a tip ladies – Shift Change is not the time to get caught up with the next crew's gossip. Here's another tip – Keep your eyes up and your head swiveling whilst doing your j-o-b. Nothing worse than a BT that stares at her shoes and/or spends the entire time chatting with her friends at the other end of the bar. – Tipping is not a right, it's a bonus for decent service. You shouldn't have one without the other – despite how much these entitled bimbos think.
Next: Any person over 25 knows the difference between a 3 second pour and the 7-second pours you're giving your buddies at the end of the bar. – You short customers' drinks to overpour your buddies – while keeping you liquor count reasonable. – You're not that sneaky,not that clever – And: you pour short, we tip short.
And BTW – If you're as old as these BT's look – and you're STILL in the service industry? You're a loser. Nothing worse than a bitter, burned out, slow-serving, lazy hag desperately trying to keep her job with a thousand 20-somethings just waiting to take your place.
just remembered an appropriate story. I worked at a beer specialty bar of sorts years ago. When someone was being rude to a bartender and the bartender had finally had enough, often they would ask the guest to leave. Occasionally, the hapless guest would approach the owner and complain. This owner's favorite send-them-on-their-way line was "Get the hell out, and tell all your friends!" He still does booming business.
Rich people have servants. They pay them to serve. Less than rich people don't have servants. They have to serve themselves. Sometimes people that aren't rich go out to places that have servants and get those servants to serve them. If the servants do their jobs, the people that are getting served should pay them what polite society deems they should be paid. If the servants don't do their jobs then they shouldn't be paid. If you are served, regardless of whether or not it is a beer or a cocktail, you should pay the server. Not doing so means you don't care to be polite. You are not of the uppper class.
i've been on both sides as well, and like all things nowadays things aren't black and white, you need to assess the situation... but here are some points to think about for both bartenders and customers:
1) as a bartender, this is your job, a saying goes, "even if all the world is against you, the bartender is your last ally." you're in a service industry, and it's not just pouring the drink that's the service (sure when it gets busy you may not be able to do anything but pour the drink, but that's not always the case)... you're supposed to make the customer feel welcomed, you need to MAKE THEM WANT TO TIP YOU, at least that's my philosophy as a bartender... if you treat a customer coldly, that doesn't really justify a tip, because in the end a tip is based on your service as a whole, it's not supposed to be guaranteed.
2) as a customer, judge the situation, if it's busy and the bartender doesn't have the time to give you a 20 second chat to be 'friendly' don't take it personally and yes, as many mentioned don't be rude, everyone else is waiting for a drink too, use some tact and figure out how to get the bartender's attention without appearing like an impatient jerk.
3) there are bad bartenders and bad customers, people come from all walks of life, but remember that when people enter a bar, it's to have a good time and to leave the stress of the day behind, don't let things rub you the wrong way, especially as a bartender since you'll probably run into these situations much more than a customer.
4) based on the article, i get the sense that the authors come from the upper crust of society and are applying the social norms they are accustomed to to the rest of the population... "We all have those friends: The trustfund-baby-cum-performance-artist who doesn’t tip, launching into a diatribe about socialist Utopias" – really? do we all have trust-fund baby friends? the fact is, most (the majority in existance) bars aren't catered towards the elite 5% of society, they are for the common man. the common man earns a wage/salary for his services... therefore, a tip is tied to your service (point 1 kind of) and not just the service of pouring a drink, the service of making the customer feel welcome.
like any relationship, bartender-customer is a 2-way street. if the bartender is cold and unwelcoming, then he/she should not expect to be tipped well. if a customer acts like he's the king of the world and the bartender is his./her servant, then expect crappy to no service. we all want things our way, but we live in a world of over 5 billion people, so you can't always have it your way and the sooner you learn to read other people and get along with them the better you'll feel about life.
So you are saying that not only are we not allowed to order certain drinks, and we arent allowed to ask for service...and we are still supposed to tip well?
"Hello sir, we serve 50 drinks, you can only order 40 of them of the list or we will judge you and ignore you. Also, if you ask for service we'll get annoyed and ignore you. But in the end, we still expect you to tip us well. Enjoy you're experience!"
Kiss my ass. If you dont know how to serve the customer and deal with him accordingly then you should not be in the service industry.
Alright, there are a few more things that should be on the list...
My number one is when someone calls for my attention, and then doesn't know what they want. If I get to you in turn, and you still haven't made up your mind thats fine. I might even make a suggestion. But don't effing yell for me to come get an order from you if you dont know what the f**k you want to order.
Number two...make me something good (or something I will like, like to make or so forth). Guess what? I'm not drinking it!!! If it is up to me you are getting a shot of jager. It costs $6 and all I have to do is push a button for 4 seconds. That's what I want to make you. Not a car bomb, not a cosmo.
And if you don't expect me to charge you for everything you drink, you better tip the hell out of me cause guess what?? It's not my stuff to give away. The guy who owns the bar sits at the end of it all night long...and if you are a good customer he can and will buy you a drink or a few. But I can't be handing out free stuff all night. If I don't charge you for it I am actually paying for it. Consider it a big deal if I give you something for free...
That's reasonable.
By the way, as bartenders we have reserved the right to refuse service to anyone. If you come in, spend $200 throughout the night when all the while I've provided polite, attentive, engaging service and you don't leave a tip...guess what? If you come in the next night you're probably going to get ignored.
For everyone arguing that the managers are going to side with the customers all the time because they want to stay in business, you're sadly mistaken. You may get an apology from the manager, but they're offering it to you to shut you up. One (or a few) customers don't make or break a bar/restaurant. As a bartender, if I have an issue with one of my customers it's going to be a valid one, and you're the one who is most likely going to get escorted out the door.
I can only wish your business dead, barkeep. We do not need you.
And we don't need singular customers either. Your $2 tip is not going to make or break my checking account.
Customers. never, ever, ever let a bartender or waiter/waitress give you attitude or treat you unreasonably. Get management involved immediately. And if management or owner does not want to stay in business, then they can do nothing or side with the loser bartender or wait staff. customers – never start with the attitude. It's called proper manners. But, if the place wants to stay in business, the customers always always ultimately decide.
Tip at LEAST 20%....15% doesn't fly anymore...i know too many people who still tip that low...
don't leave a tip if you puke on the bar because she won't be going out wit you.
Great name because it's so true!
Listen here. We are in a recession. Our jobs are far more likely to be outsourced or lost than a bartenders. I will be damned if I come to a bar to give good money and get treated with anything but a stellar attitude, an appreciative one and the bartender or waitress had damn well better be prepared to give world class service if that person wants a tip. if so, I will reciprocate, and the tip will be generous. but i will be damned if i will be snubbed or treated rudely. I, the customer do not need you. we do not need you. Mixing a fucking drink is fucking child's play. The service is really irrelevant – worthless. It's only the attitude and the brightness of the personality of both the bartender and the corresponding reciprocity of the customer that makes even walking in the place worth while. Remember that bartenders. If you are an a-hole, you are simply not needed.
I'd love to make several things clear.
1. Bartenders may make $200-$300 on a busy night. Lets take into consideration a slow night.
2. Not all bartenders are in the "stay open past dinner hours" business so they're hours may be from 5-close (10ish)
3. ALL people should have to work in the customer service industry at some point in their lives to see what kind of idiots we have to deal with sometimes. I truly believe that most would have a different outlook on people in general.
4. You then have the customer who comes in 5 min before you're do to close and say "oh good, you're still open" then continue to hang out for 2 hours and make out at the bar. So NOT exceptable, get a freaking room. Again, please go back to #3.
5. I truly love all my customers for different reasons. Even the assholes can teach you something. But asshole or not, leave a damn tip or don't bother coming back to my establishment as I would have a hard time finding someone to serve your cheap ass.
So instead of "when you get a chance," should I say "right this F*CKING minute"?
And you don't want to serve me a Long Island Iced Tea? I guess that tip thing is just for cows.
See my last article. However, I absolutely do NOT mind if you say "when you get a minute" That was a stupid comment. I guess I feel as if the customer acknowledges I'm getting my ass handed to me and this is a way of putting nicely, "I'd like something". That's our job, service. I even use the same line when I'm out. And a Long Island Ice tea, really? There's way more complicated things out there to make then that. They should've said Mojito, they're a pain in the ass to make.
What a stupid article.
So saying "when you get a chance" gets a bartender upset, this is news to me, thanks God I live in New York city where we have plenty of bars, a bartender with an attitude please, I will get the f@ck out of that bar faster than a silver bulle; I am the custiomer with the money if you want my bussines leave the attitude home; the way I see it you can kiss my @ss.
Snapping and waiving money. They go right there with "when you have a minute".
I order my Oban 18 double neat first to let the bartender know I'm not f*cking around, then I'll order my long islands.
I'm a great tipper, I just tip like crap usually because of pretentious people like this who think it's a cheap drink. If it's so cheap how come they cost $$$? How lame and judgmental, I'll bet these girls drink wine cooler & think they're classy.
I quit going to bars and drinking at restaurants. Waste of time and money and nobody at the bar is a real friend. Amazing how cheap your bill is compared to the extra 10% from drinks and higher tip. I have never had a job where I get tipped for my work yet I go home dirty,poorly paid and alone unlike a lot of bar tenders.Bar tenders and strippers go hand and hand. When I finish my master degree will I get tipped for hard work no! So, drink at home and watch supply and demand show bartenders who is boss!
Amen to that, brother. While I admit that I do miss a cold beer, cigarette and a game of pool, I don't miss the watered down drinks and mean bartenders. Can't think of a single person I meet in a bar that I am friends with today.
i love how bartenders say they have a standard pour, but that's clearly not the case in some establishments. again, ive asked for a makers and ginger ale at this one particular place and they pretty much just splash the ice with makers before filling nearly the entire glass with ginger ale. that's insane and not worth $9 + tip. i have asked them to fill it up more, b/c the drink is expensive. and once the drink is at a standard level, than ill leave a tip.
again, if they pour the drink extra strong, ill tip an additional buck. i think that's fair.
Totally agree with you and would add that, if your bartender is basically splashing the alcohol on the ice then filling the glass with ginger ale, you either need to talk to the manager/owner or find another bar. That's the kind of practice that gives the industry a bad rep.
I tend bar in a business-class hotel near a major airport and have some thoughts on the points in the article.
"WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE..." doesn't bother me at all. That puts the guest into my mental queue of things to be done, and I will get to them as soon as I can. That's better than them wanting or needing something, and getting frustrated because I'm not reading their mind (or maybe can't see that the glass they're clutching to their chest is empty).
What irks me are the people who just start barking out their order as I'm on my way to do something else or serve another guest. I'd much rather have someone say, "When you have a chance, I'm ready to order" than bark out "I'll have a rum-and-Coke...." as I'm hustling to the other end of the bar to deliver a drink.
Finally, I agree with others: PLEASE don't snap your fingers or whistle at me. In my bar, all the bartenders and servers wear nametags; it's a nice touch to notice our name and call us by name when you need us. In fact, the overwhelming majority of my guests do exactly that.
TIPPING: Certainly, the tip should reflect the quality of service and if your bartender is rude or provided poor service, a small tip (or NO tip) might be exactly right, though you should also bring it to the attention of a manager. Otherwise, a tip of 15% is considered "decent" while 20% is "good"; a dollar a drink should be the absolute minimum.
HIT ON THE BARTENDER... Hey, I'm a guy and a Baby Boomer, old enough to be the father of many of my guests. Hasn't happened to me and likely won't! That said, in addition to the inebriation level of the customer doing the hitting, a roll in the hay (when done right) requires a fair bit of energy. After we've been on our feet for eight hours or so, there's precious little energy left. (OK, I'm old; I admit it!)
LONG ISLAND ICED TEAS: I don't really care WHAT you're drinking, but I very much care HOW MUCH you're drinking. LIITs have more alcohol than a standard double, so I keep a close eye on people who order them. But I also watch the people who are ordering doubles, too. We bartenders have to; it's our job and our responsibility.
BARFING: Not something that happens in my bar but I agree: unless you've just come back from Mexico where you picked up an amoeba, it's a sign of immaturity (no matter how old you are) and is bad form to exercise that little self-control.
My personal pet peeves include people who want me to "pour it strong". I don't own the bar and don't make the rules; I have to follow the rules, which include how much alcohol is in a standard pour. If you want a double, ask for a double and be prepared to pay for a double. Same goes for a glass of wine. Our standard is a six-ounce pour, which means four glasses plus an ounce or so per bottle. If you're good to us bartenders, you may occasionally get that extra ounce.
If you’re in a bar that offers table service and you’re sitting at a table, wait for your server. Don’t order at the bar and take the drink to a table. If you order at the bar, sit at the bar.
Finally, if we’ve given last call, don’t try to cajole us into “just one more!” “Last call” means LAST CALL.
From one bartender to another– great response:)
I don't really care what angers the bartender–if I feel like having a long island iced tea and paying 10 bucks for it, STFU and mix my drink. I'll tip 2-3 a drink at a bar if you are polite and make a good drink, and not just give you a dollar because it's your god given right if you're a dick.
With that kind of attitude, please stay out of my bar.
I agree with everything but the long island iced tea. Some people just like them. Both my parents had a strong preference for them, and not to get drunk. It was just the drink they preferred. And they never order more than one drink no matter what they buy.
You should not assign intentions to people when they order something. People's tastes are all different. Just because you don't like it, or think someone can get drunker, quicker and thus short you a couple bucks doesn't mean that's why the person is ordering it.
One of the most annoying things to do is ask for a complicated drink, receive the drink, and then as they are dropping it off ask for another thing. If you want a water with the drink or a shot, ask for it all at once.
The best way for a bartender not to get pissed off is to finish school and get a real job so he/she doesn't have to be in a position of servitude. What's the saying? Beggars can't be choosers? As far as tips go, if they want to earn good tips do a good job. I get really tired of the server attitude of entitlement without effort. I imagine the bulk of servers who complain about poor tipping give poor service. When I worked in the service industry before finnishing high school, I got great tips and I also worked my but off to get them. As far as Long Island Ice Teas go, they are pretty good drinks, and the odd time I will have one is because I like the taste. If bartenders don't like making them, they should become accountants or lawyers. Oh, that's right, they can't, because they only went to grade 10. Quit whining and do something about it if you don't like your job.
I currently have my B.S. Degree, but I don't know if you are aware of how hard it is to get a "real job" in America today. I've been sending my resume everywhere, but when you are a recent college grad, "we don't have the experience they are looking for". But don't you worry, those $1000 monthly loan repayments don't go away. I continue to serve because I'm damn good at it and make good money, but obviously not enough. Not everyone in the service industry is a high school drop out. So please, don't make that assumption because it's douchers like you that come in thinking you are better than me, when I know that in a few years, you will probably be answering to me.
Craig – I just bought a house in California, make around $80K a year and work about 25 hours a week ...bartending. And I have a bachelors...but why use it when I can make more, work less...and spend my time with my family instead of grinding out 60 hours a week on banal minutiae like financial instruments and 4th waivers??
:)
If its not good etiquette to hit on the bartender, who cares what they think of me? Keep those sweet LIIT"S coming!
Sorry about the Long Island Ice Teas, but if you order one, you will be profiled as either a novice drinker or a drunk. Bad 'tenders will let you know it, good 'tenders won't, but you will be monitored more closely be everyone. Both types of drinker create a large percentage of problems for both bar staff and bar owners.
And, just to create more controversy, in my region of the country, at least, if you order a Coors Light, you will be profiled by the staff. :)
if you dont like it and want to give us 'tips' to make your life easier then learn to type or go out and get a real job that requires more skill and education then just pouring drinks and a small amount of mental math. half the time women bartenders are bitches anyway, and i shouldnt have to tip huge to get good service. thats your JOB. if i want to get blackout drunk on long island ice tea because i had a rough week at work, or for whatever other reason i want, then pour it with a smile and be happy with your 1-2 dollar tip.
Alex, the skill in bartending is not in the pouring of drinks; it's in making the customer glad they came to my place. Bartenders who cop an attitude - female or male - should be in another line of work; they obviously don't understand why it's called the "hospitality" industry.
However, we also have a responsibility to ensure that our guests don't overindulge; not only is it not cool, it's dangerous for you and those around you and, at least in my state, illegal for me to serve you if you appear intoxicated. If you're intent on getting knee-walking, toilet-hugging drunk, learn to mix your favorite drink yourself and stay home.
Worst peeve? People that snap their fingers at you to get your attention or they whistle at you. I am not a dog and that behavior will get you ignored as long as I can.
I completely agree! I don't have a real problem with, "When you get a chance," but the people who either whistle, snap, or say, "I'll have a...." as I walk by (usually to serve another guest) really get under my skin.
Don't tell me how to make a drink that you think you are the only who knows what it is. I have been a bartender or bar manager for 14 years and there really isn't too many drinks I have heard of. Wow, you went to San Fransisco and had a new drink that I have known about for years, great. Oh, you learned that some drinks have more than one recipe, it is not gospel. Trust us, we have forgotten more about alchohol than most people will ever know.
i'd wager that each and every single bartender in this thread complaining about people being 'cheap' for not tipping a buck per bottle also laugh at the yuppies with a pair of his and hers H3s parked out front of their McMansion. Gratuitously flaunting money is always bad unless it's flaunted in *your* direction... right? ;)
I was a bartender for 12+ years in Virginia Beach, VA and made a pretty good living, given I was single and had roommates.
I have to say the worst tippers AND the most demanding people were Blacks. They loved their LIT's and wanted them 'scrong'. Or they wanted pina coladas and scrawberry daquiris, layered.
Tipping bartenders does not guarantee decent service. When I say decent I mean fast, friendly, and accurate. So why should people tip, when they still feel they are getting the short end of the stick while going ABOVE & BEYOND what's required, while the bartender IS NOT?
The bartender's starting wage is not a compelling reason to tip. Don't guilt the patrons into making up a wage gap. The bartender is responsible for providing great service, which warrants a tip. The bartender is responsible for finding a job which provides a living wage.
What many of you are describing is glorified panhandling, and just like the people on the side of the road, the interaction does little to make the rest of my day better.
What your diatribe misses is that the culture in the U.S. is that service industry people depend on tips. They provide a service, and we respond with a tip. There is a minimum acceptable level of service (for example, bringing the food and/or drink promptly, correctly, and without attitude) and there is a minimum acceptable level of tipping. If the service is better than normal, so should be the tip. Tipping is NOT only for "great service;" it's part of the social contract.
Pointing to the low base wage isn't guilting you; it's presenting a simple fact tied to the cultural reality above. Miami is an exception; many of the bars and restaurants there have taken to adding an automatic service charge to counter their many European guests who don't take the time to understand the U.S. culture and, as a result, don't tip.
If you want to be well taken care of at your favorite bar or restaurant, may I respectfully suggest that you become a better tipper.
Best advice in the world: Save your money, by beer at a gas station, invite friends over. Skip the tip
I applaud your self-awareness. You're doing exactly what you should be doing: drinking at home and not inflicting yourself on others.
Agree w/ Trev. There is such a thing as a tasty LIIT. Perhaps the author of this article would like to learn how to make one. Most bartenders have no clue how. Hint – it does not taste like rubbing alcohol.
I take exception to the idea that people drink Long Island Iced Tea (LIIT) to be thrifty...I can get drink specials on beer and standard high balls for $1-2 most nights, whereas a LIIT is rarely less than $5 and Is usually much more than that. There's also no more alcohol in a LIIT than in a double high ball, so it doesn't necessarily get you hammered faster...though it can. Anyway, I don't drink LIIT because I'm thrifty, I drink them because they are tasty.
I just need to tell this story because of how mad it made me and how much this article reminded me of it. Before I start, I have been in many aspects of the service industry from retail to hostess, waitress, and cocktail waitress. I know how annoying customers can be (why would you ever snap at anyone to get their attention?) but I have also seem some awful behavior from bartenders. A few months ago I was out at a bar and had ordered a mojito. I know some bartenders don't like to make them (because they take more then 10 seconds to make) but still they aren't THAT involved. Well the bartender made me one and then I had another after. Later in the evening, I went back to get a mojito again and she said, "No. Can I get you something else?" Excuse me? Did you just tell me no. Is there a reason? At least some people have the decency to tell me they ran out of mint. Not this girl though. So I ordered a beer and walked away. My friend comes back a few minutes later with a mojito for me (not knowing I had gotten my own drink). Needless to say I was furious. At the end of the night my tab was around $50 (this bar is way over-priced), so when I went to tip I was very torn. Generally I always leave 20% (or $1 a drink at the very least if I am paying as I go)but this girl was awful to me so I left her about 15% and wrote at the bottom, 'Usually I would tip you more but you refused to serve me what I wanted for no reason. Sorry." After I left it I walked away. My friends told me later that she went NUTS when she saw that and was flipping out and screaming at her boss. It made me smile. I sympathize with people in the service industry but too often the bartender/waitress/waiter forget that tips are dependent on their level of service. I'm sure she didn't learn anything, but I am glad I ruined her night. That's what you get for being an awful bartender.
the bartender wouldnt serve you the drink you wanted and you STILL gave her a 15% tip? well you really showed her! grow some backbone! the appropriate response in that situation is to find the boss you mentioned, drag your friend with the newly ordered mojito over and ask him if he would kindly ask his bartender to explain why your friend can get a mojito while you can not. her JOB is to serve the customers what they want so long as they do not consume to excess. she was NOT doing her job! and you tipped her for it ?!?!?! a tip is a GRATUITY. it's NOT mandatory. outright poor and or rude service deserves NO gratuity
Agree with Stan 100%; talk to a manager. Of course, it's best to have a more complete picture of what happened when you do, so when the bartender refused your order, you probably could also have (politely) asked , "Why is that?" Then she could have said, "I'm out of mint" or whatever, but you'd have put the ball back in her court and might have gathered more information.
That's awful. I agree, I'd have talked to a manager if there was a way. I think you did good by letting the bartender know why there wasn't a big tip.
I forgot to mention that sometimes when you order a complicated drink, or a drink the bartender doesn't want to make and they say no, order water instead. Chances are they'll go ahead and make your drink for you. If you don't order something else, they're more likely to suddenly decide to do it so they can get your money. When you order another less complicated drink, they've won.
Re: #3, I think you mean sarcasm, not irony.
6. Running the ridges on the bottom of a beer bottle against the edge of the bar while rotating it back and forth. It's noisy and really irritates them.
If it takes 20 seconds to pour a drink then one should tip for 20 seconds work!! Better just to pay the poor bar person more money in the first place then there is no confusion.
I have bartended high-end, low-end, Spring Break clubs, restaurants, etc....all basically the same...if you want good service then have manners around employees and patrons AND tip at least "normally." If you don't want to tip, then have parties at your own home. Also, don't order complicated or frozen drinks and not be prepared to tip more than the basic amount - especially if the place is crowded. If you can't follow these basics, then don't expect the bartender to waste their time on you - in essence you create your own fate. (My big tippers ALWAYS got their drink the second they got to my bar and were catered to no matter how busy.)
Amen, Brother!
i would NEVER not leave a tip, no matter what b/c it's the right thing to do, and that goes with whether they pour a beer or an LIT (which, for the record, if i feel like drinking b/c they're delicious than ill order it).
i will say though, that if the bartender pours a strong drink, ill throw in an extra buck. there is nothing worse than ordering a watered down cocktail that costs $9 and not even tasting the booze.
You don't leave a tip because you feel guilty. A tip is "to insure promptness", not just for breathing or doing your job.
WRONG. Sorry.
The culture in the U.S. is that food service workers depend on tips, and they're part of the social contract you enter into when you go out to eat or to have a drink. Given that you've worked in the industry, I'm surprised that you don't understand that. "MOST bartenders are drunks and thieves" is a pretty jaundiced attitude but maybe it helps explain why you're apparently not in the industry any more. As Martha Stewart would say, "And that's a good thing."
I felt like puking after reading this shitty article.
Please do it outside. Better still, at home.
Yea why do service people feel like I should make up for their employer paying $3/hour. Your beef isnt with me!
And they probably serve a conservative estimate of 1 person every 2 minutes on a busy night, meaning 30 people per hour, meaning a likely minimum of $30 per hour in tips anyway. And since bars are so underhanded, they probably pay VERY little in taxes.
Add to the list of things that piss bartenders off: people who speak from a position of ignorance - like you, my friend.
A "likely minimum" of $30 per hour?? You make me laugh. That's a hopping bar, not a conservative estimate. And if I'm pouring 30 drinks per hour, I don't have time to chat with you, watch the big-screen TV so I'll have the score of the Foonman vs. Slippery Rock game when you ask, etc. By that measure, I won't be providing the "service" you want, which will mean your tip will be stingy.
Try walking in the other person's Shoes for Crew for a night before you spout off.
Ah I miss the days of being your friendly-neighborhood bartender...but...I have to admit there were a lot of things that annoyed the living s*** out of me:
(1). Not saying "hi" when I greet you. Me: "Hi there. How are you?" You: "Bud Light". Me: "I didn't ask you what you wanted. I asked you how you were" (PS. It is common courtesy. I don't want the story of your life, either. Just say fine and move on).
(2). Complaining that you can't taste the alcohol when you order a frozen drink. You ordered a Daiquiri: of COURSE you can't taste the alcohol. Bitching about it will earn you a shot of rum down the straw.
(3). Asking me to give the girl sitting by herself a drink from you. Just because you are too much of a wuss to go talk to her and hand her the drink yourself. (and by the way, just because she is alone doesn't mean she is lonely. It might mean she is thirsty and would like a drink without you bothering her).
1) so you really don't care why ask. being polite for polite's sake is the reason i love my dive bars. if you ask the question, don't expect me to lie. i don't like lying.
2) i totally agree which is why i don't like getting girly drink drunk
3) so wait, she is alone and might not want to be bothered so buying her a drink and allowing her not to be bothered is a bad option. hmmmmmm.
i feel like i have the good bartender and bad bartender on my shoulders whispering opposite things into each of my ears.
A few comments - My job as a bartender is not just to pour drinks, it is to help as many people as possible have the experience them came to my bar to have AND to get them home safely. The people that intentionally get bad service are people who interfere with the enjoyment of my other customers...push your way to the front of the bar. . .sorry, loud and obnoxious to others. . .sorry, too many drinks in too short of time, I'll slow you down without you knowing that is what I am doing. For non-drinkers, you are always welcome. If you want me to break rules or have special service, be an awesome customer who adds to the night's fun and/or tip for it. One of my favorite nights bartending was for a group of pastors. I took care of them and they all left small piles of quarters and dimes on the table, but I knew that they did it out of appreciation rather than duty.
I would love to follow these bartenders around for one day and point out all of the times that they do not tip. I bet they do not tip at the grocery store. Why should I tip a bartender for opening a beer and "ringing me up". If that is the case, shouldn't they tip the cashier at the grocery store for moving their items along the check stand and ringing them up, the deli guy for slicing your lunch meat, the bag boy for bagging your groceries. What about the guy that stocked the shelf? What about when you get an oil change. A flight attendant for opening a soda for you. Isn't all of this the same. In their eyes I bet it isn't. Listen to all of the reasons why the do not think they are supposed to tip these people.
Your comments, "You are supposed to be tipped because you made a great drink not just because you made a drink. The thought that you should tip a dollar for twisting off the cap of a beer is stupid," are simply wrong and ignore the cultural reality that U.S. hospitality industry workers depend on tips. Workers in other areas that you mention - including grocery stores - do not.
From the tone of your comments and the poor quality of your writing, I must conclude that you call yourself "food critic" because you're critical of the food others prepare. I sincerely hope that no one actually PAYS you to critique someone else's efforts, and I hope with equal sincerity that you patronize the establishment down the road and stay out of my bar.
Apparently all bartenders are idiots. People are saying that if you don't tip then you won't be waited on. That is stupid because it is your sales that will hurt. I can always go to the bar down the road. The stupid comment that said that you aren't tipping just for the beer. YOu are tipping for picking up the plate and wipping down the bar and replacing the keg. That is your job. You are supposed to be tipped because you made a great drink not just because you made a drink. The thought that you should tip a dollar for twisting off the cap of a beer is stupid. If you converse with me , make sure that I have what I need/want, and make good drinks then you get a tip, not because I am asking you to get me a drink.
First of all #4 is WRONG. I guess who ever wrote this is not from the NY area. If someone orders a LI ice T they are smart, This is a good way to start as long as your not on your 4th or 5th LI ice tea. I once went to a club in Queens and ordered a red devil, the bartender filled up my glass with ice to the brim, im not stupid I know that trick, gives me an ice filled fruit puch for $12!!!!! I was furious. I went back to him and told him make the next one stronger with no ice. He had the balls to ask me how they were suppossed to make money and had to tell him that start by putting alcohol in the drinks. My wife was also a bartender and told me they used to fill the labled bottles with cheaper booze. So give the cust their moneys worth or stay home and drink the real thing for much cheaper.
Bars aren't churches. They do refill name brand bottles with cheap booze. As said elsewhere, most of the bartenders are drunks or thieves. I had to bust bartenders when I worked for a company that ran checks on bars and bartenders have as many ways of stealing from the customers and the owner as crooks do in Vegas. I've known some good guys, but most of them were like strippers: they hate their customers. The customers think they are in Cheers when the bartender gives them a little attention. Wake up! They don't like you.
If you want a stronger drink, order a double. If you want something that is sweet and doesn't taste like alcohol, order sweet and sour mix.
You don't get free alcohol. Doesn't work like that. Giving away booze is theft, pure and simple. If you want want cheap, strong drinks...stay home and buy a bottle of Early Times.
also, to all the people who think servers are stupid, or couldnt do any better... you really need to lower your nose just a little. I served in college and got a degree in Music and Ministry, but after doing some severe soul searching during internships acoss Texas, I decided that I couldn't lead people to certain decisions and lifestyles and parts of faith when I had so many HEAVY unanswered questions myself. I decided to study philosophy and go back to get my masters to further a music career. So while performing in 2 bands, recording multuiple albums, holding down jobs at a fine-dining steakhouse and a bank, training to become a Personal Banker for the time-being, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to go more of a performance/compostion route, or into sound engineering.
Stop sneering at people just because they actually carry the humility to serve you. There a lot of good and bad people in the world, there are a lot of people who couldn't handle the job that we have, every job has its bad apples, but that doesn't make everyone in that field an idiot or lazy.
In fact, many of them are in very competitive fields, and may be working harder than you ever could.
Also servers, stop acting like jacka$$es to people on here just because you got a bad tip. We knew this job when we got into it, and there are a lot of jerks in the world. Don't become one just because you have some crappy customers.
I like long island ice-teas and when in the mood (and when I can afford it) I will order them. "Unsexy badge of thrift"?? Those things are 15.00 where I live and personally I really could care less if the bartender thinks I'm sexy or not. I'm not quite sure what this authors point is (?)
The authors' point is that a person might order less individual drinks if they order a LIIT instead of beer, and it takes longer to prepare. So they make less tips for more work. In response, they attach an undesirable label to the drink to get people to stop ordering them.
I also happen to like Long isl iced teas. doesn't mean I want to get crocked. I can stop after a few drinks.
Wow, no one cares. Why don't you save the readers some time and shut up? Heh heh heh...ahh yea.
I've worked in the industry serving for 15 years and think tipping has gotten way out of control for the customers. We make way too much money for what we do. Honestly. $10/hr + tips, really? (I live in SF where minimum is nearly $10/hr.) For serving a beer? Do we deserve more than teachers, or police officers? No, but there are bartenders that make more than that. Sure, tip for great service and difficult drinks, but doing much less really isn't worth more than the wage they're earning (except in those states that pay less than minimum wage).
interesting subject. The bottom line, no one told you to work in a bar or restaurant for less than minimum wage, so don't try to make your paycheck on my tips. Maybe if you would have stayed in school and not put so many tattoos on your body......
Tips are earned, not mandated. Make me wait too long for my drink and watch your tip go bye-bye. Same goes for a crappy drink. First round I'm usually quite fair and tip quite well, just to get an idea of the bartender. As for Long Islands, I know far too many high end clubs with $30+ covers that make tons of them. They usually cost the most (a top shelf version for around $15-20) as any good bartender would know.
$1 per drink is a good rule – of thumb, for average service. Bartenders should not expect tips for egregiously bad service, no matter who is at fault (for example the cooks or a server may cause a delay, but as a customer if my drink takes 10 minutes to arrive, and it's not New Year's Eve, no tip). However I also believe exemplary service deserves a higher rate of gratuity, to balance out. If a bartender goes out of his/her way for me, makes a special drink, or whatever I'll usually tip $2/drink or more.
to the idiot who said tipping is "out of control". the cost of living has increased since the 50's el cheapo a$$!
I agree with the idea of tipping well in a crowded bar. In Amsterdam, where they are used to minimal tips, you are instantly identified as an American if you tip the eqivalent of $1 per drink...or even half that. With no words said, the busy bartenders will notice your tip, then leap over everybody else to serve you all night. It works. As an aside, they have a system that pays better wages, which is why tipping is not such a big deal. Subsequently, a nice tip is a big deal.
I've bartended in boith London the US and think the US tips way too much. I made the same wage in London as I do in California, and was only tipped very minimally in London. In CA, I make a ton in tips. For the same service. It's not rocket science and we shouldn't make as much.
I am assuming that you're f@#%ing high right now.
to Serving the customer
wow, really? you worked in the industry for 10 years and say tipping is out of control? You were never a server.
I have and tipping is way out of control. Sure, love the money, but come on, $20+++/hr (wage + tips) for serving is way too much compared to what other non-college educated jobs make.
“When you get a chance...”
that doesn't bother me at all. In fact, it lets me know that they need something, but understand that I am in the middle of a lot of things and they understand if it takes a moment.
If you've worked in the food/bar industry and this phrase bothers you... consider how many jerks there are out there and then realize that this is not a rude things to say in any way unless the PERSON is a jerk. Other than that I actually prefer their recognition of how hard I am trying to get to everyones' order.
I understand about the minimum wage situation in some other states, but her in WA it is currently $8.55. That is for ALL, including servers/bartenders. They make bank here. I stick to 15% for food and $1-2 for a few drinks., but not $1 a drink!
This list is great. I bartended for over 20 years to bring in extra money to support my kids. There are arguments to be made on both sides. Sure, there were nights I walked out of the bar with $400 in my pocket, mostly on weekends. But, there were far more shifts where I sat around with my thumb up my you-know-what, cleaning everything in the place and watching some drunk nurse his beer for hours on end, while he talked politics, religion or how his ex-wife screwed him over. It was like being held captive.
Most bartenders don't care much about the amount of the tip, just that there be one. Trust me, in a busy bar, I'm going to make my money....regardless. I didn't ignore you if you tipped less. Ignoring you took more of my time than just waiting on you in turn so I could get back to the customers I liked. By the way, blue collar bars have better tippers than white collar bars. Working stiffs know more about how hard you need to work to make a buck and are better sports when they needed to be cut-off.
I couldn't agree more about the Long Island's. That is the mark of someone who doesn't know how to drink. It's just going to get you messed up, and if you wanted something that doesn't taste like booze, go to Dairy Queen. It's the drink of "baby" drunks.
I would have like to see something about not trying to make the bartender part of your drama. I'm a bartender, not your mother, wife, girlfriend or therapist. I don't know what you should do. If I had the inside track, I wouldn't be working here! Tell me a joke, talk to the other patrons, etc. That keeps the crowd going and makes my job easier. If you make my job easier, then I don't take the lousy buck tip you left so personally.
agree about the tip being present.. at least it lets the bartender know that you crossed their mind.
you make a sh1tty tip, you take it, forget it, and move on.
but i've never had someone that i had to cut off that took it politely. they'll either pay the tab and forget the tip, or throw a big stink about how they 'swear they aren't driving'
even if they aren't driving, its my job to serve you properly.. and getting you blacked out, throwing up drunk isn't responsibly serving a customer. some people need to grow up and realize when they've had too many.
Since you make such bold observations about anyone who may try or even enjoy Long Islands....I can make the assumption that you are a drunk (since you work for a bartender), cheat on your GF or wife (since you are a bartender) and probably beat your children as well. Sounds fair? good.
But I really DO like Long Island Iced Teas! Not because I'm trying to get wasted as fast as possible (that was 25 years ago, when I double-fisted them.) Now I'm going to be self-conscious if I order one!
I almost never tip bartenders. I figure if I'm paying as much for one beer (lets say $3) as it costs for half a six-pack, I'm not tipping unless the service is OUTSTANDING because isn't that what the tip is for? The service? A dollar a drink is suppose to be standard? So, I'm suppose to add on 33% to my beer just because you are in the service industry? To those of you that think I'm a cheapskate, think again. I have after a night of drinking and a $420 tab, I rounded it up to $500 on my credit card. She was an outstanding bartender, very attentive, and we never had to remind her of what we were drinking and she even hooked us up with a couple of free rounds. Customers also know that there is a certain amount of drinks that can be given pro-bono, so don't be so stingy bartenders.
Dakkota: $80 on $420 is your all time best tip, and you still think you aren't a cheapskate? Yeah, $80 is a decent chunk of change, but it isnt even 20% on a tab that large. And complaining that bartenders are being stingy by not giving you free rounds when you normally don't tip? Why would they give you a free drink when they can give it to someone who actually pays them and that they want to encourage to come back? Depending on what/where you were drinking, "a couple of free rounds" (lets be nice and say two rounds at $30 per round) makes up most of that tip. You effectively tipped $20 on a $480 tab. Whoop-de-freaking-doo!
Here's the reality of bartending. They get paid a "base wage" of $2-$3 per hour. They place they work at doesn't pay them enough to make it worth coming in to work. the customers do. The customers are the bartender's bosses, and decide how much they get paid. HOWEVER, the bartender gets to decide which boss to work for at any given time. So, if you aren't tipping (ie, paying them) they arent going to work as hard for you (take your order as quickly when your drinks run out, pour you a free drink now and then, make sure your drinks are good and stiff, etc) as they will work for the bigger tippers. If you decide to fire them (ie, stop giving them a quarter a drink or your normal $0.00 per drink and go drink somewhere else), YOU HAVE EFFECTIVELY GIVEN THEM A RAISE as they can then work more for their better paying customers.
I used to bartend. I would have replaced the complaint about Long Islands with "customers who order a round of shots with many steps involved to create them, then when the round is delivered to them tell the bartender that they need 'just one more'". Aggravating in the extreme.
why should it matter how much his tab was? is it harder to serve more expensive booze? a tip should be based upon the service rendered not on how much the tab was. if you think tipping a bartender 80$ is in anyway cheap then you need a reality check.
Tim: So, being a bartender, you would have turned your nose up at a 19% tip? For pouring shots and beers? By the way, the 'couple of free rounds' do not come out of the bartenders pocket so that has no bearing his/her tip. So she still got her $80, not the $20 you state. Also, you only make $2-3/hour bartending? Dude, you need to work at a better place. My friends that have tended bar in nice places got $8-10/hour then got tipped. It's the same old agruement from people currently employeed in the service industry (I use to be part of it as well), that "We make less than minimum wage and we depend upon tips for income". Here's an idea then, work for your damn money since that is the currenty position you are in. That's like a janitor saying "Man people keep making this toilet dirty, what do they expect me to do, clean it?" That's his/her job, that's what he/she gets paid to do and they make their wage and you make yours. I still don't tip sub-par bartenders or servers to this day. It all starts off with how well a bartender starts out the night, if he/she doesn't appear attentive from the start, then I know I can order more drinks because of the money I will save on not tipping and I pay in cash all night and they see that they aren't being tipped all night.
With my comp tab (complimentary drink), I'm allowed 2% of my total sales. So on a Friday night, I'll sell an average of $2000, which makes my comp tab...you guessed it $40. Since top shelf is around $8 and well is $5, I can comp about five to eight drinks a night...for an eight hour shift.
I utilize my comp tab for those people spending money at the bar, and those who are tipping well. Why would I used that on a guy who gives a quarter a round?
You sir or madam are branded as a cheapskate. Your "regular" bartender will take his or her time serving you. If you feel that you are getting ripped off and can save money by staying at home and buying a sixer, by all means, do so. Otherwise, respect the person who stands on their feet 10 hours per shift and hustles to serve you ASAP. Problem with beer price? Take it up with the owner NOT the server/tender.
Most bartenders know that they are going to have to deal with things that inconvenience them. They know that some people aren't going to tip. They know that someone may puke on the them or the bar. They know that people may have a bad day and are going are going to relieve their aggression by taking it out on the bartender. A good bartender will keep their head down, work hard, and try to make everyone happy. You can't replace a bartender with a robot. A bartender is a psychologist, a friend, a bouncer, and many other things. A "pub" is a public house. That is, it is a place to socialize, to relax, to talk and interact with friends and strangers. The reason things cost more at a bar is because the bar isn't just buying the alcohol. They pay the rent, buy the electricity that runs everything in the bar, as well as the water, the gas, the trash collection, the janitors, the alcohol license, etc., etc. Heck, bars are supposed to pay royalties to artists for their music. A bar's cable bill is not $29.99 a month. You're not just paying for the alcohol, you're paying for all the other costs as well. That's why many places have cover charges. Bar owners aren't usually rich, they're small business owners–middle class folks. I wrote earlier that the bartender is in charge. He is. That means he puts up with all kinds of things because he wants people to have a good experience while supporting the bar and himself. A bartender takes a certain amount of abuse because that's his job (an excessive amount of abuse on occasion), and often, he knows the abuser is drunk or has other problems. But there is a limit to the amount of trash a bartender will endure. Most owners will support their bartenders in their decision to not serve someone or have them forcibly removed from the bar. If not, the bartender will go somewhere else. Why? Not everyone can stand in front of hundreds of people for hours on end who all want their drink right away and make it work. Good, honest bartenders are hard to come by. Most bartenders don't think they're special. Most bartenders expect to take a good bit of grief. But we are there to serve the public. The public pays our bills. We love them. But sometimes . . . well, enough is enough. And when that time comes, you will be sent on your way. If you resist, the cops are going to take you to jail. God forbid someone is such a idiot that they will push their luck. A good bartender doesn't go to work thinking "I really want to see a guy get beat up tonight," or " I really wanna send someone to jail." Most go to work thinking "I hope I have a good night, do a good job, and have a good time with all my guests."
Does anyone think that maybe people are taking this a little too serious? I mean I think the article is suppose to have some humor to it. I don't think it's even saying don't drink LIT's, it's saying that if you don't want to appear to your bartender that you are on a mission to get wasted don't order LIT's. In the messed up world that lawyers (likely some of you bitching about tipping) have created some guy can get loaded at my bar and go out and kill someone on the road and I can get sued and lose everying I own for serving the guy too much. For this reason bartenders can be weary of serving people "too much" and this it's why sending a message to your bartender that says "I'm out to get loaded and fast" may not be in your best interest as a drinker. I think that is the spirit of the LIT comment in the article. I live in Vermont where it is actually against the law to be drunk in a bar. I think that's pretty messed up but I'm not the one making the laws I'm the one paying the penalties if they're broken.
Oops, i always do the "when you get a chance". I mean isnt it a lot better then pointing at her and yelling what you want?
Working my way through 10 years of high school and college in the SERVICE industry, I was alarmed at this article and had to read the comments. Those of you SERVERS who feel you are an "in-crowd" whom customers should aspire to be like.....are obviously working a college town beer bar or a dive.
TRY THIS- Start treating every customer like your Employer (or God if you don't like employers). You will soon find yourself working at the restaurant or hotel where customers like me frequent and tip too much. We DON'T have time to ask for service, and NEVER accept even a condescending glance. WE TIP HIGH for exceptional service, and tip nothing for poor service. Your tip system is a SLIDING scale, the happier I am, the more you make! We also know how to speak with Owners / Managers to request another server. Earn your keep, earn your promotions, earn your tips.
I have served Pres. Ford, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and many high rollers with success. All it takes is OWNING the word- Server. Provide Service! Whatever the customer wants legally. Quit your wining. You are not special. You're a Server. Remember, your customers have been SERVING someone all day and know what to expect from good servers! Call me Sir, smile, hustle, and bring me something extra, anything! Your goal is to make everyone happy, and maximize tips. Even the low-rollers (say, students) will tip more for true service. DON'T POUR, SERVE!
Who gives a rats ass who you served!
There is a female bartender at a local establishment that I go to with my boyfriend and his friends. She has got to be bi-polar. Either she's super obnoxious or quiet with a bit of an attitude. She clearly is overly friendly, flirtatious and obnoxious when she happens to be our bartender. What is especially irritating is that she is schmoozy with the guys in my group, but not me. I try to talk to her too, but no dice. Of course when someone else is the bartender, she has nothing to say to any of us. I hate batenders like this. She's suppose to be quitting soon because she and her husband just bought a house and the drive is too far... I cannot wait. YAY!
And BTW i am tired of being "told how to behave" by bartenders, waiters, service people etc. I am not a rood person but STFU!!!!!!! I worked in the service industry in college not as a career, I took my studies seriously enough so that I didnt have to stay there. Grow up, stop staying out all night after your shift goto college and then maybe you can tell me how to behave. I work in a financial institution and am i allowed to tell my clients how to behave??!!! NO, I manage their money as I am told to not as I would have it. Everyone "serves" someone its just some of us get paid more to do it so stop whineing and improve your station.
JEM – Its very obvious you can't control yourself or how you drink. We tell you to behave because there are rules everywhere...even at your "financial institution". If you can't behave, then you're out the door. Simple as that.
How long until bartenders are replaced by robots or some type of machinery? Think about it. We already have the technology. You just need to put all your liquors and mixes into different compartments. They already have software that can dispense a certain amount of something. You would just need to tie the software into a drink menu. Think of the overhead you could save as a bar owner. You could just have a place to swipe your card and/or insert cash. Customers would love it because you wouldn't have to as one bartender put it "bribe" them for a drink and "everybody" would be served in a timely fashion. Bar/Club owners could save a fortune by not having to pay the bar staff and you wouldn't have to worry about them being heavy handed with the booze or giving away drinks. The customers would love it because a machine wouldn't expect a tip.
sometimes a bartender will make or break your experience at a bar. clients will go to the bar to have a conversation/interaction with the bartender, not to just get hammered.
I love all these "service industry experts", listen, tipping is a matter of class and it depends on BOTH parties. If you have to deal with these problems then you are working in a low rent establishment and you get what you deserve. A bartender is going to deal with drunks.....you serve drinks, drinks make people drunk.....do you not understand that??!! people are not at their best when they have been drinking.....that being said your tip is in direct proportion to your friendliness, the speed at which my order is completed and your proffesionalism. A class act with a funny line or a compliment gets a huuuge tip, keep the class and drinks coming and you can practicaly have the pin number to my debit card. Treat me like some schmuck after i tip you big and the flood gates of my generosity will close.
Everyone wants tips, but I only think tips should be necessary for actual service. If you make a latte or open a beer can, that is your job. If you deliver drinks or food to a table with a smile, a tip would be needed.
" In case you haven’t caught on yet, we’re employing the literary device of irony" Someone has probably already pointed out that you are using sarcasm, not irony. Shame on you, Alanis.
That's sarcasm not irony.
Hey, stupid- self righteous coozes. Its called sarcasm not irony. No wonder you're a bartender...sorry mixologist. lol
I prefer to tip via credit card. I almost always open a tab. I do this for two reasonse. I find it easy to calculate a nice high tip. I almost always tip 35% to 40% for bartenders. Usually because they are cute and good service. Second reason, I want them taxed on every dime. No offense, but I am accountant and I work just as hard if not harder than a bartender (I put in 12+ hr days for 5 months straight). So if I am going to be taxed 100% on my wages, so should they. A credit card tip requires the restaurant to report it to the IRS. So there you go bartender, I will give you a solid tip, but you can't avoid your taxes. Fair is fair.
I agree!!!!
Long Island Ice Tea – I've never heard that they're the CostCo of beverages before, nor have I heard it's the quickest way to get drunk. I've had many of them, even 3 or 4 tall ones in an evening; I enjoy the flavor, but have never gotten drunk on them (regardless of what bartender or drinking establishment).
Tipping – I'm old fashioned on this point. Tipping is an indicator of services rendered (attitude, attentiveness, etc.) and should not be an automatic, predetermined amount. Tipping should not be considered part of your salary but above and beyond. I won't tip for bad or mediocre service; I worked hard for my money and I'm not cheap about spending it.
Agreed. If I'm going to work hard for my money they had better work hard for theirs. Plus, I don't get free money (aka, tips) on top of my wage.
Ha! Right, just wait for the bartender to come to you. Bartenders, like waiters, are masters at not making eye-contact with customers. If you wait for them to offer to help you, expect to be thirsty and hungry, respectively.
In most cases, at a bar, I'm overpaying for my drinks by 500% at least. On top of that price gouge, you expect tips too?? Yeah, thanks for twisting the top off my beer bartender, now please let me overpay for my drink and give you a tip as well. Please. I don't mind overpaying a bit for a drink. But the reason I don't mind overpaying is so the bar owner can afford to run the establishment, which includes paying his workers a decent wage! Don't expect me to pay your employees wage directly!
If a bar is charging 5 or 6 bucks for a beer, they can kiss there tip goodbye. It's bad enough that bars gauge patrons with ridicously overpriced drinks, now you want a $1 tip per drink on top of that? Ha. Think again. Try lowering the price of your drinks, then I will consider tipping. Or how about this novel idea... the bar owner pays there bartenders a reasonable wage, so they don't have to "rely on tips to survive"??? Give me a break, the bar owners are getting of scott free, and expecting that patrons to not only pay for overpriced drinks, but also pay the salary of there workers??? Don't even get me started on tipping. I do tip most of the time, but I cringe most of the time as well.
What's the name of the planet you live on?
This is the problem with letting hot girls be bartenders. They don't need to be good servers to earn big tips. Give me the dude/ugly girl barkeep any day. They will actually work for their tip, and I will be more than happy to tip generously. If I want to pay someone just to stand there and look hot, I will go to a strip club.
You sound very shallow. You need to grow up.
I have to disagree with:
#1, "when you get a chance" is not a bad thing to say! If the bartender is working a large bar, telling he/she "When you get a chance, can you ring in an order of *insert bar food here* for me" can be a great help! There may be only one register, and if you catch me while I'm making my rounds, it'll get rung in quickly. Otherwise, I may overlook you because you and your friends all have full drinks.
#2, Ahhh... Long Island Iced Tea (LIT). I used to dread them, now actually enjoy making the occasional one. You can really mess it up if not made right. I love making the perfect LIT, and having a customer be pleased with the well mixed drink. As a good bartender, I should be able to realize that you don't need that 3rd LIT and talk you in to something a little less strong, or a glass of water.
As for TIPS, yes please! I never expect large ones, but when they come around I am very grateful and will serve you before I serve the person who hasn't tipped all night. If you continue to frequent my bar and never tip, the service will stop as long as the manger or owner lets me (I'd probably quit if I wasn't allowed this right).
I enjoy my job and try to make it fun for everyone, including myself. I can understand not tipping a crappy bartender, but if I have been giving you prompt and friendly service all night, please tip!
Every bar and restaurant is different than the next as far as bartenders, prices, employee wages, and levels of service go. I have worked in all types, so lets take all of the griping into accordance of what type of place you are frequenting or working at.
I think this list is a bit off, and I am dismayed to see it on such a well recognized site (CNN).
First off, when i was growing up, a tip was 10% of the meal/drink, when did it suddenly become that 20 % was considered minimum?! So fine, *based on the service*, i tip between 5% and 20% but that is based on what the server does and therefore deserves. Lastly, it really is not up to me to pony up because your employer can get away with not paying you, a tip historically was for being appreciative of the service you gave, period. Oh and as a postscript to all the elitist self-satisfied jerks who say to learn how to cook etc., i really do prefer to stay in and make my own drinks and food, because not only is prepared exactly as i like, but i pay a reasonable price and i don't have to tip myself.
What I don't like is gratuity already added. I've had some of the worst service, because they already know thier tip is in the bag. I tip by service and i some times tip more then the gratuity. Don't presume to tell me how much i should tip a person. I never eat out/ drink if i can't afford to tip as well. Your forcing a amount on me only gets me ticked-off and wants me to give you less the i normally would.
markup on liquor is easily 500%.. bottle of cheap vodka costs you $7 in the store, costs the bar about $5... and your cape codder covers the cost of the whole bottle... but if you have a problem with paying that.. then go to the store, and drink at home. doesn't matter what the drink is, or how much it costs, you should leave a tip of some sorts. If i get a beer, and its $4, i'll drop a 5 and they get $1... if its 4.25, they'll get 75 cents. i work at a bar, and know how annoying it is to get change for tips, but i tell the manager that they should adjust their prices one way or another so it doesn't happen.
if i'm pouring you 12 year scotch neat.. and its $14 and you leave me $1.. fine.. didn't take any effort, i dont' expect $3 from that. but if i'm making you a grey goose chocolate martini and its pretty and delicious, and costs $14.. it took more effort.. so pay up a bit. don't like it.. try to make it at home.
you pay for the drinks, the service, and the atmosphere. tips are part of going out. if you don't want to pay tips, get take out, or eat at home.
WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!! seriously................i worked as a bartender for several years, as a secondary job to augment my pathetic social work gig. i made TONS of money in tips...the most $$ i've made in my life for the fun of slinging drinks and flirting. too freakin' bad if the bartender gets pissed off. they make a LOT of $ and most of it is not declared. There are not many higher paying jobs that require such a minimal lack of education. good grief!! bartenders should consider themselves blessed that people are still coming into the bar to drink, given the economy.
Good for you, Lori-
I don't know when we got so caught up in the personality cult of the chef, bartender, etc. They are in a service industry, so they should be providing a service. Very few of either live up to the hype. If I ask you to make my drink a certain way, it's probably because that's the way I like it. If I ask you to be creative, then go all out- otherwise, just do as your customer asks and keep your opinions to yourself
the whole industry needs changeing...How is it that they charge me for 1 beer the price of a 6pack and can't pay thier employee better?
umm... well they have rent to pay, workmans comp, insurance, buying glass wear etc. Oh and then they have to make a profit.
Are you kidding me? I didn't know that at a BAR there were rules on which alcoholic beverages you're allowed to order. If someone wants a Long Island Iced Tea, then they have every right to order one. The bartender doesn't like it? Please... Half the bartenders I see are drinking throughout the night anyway, who are they to judge?
Why do most bartenders think that they are somehow the most important people in the world? You're in the service industry! You serve drinks to people so that they can have a good time. That's it. You're purpose isn't to have a great time, it's to provide a service. You don't become a bartender because you want to hang out in a bar with your friends. That's not what the job is for. Being smug isn't going to earn you more tips, and acting like a customer has just ruined your night will just lose your bar a customer. I'm not going to the bar to serve you tips and make sure you have a good evening. I'm going to the bar because I've been working all day long dealing with my own work issues and I need to unwind. So stop with all the stupid lippy whining and serve me a drink.
Oh, and if you're standing around doing nothing and I say "when you get a chance", that means that I'm trying to tell you to get off your lazy tail and do your job.
I am not a bartender, nor will I ever pretend to be. My knowledge of mixing drinks goes no further than beer, wine or anything with the word 'and'. However, I am a food service manager and know how my team members should be treated, many of whom are bartenders and cocktail servers.
Yes, they are 'servers', and are there to serve the guest. The thing that bothers me the most about many of the 'server' posts is the "You are there to serve me" comments, sounding as though they are your slaves. They are not. They are people, too. They have families, bills and all of the considerations any other person has, unless the guest is independently wealthy.
Understand that respect that is given is respect that is returned. You should hear some of the things that come out of the mouths of guest's towards my female bartenders!
Grant you, there are 'good and bag eggs'. You may get one now and then. But the vast majority of these people are making less than minimum wage at base, and are charged a percent of their sales. Tipping a good bartender or server won't kill you. If you don't like their service, leave them less, but still tip them. At least they'll know that you didn't forget.
Don't forget that tipping has always been part of history. To Insure Promptness. If you can't tip, explain it to the bartender – they always understand everyone else's problems. Remember, they are there helping you have fun, while they can't. Yes, it's their profession, so they have chosen to do this.
But you can always tell a food or beverage person when they get their night off. They tip their servers properly, because they know how hard that extra few dollars are to get.
I will gladly admit that I work at a bar and I enjoy it very much. I've met a lot of interesting people in this industry and have learned how to get along with different kinds of people. If you come to my bar and drink all night and don't tip, fine. I'll get over it. BUT, just because I'm in the service industry does NOT mean that I'm brain dead, stupid, lowly or beneath you. If I ask you if you would like another beer, you CAN look me in the eye. I understand that the economy is bad, that's why bartending is my SECOND job and if you can't leave a great tip, no big deal. Just don't treat me like I'm a waste of life and act superior to me just because I'm bringing you your supper or getting you another cocktail. I'm human and I would like to be treated that way, not like your own personal slave. I believe if I'm being courteous to you, you can pull out some good manners and return the favor, tip or not.
What a stupid article. I was a bartender for many years, and what people want to drink...is not my business as long as they pay for it. I also would rather someone say "when you get a chance" then demand something on the spot. Bartenders....pardon me "mixologists" (The stupidest term ever) are bar service workers not celebrities. There is a thing called SmartServe so you learn not to overserve thus not having to deal with puking patrons. I mean as for tipping..tips are nice but...you're mixing a drink not splitting atoms. These chicks need to get over themselves. I made a lot of money as a bartender and loved the job and liked my patrons a lot too. This article does NOT reflect how most of us feel.
Always Tip your Bartender, no matter what he/she does. It pays off in the long run. I used to work as a doorman in a couple of higher end bars that would cater to the business class, and how well you tipped determined what, if any service you'd get for the rest of the night. If you're planning on drinking a lot that night, get a beer, pay for it with a 20 and tell them to keep the change. You won't take three sips out of your glass before a new beer magically shows up in front of you, and you don't pay for the rest of the night.
Good points, but I am pretty sad about #4. I am a very picky drinker and when a bar doesn't offer wine (or when it would be too inconvenient for the staff to quickly get me a glass) I order a long island. Not because I'm cheap, but because it's pretty much the only drink that tastes good to me. Sorry if that makes me "unsexy," but at least I'm giving them some business and some tip, rather than just ordering water.
Crikey,
So a few days ago we learned that we need to kiss the butt of cooks. Today we learned that we need to kiss the butts of bartenders.
CNN, next week will we have an article about how I should not hurt the feelings of they guy who picks up my trash (I guess I should be taping a dollar bill to my trash bags?)
I can't wait for the article about how bartenders can avoid pissing off paying customers. That should be good reading.
A dollar per drink? I would be leaving a $10 – $15 tip!? They charge you 350% the price of a beer and then expect you to tip a dollar each time? Get out of here... And you know what snobby bartenders? I don't tip you guys at all.
Really, this article is absolute rubbish. You want to know how to not tick off any bartender? Be a decent, polite human being. All the stuff they mentioned sounds like some whiny little self entitled rant from two bartender (girls, no doubt) who had a bad night and think they own the bar that they work at. Guess what? The world doesn't revolve around you, even if you have to make drinks for everyone in it! Yes you deserve a tip for your work but nobody deserves to have to read through this BS. I'd like to see whatever air brained ditzy bar rats that wrote this list of rules put it on the front doors of whatever bar they work at and demand that all their customers follow it. Then wait and see how much more (OR DRASTICALLY LESS) they make in tips.
Seriously though, YOU'RE A SERVER, YOU WORK IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT WORD- SERVICE? If you're a bartender, you go to work to provide a service so as to be rewarded with a tip. People DON'T go to your bar because they feel like supporting all the hard working single parents and college kids trying to make a decent buck, they go to have a drink and enjoy themselves. Whoever wrote this needs to hurry up and apologize to everyone that got suckered into reading this article. I don't appreciate feeling guilty for going to bars, especially for ORDERING A LONG ISLAND ICE TEA. SERIOUSLY???? YOU GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE ORDER LONG ISLAND ICE TEAS???? If you are a bartender and it upsets you to make one of the most simple, common drinks around, I think it might be time for a change in careers.
This article was absurd. Seriously, CNN, this is utter crap. I feel like I should be reimbursed for wasting my time reading such pretentious nonsense. How's about you start paying me a dollar for every crappy article I stupidly waste my time reading? Or, if it's really bad, you should probably go ahead and give me two dollars.
here here
Bartenders, thank you for your service. Bartenders don't worry about what I order just fill the order.
bartenders are a A SERVICE industry, they deserve courtesy and respect... but they are their to SERVE the customer...If they dont like having to make drinks or dealing with someone that may have too much to drink.... DONT WORK IN A BAR?
CNN must really be looking for things to do to write somethng like this..in fact... i will be changing my homepage to FOX NEWS. at least the dont pretend to be a legitimate new service.
This so-called article is just obnoxious: if you dont' want to serve a long island ice tea, dont' offer it on your 'menu;, tips are based on service and not per drink; bartenders flirt with the opposite sex to get them to buy more alcohol and then are pissed if they respond because they're drunk"? That's called cause-and-effect, children.
Be pissed off if someone threatens you, if they sexually harass your staff and clients, or stiif you for the bill.
This is just whiny, me-me-me nonsense; get out of bartending if you dont' like people and become a dog-walker.
Hey you know what? All professions have their downsides. Bartenders, deal with it. you know of these consequences. Your lucky if someone tips even a quarter in this economy. As far as not hitting on them. Oh duh. Don't wear revealing clothing you idiots!
I don't get how there's consideration for only the bartender. I'm not tipping a dollar a drink every time if it takes 30 minutes of getting through crowds to wait another 5 for one beer...Bartenders need to just do their job and if they are quick and friendly, they get a tip...if they're jerks I'm not tipping a dollar per drink that's just retarded
So it's the bartenders fault that it takes you time to get through a crowd to get to the bar? Or that everyone else waiting for a drink is thinking the same thing that you are, that bartenders have 12 arms and can do a million things at once? Right, good point.
I really don't need to rationalize not tipping you. I just don't care about you, I'm not going to the bar to be nice to you or make your life better. Hell I don't even care about you feeding your family with tip money. I go to a bar to socialize with people I do care about and drink alcohol. I reckon thats why I prefer my hole in wall bars; where the bartender is the owner. Same thing goes for you baristas; you are pouring a cup of coffee. Be glad you have a minimum wage job and count your blessings.
You know what the funny thing is about all the cheap people complaining about having to tip? For every one of you losers out there, there is one who understands that hard work deserves to be recognized. My bar is packed with penny pinchers like you and I still walk with over 400 a night because of the decent people that still do exist out there. I make a boat load, and I get to get drunk while doing it. AND, I don't care about you any more than you care about me. Joke's on you buddy.
Looks like your version of hard work and mine are different. I just don't consider pouring me a beer hard work. I'm happy for you that you make a decent living, good job. Now if you would, be a doll and get me a drink.
Yes, I'm sure your job is very hard, and I'm sure you don't make nearly as much money as you should. Clearly, because you can't afford tip. That's rough.
emmy – it's really classy to brag about getting drunk on the job... you must be quite the lady. next, i'd like to see you brag to the patrons at the bar you "work" at about how much you hose from them. I find it extremely interesting that the people you deem "decent" are the people that tip you the most. a person who sees you open a beer and doesn't give you a dollar isn't decent?
your job could be completely done away with, in european countries ordering a drink in some bars is automated. clock is ticking.
For all you bartenders out there.... I'm very, very sorry that you got TRICKED into taking jobs that pay only $2-4 an hour, but with the possibility of actually making hundred$ in one night. They really must have pulled a switch-a-roo on you when you applied for the position!
Your JOB is to serve everyone who is a paying customer, not just the people who throw the most tip money at you. It makes sense to kowtow where the big bucks are, but still everyone in the bar is paying the same for overpriced drinks. Good service should always be rewarded, but if it's not, you're all acting like the customers are stealing welfare checks from little old ladies! Stop whining.
Why do people ever go to those places???
This article kinda irks me a bit. Listen. You chose the service industry but your not a servant? Its your JOB! Your getting paid to be there. So your saying you chose to bartend yet you expect noone to get obnoxiously drunk? or hit on you? or get upset when they have been sitting there for 10 minutes with an empty drink and you havent even looked at them? STFU and do your job. If I say "when you get a chance" it usually because I have been sitting there with an empty drink and you have been washing glasses or chatting it up with co workers. I am not there to make sure you are having a good time. You are paid to be there to try to make sure we have a good time. The best bartenders and service industry workers know this . As far as tips go I always tip at least a dollar a drink or a dollar every two drinks depending on the price of what I am drinking and where I am. so tipping is not a problem.
MOST BARTENDERS AND SERVERS DO NOT GET A PAYCHECK. That's why there is tipping. You may be ignorant, you may not like it, but that's how it is. How come so many of you have this bizarre idea?
Seriously. I got in a fight with a girl the other day because she tried to tell me she "doesn't pay my salary" salary? I don't even get hourly. Do you work for free? No? So why should I?
Again. When did I say anything about not tipping. I tip well and I am polite and that should be enough. I should'nt (and I don't) give sh*t if you get miffed If I order a Long Island, or drink a few too many, or say :when you get a chance. i'll be polite and tip, you shut up and my drink. That should be enough...deal?
Correllation/causation. Most bartenders get less then minimum wage because of the tips. Not the other way around.
If a dollar a drink is expected, as bartenders will have you believe, and they easily serve more than a drink a minute, they're making around $80/hour. For that money, they have exactly one obligation, make the patrons happy so that wage continues and the bar thrives.
People drink Long Islands because they're NOT SWEET like the others. Nor are they incredibly dry like a gin Martini. A Long Island Ice Tea is cold and refreshing – for the mood, for the taste, and for the weather. It is what it is. Don't pass judgment on a drink. That's pathetic.
ALL YOU HAVE TO KNOW IS THIS:
TIP YOUR BARTENDER WELL, EVERY DRINK ORDERED = 1 DOLLAR.
You will receive stronger drinks when you order, and drinks on the house.
Yeah I can dig on every one of these (esp. tipping) except for the Long Island Ice Tea- I'm sorry but if I'm a PAYING and TIPPING customer I don't give a rats ass what my drink order "tells the bartender." Oh and last time I checked, as long as I'm not "5"-ing all over the bar or "3"-ing the poor girl making my drinks, I'm pretty sure I can get as drunk as I feel like (It's a bar, remember?) I don't care if the drink I order has every liquor imaginable or freaking dog's blood in it, if it's on the menu and I order it, make it. If any bartender ever tried to tell me how long island ice tea's are only good for "ticking off your bartender" I would laugh in their face and walk off without tipping and see which stung more. I love long island ice teas, whoever wrote this needs to get the cocktail shaker out of their ass and make me one.
What if you like long islands? I know I've ordered more than one during a night (and yes I can hold my liquor). Its not my responsibility to continuously order drinks so that bartenders can make money. I want to go out, order a drink, socialize. That is why I go to a bar, not to worry about whether I've adequately contributed by ordering the "right" drinks. Sheesh.
Ok, I have a list of "tips" for the people that pay my wages;
1. Stop giving me extra work on top of the stuff I already do for you. I am not your slave, and I dont have time for extra work.
2. Quit telling me you need something done "as soon as i can." I mean, c'mon, it's obviously going to be done as soon as I can get it done.
3. You really should give me a bonus for showing up every day. I mean, I could just go somewhere else to work.
4. Get rid of all those people that don't shower daily and smell up the place. That's just ruining my chi.
5. Don't ask me to work overtime this weekend, when you should know I don't want to because its hunting season.
There, I think I will give that to my paycheck signer(s) and see how it is recieved. Maybe it should be posted on CNN as a "top story"...
First a long island ice tea does not have to be any stronger then a rum and coke. Just because it has five liquors doesn't mean it has to have lots of all of those liquors. You can still make an LIT with only 2oz of liquor.
Second the title of this article should have been "How To Get Really Good Service at A Bar That Is So Busy That Everyone Has to Wait A Really Long Time". You might not like your bartenders attitude but if you want them to care about your needs when there are people standing around waiting to throw them money then I'd strongly advise the above rules.
There are all kinds of bars and all kinds of service industry people. Not everyone lives in a big city with lots of job choices. There are many, many, many places in this country where service jobs are amoung the best paying jobs in the county, so not all sevice industry folks are too stupid or lazy to get a better paying job. The answer is not to have reteraunts pay servers more as most resteraunts fail and to add to their cost isn't the answer for anyone. Most servers make only a few dollars an hour (sometimes as little as $2) and this usually covers little more then taxes paid on tips. Not all servers fail to claim their tips, there are many working professionals in the industry who claim most or all of their tips (I'm one of them). To not tip someone for some simple mistake is rude and uncalled for. How many people get docked salary 'cause they made some simple mistake in thier job?
I have been a bartender for 6 years now, the biggest one to me is rudeness. I am not your slave, butler, or lackey. A snappy finger, a empty ice filled glass shaken at me, or a hey you thrown in my direction will get you ignored for the rest of the night. Why? Because I know you are already so rude you are not going to leave me a tip anyways. I make $2.13 an hour in Texas, thus I never, ever get a paycheck. Your tip is my paycheck. So I will spend my time on nice people who I know have the manors to tip well, and don't treat me like a dog. And if you whistle at me it will result in you getting thrown out of the bar, physically.
Rudeness is not your job to tolerate. Well, maybe some comes with the territory, but you can certainly expect your customers to treat you with respect. I'm sure you agree that your job is to be very courteous as well.
I'd be interested in your opinion on the two posts I wrote a couple posts above this one. To be clear I'm a very friendly and great tipping customer. But when I'm at the bar, its generally at the end of a long week and I am -done- being a sales person. I'd like to get some customer service myself at that point.
And it makes my blood boil when I see BS "rules" above, like one that tells me certain items arent okay for me to buy.
Your whiny superior attitude is why we mix our own drinks at home or friends' homes, in the company of polite, well-bred, non-whiny people.
"When you get a chance" is polite: it shows that you recognize the server is busy. And you can damn well order whatever you want. If the bartender doesn't want to make a Long Island they shouldn't offer them. And the markup is ridiculous anyway: you should bring a flask to economize and to hold you over till the bartender can get to you.
Spot on John. This article just makes me want find the bartenders that actually feel the way this article indicates and go remind them what their job is. We all have good and bad days, but to be as consistantly self righteous as this article suggests would make you a pretty bad fit for dealing with service to the public.
This is the second article I've read on CNN in about a week that focused on how we are expected to treat resturant staff.
I'm all for tipping, generally a buck a drink. But my problem is the tone of these articles; they seem to be less about reminding people the unspoken rules of a night out, and more a bunch of self righteous whining by service staff at the end of a long shift.
Remember you are here for a job. Your job is to treat me extrememly well so I give a crap about your estalishment first, and you second. Be happy youre employed and serve me my stupid long island with a sincere smile. To insinuate I need to be loaded with cash to drink at your bar in this economy is absurd.
Just be thankful I'm here tonight. Im going to get two stiff drinks and put a couple more dollars I probably should be saving in your pocket.
If you should be saving well then dont come out at all...uh how about you go ahead and, i dont know, save the money??
Because if we all did that then you would be uh.... out of a job.
well said!!
A dollar a drink? Not bloody likely. You'll get 20% and like it, otherwise I'll take my business elsewhere and small tips will then be the least of your problems.
ha actually there will be twenty other people there to replace when you leave and they will tip... you are the one who will have to wait for a beer or go some where else where they will make you wait if you tip in which case you will go somewhere else etc etc till you have no where else to go meanwhile i will still be bartending and being typed by people who understand how a bar actually works... this isnt perkins
if you tip poorly**
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I could almost go with everything but number four. Maybe because I Drink too much. BUt normally I start off with a long island if I am in a busy spot. I prefer custom drinks that are usually made with opnly liquor, AKA expensive, but if the bartender is busy I know they are not trying to listen over a bunch of people to me tell them how to make a $30 dollar drink. I'll take my long island, tip half the cost, be back for more or beer.
Speaking of tips, one thing I've learned is that the bigger the tip, the bigger the sip. Barttenders don't expect to make their whole night off one patron, so keep tipping them. But ot indicate that Yes I will tip well, I have tipped $5 on a glass of free water before, or some tip worth more than the beer. Usually they get the idea that I intend to tip well when I ask for some liquor....
Who are all these people so intimidated by servants? I treat everyone with respect until they prove to me that they don't deserve it. BUT, the only standards which I am concerned with are mine. Anyone wanting my continued business best not forget that is they that are there to serve me. I'm not looking for a new bff. The relationship is strictly commercial. I don't need them, they need me. Is this temerity a disease of twenty-something's?
In addition to your Top Five, I would add:
1. Waving me down. I see you!! If I'm not serving you then I will get to you as soon as you are next. Don't wave me down. You look ridiculous, and I'm probably going to skip you.
2. Calling out my name. Just because you know me or are a regular does NOT mean I should attend to your needs when YOU need it. I will get to you as soon as humanly possible. You are not the only person I am waiting on.
"When you get a chance ..." will tick off a bartender? Really? I mean ... Really?
Here's an idea. If Long Island Ice Teas tick you off. Charge more for them. Or don't become a bartender.
Is CNN trolling for people to comment about how their articles make invalid points? Did I just fall for it again like I did with that tick off your chef theme?
5. sack up and order a beer like a normal person
Tip # 4??? I for one LIKE long islands they taste good. So SUCK IT@!
I'm only going to order Long Islands from here out...f@ck these bartenders!
WOW. I never knew Long Island Iced Teas were so loathed.
Excuse me Bartenders! This is what you will do. You will make the drink I order, do it right, smile and provide excellent customer service regardless of the drink I order. Then you shall be rewarded with a tip. I am not that concerned about your day, but if you would like a tip you will be concerned about mine. I hope I have offered up a large helping of humble pie. Peace and drink responsibly;)
Bumble, remind me never to drink with you.
Interesting article. I generally tip at least 20% for good service, however: Why is it automatically assumed that someone should get a tip for average or subpar performance? Isn't a tip something that is by definition "extra" as in not required? Part of the issue seems to be that the industry underpays the waitstaff and puts the onus for the deficit on the consumer...
I go to the bar and throw back 5-6 long island iced teas in about two hours, never tip. I get the teas because I'm poor as hell and have a ridiculous alcohol tolerance (those 5-6 just get me drunk enough to make me a little more giggly but I still have my faculties about me). No one at the bar ever tips, the bartenders make several drinks at once so no one has to wait, they chat with me even though I've only been there 3 or 4 times/am not yet a "regular", and are overall chill folk who want to help people have a good time and seem to love their job. They even get kinda concerned and ask me if I'm going to be okay when they see how much I've drunk and how little it's effecting me. Maybe this beaver and walking forehead should go to a less snobby bar rather than trying to tell other people how to enjoy themselves as if every bar (or bartender) is the same.
Though I will say, with the price of the drink it frankly never occurred to me to tip the bartender even more. I shall try that next time, though I can't afford much, since they're nice. It's silly to say every bartender deserves to be tipped though; some people are just assholes.
I would like to have a drink, or ten, with you Breanna!
Don't get upset, I'm just curious. Would you happen to be African American?
Drinks on me, Breanna!
waaaaahh i only make minimum wage tip me wwwawwwwaaaahahh i deal with people all day wwaaaahhh. get a helmet or get another job.
Next time an article like this is attempted, try having someone with real bartending experience write it. The Long Island Ice Tea tip is entirely wrong. Sure it's 4 types of alcohol (not 5 unless you ask for tequila as well), but unless its top shelf you just use well liquor... and anyone with skill can make it in about 10 seconds. ice, 2 bottles each hand, pour for a few seconds, sour mix, shake, splash of coke, done. Not only that but it's strong so you won't have to make 4-5 of them for the same person. A better suggestion for this tip would have been a mojito, which is a pain in the ass for a number of reasons.
I've been bartending for 18 years and this post is dead on!
Okay so
A) People need to quit hating on bartenders.
B) You can always order a Long Island from me, I think that rule is kind of stupid.
C) I personally do not like when a person's tip is them being extra extra nice to you. They are very friendly and then when it comes time to sign their receipt, they just quickly sign their name and head out.
D) I also don't like when customers complain about their drink not being strong enough. Firstly, I usually give a little extra, but just so you know, I can count to four and get you exactly what you paid for. Strong? How about a double?
Love my local bartender, she's a friend of mine.
HOWEVER,
1. I ALWAYS say 'When you get a chance...'. This is my way of politely sending her a signal that I've been waiting a while for her to get to me, and being a busy woman, perhaps she wasn't aware that I needed something. Now she knows, and WHEN SHE GETS A CHANCE, she will bring me my drink.
2. Some days I'm richer, some days I'm poorer. I tip, but it's dependent on how poor I am and how good the service is. 'Punishing' me for tipping poorly is stupid; I'll go somewhere else. There are eleventy-billion other bars out there all itching for my money. You're dispensable. And, if you think you're going to spit in my drink, just remember, it IS alcohol.
3. Getting hit on: Well, I'm a straight female, so I've never done this, but haven't you figured out that it comes with the territory? I'd think a smart girl like you would have come up with a crushing rejoinder. No? Well, there's parts of every job that suck. This is one of yours.
4. Mind your own friggin' business. I'll drink what I like. Whether LI Iced Tea, Zinfandel, or freakin' WINE COOLERS. You don't be pretentious about what I drink, and I won't be pretentious that I have a job with benefits that allows me to go out in the evenings instead of working.
5. No, this one is not polite. I think that if you're going to go to a bar you should learn to hold your liquor, or at the very least take it outside.
^Like. You're responses are exactly what mine were, except for the tipping thing- I will always stand by the rule of, if you can't afford to tip, don't go out. Thank you overall for your realistic expectations though- bartenders have no right to judge you if they have all the ingredients on hand, and saying "when you have a minute" is better than saying loudly "geez I'd like to get some service around here" any day.
Agreed! I would much rather someone say "When you get a chance" than "Hey you!!" etc...
You control whether or not they leave in good health? Precisely what would you do that would endanger someone's health? That is a sh*tty attitude, right there.
Meant as a reply to the scary post by mercyisforthepowerful.
I think what they meant is to make sure someone doesn't leave throwing up, or worse, smashed and holding the cars keys. In some states a bar can get fined for allowing visibly wasted people to leave, and in pretty much all states the establishment can be held responsible if something happens to that person (like they drunkenly hit someone with their car) after they leave.
"One drink an hour followed by a glass of water, and no more than four cocktails per night."
Oh yeah, bartenders are gonna just LOVE you for this!
So, uh, maybe the point has been missed here. This article is to help bar-goers get better drinks and service by making the bartender's job easier (and more lucrative). Nobody is going to force one to take these suggestions. Some bartenders are not good and following these suggestions aren't going to make them better. Some people are cheap or asinine and aren't going to tip or help out their "servants". Personally, as a bartender, I'd like tipping to be taken out of the equation. I would prefer to be paid an agreed upon wage and have that increase in pay added to the price of the drinks. Conversely, I do make excellent money in tips. I do this because most people aren't cheap. Also, most people are pretty amiable if they think their bartender is working hard to get them a good drink quickly. A word of caution though, to those who think they, as the customer, are in control–the customer is not, in fact, in control. The bartender, is in control. He controls when and what one drinks. He controls whether or not one may stay in the bar. He controls whether or not one leaves in good health. He controls whether or not one leaves a free person or in police custody. One may want to think about that next time one decides that "the customer is always right", because one may be in for an unfortunate incident.
PRECISELY the attitude to which I refer. Wrong line of work. But I do agree with you on the idea of eliminating tipping and having servers get paid a decent wage.
The attitude that the customer, in the end, is not in control? Please. Obviously you have never worked at a restaurant or bar before. If a customer is extremely rude, or is trying to stay beyond closing time, the establishment has every right to kick you out or ban you. Also, have you ever seen the movie "Waiting"? Next time you don't like your food and want them to do something about it, watch how you ask for it. If you're nice, it will come back to you promptly and exactly as you wanted it. Talk to the server like scum? Nobody is going to care if your steak ends up on the floor for a few minutes.
And by the way, a dollar a drink is expected at most places. If you plan to be a repeat customer, you best be tipping well (as long as you are being served well of course). Nobody ever forgets who was the cheap jerk at their bar that night.
wrong CarolinNogo. First, the attitude in question is not who is in control-that is the wrong attitude. The attitude I mean is that the SERVICE industry for which a bartender is a SERVER needs to have the attitude that the customer is a respected person it is YOUR job to make happy enough to want to stay long enough to buy lots of drinks/food, come back and do it again, and speak so highly that their friends also want to come back. That, duckydo, is how one stays in business. Not with pissy attitudes like yours.
I have worked in the food industry, as a service person, waiting tables, tending bar, and in management. And you, dearheart, would be so fired so fast your head would spin.
Oh wow, thank you for pretending you know me. With all the pet names you used, it's no wonder you worked your entire way through the bowels of the service industry (apparently). I don't think my "attitude" is bad at all- all I said was that if you're rude, you won't get treated as well as you might if you're just nice and tip well.
Also, at the several jobs I've had (only several because I've moved around a few times the past couple of years and tend to hold more than one job) I've been rated by my managers as one of their best employees. It's because I don't kiss butt- I instead treat people with a smile and take the time to chit chat with them if they're friendly and want to. The rude ones? Well I have no problem not telling them to have a good night. And if you don't think bad things happen to rude people's food, then you probably actually haven't worked at at a restaurant, or at least spent any time with the stressed out cooks.
worked my way UP, not through the bowels as you seem to be doing. Started low many years ago and worked my way hard up through the ranks. You clearly never worked for me, or you would be a much happier person (my employees love me or leave me (if they find out I expect class.) I never said I did not think inexcusable things happen like spitting in food, etc, I know it does (but never twice in my establishment.)
It is a service industry. There will be assholes on both sides, customers are often rude, inconsiderate, insensitive, short sighted, or whatever, but that NEVER excuses anything less than courteous treatment. Boundaries are good, it is okay to be assertive with a tough customer, but the attitude you espouse, control, illegal immature behavior, etc, is just not okay. Which may be why you move around a lot-maybe the establishments you work at go under?
Im just saying this relatively recent attitude that the customer is a pain in the bartenders ass and an interruption in your day is concerning to those of us who care about good business.
Well said.
a dollar a drink? GET REAL! I am courteous, patient, and I drink easy drinks. It is no one's business to judge my choice of beverage. No way it is worth a dollar on top of the inflated cost of the damn drink itself. And If a bartender or anyone else treats people with the immaturity to ignore you because they dont like you, your drink, or the idea that you expect service of any kind, they are in the WRONG line of business.
With attitudes like this, it is cheaper and more pleasant to buy a few bottles and invite people over to eat my bar food. Sheesh.
i dont judge you by what you drink but i do judge you by what you tip, weather you think a dollar is too much or not, if you dont tip that than i hope your are extremely patient.... its like me saying a plumber doesnt deserve 30 an hour he is just unclogging my toilet, he doesnt give a crap if i dont think he deserves it or not, cause he isnt going to be the one with a backed up toilet if i dont pay...same concept applies to tips, i dont care if you think a buck a drink is too much, im not the one standing there waiting for 10 minutes without a drink in my hand...
And how much did you tip your plumber?
What would be your reaction if your plumber said that if you don't tip him/her "enough" you will be waiting a long time for service, or worse if you don't tip, the job will be done sloppy?
Would you be happy with that?
$1 per drink–not in this camp. I pay 20% of the drink. Drinks are still reasonable where I live...
Start a tab if you want to tip 20%. Nothing wrong with 20%, its generous and thankyou. If you start leaving 60 cents on $3 drinks you will be considered cheap and probably get attitude. Just a little advice to make sure you are treated well, which you deserve.
I believe we should be respectful of servers/bartenders. However, there are quite a few rude bartenders out there that act as if they're better than anyone else and expect you to kiss their a$$es because they're mixing you a drink. I understand that you must have a thick skin to deal with drunks, but it's really not necessary to act that way toward everyone.
I'm not a barteneder anymore, but thats how I paid my way thru school. I don't understand the Long Island bias because they are easy to make and take no time. Its the girly drinks with all the muddling and shaking that I didn't like. Also whats with all the hostility toward bartenders? If people would would show some commen decency than all parties involved would be better off. For all of you that keep saying your just a server your opionions don't matter blah blah blah. Guess what they feel the same so don't sit at the bar all telling the bartender you life story. And one finale thought. Its not ok to touch your bartenders or servers. If you grab someones ass expect to get punched in the face.
i agree, i can make an LIT in 2 pours, 3 bottles in each hand splashes from the gun.
order a mojito, and i want to gouge your face with my muddler
i can make 20 LITs in the time it takes to make 1 mojito properly, add in fruit mojitos and i remember why i switched to a office job.
"whats with all the hostility toward bartenders?"
There is no hostillity toward bartenders here. There is hostillity to the attitude of some bartenders here. It is important to recognize the difference.
Tips are great and a decent thing to do for someone serving you. But as soon as the server starts demanding a tip it no longer is something nice to do for a server, but an obligation. One that the customer resents being ordered to provide, especially with no commitment for extra service.
It is all about the attitude. And that goes for the customer also.
Well said Teee! These people are out of control!
If you've never worked in the service industry, I think you shouldn't be allowed to comment. Also, a lot of bartenders and waiters are in school or pursuing careers that take a few extra years (or more) to take off. The assumption they are uneducated or somehow below the patron is one of the reasons they are so easily pissed off. That being said, I disagree with 1, and can't believe KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DRINK BEFORE YOU WAVE OVER THE BARTENDER isn't on here anywhere. I tended bar in NYC while in school and that was the worst.
its funny because everyone here thinks that a bartenders opinion doesnt matter... the reality is that despite the fact that we are hired help we as bartenders have WAY more freedom than any other service job to choose who we help and who we dont... if you think otherwise your just an idiot... you can rant and rave about us being paid to do a job but when someone tips me more i am going to help them faster.... when it comes to bartending you buy good service/drinks you dont reward for good service... and if you think losing you business scares anyone, think again, when a bar is 2-3 or even four deep if you leave i dont give a f**** there are three hundred other people waiting for a drink and willing to pay for it and as long as there is always a line of people waiting for drinks all night my boss doesnt care either... this isnt perkins this is a bar, im not waiting on 2-3 tables at a time i am seriving hundreds of people at a time and if you want me to ignore the hundred+ other people you have to bribe me...
and for those thinking it is a mindless easy job, i challenge any one of you to try it, i would to see you guys crash and burn, there is a reason why we make so much money, i make more than 60k a year and i work 20 hour work weeks.. and the reason i can do that and keep my job is because it isnt as easy as people think... and im not bitching cause i hate my job, i love my job i make more than the average college grad, i work less and what other job has the custemers kissing my ass and giving me money for it and not having to lick out someone's a$$ hole to get paid?
I was many years ago and made a KILLING serving Long Island Iced Teas!
@abartender
/golfclap
Well I make $500k dollars a year and work 10 hours a week mowing lawns for Bill Gates and other millionares!!
Who cares what you make, how hard or easy your job is, or if you like it or not. I could claim anything on the anonymous interwebs, too. (see above)
Also, as I stated above in a earlier post. I could throw you into any skilled labor job that you have no experience in, and probably watch you flop around like a fish out of water as well. Your argument is invalid.
America…. go out to a bar, and like they do, rudely point at a bartender and say…"when you get a chance, make me 10 Long Island Iced Teas". When you're served 3 hours later because they're usually busy with the incredibly challenging difficult task of opening a $10 beer bottle and expecting a large tip for it, proceed to drink them all as fast as you can. Return to the bar at 2:01am, hit on them, then barf all over the counter. After, pull yourself together and give them this tip: "never drink and drive because you may hit a bump and spill your drink".
Like the rest of us that have REAL crappy jobs where we have to tolerate an immense amount of BS without having ignorant guidelines on how not to piss us off or making $30+ per hour worth of TAX-FREE tips AND a salary, STFU, POUR US OUR WATERED DOWN AND OVERPRICED DRINK BECAUSE THAT IS YOUR FAKE JOB! Maneuvering bottles, squeezing limes, or operating a church key does not constitute a real one. Remember the reason you're a bartender in the first place: MINDLESS JOB & EASY CASH; not a crappy check with line after line after line of deductions, HARD COLD TAX-FREE CASH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whining tools; the drunker we are, the less we care about $, and the more we tip!
LONG ISLAND ICED TEAS RULE!
u know what I realize is wrong is the article. It's the attitude. If the author instead titled it, "what bartenders do not enjoy", it'll make more sense. I would get it if a bartender doesn't like not getting tips, but saying that they get pissed is another story for getting tip less than a dollar a drink just sounds bad.
All this does is piss off the customers, and certainly not getting the point across. The author makes all bartenders come off as pretentious and arrogant people who look down on their customers.
I hate to be harsh, but all the folks who think it's the bartenders' job to keep them happy without good tips are likely to have some or all of the following:
1) Bad sex life (you are too self-absorbed)
2) Bad romantic relationship (you are too selfish)
3) Bad reputation (you are an a-hole)
4) Bad colon or some other similar problem (you've got to be constipated to be so anal)
My advice – (1) accept the fact that life is unfair and people owe you NOTHING and (2) check your colon
Oh my, this was spot on! Thanks for the laugh!
okay, well from a former server, i get the whole you're paying for good service. i never got mad at people when i knew i wasn't able to give them great service (ie another big needy table was taking up all my time). so if you're a bartender and someone has been standing there for 10 min waiting for a drink then you can expect them not to tip well- if they do, great, but don't expect it. if anything being a server has made me more critical of others in the service industry. get it together people, its your job, its not supposed to be fun, thats why you get paid. you take the bad tippers with the good, the rude people- there's no excuse for that- but they're the losers in the end b/c they get talked about by the staff for the rest of the night, and the next time they come in- stinks for them.
How about: Tips on Not Pissing Off Your Customers: Do NOT act like a pretentious, self-absorbed master of liquid. You pour drinks in combination into a glass. That's all. You work in a bar becuase you can't hold a real job, not because its a career choice. We work harder than you, we make more money than you. Make the damn drink and stop complaining.
Yup, kinda simple... but not for the drink pourer that calls himself/herself a bartender. Oh and drinkpourer if you don't like your gig then move on to something else.
How about you give it a try and then tell me who works harder. Bet you wouldnt last 5 minutes behind a counter with over 100 bottles (liquor alone) plus another 50 or so beer bottles all of which you need to know where they are, countless recipes to memorize, 4 lines of customers all calling at you to try and get a drink, people waving money in your face like theyre the most important person in the room, rude and abnoxious people yelling at you. Yes its stressful, yes its hard, yes sometimes you have to put your suck it up and deal with it because it is part of the job. But in the same respect, you dont have to come to me and make my day any harder. Try a please and a thank you and maybe even a smile. Youd be suprised at how far a little thing like that could take you. Oh and as far as tipping goes, you pay the estaablishment for the overpriced drink and then they dont even have to give us minimum wage. Tipping is just a nice way of saying "thank you" and believe me, we remember those who do and who DONT tip.
I bet I could throw you into a submarine and see how long you last running the electrical distribution system and maintaining anything that moves electrons through it. I bet you wouldnt last one shift there. Maybe taking machine gate calls for a failed system that you have to troubleshoot and find out what part has failed, oh and the line down is costing the company thousands of dollars an hour, so there is a bit of "get it done yesterday" haste factored in as well.
Point being, you are trained in to it, the day you started, you couldn't do it either. If I had time to train in, I think I could hack it, seeing as I have, and do those things above that I am sure you would fail at after one shift as well.
Simply, your argument is invalid, stupid, and i'll take a long island iced tea when you get the chance...
Dont be so sure about making more money. The real pros in the business don't discuss it but there are many making well over 100k working three days a week. I'm just saying, be polite and tip well and you will have a good time. Best wishes.
What an utterly useless article
Don't buy a long island ice tea huh? I got an idea. I'll just buy a beer instead. Then you can just twist the cap off and hand it to me. I'm sure the dollar is still obligatory though right? If I just buy one beer or one shot. I really think 50 cents is fine. Some places have 2 dollar drafts. Tipping a buck to pour you a 2 dollar draft is retarded.
I've been a bartender in several restaurants.
Never, ever wave money at me. Ever.
you are quite arrogant .
what about folding a nice crease in the bill and just holding it there as a sign that says, yes I would like to purchase a beverage from you, because I'm standing here and you haven't been down to this side of the bar for a while. Oh ok, you gave me the head nod, I'll put my bill down now.
right, just put it in your pocket. never ever put booze in front of me. ever.
I did this once after I watched a guy do it in a movie. Bad idea.
What are you going to do, make me wait another 5 minutes? Ooh, good one, you got me back. Congratulations on finding the only place in the world where you have a modicum of power and using it. I hope that gives you the confidence to actually get it up for your girlfriend for a change later; although she's still going to dump your ass in a week because you're a bartender. Now go get me a Scotch you pathetic monkey and if you're quick about it I'll give you a shiny quarter!
who still eats out these days? Economy sucks. All the sensible (and probably the nice tippers) are staying home. I can drink nice wine and mix my drinks for a lot cheaper.
st fu, no one cares. seriously
I can't stand it when people ask to taste the wines when they are only buying a glass, as if I had time to talk them through a five wine tasting session and give them advice on what wine I think would be the best for their $10 meal.
I also can't stand when people order non-specific beverages like "a martini" or "white wine" so that I have to take them through all the possible options they can choose from.
st fu, no one cares.
I care that there are people who know absolutely nothing about alcohol who choose to come in to the bar and waste my time with their drivel. If you don't know what a martini is, why are you ordering it?
You sound like a crappy server.
Ya... those people who "waste your time"...thier called the customer, douchebag, and they pay your rent. Please do everyone a favor, including yourself, and get the hell out of the service industry. You're terrible at it.
doesn't your restaurant have house wine?
God how I hate how the customer asks questions. Shut up and buy something. Emily, I guess a customer never wants to try somethign they never had and doesn't know all the details. I never knew how many martinis there were till I went to a martini bar once. Or, I want a white whine, but can't find a list in this place. Sorry for the $10 meail, but I'm going to have 6 dirnks, but since you couldn't take the time to help me, I'll just go somewhere else.
your job is the SERVE the customer – you apparently dont understand what that means. it doesnt mean you simply convey a drink from the bottle to a glass on the bartop in front of a patron, but rather you cater to your customers needs. if that need includes asking what would be best with a particular meal – thats your JOB. you are the bartender – you are supposed to know that stuff and provide that SERVICE to your customer. if not you suck and have no place behind the bar.
eric=GeeWhizz=Keeptrying=jumpoffabridgeericyou'repathetic
I know bartenders in low end family joints that make $200 in tips on a lunch shift. If you make in a shift what i make in a week at the same joint dealing with the same customers as a minimum wage host you should NOT complain when someone yaks on your bar top cause you likely just robbed them of their weekly earning by serving stiff drinks and batting some eyelashes
owned, cry more now widdle guy
you're the help, and no one cares what you think
I would be willing to bet a weeks worth of tips that jesusSTFU never touched a girl at his local bar and only bangs his right hand
judging by your posts, you're an assh0le and a crap bartender, so a weeks worth of tips for you is what, ten bucks? big spendah!!!!
exactly. you know how the women love angry hateful men.
and losers who pretend they're two different people on the internet like you are eric
i'd be willing to bet the same weeks worth of tips that eric isn't a bartender, he's that greasy fat loser that every bar employs to do the awful crap that needs done, the tatted 30 something loser who has ascended to assistant fry cook at a rathole pub, and knows he's not capable of anything better
eric=GeeWhizz=Keeptrying=jumpoffabridgeericyou'repatheticlol
We Wants The Redhead!!
Solid 8
CNN's articles like this are utterly ridiculous. No barfing, REALLY? Thanks for the tip.
what's more annoying, the fact that bartender's are telling patrons what to do, or that CNN runs this kind of article at all, when it would only be applicable to college students, yuppies, and alcoholics in America's dying big cities. I mean really? Who has time or interes anymore to frequent bars? It doesn't speak to middle America, or anybody with a brain.
Forget that
Economy is slow and money is tight
I will order a long island iced tea if I want and if they don't want to sell them then don't sell them
stupid stupid list
If your not willing to tip just stay home and pour your own drink. Never disrespect people who handle your food/drinks!
actually, no, you get PAID A WAGE TO POUR THAT DRINK, so stfu and pour it. You get tipped because you go ABOVE AND BEYOND. Learn the difference.
Im not a bartender, I just tip so I get better service and it pays to do so.
^^^^^^^^^ This x1000
PS I think its very rude of the authors to assume that people are cheap for ordering a drink with a high alcohol content. Maybe they just like that drink.
#1 Pet peeve of customers, the same mixed drink tasting completely different every time your order it. Then praying to god, you get the bartender that made it the way you liked it. That has made me only drink beer at a bar. When I order beer, my tips are not going to be much; sorry you opened a bottle or pulled a lever. When I get a drink for my wife, which is always a mixed drink, I tip more. I don't really like long island ice tea, but I'm tempted to order one next time out. Never knew a type of drink angers people, and I find that comical. Also, you don't want to get hit on? don't dress wh0rish, but then that impacts your bottom line. Everybody has garbage that comes with their job. sorry, rambling
For #1, if I've gotten to the point where I'm asking "when you've got a minute", I've been waiting to order a drink for a while, you've walked past me a few times, and I'm starting to wonder if it's time to throw some money on the counter for my previous drink and go elsewhere.
If you have a problem with someone politely trying to make sure that you know they would like to order another drink, the issue is all yours. When you're finally able to get around to me, I don't want you deciding not to break into my conversation with a friend and moving on to the next bar stool, just because I happened to look the wrong way when I was given the secret signal.
And for #3, if someone's that drunk, they wouldn't notice a garbage truck full of sarcasm if it hit them in the face.
7, 5.5
reminds me of the frequent admonitions by flight attendants. Please let us passengers know how we can make your flight more comfortable.
I tip one dollar for each drink. I get great service.
Tips are great, but patience and consideration go a long way too... When the bar was 10 deep I always would prefer the patience over the money...
you're a socially inept loser, seriously, no one cares about your opinion
Yeah, pretty simple premise. I always wind up comping three or four drinks per night just because someone said please or thank you.
Not everyone drinks to get drunk. And if they don't "want" you ordering a Long Island, then don't serve them!
What's the beef? There are no laws that compel a patron to tip. If ya ain't got it, don't give it. If ya gotta b@#ch about not getting tipped, then get outta da food service industry! I always tip well, but I find it pretty amusing when a non tipper leaves the bar. The fricking tends and waits have something to go ballistic about for a few mins and then it's on to the next shmuck that aint gonna pay. The fricking tips come out even folks! There are quite a few people that tip more than their fair share (its called generous) and take care of the non tippers. There are restaurants out there now that work for donations and it works the same way. You have the poor, useless schmucks that don't have anything to give. Then you have the schmucks that are just plain nasty ass#$$#s that take advantage of anything they are not made to pay for. Then there are the people that pay a fair share and then those people that pay generously. It all comes out in the wash. So next time ya wanna whine about a non tipper, why don't ya just keep your mouth shut and take care of the next customer.
These girls can really write. In case you haven't caught on yet, I'm employing the literary device of sarcasm...
Please let me know where these two sages work so I can avoid coming into contact with them.
How ironic
I drink what i want and tip what I want' Your justifications for why I should care about what you think don't make one whit of difference.
I banged every single female (7) that worked at my local bar. These bitches are idiots.
LMFAO! You are my hero!
Sorry bartenders, but i actually buy long island ice tea because I LIKE THE WAY THEY TASTEand i can handle my drink..so get over it
the only tip on here that was good was "tip a dollar/drink" and that's if you're paying cash/credit on a per drink basis. otherwise, large tabs its ok to do 18-20%. ALL the other tips are ridiculous and would make for a pretty boring job if followed.having worked in the service industry for several years, bartenders love all the crazy stuff that happens so its ok if you get wasted and hit on them and leave them a 50% tip or get rowdy and barf on your boyfriend, its awesome (this is not sarcasm/irony) i'm serious
seriously, why do you idiots think anyone cares about the fact that you are so socially inept that you had to do that? And why are you too stupid to avoid double posting?
Bartenders work with drunk people every single night. How many other professions can say that? The service industry is hard enough, but add alcohol to the mix and people can get really ugly and obnoxious in a hurry. Any idiot can pour a rum and coke, but it takes a lot of skill to be a good bartender. You have to leave all your troubles at home and stay positive no matter what because customers can smell frustration like a dog can sense fear and they will attack you with just as much viciousness. You need to remember peoples names, drinks, special likes (no lime, two straws, coke back, etc), personal history's for regulars and many other things. Here's what may be going on in my mind at any given busy moment while twelve different people are waving money at me.......I need to catch the bar-back to tell him we're out of jager, the harp keg is tapped, and to grab some smokes from upstairs, I need to snag a new roll of credit card paper because we're almost out, I just noticed that a big tipper has walked up and I need to get to him next, the other bartender is having trouble hearing somebody's complicated last name over the screaming amplifiyers and i know exactly where their tab is, if this douche doesn't stop shouting "hey," i'm gonna have his ass thrown out, that girls about to puke, that guy's edging closer and closer behind the bar, my back is killing me, that girl just knocked over her drink and now she's handling broken glass, that guys is eating olives out of my cocktail tray like it's a frackin' buffet, i'm almost out of ones (where's the damn manager?) and on and on. adding to the stress and noise is the fact that bartending is a physically demanding job and that's coming from a guy who works construction during the day. it's as simple as this, if you're pleasant or even indifferent and you tip, you'll get good service, if you're a rude, self-centered, entitled person you'll get lousy service.
explain why you think anyone cares about your opinion as you're the help? And if you give ME crap service, you'll get NOTHING but an ass chewing from your manager after he gets an ass chewing from me. Who the F do you idiots think you are, you're the G0D DAMN3D HIRED HELP, stop pretending your opinion matters.
I'm sorry, but we're people too. Not just help. You're a prick.
my manager would see right through your small-minded and hateful dribble and open the front door with your face while i smiled and laughed.
I think you're just a colossal douchebag, or maybe just a bitter little guy who didn't get enough hugs from Daddy...
"Bartenders work with drunk people every single night. How many other professions can say that?"
EMTs deal with drunk people every single night
Doctors, nurses, and orderly in the ER deal with drunk people every single night
Police deal with drunk people every single night
None of them gets tips and some of them (EMTs) earn very low wages. But all of them provide a benefit to society. What do bartenders do again?
Actually after 20 years as a paramedic I remember several nights I didn't have to deal with drunks. I think some of you people need to chill out just a bit.
Thomas seems to be having trouble understanding the word "every". That's okay, it's a tough word. You spelled your name right though, so congratulations on that.
Exactly! and... Police and EMT's should make a heck of a lot more than bartenders!!!
Oh my, bartending was an absolute blast and I can't help but to add to the point about hitting on bartenders: I (as did my partners) constantly had sloppy drunk women throwing themselves at me and had plenty of fun as a result... BUT the one cute girl that did nothing more then sit there quietly giggling while we were being gushed over is the one that really got my attention... We just celebrated our 11th anniversary ;)
yea, so when I worked in helpdesk, my job depended entirely on customer interaction, and no one gave me a tip (other than get the hell out of helpdesk). Your job is to provide a service. I tip when I receive GOOD service. I do not tip when I receive poor service, or because the bartender is attractive and some dude down the bar is tipping her in the hopes of getting in those tight jeans. When there are prevailing circumstances, such as the bartender is dealing with an abusive customer or a party that is being difficult, I do not hold that against them in dealing with me. I realize they have a job to do, and give them the benefit of the doubt.
Oh my, bartending was an absolute blast and I can't help but to add to the point about hitting on bartenders: I (as did my partners) constantly had sloppy drunk women throwing themselves at me and had plenty of fun as a result... BUT the one cute girl that did nothing more then sit there quietly giggling while we being gushed over is the one that really got my attention... We just celebrated our 11th anniversary ;)
serioulsy, why do you idiots think anyone cares about the fact that you are so socially inept that you had to do that?
You missed the point, but that's ok... I was simply stating that the drunk girls referenced in the the article throwing themselves around vs a nice quite respectable girl carrying herself correctly achieve different results as I'm speaking from experience...
no loser, YOU missed the point, you are so socially inept that you had to do that, stop assuming others missed the point, you're an imbecile and incapable of discerning that
Tips for not pissing off the bartender? Who works for who??
We work for the bartenders.
Bartenders are special and actually they are doing us a favour simply by acknowledging our presence. To expect them to perform their actual job requires more money preferably upfront.
We work for the bartenders and frankly we better get our acts together and start ponying up the money to the boss.
Bars are a service industry. I just wonder who is "servicing" who?
It's whom. Who works for WHOM.
Non-tippers get dirty dish water slipped into their drink. Yes, even into a bottled beer.
OOOOOHHH THE THREATS BEGIN!!! No.,liar, no one gets dishwater in their drink and your attempt to threaten people is pathetic.
Okay, as a bartender...the idea of putting something other than booze or mixer in a glass is disgusting. Not to mention illegal. I've had customers who've tried to punch me, and I would still never, ever, spit in someone's drink or put something like dishwater in it. That's beyond vile.
If this is part of your MO as a bartender, you should find another job.
committing assault just because you think you should get a tip? classy
This is untrue and just plain stupid.
I have (unfortunately?) spend many hours at a bar. You can SEE the bartender open beers and pour drinks. Half the pours are ON the bar, right in front of you, in a glass you WATCHED them grab from the rack.
Don't be so stupid.
Bringing your kid in and sitting his nasty E.Coli butt on the bar like it is so cute. Then having little kid try to be cute and giggle as he/she stumbles to order a Shirley Temple during your busiest hour. Kids have no place in a bar!
as the help, thinking that your opinion matters at all
I, the help, don't give a flaming rat's behind about your opinion. Grow up, get a pair, and get off the internet.
You'd understand the world a little bit more if you got out of your mom's basement and learned how basic human interaction works. Unless you own the world, somewhere, at sometime, you are the help. A little courtesy, of any kind, may help you avoid becoming a bitter shut in with delusions of relevance.
one drink an hour? four drinks a night? so according to their tipping rules, a bartender is going to make $4 max off you? How lame is that? News just in: bartenders like it when you tip them a lot, which means buying lots of drinks.
CONFESSION: I once barfed at the Black Angus in Industry Hills. And not in the RR or anywhere discrete, but literally right on the bar. Not a good night – I 86'ed myself!
Sorry–but that is unacceptable, idiot behavior in any environment, at any time, in any state of drunkenness. What, are you in the 2nd grade?
Uggghhhh.
I agree! Bad Sancho! All grown up now :)
And if the bartender that night happens to be reading this (the one I used to play trivia with), I am so sorry bro. I know it was over 10 years ago (I can hear Chubb-Rock in my memories), but it's never too late to say you're sorry.
OMG, it's been 20 years! "1990, Chubb Rock jumps upon the scene with a lean and a pocket full of green..."
Thinking "no ice" entitles you to more liquor. You're only getting more mixer if anything at all.
as the help, thinking that your opinion matters at all
Or maybe your customer likes the taste of the top-shelf liquor they purchased and wants to taste it. Maybe they want a literal splash, or exactly one cube (because you confuse a splash with "half a glass of water."
Maybe your customer knows they are paying for exactly one shot and maybe they want it served how they like it.
I order scotch straight. Deal with it.
And don't put fu@king ice in it.
Got it?!?
Sounds like you could use one right now.
Griping about being charged full price because after all, you are a "regular".
as the help thinking that your opinion matters at all
i imagine these two idiots actually think people care about their opinion
I like Long Islands. I don't drink them to be cheap, I buy them and drink them because I like them. Usually I'll have only one or two, and drink water in between. If it offends bartenders so much to make them, they can choose to stop serving it.
Also, people who don't tip deserve to be served last. You may be paying them $5 for a shot, but bartenders aren't making $5 for that shot. To be able to put up with the nonsense that customers give them and still be able to smile and be nice is a feat and well deserving of the couple of bucks they get from me.
"Also, people who don't tip deserve to be served last"
You're a moron, they get paid a WAGE to WORK, that it is small and they supplement it with tips does NOT mean they get to decide how to do their jobs. Your point is patently retarded.
"To be able to put up with the nonsense that customers give them and still be able to smile and be nice is" REQUIRED BY THE TERMS OF THEIR EMPLOYMENT AND IRRELEVANT TO THE TIP.
Paying out then asking for one more drink, followed by "just take it out of the big tip I gave you".
wow, this article just shows how lame "advice" can be on the internet ... sorry but these two women should keep their opinions to themselves and get real jobs ... maybe as bartenders and then they can give "advice" from some real world experience ... if anyone even cares.
What geewhiz fails to understand is that the customer is always right and needs to be treated with respect.
I generally tip well unless I have cause to do otherwise and certainly someone with the type of attitude as this jerk geewhiz would likely have me walking out of the establishment.
The last thing I need when I go into a bar is someone with a selfabsorbed uppety, I'm better than you attitude. I could care less how great they look. I look for service and courtesy. Geewhiz, are you listening?
John
It seems that I see an article like this at least once a year. It is the bartender's job to make the customer happy, not the other way around. #1 – "When you get a chance...". This is one way a customer is being polite when they aren't being waited upon. Not every bartender is a master at nonverbal communication. #2 – Tipping, of course. A dollar a drink? On a $5+ drink that takes more than 30 seconds to make? Yes. For popping the top on a $2-$4 beer, 15-20% will do just fine when the tab comes. (Most) Bartenders don't earn waitress sub-minimum wages. #3 – Flirting....you know the bar and the atmosphere when you start working there, and should know what to expect. #4 – Don't want to pour a Long Island Ice Tea? Don't serve those drinks. The customer will spend money somewhere that does. #5 – Okay, I agree with this one.
I've spent many years in the service industry, and it was always my job to make the customer happy, not set rules for them to make me happy.
mmmmmmmmmm beeeeer ;)
explain to me why I should care about the opinion of the hired help?
Please come into my bar, I would love to make you a "special" drink you will never forget.
Grow some balls and tell us all the name of your establishment. I'm sure your boss wouldn't mind AT ALL your attitude towards paying customers.
Some attitude huh?
Here is a clue: If you are going to act like an angst ridden teenager, then expect to be treated/paid like a teenager.
Now, if you ever decide to grow up and act like an adult professional, then you will be treated/paid as such.
You give a bad name to bartenders.
There is something wrong when bartenders make more money than teachers. Quit your whining.
I've never believed in tipping for a bottle of overpriced beer. I go to a club, if I want some bottled beer, that's what I order. The bartender then sells me an overpriced bottle (understandable because it is a club) but to expect a tip for pulling a beer out of a fridge and opening it is ridiculous.
...I'm sure that troll "GeeWhiz" will have some self-absorbed crap to say about this though.
I agree completely. I run a tab with a credit card. I pay the customary 10-20% when I cash out, depending on service.
It is a SERVICE job. Provide me with SERVICE and I will leave an appropriate tip. WHEN I PAY....not a dollar a beer. Get real.
A $3 beer (an expensive import) is worth .$60 tip, MAXIMUM.
I don't understand your pricing guidelines...do you drink at a bar from 1983?
Absolutely. There is no way that I'm tipping a dollar every time someone pulls a beer out of a cooler and opens it for me. If I get two beers at the same time, fine, but not for one measly beer. If I'm ordering them one at a time, they can expect a tip every other time I get a beer.
re:
"Hit on them at 2:01 am"
The device used, while technically considered ironic, was really just sarcastic whining.
Just saying.
And besides, I'll stop hitting on them at 2:01 when they stop blowing me at 2:05 in the mens room.
You wish, ya pig.
Oh My-A Gay Boy on the Food Blog! Talk about a Quickie.
Man, I'm gone 2 days and this is what happens here. =o
It happens EVERY time those Gay Boys win a World Series. Shameful-Gives MY Profession a BAD Name!
Oh, it's not the men, it's the women. It's my experience that women who work in bars are loose. I'm pretty hot though so I don't have much trouble getting any woman I want to drop to her knees for me.
I am a bartender and also do not drink. If you are noy going to drink that is fine especially if you are tipping well on your non-alcoholic drink just dont be the guy or girl who takes up a barstool all night and constantly asks to have thier water refilled and then leaves no tip
That behavior may annoy you, and I never do that, BUT–they have a right to sit there and you have to serve them. If you worked for me and you dumped on any customer, regardless, other than drunk and obnoxious customers, I would fire you.
Perhaps your self-serving attitude annoys your customers. And without them.....guess who gets no paycheck?
or what? F**K YOU I AM THE CUSTOMER, stop pretending your opinion matters, you're the f**king help
You've consistently shown that you have nothing constructive to add to this discussion other that GLARING CAPITALIZATIONS. Perhaps it's time to retire to your race car bed, and ask mom for another Capri Sun.
Unless you paid for that water, you are not a customer. You are a loiterer
I would actually like to know what bartenders think of non-drinkers. I don't drink for personal reasons but still go to Happy Hour occassionally with my co-workers, and at times with friends acting as the DD. Do bartenders dislike us "cheap" patrons who don't buy alcohol (it was indicated above that cheap people who only buy one drink are disliked). I typically tip well, but my drinks are cheap, so if my Sprite is $2, I pay $4.
as a bartender i respect the dd and $4 on a $2 drink makes you a cool cat. After 4 or 5 refills bust out another dollar.
As for designated driver's, we're actually supposed to charge for anything that isn't water. Soda, Sprite, Cranberry, OJ...but I don't. If you're getting people home safe, I'll never charge you. If you flip me a buck on your first Sprite, I won't expect anything else from you other than a bit a patience if the bar is at capacity.
...a bit *of patience.
You rock! That's really cool. :)
I like most bartenders and take care of them quite generously. My only beef is when I get no acknowledgment that I will be served. Now I'm not talking about over-crowded venues like say, Vegas on Memorial day weekend. But say there are 4 customers at the bar, I at one end and the person they are serving at the other; please say "something" to me as you walk by...maybe a "Be right with you" I know they know I'm there! It's their job to know. but please acknowledege me. I will wait with the patience of Job if you just say something. I'm aware that the number of customers at the bar is not necesarily all the folks you are serving – many bars serve restaurant patrons as well. But just as there is customer etiquette that this article entertainingly points out, there is also service etiquette. Sadly, too many bartenders today (by no means the majority) carry "I don't want to be here" attitudes. Probably the worst thing they could do to their own pocket-books.
This is a bizarre article that makes me never want to tip bartenders again. And although I do typically tip a dollar a drink (cause it's the convention), I think that's way too much. Especially in busy bars where the drink orders don't stop. That has to amount to $50 – $70 / hour in some places and all they're doing is pouring drinks for crying out loud. In my case, it doesn't even involve that. They're just taking a bottle cap off a bottle and they think they deserve a reward above their pay for that??? A reward that's equal to the actual cost of the beer itself???
And on the "when you have a moment thing," I certainly wouldn't be all passive and sheepish like that, but many if not most bartenders (including ones who couldn't have yet formed an opinion of me) are not very good on picking up cues and need to be grabbed by the arm. When they're done servicing one order, they turn to watch the TV, grab a drink for themselves or start chatting with a friend. If I have to beg you for a drink in a half empty bar, then don't expect a tip from me (or certainly not a full dollar).
Waiters and waitresses will continue see 20% from me however since they typically maintain a pleasant service attitude. The "cool" bartender vibe of will-they-or-won't-they-serve-you has led me to have nothing but contempt for them. Thanks for clarifying it CNN, I'll tip my bartender less from now on.
Ask me what not to ask a taxi dispatcher.
I really hope someone did not get any money for writing this article. That is NOT what irony is! Writers who can't properly understand the concept of irony... serious fail. Get this shit off CNN, seriously.
Michelle – Someone who uses the term "serious fail" should really not criticize others.
I agree! Also, don't expect to get served when you snap your fingers me. Stop begging me for free drinks douche bag! I'm not giving you one. Your girlfriend maybe, but you... NOT! When you go to the bathroom together we know what your doing (sniff sniff). Do the blow somewhere else, and if you must do it in my bar please clean up the dust you left on the TP dispenser, sink, or back of the toilet. If you get aggressive with me or the other patrons I'm just going to have the bouncer/ cops remove you. When we close at 1:45 am don't argue with the bouncer, don't beg for one last shot, don't act like you don't notice the lights on and music off. It's closing time, it's late and I'm tired and still have two hours of cleaning and stocking to do before I can go home...Get out!
By the way, it's no longer Long Islands they order. It's Adios Mother F***ers. They have more booze than long islands. Easy fix for the bars for these cheapos. Charge double price for all the booze. If your well drinks are $5 charge $10 for Long Island type drinks. They get extra booze, so it should cost more. Usually they are just barely 21 and don't need those super strong drinks anyways.
$5 well drinks? Where?
I get top shelf for $6. Who the H3LL pays $5 for a well drink?
people at a real bar in a real city, please save the stupid responses, you don't qualify
Um anyone this this list bares a striking resemblance to this gawker article?
http://gawker.com/5684635/7-things-you-should-never-do-in-a-club
No, not really. I mean they are both lists but other than that, no I don't notice much similarity.
Do not whistle or snap your finger to get the bartender"s attention, also do not yell out hey barkeep, chief or boss I need a drink, A simple excuse me works just fine, and no my name is not Tom Cruise and calling me that is going to take your "cocktail" a lot longer to make.
how about you ST FU about what NOT to do since you're the GD help and your opinion doesn't mean f**k all?
I'd really like to know what gives you the right to talk to someone like that? Is it because you think your job is somehow better than their? or is it because you think that people that work in bars and restaurants are some hoe beneath you? I would really like to know why you think its ok to talk to someone like that..... Oh I know what it is. Its because its the internet and you dont actually have to face the person your calling "the help." You can hide behind your little screen and blast away at who ever dares disagree with you. Why dont you try thinking about other people and not yourself for a change. You might start and think of things a little differently. P.S. I hope every bartender/waiter has taken the opportunity to F*&K with your food or drink every chance they've gotten you arrogant bastard. Cheers
That's exactly it. You have a crap job, but get over it because that crap job is to serve me. I bet if I threw enough money at you you'd wear a little fez and dance around on top of the bar like a monkey. I'm chiropractor, I save lives for a living so yeah, I think I might be a little better than you.
"I'm chiropractor, I save lives for a living so yeah, I think I might be a little better than you."
Funnies thing I've read all day. Translation: I'm [a] chiropractor, so I use pseudo-scientific bullsh!t to fleece people of gobs and gobs of money.
Gobs of money that I'm not going to tip your worthless ass with. I'm assuming you're a bartender. Hey make sure you learn the Heimlich Maneuver and maybe someday you can save lives too when someone chokes on an olive in your bar.
Don't bring that weak-ass shit around here Jeff. If you were standing in front of me right now I'd slap you in the face with my dick. Then I'd order you get get me a drink and you know what? You'd do it you pathetic booze jockey.
So is GeeWhiz a bartender apologist or what? Oh, such snappy come backs. At the end of the day, you and your friends are still just d-bag bartenders with an over inflated sense of importance. Do you promise they care less about me? I doubt it.
Bartenders fall into the category of strippers. They are there to separate you from as much cash as possible. Go to a bar, order what you like and tip reasonably. There's no use over-tipping. There's no use ordering something that you don't want becuase you think it will impress the bartender. They're not going to go home with you and they're not going to be your friend. They're being polite becuase they are paid to do so and it will earn them more tips.
What's wrong with Long Island Iced Teas? That's my favorite drink but I only allow myself one per night because of how strong they are. They are delicious and make me think I can dance! :) Any bartender who would look down on a patron for their drink choice is being way too judgmental. Who does that? I also buy pitchers of draft beer instead of multiple expensive bottles...is that looked down upon too just because I am not rich but still want to have a good time?
I do tip, usually a dollar or so each time. I've lived on tips as a pizza driver so I definitely feel for people living on tips. I never looked down on customers for ordering cheese pizza instead of supreme to save money though! I find it hard to believe that bartenders would actually expect customers in a recession to spend more money than they have to at the bar.
Cheap people do like the LI's, but because you like them doesn't automatically make you cheap. Drink what makes you happy especially if you do it responsibly as you obviously do. A little industry secret... People who drink LI's and get sloppy drunk are looked down on. Usually it's the same type of person who does this. Young, barely 21 year old boys who are inexperienced and want to get as hammered as possible as fast as possible. Another secret... When you dine out at a nice restaurant and order a glass of white zinfandel to drink the servers make fun of you when they are in back because of how cheap you are and how unrefined your pallet is. Personally I don't care what you drink as long as you pay, but these are common ideas the staff have against people in almost every high end bar and fine dining restaurant I have worked in.
"A little industry secret... People who drink LI's and get sloppy drunk are looked down on. "
A little reality secret, people who work in bars are looked down on.
I doubt too many servers truly understand what is or is not a refined palate. They are probably just repeating what their friends have said.
And I'm laughing at you because it is spelled 'palate', a pallet is a skid on a forklift or a mattress or cot that can be folded away.
Okay, number 3 and 5 I will concede, but the rest is a bunch of "I don't really want to do the job I was hired on to do" junk. I only flag down bartenders when they are not making rounds accordingly. A lot of bars become a competition, and if you don't speak up, you will never be served. Second, for every one mixed drink a bartender is serving, they probably popped open 4 beers and poured 2 glasses of wine. So don't get your panties all fluffed up if someone asks for a several ingredient cocktail. If it weren't for mixed drinks we wouldn't NEED bartenders, its your JOB. Its like a doctor getting angry at a patient when they require surgery rather then just a pill.
Articles like this are why I don't go drinking in bars very much...
It is pretty bad when I am being charged $3-4 (or more) for six ounces of Diet Coke, but now I have to tip a dollar for about 15 seconds of "work".
I will tip a dollar for the first diet coke and perhaps another further down the line. But not a dollar for each diet coke. This is not rocket surgery folks.
Any bartender worth his weight in margaretta salt should be able to mix a LIT in little more effort than a rum and diet coke.
Tipping is always important, I aways throw 25% on ( or $2, which ever is less) on first round and less afterwards. I nearly always get good (or terrific) service. Even (or especially) in places where the service starts out bad.
WHAT A DUMB STORY, NUMBER 4 IS SOOO DUMB. WHY IS THIS ON CNN? I AM GONNA MAKE SURE TO ORDER A LONG ISLAND NEXT TIME I GO OUT.
EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't you dare tell what not to order. I will order 15 long island iced teas, and not leave you a freaking DIME. A dollar per drink? You guys are smoking serious crack. Get off your high horse. Waitresses are nothing more than hookers minus the sex.
That was rather inappropriate and cruel to say.
Nor did it add anything to the discussion.
Wow...someone is sad, bitter, and lonely.
"Hookers minus the sex". You sound like a bitter, woman hater with serious issues. Yikes.
this whole article is hilarious!
I hate to criticize these girls, because they're nearly perfect. However, in rule #3, it's sarcasm, not irony. Stick to bar-tending.
It’s amazing all of the people on here that think bartenders have it so bad. I don't think anyone else has the ability to blow off customers they are not nice to them. Grow up! I am sure the owner of the bar would be happy to replace them with someone who pours drinks correctly and treat their "guests" with great service.
Amen Adam!!! Right on!!
Thanks! All I ask for is for customers to come in, order a drink, tip and act like they have common sense. I work at a high traffic, sports-centered bar and grown adults act like idiots, trying to relive their college days. Always remember- we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.
Wow, commentors seem a little cranky tonight. Where are the Three Muskateers to lighten things up a bit? Also, if you have NEVER worked a service job.....i.e: waiter/waitress, bartender, line cook, etc......stop saying, "It's their job to make my night spectacular and if I'm not treated like royalty then why should I tip them?" Or something to that affect. Because, most of them are working this job because they also are going to school or staying at home to be with their young children and/or working another part time job to pay the bills and put food on the table. Been there myself. And it's definitely not a career choice; it's temporary until you get to be the one off on Friday and Saturday night ordering the drinks for yourself. If you don't want to tip, stay home.
Does Truth, RichardHead and I have a nickname? X)
We comment during the day, so we're not usually on 5@5 past the first few posts.
"iPhizzle" I swear you crack me up Jdizz!
That's a terrible attitude to have. Bartending is, at the very least, semi-skilled employment, and just because you're a customer doesn't automatically remove polite conduct from the equation. Regardless of your personal view on how much you should tip, states and the federal government have decided that because restaurant/bar service is nearly entirely dependent on actual, person-by-person business to make money, so should the wages. The result is that tipping helps even the wage bartenders receive with MINIMUM WAGE. And frankly, if you look down on someone making the majority of their money through tips, try going someplace that serves food or beverages and doesn't require tips, whose employees make minimum wage. Have fun with the quality of food there.
I would love to go somewhere to eat and drink that doesn't require/expect tipping. Unfortunately McDonald's doesn't serve booze.
To put my comment in context: out here, waitstaff and bartenders make minimum wage or better depending on the establishment, and in some establishments they make _considerably_ better than minimum wage. The minimum wage is currently just a bit over $9.50. Tipping is still common, but it doesn't determine whether the server or bartender gets paid.
Now for the comment part: the prices of food and drinks are not more expensive here than in the places you mention that don't pay their staff a fair wage. Also, while I've heard rumours of bad service, I've never encountered it, with the exception of an honest error in an order which was promptly fixed.
A year or two back, the restaurant-owners' association petitioned the government for an exemption to the minimum wage. It was turned down, possibly because of the backlash from customers. There were letters written to the same government officials "politely" pointing out how unfair this would be to the workers. There were also clearly-indicated intentions to boycott any establishment which failed to pay their employees minimum wage or higher, if exemption were to be granted.
cwbarrett,
i wonder how many times people have spit in your food...
Probably and hopefully very often!
And it is just that kind of response that helps to kill off the restaurant business around here. It makes people assume that waitstaff and bartenders routinely spit on food and water down drinks. The number of responses on this list from people who claim to be servers and bartenders who claim to do this is appalling. And you think that this is acceptable behavior???
I am shocked by how ugly you people are on here. I do have a "real" job during the day, but in this economy I also work at night a couple nights of the week as a bartender. So shut up and have some damn respect for people working their butts off just trying to make it!!!! Just sayn!!!
Amen. One of the only sane posts here.
@NOLA Point on. What's up with all this nastiness?
"Snow's" arrogant comment wreaks of ignorance. Who does Snow expect to serve him/her the drinks if everyone is to leave the bar business as he/she suggests? It has been my experience that the worst customers are those who have never held a job in the service industry. I've had cigarettes put out on me, drinks poured on me, spoken to in such a way that their mother's would be horrified that it was their child, had my ass grabbed more times than I can count, stiffed on countless tips for no apparent reason, and all because too many customers choose to ignore that they are dealing with a fellow human being who deserves to be treated with respect. The bartenders are providing the customer with a service they want- it's not brain surgery, but I'm sure as hell sure most people couldn't do the job on a busy Friday night. Tip and respect the bartender who makes your drink quickly and well mixed. Don't take out your bad day on them or expect them to be your clown, or form of entertainment- they are simply trying to do their job. I am shocked that there are so many people commenting on this article about not wanting to tip- stay home and serve yourself if you want to save a few bucks. But, if you want to look at me in my mini-skirt of a uniform, talk to me like I'm stupid, and make jokes about me to your co-workers, the least you can do is tip me. Better yet, do none of what I said, be polite, order your drink without drama, tip and have a nice night.
I'm sorry you took a job making minimum wage, but a tip is meant to be a reward for good service. It was not meant to be an expectation because you accepted a job that doesn't pay well!
Actually, most bartenders make LESS than minimum wage and the government expects the tip to make up the difference.
NOT our problem. Get a different job that pays better then. Common sense!
You all are a bunch of cheap asses! Tip your bartenders early and often!!!!!
i love when pr!cks like you think your opinion matters when it comes to spending someone else's money...
What's the hate with Long Islands??? They taste really good, that's why I order them. Just depends on if I'm in the mood for one though.
I agree. I don't drink them but if they're soo horrible to make and cheap just jack up the price on them. Jeez and these guys wonder why we think they're underedumacated.
this article is quite sad and padantic.
*pedantic
so incredibly awesome that you tried to a pr!ck and pretend you were intelligent, only to have reality spoil ti for you because you used a word that is beyond your vocabulary. Good job looking it up though, but there's no way you can pass an "a" off as a typo, lol, you used a word you didn't know how to spell...
If you're going to insult someone for a typo you should probably read your own post before submitting.
WTF? Learn how to spell "it".
Comma splice
"Well, Lois, if you must know, I find it shallow and pedantic."
I never understood why people go to bars. The prices are a ripoff. You want to pay that much to be social?
Yeah, why would anyone want to socialize or have fun? And why do people eat at restaurants, I can make food MUCH more cheaply?
Oh, wait,you're totally missing the point and are a moron.
Parties and dinner parties quite adequately cover most of the point in going out to bars and restaurants. Plus you don't have to worry about poor service from "entitled" types and you can do your own quality control. You can make sure there is no rotgut and nothing that ever saw the inside of a can or a sysco box.
The "industry types" here really make you want to just stay home.
I would tend to agree. Bars used to be a nice place to meet people and get reasonably priced drinks. Not any more.
High prices (you should consider the mark up at bars)
Staff of various skills all demanding large tips for the simplest of tasks
And what I especially hate is that while I am politely waiting my turn, the bartenders are "too busy" chatting with the cute customer down the bar.
I always tip well, but I also always feel that I am overtipping for the quality of service I receive.... but now they want more tips? How about more service for a change.
The problem with articles like this is that they generalize too much. There are good and bad bartenders as well as good and bad customers. LIke any profession, I expect the bartenders to accept both customers and deal with it, just like I have to deal with good and bad bartenders but still tip.
It's common sense really- there are 5 people surrounding you that have been tipping all night and you don't tip for shit. Who am I going to take care of first? You tip for good service and to ensure that you're going to continue to get good service. Simple as that.
As far as the comment of "read and learn"- what do you know about the person serving you? Perhaps they're trying to pay their way through college instead of taking the state's money or because their parents can't afford it. I have bartended for 4 years to support myself through school and am now applying to med school. How shallow and narrow minded of you to think that everyone who works in the service industry is undereducated. You'd be surprised. Not to mention that working in Chicago you can clear $80,000 a year. And yes, before you start bitching, it is taxed.
You tell'm Adam! T.I.P. – to insure promptness. You don't tip, I'm less prompt. It isn't the staff that developed the lovely custom of underpaying the staff so they need to work for tips. You tip well and you will be the person that I keep an eye on to make sure you are happy. You don't tip and I will get to you when I have a chance. I know a lot of people that bartend, wait tables, etc. to work their way through school and they usually have more than one job too.
Exactly. The scenario- four people deep, everyone yelling at you while you go as fast as you can. Someone orders an $8 drink and gives me a $20 and tells me "Keep the change." You better believe all she has to do is make eye contact with me the rest of the night and I have memorized her drink and will make her drink as soon as I have a second. THAT's what you tip for.
Interesting Mary, you judge how you serve based upon a tip. The tip comes after service, not before. If you got a small tip, perhaps your introductory service sucked, so now instead of stepping up your game, you expect the wronged patron to pay out more to earn your respect? How misguided you are.
And thus the chicken and the egg... my first trip to the bar sets the stage for the remainder of the night. If the bartender takes an unreasonable long time to get to me (yes, I see how busy it is or isn't), or most definitely if he/she takes the order of someone that came after me (I don't care if that other person tips well, or is your friend, or is a hot chick), then you get nothing for the rest of the night. Tips are for service. To the wankers that want to talk about being cheap, well... tipping in restaurants is a customary 15%. Go figure what a $5 drink warrants. And if all you did was pop a cap off my bottle of beer, then I don't figure there was much 'service'.
I usually give $1 per drink, but its my generous nature, not that they earned it in any respect. Yes, I have worked in bars/ restaurants.
@ Adam – I've seen this on here a few times now. Just tip well the first time (and of course don't stop tipping after but it doesn't have to be huge) and you'll get preferred customer status the rest of the night. It sounds great in theory but I've rarely seen it actually work. Not that I really blame you, you're seeing hundreds of faces an hour on a busy night.
According to Wikipedia, you're make twice the median income for Chicago. I don't see a problem with that, but I DO see a problem with many bartenders ( including several that have made comments here ) complaining and justifying their attitudes with "we make minimum wage!". It's all part of the entitlement culture that's so prevalent these days.
Let's all be honest- if we made minimum wage we would work in a job where we had to serve drunk and obnoxious people. Work in a library, work with animals, work anywhere you don't have to deal with customer service. The fact of the matter is that people work tending bar because it pays and it pays well. I always say it's a love hate relationship with the worst of the worst- I hate 'em but they pay my bills. I don't think we, as bartenders, should complain. Yes, people suck, yes there are cheap and obnoxious people out there, serve them and move on. Ignore them later or just make them wait. At the end of the day I don't care about your $1, because after I tip my barback out and split it with the other bartender, it's $0.40. Not worth complaining about. I say: I won't complain about you not tipping if you don't complain about the less than stellar service after that. Sound fair?
@Adam WTF do you mean work in a library & not deal with customer service? Let's see...answering questions (sometimes the same ones from the same people day after day)...people complaining about their overdue fines because the forgot they put the library's books in the primordial ooze under their car seats...rude people who get unhappy when asked to put their food trash in a trash can (they've confused the librarians with wait staff). All that said, librarianship is a service industry too, so please don't suggest that someone should go into this profession if they don't like customer service. We don't need non-customer oriented employees any more than bars do.
People hate you because you brag about making $80,000 a year and still bitch about not making enough. You are a truly pathetic human being.
You do realize that dozens of other nations have perfectly functional service industries without tips? Why is it that all my bar tending friends complain about their 80k per year constantly?
Really??? That's the best this generation can do???? A 1994 era website with Flicker pictures dressed in 1950's garb and a whole lot of SF "hugging" between them makes them authorities on anything????
And I don't tip unless the service has been exceptional. You dislike this? Once again. get a job elsewhere, no one said your only career choice should be as a waitress or a bartender. How about you go out and get a real job with respectable wages and stop relying on a benevolent patron?
Translation, I'm a cheap piece of trash. Who thinks they should be waited on for free. I can almost garantee you have had a little something extra added to your food and drinks with that attitude.
I generally tip at least 20% for good service, however: Why is it automatically assumed that someone should get a tip for average or subpar performance? Isn't a tip something that is by definition "extra" as in not required? Part of the issue seems to be that the industry underpays the waitstaff and puts the onus for the deficit on the consumer.
Translation: I am not smart enough to offer up a logical counter argument, so I will take one person's post and rewrite it to an extreme in order to make my point.
@ Joe. The word "onus" twice in one post? One of you copied off the other.. Either way, get your pretentious ass away from the keyboard and go watch NASCAR until they spoon-feed you some drivel you can recycle back on these here message-board-thinga-ma-jiggities.
Listen, you can come up with all the vapid rationalizations you like, but honestly you're just a cheap pr!ck who likes to pretend his cheapness is justified. Your excuses are terrilbe.
Why can't I be cheap without being a prick? I'm a good guy but damn I'm already paying through the nose to enjoy being out. Hell I'd prefer it if you just upped the price of your drinks and said no tipping. Man I hate the service industry. This is why I never go out anymore; you just get nickled and dimed to death. Valet, coat check, bartender, waiter soon we're going to be told we have to tip the hostess after she seats us.
actually, you employed the humor device of sarcasm, not the literary device of irony. perhaps you should try being correct in lieu of failing to be clever.
This article was better than the chef one. That chef needed to be taken out back and shot. Repeatedly. And then lit on fire. Possibly followed by thrown in a compactor. I don't drink, but this one was tolerable. At the same time though, you're serving alcohol. You have to expect people doing stupid stuff, including the puke. It's like someone wanting to be a surgeon then getting upset they have to deal with blood.
We are also serving adults. We assume that adults can control their bodily functions. Know your limits and stop drinking when you've had to much. Have I puked from drinking too much? Sure, but I didn't assume it was in anybody's job description to clean up after my stupidity. I have seen a middle aged man shit himself because he was so drunk. The worst part? He didn't even know he had done it. Should we go to work expecting people to lose control of their bowels just because we are serving you alcohol? Maybe I'm alone, but I don't think so.
Um, it is called alcoholism.
I think I remember on the chef article, the chef hated when the customer said they were allergic to something.... what if that customer actually IS allergic to a type of food?! I'm allergic to avocados and I'm not going to eat them and go into anaphylactic shock just because it may ever so slightly inconvenience a chef.
What an utter nonsense...couldn't care less to tick off a bartender...
totally useless article...
how to tick off the mail man...how to tick off the store clerk...how to tick off the carpenter...how to tick off the gardener...
And I promise they could care less about you.
COULDN'T care less, how stupid are you?
How much less?
Hahaha..."great minds," eh?
Great minds ... have totally different and independent and insightful ideas.
QED: You two don't qualify.
Let me add another pet peeve: when people are standing 3 deep at the bar and someone shoves their way to the front. These folks don't earn the i'll be served next award. They actually earnthe "i'm a jack-ass and will be served last" medal.
unless it's a hot chick, then it's OK. Hot chicks can get away with anything.
only if you let them.
#1 should be, ordering the same complicated drink as your friend AFTER the bartender gets done making it.
Have some sense...their time is their money, so much easier to make all of them at the same time.
Not giving the whole order at the start is another pain in the arse.
Ok, Ill drink long islands all night, and if they dont like it they should take it off the drink menu.
I agree. Shut up and pour the drink. You most likely don't own the bar, so quit worrying about how much my booze costs and start worrying about how much I'm going to tip you.
As soon as someone orders a long island, I know they are cheap as it's a low rent drink. Bartenders hate making them and the customers that drink them, largely are extremely horrible tippers.
@currentbartender: So..... you work at some pretentious hipster club, huh? You're there to serve ME the drink I want. Have a problem with that? Get out of the service industry. There is always going to be a drink the cheapskates like more. Get rid of the Long Island, they'll just order Mai Tais. I don't get to poo poo the more thankless parts of my job just because I feel slighted. It's my job to do ALL of the things in my job description, and you're just a whiner for thinking it's rude to order the drink I might want just because you get all butt hurt about it.
Wow...judgemental are we?
Bartender's are losers.... gee it's really hard to pour a beer or mix a drink.
If you don't like your job, get a different one!
Long island ice tippers aren't all poor or bad tipper. My wife likes them, I make them at home for her and she sometimes orders them when she's out. I tip well until some jack wagon behind the bar judges me on the drinks I order (I usually order coke since I'll be driving home). After that my tipping is directly proportional to their attitude and preconception of what kind of customer I am by what I drink.
Great Jack Nicholson quote from As Good As It Gets "Well, it's not right to go into details, I got nervous. I screwed up, I said the wrong thing... Where if I hadn't, I could be in bed right now with a woman who, if you make her laugh, you got a life. Instead I'm here with you [gestures to bartender] No offense, but a moron pushing the last legal drug. "
If da shoe fit . . .
I feel bad for ordering all of those long islands; I didn't know I was being a cheap tipper, I thought I was just ordering a very delicious drink!
I totally concur...delicious...and normally the most expensive drink at the bar, albeit the best value.
I honestly could care less what you order...I enjoy my job and like to see people have fun. I too love long islands and if thats what the customer wants thats what they'll get. This article makes barkeeps sound like assholes. And I admit most can are...but thats their own loss. Tip what you feel we deserve.
If I order a whiskey and fountain coke that took all of 10 seconds to make, and you forgot the lime I asked for – no buck for you. 50 cents if you do it properly. A buck if its good and strong. If your a bartender and you want to make money off me, read and learn.
LOL, we make our money off the good cunstomers and make fun of the wannabe's such as yourself. Enjoy your watered down drink and keep your 50 cents.
GeeWhiz:
Could you tell me what bar you work at so I can make sure not to drop by?
Geewhiz probably tends bar at Applebees. LOOOOOSSEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Good bartenders don't really care if they don't get a tip from a particular customer because they know at the end of the night they made better money than anything else they are 'qualified' to do (which usually isn't much).
Dou you work at the Geewhiz diner in Lower Manhattan in NYC?
You are low rent.
Urban – "Good and Strong" means I'm either using my comp tab on someone who's tipping me two quarters or I'm stealing from my employer. I won't do either.
As for the "uneducated" comments....every bartender I work with at a small dive bar either has a bachelor's or is working on a post graduate degree. Like I try and not do to my customers, let's not generalize.
Being the educated person that you are I can understand that you would not want to "steal" from your employer who pays you less than minimum wage to make a strong drink for someone who pays you extra money to make up for your loss in wages, even if "only" 50 cents.
Actually, I make minimum wage.
This guy doesn't get it! A buck if your drink is good and strong? Sounds like you want something extra for very little in return. All these post about taking your business elsewhere if you don't tip is because we don't need clueless customers. The truth is, most people are pleasant and tip well. If you don't want to do these two little things then stay home. We don't need your .50 or 1.00 tip. Give me a break.
If bartenders dislike the hassles of the job they need to quit whining and get a better job! They aren't the only working people who get stressed.
Another moron who doesn't get it and waits till last to be served.
I will not be served last.
"waits till last to be served."
Except i don't and you're totally wrong again. But still you threaten and think people won't laugh at you for it.
And Geehwhiz, you are another moron who will be first to be out of a job either through your arrogance resulting in a lack of income or your employer going out of business because you decide not to serve customers. You don't deserve tips, you deserve to be fired.
By your statement this show you have never been a bartender or likely in the food service industry. It is not the job that is the hassle it is rude self-absorbed people that make things very unpleasant. Oh and if you think bartenders should go and find another job because they don't like waiting on you then no one would be bartending because of people like you.
You're like the narcissistic code monkey in office space that doesn't realize that most other people don't like their jobs either.
People just suck it up. Sometimes they even do what's necessary to get themselves out of a bad situation.
Far too many people are willing to make excuses for poor customer service these days.
You know, if you keep saying, "Fine- take your business elsewhere!" you won't have any customers and you'll be out on your behind. Bartending is a SERVICE-BASED position. I was a hostess at a restaurant during college and I knew that my job was to be POLITE, do the BEST I could to satisfy whatever needs/wants a customer had, and to do it with a d*mn smile because they did NOT have to bring the dollars to the restaurant I was at that would trickle down to my puny paycheck. People are SO entitled nowadays. GROW UP, humble yourselves a bit more and you will EARN respect and patronage.
Wow, this is interesting. The whole time I've been going to restaurants and bars, I thought the employees were there to make my experience better, not the other way around. I am so tried of bartenders thinking they are doing me a favor by pouring a drink. I guarantee there is another bar/restaurant around the corner that would appreciate the business.
100% Agree!!!
I understand where u are coming from but #3/4/5 are right on point. During football season I attend my fav sports bar weekly. As a woman I see the losers who are constantly coming on to the female bartenders. It's usually after one or two long islands. They're are plenty of women in the bar that they can hit on but they choose the woman who they just gave a $10 tip as if they're entitled to more than just a drink & wings. They choose the woman who can't tell them to go to hell because it's their job to be nice.
And your attitude is why you get served last and get the worst drinks. You are the person who treats waitstaff like their personal slave. Enjoy your drink and remember that glass might just be very dirty.
no actually I get neither the worst nor the last drinks. So, you're totally wrong.
and by the way, it says a lot about you that you think pathetically threatening people because you don't get your way is a good idea
Oh please Geewhiz. You ARE our servants.. that's why you are called servers. Serve us and shut your piehole.
Kate, I sincerely hope someone pisses in your Cosmopolitan one day. You sound exactly like the type of woman who wears granny panties and reads "Ladies' Home Journal." You're probably not too easy on the eyes, either.
good point!
So, what I am seeing here are 2 things: 1) Their job is to make my night awesome, or else I wont tip them, and 2) tip well, cut them some slack, and be nice to the bartender by making their job easier. But why do these two things have to be mutually exclusive?! I love bartending, and my guests take care of me because I take care of them. I enjoy their company, conversation, and yes, their larger than normal tips. They enjoy my prompt service, stiff drinks, and my genuinely happy attitude. Instead of looking at it as some sort of combative scene just to get your money's worth (and our tip's worth), why not relax, enjoy your time at the bar, get to know the bartender, and have a 100% fun night? Maybe I'm the only one who actually enjoys my job... sheesh...
I feel the same way but tend to think that we are a rarity in the industry.
Dang DK where do you work? I need a barkeep like you. Mine is an a** no matter how nice or whatever I am. Love the bar hate the barkeep.
Exactly. I'm a very good tipper and did wait tables for a while during college. I used to go to the same bar once or twice a week for raw oysters and beer during happy hour. My tip usually was 50-100% of my tab since a dozen oysters was like $4 and $1 draft. All the bartenders knew me and my beer was on the bar and the oysters were being shucked as soon as they saw me walk in the door. I have had bad experiences where I tipped very well at the beginning to ensure good service and got ignored for the rest of the night, I reckon they figured I was done tipping for teh night and they were done serving me, but for teh most part great expereiences and have made some great friends with the bartenders.
If the bartender would put down their phone and stop texting, I would never need to ask when they get a chance. I just showed up...stone sober...and I walked out after 5 min. This article should not be about how to make the bartender happy. Why? 1) Alcohol is involved. 2) This is about service industry 3) Alcohol is involved. CNN should also write an article on how to make your hooker happier.
Light candles. Go down on her. Use a dental dam. Massage her feet. And for god sake shave your back.
I have bartended on and off for years. I understand this list, but there are also crappy bartenders that need a reminder that they are not god's gift to the service industry. Sometimes when it gets busy you can get tunnel vision, and I never mind a gentle "pardon me." Every once in a while a customer "sneaks" in and you miss them on first glance down the bar. So while I understand this list, I am also not going to tip more than $1 per round (not drink) if the service sucked and if it is just beers. If I seee they are working hard and made a point to look for me, I may tip them a few bucks for ONE beer. It is really subjective.
Exactly! I still tip...but I agree 150%
Ya know what? Shut up and make my drink and serve my food. I don't owe you a DARN thing.
that attitude will get you nowhere
I would highly advise you to learn to cook. Also, I'd get to a thrift store as fast as possible to see if you can pick up a less self-righteous persona.
hmmm lets see, 2.13 an hour and no tip from you....ill be sure to tell my son that YOU are the reason I cant buy him cereal for breakfast.
Then I will tell him, "mommy is too stupid to get a real career." Don't put the blame on someone else for you not being able to take care of your own business...
and that's exactly why you get the service you do: Your attitude is abysmal. And no, we're not servants...we are providing you with something you can't, or choose not to, do on your own. If you have a problem with tipping, it's simple...just stay home. We won't miss your business or your attitude.
I understand sometimes people just don't have the extra cash to tip well..I understand the economy is rough...it's rough for us too. I don't expect a tip every time. But if you feel that tipping is wrong, or you don't do it "just because", then you very obviously never had a service job and live in a utopia. Best of luck to you ...
and all of the bartenders and wait staff would like very much for you to take your "business" somewhere else.
Your points are right on... This write up about how to impress the bartender is totally bassackwards. The bartender should be there to support the customer.. not the other way around. I see a POV of bartenders who here appear to be relatively uneducated, pretentious people who are trying to better themselves by presenting as a 'desired to be' group of people, when, in fact, they have low level jobs and are not the arbiters of taste... at all. They or their jobs are not necessarily something to be aspired to, unless they demonstrate that through their service and performance. The onus is on them, not the customer! They are not necessarily 'cool' just because they have that job! That job is not 'cool' to most people... it's a service job. so.... get a life: act like a normal person, and earn your respect... don't assume it's coming just because you are standing behind a bar and can do the wow-wow with a 19 year old!!
Ya, and don't assume that you're owed any respect just because you're on the other side of the bar trying to flash money and whatever self-assumed status to convince the same transvestite hooker that I've seen four times with four different guys today to sleep with you. It's basic, you treat people like crap, and you will get treated like crap. My biggest peeve is people who snap their fingers at me! I'm not your dog. And yes, I realize I work in the service industry, but you'd be surprised how fast a casual "please" or "thanks" will get you a free extra shot in your glass.
I'll give you this, though: some bartenders need to be slapped in the face. Just because they wear a tight vest and refer to themselves as "mixologists" doesn't make them better than anyone else. I've been the mixologist at my bar for 3 years now, and yes, it's a real position, and it's a real art to make new drinks; but when people ask what I do for a living, I'm a BARTENDER. I don't assume to be better than anyone like these new dips working behind bars lately. I realize that it's my job to give you the best experience I can give, but customers that act like douche's aren't going to get really far with me.
then please go to that bar
THANK YOU! I can't believe the gall of some people. "Oh THANK YOU, Mr./Miss Bartender for stooping so low as to DO YOUR JOB and judge what I buy and expect service. There's NO PLACE ELSE in this economy I can go to get a good drink." WHATEVER.
CAPITALIZATION will make my POINT come across MORE CLEARLY.
1. So when folks that show up at the bar after you get served and the bar tender is still not paying you any attention, that means your presence is not welcome! Huh.. interesting. Or I have pissed him off by trying to contribute towards his salary, and by trying to give him tips that he will not pay taxes on? This is really interesting Hardstark and Ward! Wow.
2. You want me to pay 6 dollars for, say, a glass of wine from a bottle that costs 11.99. The owner is making a good deal of money and paying you nothing, and you are saying that's my fault?
3. I think I may want to hit on a bar tender at 2.05 when I've only had a couple of drinks. Deal with it.
4. "A Long Island Iced Tea is a very unsexy badge of thrift, but it is also a signal to the world that your future involves falling to the floor". Nice. Sounds like you judge every person the same way. Charming people you are.
5. Agreed. It's irresponsible to drink like a goon and expect someone else to clean it up. But do you really think you have the worse job in the world?
bartenders are there to make your 'experience' better but newsflash, they need to be paid too. and yes, you do owe them something for pouring you a drink and yes they are doing you a favor by pouring your drink because YOU chose to go to an establishment and have a drink instead of staying at home and making your own drink. Newsflash people, servers and bartenders usually make less than min. wage (unless you live in a big city). For instance, in the state of NC, servers/bartenders are paid $2.13 an hour and after taxes, there is basically no pay check from the company they work for so they SURVIVE off tips. what can't people understand about this? you don't want to tip, then stay home and make your own food/drinks. Tip at least 20%, and that's at a min. Don't want to tip for a beer? Stay home and drink. So again, yes, bartenders are doing you a favor by pouring/making a drink because you are not doing.
Hey Jenn, "NEWSFLASH", you do not owe your bartender any more than the cost of the drink for pouring a drink and a bartender is are not doing customers "a favor" by doing his job. Tipping is, by definition, a favor done by the customer out of appreciation for good service. And, "NEWSFLASH", because of this thread I will never tip again when I do not receive good service and I hope others adopt the same policy.
First of all, the third tip starts off using sarcasm, not irony. Second, who names their kid the name of a state? Third, said "girl-named-after-a-state" is more than welcome to come drink my specialty drink any time.
Sarcasm IS a form of irony. Most people use the term "irony" wrong. Irony: when the intended meaning is the exact opposite of the literal meaning. Hence-sarcasm.
Sorry to keep this going, but it is not agreed upon whether sarcasm is or is not irony. Many linguists distinguish it as something entirely different since it is saying something that means the opposite rather than something that is the opposite of what is expected, which is the inherent trait of all irony.
Sarcasm is verbal irony. Good job in junior high grammar class. Oh wait i just used it too . . .
Lol!
Oddly enough, the only thing that caught my eye in this article is the incorrect example of irony...
I like a woman with "hard" in her name...
I knew us three would be the first in on this. X)
What's with all the hatin' below?
JDizz, they are likely overweight, lonely women whose hubbies left them for greener pastures. Women themselves are usually the most critical of each other.
I agree.
I already have!
I'd definitely hits its.
Get back to the point. With 10 years in the industry I can tell you what is really going on. Bartenders make 1.5 – 2.5 times min. wage. Tips can be $200 – $400 per shift (tax free as most do not claim cash as income) is is that is being taken to the cleaners. Bar staff, servers, coat check, we all take hme hundreds in tips per shift from people that drink. I am talking at least $30 dollars per min. Tipping is out of control.
To "Serving the Customer"....I'm glad you've got 10 whole years in the business.......I've got 31.
You got a cush job and great tips and if you really were making that you'd know better than to brag we don't report every cent. We work hard for below minimum wage in most states...the tip makes up the rest.
So I'm glad you're making 80K a year, but that's not the norm.
As for tips how to treat the bartender, if it's a REALLY busy bar and you've waited in line forever to get your first round, over tip like nobody's business. You'll be amazed how a bartender will not only remember you, your drinks etc. the next round but will probably skip ahead to you despite joe Budweiser waving his dollar around like he's Heffner.
Passed through Boise overnight a few years ago. There was a group of about 50 of us, and probably half of us went out on the town that night. I ordered three Jagr Bombs at $8.00/piece, handed the bartender $30.00 and told her to keep the change. She looked at me and said, "Seriously? This doesn't even buy me ONE of these drinks!"
Game on.
Ok, so, you look like I'm annoying you to begin with, it took you all of 45 seconds to make all three drinks (and that's being generous), and then complain that a $6.00 tip isn't good enough? The next round was for the whole group... all 20-something of us. I brought up a whole written list and patiently waited for HER, specifically. Fifteen minutes and several remakes later, I made sure she went over each drink on my charge/receipt. As several of the group walked off with the trays, I smiled and put a dollar in the tip jar.
Seriously, WTF? I understand that everyone has a bad night every now and then. Perhaps her goldfish died that day. However, I don't care if you have to wear a tight vest and shorts. Don't question a gratuity, especially when it's damn near a third of the entire EASY drink order. If you aren't happy with it, serve those who apparently tip you well and slide me off on another bartender. Don't EVER outright question a gratuity. That's even more low-rent than the $.50 tipper!
See, now that depends. Ive got almost as much time in the service industry as well and I can tell you that it all depends on your location. Big cities where people make big bucks and are wiling to spend it, yeah I can see bartenders/servers making that kind of money. But in small towns where the recession has hit home and the holidays coming, belive me, its tough sometimes to make little more than minimum. Sometimes, where I work, we're lucky to go home with 15 percent.
you are an idiot sir. obv if you work in an establishment that has coat checkers taking home hundreds a night you are in a fine dining establishment that serves only the elite. Which in case you SHOULD be making that much a night.
But most of us in the real world of the industry work our veritable asses off up to 60 hours a week while the rest of the world plays. i have good $200 nights yes, where i make as much as a lawyer does in an hour of sitting on his ass saying 'i dont think we have a case',and yea all my taxes are reported because my restaurant forces a 13% claim on my sales, Justification? if you arent pulling at least 13% you suck at your job and need to find a nother profession, and it is 100% true. This is more and more common in the industry as the IRS gives tax breaks to companies that enforce it.
ON TOPIC, never ask the bartender to make the drink strong, we give you what you pay for unless we know you personally or you tip like ur Warren Buffet, drinks are measured, we dont just whimsically decide how much alcohol for each drink. If you order tall, it will not have more alcohol, just mixer and ice. if you ask for no ice, your vodka and cranberry will look like a shooter, go back to the ghetto. You want to get drunk off of 5 dollars, then go grab a bottle of wild irish rose from the 7-11 and have a good night, stay out of my bar
Huh, Can I work where you work? I bartend and sometimes waitress at a sports bar in a mid-size midwestern town. I walk away with anywhere from $30-$100 per night (for a 9 hour shift) in tips and make $2.13/hr in wages. And if you think my employer actually bumps my wages to $7.25 on those $30 nights, you're wrong (I started keeping track and found out he lies on my paycheck so yeah, I'm looking for a new job). I typically receive compliments on my service, not complaints, so I don't think poor service or rudeness is the issue. It's the tight economy, increasing taxes in my area, and decreasing wages causing the problems. Not as much volume and tip %s are down.
I've worked behind the bar and drank in front of it. I'm not surprised that bartenders tend to dislike their customers and most of them dislike their jobs. I worked the old Playboy Clubs and bowling alleys and everything in between and I've found that most bartenders were drunks or thieves or both. I don't fool myself into believing the bartender will do me any favors if I leaver a large or small tip. Unless I drop 40% on them, I don't get anything extra and I'm not about to drop 40% on anybody. Go out for a drink with a bartender and listen to his stories. His customers are zoo animals. Give them 10% or nothing if they don't perform. You are paying for the drink. Tip for service.
That's what nice about the UK – no tipping (cows or whatever. When I visited, I was a bit embarassed throwing money on the bar, but hubby said "it's okay to buy him a drink, but we don't tip here". You do tip in restaurants if there's waiter service. OTOH, most bills come with a self-included "service charge", which I interpret as a TIP.
Not all states pay their service industry minimum wage or above. In Idaho I was paid $2.35 per hour, yes that's two dollars and thirty-five cents. When you work in a job that typically receives tips, your employer is not required to pay you even minimum wage because it its assumed that with your tips you will make more than that. So that bartender in Boise wasn't really taking home $300-500 that night. On a slow night, I often ended up paying the bar back for the taxes that they have to pay for me. If my tips & hourly wage didn't add up to more than what would normally be taken out of a paycheck, I'd get a negative paycheck.
So don't think that your lousy tip is being added on top of that generous $7.25 that the federal government says someone has to be paid an hour. It often is actually making up the difference between an actual hourly wage and minimun wage. And if you bought a round for 20 people and tipped me a buck, I'd be sure to let everyone in the bar know what a shitty tipper you are...believe me, your friends won't be impressed by your cheap ass!
You're out of control cheapskate...
where do you work? i want a shift there ............you liar after 20 yrs in the business { and at times it can be good} i can smell bull crap...you havent been in the business at all ..you sound like a disgrunted customer
Tipping is out of control??? Seriously, dude? Wow. I have almost twenty years in the "business", and have worked everywhere from topless clubs, to beach joints. Currently, I work in a mass volume, urban style club. I get my butt kicked for nearly all of my twelve hour shift. My back hurts, my feet ache, and my fingers are raw and cut up, the next day from the fruit acids, as the wedge is squeezed in the drinks. TIPPING IS NOT OUT OF CONTROL!!!!! Tipping is appreciated!! This economy sucks! I realize the money isn't out there for everyone to tip like Donald Trump. A dollar is better than nothing, but nothing is the minimum tip, to be expected. IT IS WHAT IT IS. You don't have to tip, but you do have to buy a drink. So be it. Bartenders don't take it out on people if there isn't a tip.....that happens everywhere. Working for tips will always be akin to gambling. Most of us do work for pay, but most bartenders also enjoy the atmosphere, and the interactions that abound. If you are one of those that think they don't have to tip, because everyone else is tipping instead....more power to you. But my thinking is, that just because you came out to a club, and you paid a cover charge, that entitles you to go ahead and hang on to that extra ten bucks that you could have tipped for those ten drinks you bought. Good for you brother!! Go buy that three gallons of gas, or four loaves of bread, or those ten packs of ramen noodles. My advice is to stay home anyway. If its that much of a deal for you, to not only keep your tip money, but to also come on board this site and preach that "tipping is out of control", you're obviously better off buying that bag of popcorn, with a six pack of brew, and propping those feet up on your own table. I take care of everyone with a smile, no matter how slammed I am, or how obnoxious your drink recipe may be. Pop a bottle cap, or mix up a layered cocktail. My bar has seventeen service wells, with seventeen bartenders, ringing on seventeen registers. WE ALL APPRECIATE SOMETHING. A dollar, a smile, a thank you, or anything close to either. I get slaughtered evry Friday night. I outring most of the other bartenders, if not occasionally all of them. WE TIP POOL. So add in the additional three bar backs, and figure that not everyone handles the volume proportionally, its not exactly a fair proposition for the busy bartenders, versus the slower "eye candy" girls that I also may work with. Brother every dollar counts. Yes my friend.......I would also like that exra three gallons of gas, or four loaves of bread, or that ten pack of ramen noodles......but if all I get is a smile or a thanks....instead of your TIPPING IS OUT OF CONTROL drivel.....that at least makes my night pass quicker....enjoying why it is I put myself thru the hell of making seven percent gratuity. LOL tipping is surely not out of control at my well.
Don't put my(customer) change in your(employee) tip jar. THAT is just plain rude and will guarantee no tip from. Do you know that I tip well (and I sincerely do)? No; but you do no make decisions with my money. You will be fishing that money out. Better to roll the dice on at $10/$15 tip (for $40 of drinks) then to grab for that guaranteed $1.35
Ok, I don't drink much, but I do some, and I have to say that I don't think I have ever had a bar tender do that without my telling them to... and I will still tip them on top of that. I agree with you about that though. If I ever did see it, I think that would then end of my tipping for the night.
This happened to me a couple weeks ago. Bartender took my $2.75 in change. I don't get so drunk I don't notice people stealing from me. He/she missed out on an extra $7.25 because of that stunt.
So what do you do if you just start a tab? I don't want my bartender to think that I'm not going to tip, because I actually tip very well, but I tip at the end.
I have no idea why this replied to this thread instead of making my own..my apologies!
Most likely the bartender is smart enough to realize that if you've opened a tab, you will add the tip in later. They also realize that tabs tend to end up on the expensive side, so they'll treat you just fine.
Tip in the beginning – if I'm going to a place I know I'll be at for a while and I'll either be drunk or broke by the end of the evening (usually a club, not so much a bar), then I'll hand the bartender a big tip at the beginning ($20/$40) and just tell him/her I'll be here for a while and I don't want to forget.
You are in the position you should be in. YOU can judge how much the server deserves based on service at the end of the evening. I pity the poor saps who follow the advice of this article and have to bribe a bartender just to serve them. If you haven't been served at the end of the evening, don't tip at all, complain and don't come back to the bar. BTW, DO complain so the bartender knows what the problem is. These people posting seem clueless as to their bad attitude and the consequences.
Most of the time, I'll have a beer. I've never quite understood tipping for pulling a lever for 5 seconds and handing me a glass. Drinks that require more than pouring, always tip.
If you don't want to tip a bartender for pouring that beer....install a keg in your house. If you go out to have someone serve you, it's an understood part of the social contract to pay them.
This the mentality that I absolutely HATE to hear about. You think that you're just tipping us to put a plate down in front of you or pour a beer? No. Many restaurants/bars are different and have different responsibilities but most commonly you're tipping us to clear your plates, clean the bar after you leave, sweep the floor around the bar, restock the liquor and bottled beer you drank, change the kegs and on and on. Servers/bartenders usually make 2-3 dollars per hour. What we actually take home comes from YOU. So what if you ordered a beer? I'm sorry but it's insulting that you're not willing to give us ONE DOLLAR for waiting on you. My advice to you is to drink at home where you can open your own beers, clean up after yourself and keep your dollar.
I remember talking to a bartender after a guy tipped him a quarter for just opening a beer. The bar keep expected a dollar. All I can tell you is, the chances of that guy getting another beer that night were slim... bartender admitted he would ignore him at all cost. Don't tip on that 5 second pour... o.k., drink slowly, you might not see another one any time soon. TIPS stand for "Too Insure Prompt Service", don't want prompt service next time... don't tip.
Ok, I kind of agree here, I will tip $1 for the first beer, and possibly the third, but not for every single beer. If tips are to pay the bar tenders for cleaning plates and cleaning the bar and sweeping after I leave, then my question is why does one beer cost more than a six pack down at the store? I would have to assume that the markup is to pay for these operating costs. Granted I only drink craft beers and I do tip well, but when you are charging me $6-$8 for one beer then I just don't understand how you can say that my $1 tip is so that you can prepare the place for the next customer/sucker. And, yes I tip well, but I don't go out very often due to the outrageously high margins.
The markup on the beer is the restaurant turning a profit + the expense of pay roll and running the establishment.
@Alan and anyone else who agrees with you, the price of drinks has a high built in margin because running a bar costs money. Beyond the cost of the product, you have utility bills that run anywhere from 10 – 100 times what you would pay at home. All those lights and ice machines and coolers don't run on air. Every bit of that goes to the establishment. Yes, we make 2.13/hr from our employer. We almost never see any of that because that almost covers the taxes we pay for the amount of tips we are claiming. Now the work involved before you show your face involves anywhere from 1-2 hours of setting, stocking, icing, cleaning, cutting fruit, and generally setting our stations up to be as efficient as possible so you can get that beer in the 5 seconds you complain about. If it makes you feel better, think of the time spent preparing (much less the time it requires to clean up after some of the more inconsiderate nasty people) and add at least a minute to the amount of time it would take to make your beer if we did not do those things ahead of time. Now multiply that by the number of people in the bar, if there are 10 people ahead of you, it could take 10 minutes to even get acknowledged. So don't tell me that you don't feel justified in tipping for a 5 second pour, you have no concept of what we do.
To continue on what Old School is saying the equipment in the bar is not cheap either, a single refrigerator costs about 5-6 times what your one at home does, not to mention the walk-ins, seating, wood work, fixing things that drunks break...all of this costs money and that is reflected in the price of your beer. I moved to the back of the house after bartending for quite a few years because I didn't have the tolerance for pompous people like the original poster drinking only high end items and then not tipping because things cost too much. Cheap bastards.
Agreed. That 5 seconds of pouring is more work than it takes your fat ass to waddle up to my bar, slide yourself into a comfy seat, order a $2 draft beer and not tip me. Then proceed to sit there for a few hours just watching the world go by and camping out where I make my living.
Period, point blank – any work deserves some sort of a tip. If you don't feel like it, go get yourself a case and park your cheapskate ass on your sofa and leave a dent in someone else's furniture. People like you make me sick. Greedy fucks.
First, I have the right to order whatever drink I want and not care about what the bartender thinks about it. That's their job, to pour drinks, not make judgments about how cheap I am. Second, the drink limit rule is totally arbitrary. When I drink, I drink 6-7 drinks in a span of 2-3 hours and then pound a few cups of water when I get home. No puking, no headache in the morning. If you don't know how to drink and hold your dinner then you shouldn't be in a bar in the first place. Practice at home.
Poor guy... I guess you don't realize that "being able to hold your liquor" is the number one risk factor for becoming an alcoholic. 6 or 7 drinks at a sitting is considered a binge.
I agree with you 100%. What does my drink order have to do with how much money I spend? There are times I go out or have been out with friends and simply cannot consume alcohol due to medication restrictions but I drop $20-30 for a couple cranberry lime combinations and water. That means I am not worthy of good service? Not one bartender/tendress has ever given my money back or thanked me for over paying!
well stated.
Consume 6-7 drinks in a sitting sounds like the answer to: "You might be an alcoholic if you ..."
2 "favorite" pet peeves as a bartender:
1.) customer "ummm we've been waiting like 10 minutes for you to take our drink order!"
me "oh sir I'm very sorry.... thank you for waiting, what would you like to drink...."
customer "ummmm, I don't know. what do you have on draft. what do you recommend. what is a fun drink."
** are you kidding me!!! if you've been waiting this supposed 10 minutes how the hell do you not know what you want, because you've been waving money in my face!!!!!!!
2.) people thinking that their bar tab will mysteriously find it's way to their table..... without tipping your bartender. because Lord knows the server won't do it!!! Not only do I have to find you, you didn't tip me, and your server is a douchebag who won't ring up your drinks.
absolutley dead on correct!!! our time equals our money people who do that probably do not relize they are stealing from us if they arent ready when i am standing in front of them i give them the oppertunity to think it over as i go to the next person to be served sorry they are over 21 and should know what the want to drink deal with it!!
So I have been in the industry for 8+ years and now tend bar at a high end steakhouse. What I LOVE... are when guests come into the bar..I greet them politely. They explain that they are going to have a drink or two before their dinner reservation. They all want something different...I recommend this or that and I shake or muddle them all something magical...that's my job. My only problem with this situation is this..when it comes time for them to sit down at their table, they either just walk away or just ask me to transfer. Let me make this clear I have no problem with transferring a check.. not one..but when did it become ok not tip in this situation. Just a thanks if I am lucky and they leave...THANKS???? I have been chatting and joking with you guys for the last half hour besides those titillating libations I concocted for you...where did this come from?
I would tell them the computer system won't allow you to transfer their tab, so they'll have to settle with you before dinner.
Maybe they thought that if they tiped their server u would get a cut, where i use to work we pooled tips so even if the customers were at the bar for a bit at the end of the day u would still get a tip. or they could have told their server to split the tip with you and the server was being an a$$ and didnt give you your share.
I have been a waitress for a while, and the last restaurant I worked at automatically took out 10% of the cost of my alchohol sales and gave it to the bartender. I know that the bartenders help us servers out by fixing the drinks, but this was really high- especially if the people had ordered a lot of drinks and the amount that I had to give to the bartender equaled my entire tip for the table (yea I know sucky tippers but still- I am the one who suffers for it- after dealing with a table like that I will have been runnign back and forth for hours bringing them drinks, waiting on the bartender to pop off the caps of beers and hand them to me, and all for nothing.)
and not to be bitter, but bartenders make pretty decent tips on a weekend night, even in small towns.
As a member of the service industry, when I go to bars I always wait patiently. But I get shoved around by other customers and ignored by the bartender forever- if you don't want people to get your attention by waving their glasses at you and calling for you, don't comply and serve these people when they do. Pay attention to the nice girl who has been at the corner trying desperately to make eye contact and hoping you stop to ask what she wants within 30 minutes. I am constantly overlooked while bartenders are waiting on pushy people and it sucks.
As a bartender myself, this seems to be the newest trend at my restaurant. After serving there 2 years and NEVER having drinks transferred from the bar to my table, I began bartending. At this point, I've had to buy several rounds out of pocket because people walk off without paying and guess what...We get kind of busy behind the bar. By the time I realize I have an unpaid tab and time to find the culprit they may have already left. I do agree the disappearing act peeves me quite a bit. When I am running around making drinks, red and sweaty because I haven't had 2 seconds to stop and breathe and you just walk away...WOW. Or as I'm making drinks and I'm not even finished and people are asking if I can transfer when they leave. I will have to say the one thing that has really set me off the worst so far was a guest that actually walked behind the bar because they changed their mind...Are you kidding me??? wait at the bar and I will gladly change things up for you at no charge. NEVER walk behind the bar. The other bar patrons found it humorous. I found it ignorant. If the wrong manager had been in house and seen it I could have gotten fired because you don't have enough patience to wait 15 seconds. Anyone else had someone come behind the bar?
It's not the customer's responsibility to look after restaurant billing mechanics. Their only job is to get food and drinks they enjoy, pay for it all at one time for THEIR convenience, and tip appropriately.
I was working at a small hotel bar that was too cheap to hire enough employees so I was restaurant waitress, bartender and room service delivery. One night I had 2 guys at the bar and I let them know I'd be back in a few because I had a room service order. While I was gone 2 women came up and thought it would be hilarious to go behind the bar and get their own beers. The worst thing was that the two guys, who were regular guests, egged them on. Needless to say I went off on all of them and the ladies had the nerve to tell me. "Well we waited like 5 minutes for you, it's not our fault". Then they didn't tip. The whole group thought they were really funny and cute. It wasn't cute to me, the one who would have been fired if it had been seen by management.
I'll tell you when it became ok. It became ok the moment I walked in at 8:00 pm for my 8:00 pm dinner reservation and you seated me at the bar for half an hour to increase your margin instead of seating me as we had previously arranged. If you don't like douchebaggery then don't be douchebag to begin with. Pulling a tap or throwing a rum and coke together isn't skilled labor. Having done it for 10 years doesn't magically turn it into skilled labor. If you want to get paid as though you do skilled labor then maybe you should look into something besides bar tending.
Hey Justabartender – us customers who have never worked in a restuarant have no idea how that works. I assume when I tip on the whole bill, including the drinks you serve me that you get your share. So don't assume our ignorance is anything more then that.
I could give a damn if I hurt the bartender's feelings.
Tim.
Agreed you should not care about hurting the bartender's feelings. Trust me the bartender could care less about your feelings and your drive to become less sober. Enjoy the view while everyone else is getting the drinkds and attention you crave.
I have to say it: I can't stand it when people say, "I 'could' give a damn." It's supposed to be, "I 'could't' give a damn." You're saying you care so little, it would be impossible to care less. Drives me nuts. Sorry.
I couldn't agree more... It can be ridiculas when i hear about how much bartenders can clearfrom a night's worth of tips- $ 200- 300 dollars in tax free money... we should all be so lucky. I tip on level of service. Waiters & waitresses too... if they are rude and don't put in any effort into being polite... they aint getting a tip from me... remeber everyone.. tipping is voluntary.
Seriously, you're in Customer Service, you're getting PAID to serve people drinks. You asked for it. Do your job and don't be a snob.
well tim honestly we dont give a damn about you... btw yes, we do laugh at you
@AverageJoe, maybe you should get a job in the service industry and see just how much people actually do make. There are the rare nights where the bartender will make a couple hundred bucks, but you are forgetting about the Monday or Tuesday night where they may only make $50-60. Oh, and remember, just as tipping is voluntary, so is service.
@Average Joe Why do you and EVERYONE ELSE in the world think that $200-$300 is some sort of magic tip number. No, we don't always make "incredible" money, and YES we do have to claim it all. It's not tax-free, so please refrain from opening your mouth when you're nowhere close to being on base. Bartending is not this magical form of welfare where we get free money for doing nothing.
Most companies keep track of all of your credit card tips when they are entered into the computer – so you get taxed on those from the get-go. Then you have to claim your cash tips separately, and if you think we just say $0 – you're dead wrong. The IRS makes sure to keep tabs on short restaurants through a little rule known as "tip allocation." Pretty much means that any restaurant they THINK is lying, get the shortages spread around through all the employees. So I'd rather claim my "tax-free" hundred bucks a shift than to lie about it and get shaken down for $2000 at an audit.
In all seriousness, I have been in the industry for quite a while and I see both sides:
- I go out and I expect good service, and when I don't get it, I tip accordingly: they get a normal tip, nothing extravagant, and I go to someone else next time.
- When I'm working, I make sure to take care of you, watch out to make sure your girlfriend's purse doesn't get stolen, inform you that you just overpaid me $10, listen to your problems, save your seats, keep your drinks cold and filled, and make sure you have a good time. If that's not worth a few dollars, then I can't tell you what is.
If your not making tips, then your not giving good service. I get so tired of hearing service workers whine about not making enough money, and that people are cheap and don't want to pay. Want better pay, get a better job. If I have to double the cost of a watered down drink just to get a second one from a condescending bartender, then that bartender needs to find another line of work. And I know I definitely won't be going back, if I even stay for more than one drink. It shouldn't cost a week's pay to get decent service from some uneducated bartender or barmaid.
I hope you never end up in a situation where YOU have to work in a service industry. I worked as a waitress/bartender to put myself through college. Due to the economy, I am back working as a bartender. I am thankful for the skills that I have to be able to wait on ignorant people such as yourself who like to assume that all that work in a service position are uneducated.
If you are not going to tip for service save your money and stay home. We don't work for free.
The literary device you used is actually sarcasm not irony . . .
Correct!
No, sarcasm is verbal. Irony is literary. Of course, your public education is showing in your lack of manners.
Chris: It's sarcasm. 2 Ivy Leauge degress. Thanks.
Irony would be some guy correcting someone elses "mistake", but they are the one who is in fact wrong. You might say "How ironic" (irony) or "He's a genius" (sarcasm) .
Chris wrote: "No, sarcasm is verbal. Irony is literary. Of course, your public education is showing in your lack of manners."
You are WRONG, Chris, it is Sarcasm. Irony is your show of ignorance and lack of basic education on the subject, while being rude and mannerless.
Chris: You're wrong, of course, for the reasons already posted. You should also be aware that "verbal" means "of or relating to words." Soooo . . . something "literary" (i.e., of or relating to writing or books) is normally verbal. And irony that can be characterized as "literary" is . . . you got it–also verbal. Hopefully you see the irony in your attempt to educate btw with your incorrectly drawn distinction that irony is literal while sarcasm is verbal. If so, that is true genius [sarcasm].
Um, Chris, were you thinking of libel and slander? Sarcasm is sarcasm, whether it's spoken or written or mimed.
I'm curious as to what qualifications you need to proof read, edit and write at CNN if this slips through. That stuck out like a sore thumb to me.
Ok, I'm going to make a really unpopular comment, but so be it. I say there should be a movement to stop tipping at restaurants, bars, etc. Then the employees can complain to their employers/unionize and negotiate fair wages. I, personally, wouldn't mind paying more for food and drinks to not have to tip. I hate that it's expected that at least a minimum is expected even if you don't like the service because you have to take into account the kitchen staff, etc. And the dollar a drink rule!!! Give me a break–especially when you're only getting $4 beers. Drinks cost so much as it is. Bars buy their alcohol wholesale, so that $40 bottle is probably $30 for them, and they're charging $6-$8 for 1.5 oz of it. That should be more than enough to pay for employees' wages, overhead, etc. I'm glad I don't drink. Like I said, you don't like my tip? I don't like to be expected to tip. You want better pay? Talk to your boss. Start a movement. Unionize. Personally, I'd never work in a position that paid me so little and made me rely on tips–not because I doubt I'd get them, but because I don't believe in them regardless of on which side of the situation I am.
You go ahead and not tip. See how friendly and speedy the service gets. Better yet stay home you cheep bastard!
And another thing, kitchen staff don't get any tips, they make a fair wage.
Gosh, you are really a clever little idiot, aren't you?
I was just in Australia for the first time, and what a pleasant surprise to be told by locals that it is NOT customary to tip at restaurants and bars! Only on very special occasions, or for an outstanding service, a tip should be considered. Servers seemed happy with their wages and the pressure was off from them trying to be artificially pleasant in order to get a tip, and we trying to determine what is the appropriate percentage to add to the tab in each country.
What a novel concept Australia has, hmm? And to you two who think I'm an idiot–It's a good thing I'm not worried about what you think and have a very good (read pays well and requires using my brain much more than my hands), very comfortable job that requires more than pouring drinks, wiping counters, mopping floors, waiting tables, etc. Just because I don't like the concept of tipping and suggest an alternative to the norm and making a change to it, I'm an idiot? Sounds like sour grapes to me. I don't look down on service workers (at least not ones who do their jobs well, I just don't like the system.
I have not been a bartender and did a little bussing in HS but that is it. I would NEVER not tip. I totally disagree with the idea above. My husband and I have good relationships with the bartenders and servers at the establishments we frequent and I appreciate the excellent service. People who have said "well it is their job." don't realize that when you get served at an establishment, you are entering into a contract with the person preparing your drink and or meal. You have contracted to pay for what you receive. If you receive service that is excellent, why would you not encourage that? It makes no sense not to tip a good bartender and or staff. Treat others the way you'd like to be treated is a good rule of thumb.
Scargosun, then why does that not apply to all other jobs? Using that logic, anyone who provides good service should be tipped, as the customer entered into an agreement when they entered the establishment (whatever type it may be). Good service should be rewarded according to you.
That completely proves my point. In very few other jobs do you earn tips, but rather make at least minimum wage. Why not the restaurant and bar business.
Further, where did I say that I don't tip?! I do just because it's expected and I know that if I don't my service or food/drink may suffer. That doesn't mean I like it or agree with it one bit. I think if people just thought about it logically and compared it to most other jobs they'd agree–pay for service in accordance with the labor laws without special provisions for restaurant/bar workers.
Clever little idiot? lol Nice link. Do you come up with that stuff while living in your mom's basement playing World of Warcraft or some such thing? I can't believe I just responded. Oh, well. lol
From Trip Advisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g255055-s606/Australia:Tipping.And.Etiquette.html
"It is not usual to tip for food service in Australia, although there are subtle exceptions.
Waiters get paid (by law) ~$15+ an hour. Any tips are usually pooled so tips are not important except as way of getting self satisfaction from having pleased a customer to the point where they are willing to hand over money."
I just love the concept and wish it could be implemented here in America.
I'm in full agreement, Australia. I'd even venture to guess that's how it started here in the US. Unfortunately, it's morphed into something very ugly (and contentious). As a former employee of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Controll (I won't say which state), I'm surprised it's even legal to tip for drinks considering all the other strange statutes and policies regarding alcoholic beverages and the serving of them.
Oops–extra 'l' on 'control' there.
Tipping is rediculous...I shouldn't have to pay your wages...your boss/company should...
For those of you that think tipping is a bad custom, and that fair wages should be paid by the employer, you may be right – in a perect world. However, in this world, without tipping, servers and bartenders would make minimum wage, since the restaurants would try to keep their costs as low as possible. If you really want you service staff making minimum wage, that is understandable, but be prepared for the speed, efficiency, and friendliness you are currently getting at the DMV. Me, I'd rather tip and get fast, friendly service.
Here in Belgium tipping is not the norm - you maybe round up to the next euro unless you're someplace really nice where the service is great. However, this has two major side effects: (1) Service is very slow. To keep costs down, bar and restaurant owners hire minimal staff. This means they take awhile to get to your table, and the only time they ever check up on you is if you're a friend, a regular, or have dirty dishes on your table that they need for other customers. I recently ate in a packed, 60-seat restaurant that was being served by two waitstaff (one of whom was waiting tables for the first time in his life) and a single cook, and while that is not the norm, it is not unusual either. (2) By and large, the waitstaff couldn't care less whether you're happy. Their income doesn't depend on it, and many of them are only working the job temporarily and couldn't care less whether you ever come back. Have a complaint about the food? Tough - you ordered it, you live with it (and pay for it, unless you'd like to discuss it with the police).
There are exceptions to the above, though generally at more expensive places, and I don't mean to make Belgium sound horrible - I love it here, and over-attentive American service is really annoying when you're used to unattentive Belgian service. My point is simply this: Be careful what you wish for. If the practice of tipping in the US ever ends, the standard of service WILL change, and you might not like the result.
In Japan, it's considered rude to tip someone. It's like having pity on someone.
I've had that thought too. But then I realized, what does it matter? Whether my drink (or whatever) costs $7 upfront or whether it's $6 plus $1 tip, I'm still paying the same amount. Services wouldn't suddenly get cheaper if tipping were abolished, so why complain about it? A tip is no different from a commission, except it isn't automatic. Just pay the tip and stop being a cheapskate.
goes to figure that you would be and ex TABC douche bag... gesapo wannabes of the service industry or pit bulls for mothers for prohibition. dont want to tip stay your cheap butt at home. as far as your well paying job, its the internet genius you could say your frakking mother theresa and for all we know you may be... but probably not more than likely your just some idiot who got turned down by the hot barkeep last night at some bar the you stink of bitterness.
I love that you insinuate that all people that work with their hands must not be intelligent. I for one have a post graduate education, a couple of the people that are on my staff do as well. We choose to work in this field because it is something that we love. You seem to think that if we rolled the tip, aka, service charge into the pricing of the food and drinks in my establishment that it wouldn't be a big deal, but I already do that for tables of 6 or more, and it is douche bags like you that are quick to complain about that as well. Just stay home and leave dining out to those that appreciate the passion, drive and care that so many people that work in the restaurant/bar world put into their work. You don't deserve it.
It's not my problem how much a bartender makes for a wage. Give me good service, I'll give you a tip. But I don't give extra tips ever when a bartender pulls a beer for me. WTF... give me the glass, I'll do it myself. Since when did bartending get elevated to an important job, where terms such as "mixology" are important. Make me a drink, listen to my problems and realize you are no better than moe sizlack. And while I won't puke anywhere, I will probably piss under the bar.
Fantastic. While you're "pissing on my bar" (verbally, no doubt) and pathetically whining about which of the hags at your 9-to-5 wont blow you this week, I'm pissing in your beer (maybe metaphorically, but probably literally). Do you REALLY think your food or drinks have never, ever been messed with when you go out, especially when you exude such humanitarian attitudes such as the ones you spout above? We can smell your kind from a mile away, and you sir, I could probably smell from two. Enjoy your "beer."
hey perv. How's it going.?
loser
Been reading all the posts. As a former bartender ( yes a part time job to help pay the bills) One thing most customers don't understand is that booze cost more for a buisness than buying at the local store. By law in Iowa at least, all must be purchased from a distributer. Owner's can't by it from ma and pa stores. I've seen the bills..... a case of beer for you let's say 20 bucks to round it off..for the bar more like 30... it's a distribution fee... and if you think you can buy just a case or two and then go buy it cheaper still wrong...explain to the IRS that problem in your sales receits....
This is the truth. People can't be bothered to think outside of their own experiences. They're so narcissistic that they assume the world works for everybody else they way it does for them. I'm sorry, but just because your mommy does your laundry and wipes your bum for you, it doesn't mean you can just leave things a mess everywhere you go.
Alcohol costs MORE for the bars because idiot voters elect idiot politicians who pass idiot laws establishing idiot "sin taxes.". It's not "wholesale."
Bartenders get paid less than minimum wage in many instances because there's an assumption on the part of the proprietor that the customers would have a clue and tip them up to a reasonable night's pay. Yes. An assumption. A custom. This is America, and this is a custom that was here before you were born and will be around after you die a sad and lonely death. So follow it or get out. So what if you were "nice"? "Nice" doesn't pay anybody's rent, tuition, or food for their children. And your tips may be the difference between that bartender busting their butts each night to make an HONEST living or being on welfare.
Even the IRS makes the assumption that the bartenders will be making a certain amount in tips and you can get your return flagged for an audit if you're a bartender without a reasonable amount of tip income outside your regular wage.
Everybody who tries to justify their cheapness and flouting of the social norms of this country with some sort of "I pay enough already" line or "that's their job" is a horrible person without two brain cells to rub together and honestly should be removed from the gene pool. It really is no different than urinating all over the bathroom floor and justifying your antisocial actions with "that's the janitor's job." You are what you do, folks.
How bitter these people are! And one guy claims to have a post graduate degree but chooses to serve food because he loves it and he too berates the customers. They are oblivious to the very purpose of the "custom" of tipping and have made it out to be an entitlement owed by the customer, not their employer. Anyone who says different is, according to them, just a cheapskate.
This debate makes me happy I live in Asia where tipping is not part of the culture. It has gotten out of control in the U.S. We need to raise minimum wage and stopping tipping. The worst is the "barista". You made my coffee, but I had to go get it. You're not getting a tip for that. I also hate that many of the bars catering to western customers (Seoul's Itaewon, or Evilwon) here have tip jars. They automatically expect westerners to tip, because we do it at home. Does that mean we should expect Koreans not to tip when they visit the west?
I know the best way to piss of the bartender: Stay home and open your own beer, avoid the wait, attitude and inflated costs.
long as bars keep overcharging for alcohol, i'll keep drinking Long Islands.
A Long Island order immediately screams 1. Cheap. 2. Young and inexperienced in a bar. 3. You still live with your parents. I know as soon as I make one, I'm not getting a tip. If you think you're getting five shots in your glass, you're deluded.
Agree with Doorman. Just as 80% you think tipping is 'outrageous', 80% of you step up to the bar with the delusion that you're getting a STRONG island iced tea. Get real. You're lucky we don't give you a glass of triple sec with a splash of sour and coke and some gin down the straw.
Also, most bartenders have a sixth sense about tippers – if you look like a cheapskate, chances are you're going to get a whole lot of juice in your drinks.
Johnny Cocktail – sounds a bit like a self-fullfilling prophecy. You think someone looks like a bad tipper, so you serve them weak drinks and probably give them less then your best service, then of course they don't tip well.
Thank you ladies for teaching us not to puke in bars. This is a very important more that so many people get wrong (especially foreigners, but that's forgivable). I've been have problems with some other touchy behaviors and actions.
Is it okay to take guns and knives inside?
Is it okay to threaten staff and customers in a jocular, but serious-sounding tone?
Are bomb-threats a good way to dodge paying off a tab?
Is it wrong to wear your KKK robes in a mixed bar?
and related, it is okay to scream racial slurs, especially racial slurs that match the ethnicity of people in the bar?
Under what conditions is it okay to sleep on the bar floor?
Can I wear my cloak made by the skin of my victims inside, or is that "too much"?
Hahahaha; I support you buddy. F'ing pervert hating bigots make me sick. Go play with your cats. Go to a book club meeting. Go telephone your daddy. Go write a stupid article about wasting money trying to keep your status up with some bartender you probably don't give a sh*t about. Thanks.
Tdaddy, thank you for your sharing your thoughts. In the course of 6, fragmented sentences you were able to eloquently articulate my sentiments about not only the losers posting comments here, but the losers writing and being interviewed for this piece of shit article. For that sir, I thank you.
Those women are ugly. They are ugly and self-concious about being ugly so they compensate for it by putting on this pretentious bullshit. However ladies, let me tell you, it's obvious you didn't come from money because you come off as low-rent and trashy. Go ahead and stick another finger out when you hold that drink, because the rouse over. You're better than no one.
You wish you could take these two home. You just know you can't, so you're all bent out of shape. What was the name of the Uncle that molested you when you were young?
Yoyoyo, I iz wit chu CockBreath. Never let a ball gobbling internet poster bring you down again. You know what? I crush CHEESEBURGERS SON!!!!! NOM NOM NOM!?!?!?!?
Anyway, I agree that those ladies are a little bit trashy, but that's never stopped me before. Believe me, I've smashed garbage monsters many times before. After a few good cheesebizzlers; I'd touch their stuff. Big time...Ooooohhhh......Uuuhhnnnn....blorf.
First of all, I'm a woman. Secondly, I come from money, which means we don't fuck family.
It's really too bad that all the garbage processed foods and putrid chain fast-food places you shit out of your body have inhibited the process of neurogenesis because your feeble brain will never be able to comprehend my points from both my prior posting and my current post.
God Bless! Go make sure your gun rights are safe.
Whaoah!?! Stop using those big spellings on me!!! Usually when someone comes around with a word paper, or with a whole binded set of word papers I run to the fridge and grab some of my guns as fast as I can. I also get a quick mouthful of moonshine in case they try to charge me with a crime later. You're innocent as long as you were drunk when you fired your weapons, and the target is from outside of your county or your sister.
Sex: Female
Psuedonym: CockBreath
Origin: Money
I like you already. :D
Yo shit, I wouldn't put ma dick n thhey snatch but i'd let the one wit the fucked up lips suck ma dick.
Wow.
Clearly someone should tip the editors over at CNN to do their job.
I can see that you are on the side of the 'I'm too good to pay attention to you" server. Why the hell should I leave a 33% tip for two Buds that I had to practically beg from the server?? Many are nothing more than tip whores whom are all too concerned with looking good and felling needed. I prefer to tip based on the service that I receive rather than what they think they may have "earned".
I happen to like long island teas,,and if i order 10 i dont care what you think,,,i may or may not tip,,but if you smart off to me or steal my money, i`ll knock your lights out !
You are the prime example of a complete fucktard. Let me guess, you're a steroid freak who watches Jersey Shore all the time, beats his girlfriend and has failed his GED (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Educational_Development in case you couldn't figure that one out) at least three times. You aren't knocking anyone's lights out, douchebag. If you haven't tipped the first round, chances are you are drinking straight sour mix on the rocks, so enjoy getting riled up on that concoction.
BTW ... con·coc·tion
/kɒnˈkɒkʃən, kən-/ Show Spelled [kon-kok-shuhn, kuhn-]
–noun
1.
the act or process of concocting.
2.
something concocted: a delicious concoction of beans, rice, and meat. a delicious drink concoction.
Of course, there is a better way. One of the greatest philosophers in recent memory has shown us the light:
I would like someone to address the large percentage of African Americans who don't tip. This is a very real issue that no one wants to address.