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1. This isn't Westside Story, so don't snap your fingers at the bartender. "I think that's the thing that gets me the worst," says David Shenaut, a bartender at Teardrop Lounge and Beaker and Flask in Portland, Oregon.
2. Don't show off your phone. "The other one that's been bothering me a lot lately is people shoving phones in my face and asking me to make drinks off apps. To sit down at the bar and just order from the phone is very frustrating," says Shenaut.
3. Don't bark orders. Talking to the bartender like she's a human is a good thing: "When I ask 'How are you?,' don't answer 'Manhattan,'" says a bartender in San Francisco who didn't wish to be named. Shenaut echoes her sentiment: "I said 'Hey, how's it going?' as a customer sat down and he looked at me like I wasn't doing my job because I had bothered to talk to him."
4. Don't flag down the bartender until you know what you want. "You get to the group and then none of them are ready to order. I can't make all 100 other guests wait because you don't know what you want. It's not about being rude to me but to everyone else," says Erick Castro, general manager at Rickhouse Bar in San Francisco.
5. Don't dig your mitts in the garnishes. "I wash my hands 40 or so times a night. You do not. Please do not treat my garnishes like a buffet. I will have to throw out that entire cup of olives now that you have put your dirty hands into it," says the anonymous San Francisco bartender.
6. Don't filch the specialty glassware. Castro says that people steal Rickhouse's vintage punch cups all the time, and that "our Moscow mule cups and our julep cups all got stolen." The bar is not your personal souvenir shop.
7. Don't slow them down when you are ready to pay. Just tell the bartender your name, says Castro. When the place is packed and there are 35 people running tabs, he says, "they come over and say, 'It's the blue one.' We have [the credit cards] stored alphabetically, so that doesn't help us at all."
8. Don't be sexist and pig-like. "Please don't assume that I don't know how to make proper drinks because I'm a woman. I drink like an old man and have the tolerance of an English sailor," says our anonymous bartender in SF.
To Teh
As I assume a bartender or waiter/waitress would come in under the concept that they are being offended, At no time was it made out you were drink dispensers and not human but like most humans you give a very automatic offense reponse.
1.you are not animals but you are there to interact with people and you go off the assumption that the first point of contact was snapping fingers and...+READ
To Teh
As I assume a bartender or waiter/waitress would come in under the concept that they are being offended, At no time was it made out you were drink dispensers and not human but like most humans you give a very automatic offense reponse.
1.you are not animals but you are there to interact with people and you go off the assumption that the first point of contact was snapping fingers and yelling when the first point of contact was looking at a batender the first and most crucial sign to a batender or waiter that hey that person is trying to get your attention, the 2nd point of contact was asking for the batender it descended from there...I reiterate if I do every thing humanly possible to get the batenders attention I'm damn well gonna get snippy and or yell at them.
2.This concerned bartenders that were brain dead and knew all of 10 drinks to make and those off a drink card...A big difference from all bartenders which I did not specifiy *in this bullet point* as for that it concerned the fact that If I ask them to make a drink and they dont know how but then give them instructions or if they cant make it from instructions show it to them on a phone... In reply to NEVER shove your phone in a bartenders face which at times is is appropriate to do so.
3.you've obviously not been around dance club female bartenders that much like hooters are there to make you feel welcome and leave tips, most of these bartenders into a 5 hour shift at a busy nightclub or bar do not want a life story and how are you is more of a affirmation of hey I notice you what do you want?
4.this was more of a combined point in me saying I usually know what I want but more often then not the problem isn't the customer ordering its the waitress and bartender not up to snuff to deal with big orders and not knowledgeable of what certain drinks are and what go into them.
8.Personal Experience would disagree with you and I really don't think you were able to type that with a straight face beyond bartending such matters are common place the attractive male or female receiving favor over the more experienced less attractive male or female, I have been to a many bars and night clubs and the like and frankly it is a common thing in such enviorments for the attractive male or females to receive the bartending jobs the same for waiters, since they are the point of consistant contact and tip generation..
Sorry if I offended by the way.-COLLAPSE
To WilliamRLBaker and Scott872004...
Don't talk about bartenders like we're not people. Or rather, like we're "braindead" or "not...the best of people". Yes, most of our job is to serve drinks to the general public. I say "most" because it is a customer service position - part of our job is to interact with the customers, not behave like a drink-dispensing machine. If we were rude or indifferent...+READ
To WilliamRLBaker and Scott872004...
Don't talk about bartenders like we're not people. Or rather, like we're "braindead" or "not...the best of people". Yes, most of our job is to serve drinks to the general public. I say "most" because it is a customer service position - part of our job is to interact with the customers, not behave like a drink-dispensing machine. If we were rude or indifferent all the time, we would have no business being in that kind of job. Sure, your bartender might be a bit more blunt than your waiter, but we interact with inebriated people more often - we have to be like that in some cases. The ones that are surly or angry all the time should find a new job, because they're clearly over talking to hundreds of people every day. And it is "some type of responsibility" because it's a job that we get paid to do. Yea, we're not out there curing AIDS or figuring out how to feed 7 billion people, but there is absolutely no reason to look down on us because we work in customer service. In any job that exists there will be people that aren't the sharpest crayon in the tool shed, but there are many people that are incredibly smart - whether they're working their way through school, or realized they can earn a lot more money bartending rather than sitting in a cubicle, or whatever. This article is about common sense and common courtesy. Asking the general public to talk to us like people, or to give you a few hints into what makes the bar run smoothly is not whining. To answer some of WilliamRLBaker's bullet points,
1) We are not animals, we're people. Snapping your fingers is degrading. If you do, I will continue to ignore you, and if you start yelling at me, I will kick you out. I would prefer not to have your business, there are plenty of other patrons I can serve.
2) Yes, bartenders should continually be adding drinks to their repertoire. But there are so many drinks and so many ways to make them, and we're not encyclopedias. Most bartenders will (or should) ask you how to make the drink. If you don't know, or you can't look it up in your phone or whatever, then we can't make it for you.
3) I already answered the "not the best of people" part, but you are correct in that it is a way to let you know we're listening. But we do want you to answer at least with "I'm good" or something similar. We like talking to people - that's why we're in customer service. If it were just about making drinks we would already be replaced by robots.
4) Sometimes we literally can't make drinks if we literally don't have all the ingredients. If a bartender says they can't make a drink without trying to look it up or asking you how, then congrats, you found a shitty bartender.
8) Not true in most cases. Obviously businesses want someone attractive because it will bring in more business, but most restaurants and bars will get rid of someone if they can't do the job.-COLLAPSE
This is when you know you need another job, when people who you are never going to see again in your life, bother you.
You should pay attention to these rules if you want a drink faster, not complain about the list
Come on, this is obnoxious. This is the state of America. Whine for me because I have to show up and do my job. You serve drinks for god sakes quit acting like you hold some type of responsibility. Your responsibly is satisfying the GENERAL PUBLIC.. not just your type of people, they don't owe you anything. If they weren't there drinking you wouldn't have a job. What if doctors were all, well the...+READ
Come on, this is obnoxious. This is the state of America. Whine for me because I have to show up and do my job. You serve drinks for god sakes quit acting like you hold some type of responsibility. Your responsibly is satisfying the GENERAL PUBLIC.. not just your type of people, they don't owe you anything. If they weren't there drinking you wouldn't have a job. What if doctors were all, well the patient wasn't nice to me, and I had to tell them this wasn't going to hurt and they still complained.. Be a professional.-COLLAPSE
Dearest Blogger,
I promise to put extra olives in your Margarita next time. If you promise not to come into my bar with preconceived notions about my chosen profession. Who knows, you might end up having a good experience. I see a couple hundred people a night and will read your energy and treat you accordingly. If you snap, I might snap!
Stupid antisocial dudes you guys are, if the guy asks how are you, you effing tell him how you are... just say good, bad, or "if I wasnt bad why would I be here"
Seriously people the guy works there like 12 hours a day and probably doesnt talk to anyone ... YOU are the ones who should see it from his perspective, theres nothing wrong in talking to strangers I have no idea where people picked...+READ
Stupid antisocial dudes you guys are, if the guy asks how are you, you effing tell him how you are... just say good, bad, or "if I wasnt bad why would I be here"
Seriously people the guy works there like 12 hours a day and probably doesnt talk to anyone ... YOU are the ones who should see it from his perspective, theres nothing wrong in talking to strangers I have no idea where people picked that idea from-COLLAPSE
I find these kinds of articles obnoxious. How many Chow articles have there now been where bartenders or waiters/waitresses explain how they should be treated by patrons? How about an article written from the perspective of patrons about how they wish to be treated?
As an example: when I see that a bartender is busy, I may state, gesture or otherwise indicate that I'd like to close my bill...+READ
I find these kinds of articles obnoxious. How many Chow articles have there now been where bartenders or waiters/waitresses explain how they should be treated by patrons? How about an article written from the perspective of patrons about how they wish to be treated?
As an example: when I see that a bartender is busy, I may state, gesture or otherwise indicate that I'd like to close my bill "when you get a chance." If the bartender would just likewise indicate that he/she got my request, I can then sit back and give that person time to do so. But if there is no acknowledgement of my request, I will repeat it until the bartender indicates he got it. Just communicate please, and don't get angry at me because you are busy.-COLLAPSE
Personally, I find "how are you?" to be a rude question when it's coming from a stranger. If I'm going somewhere to get wasted, chances are there's a reason for that. Obviously, bartenders need to be treated like humans and I will never bark my orders at them. But it's irritating that the interviewees think they're doing me a favor somehow by "bothering to talk to" me. You're paid to serve...+READ
Personally, I find "how are you?" to be a rude question when it's coming from a stranger. If I'm going somewhere to get wasted, chances are there's a reason for that. Obviously, bartenders need to be treated like humans and I will never bark my orders at them. But it's irritating that the interviewees think they're doing me a favor somehow by "bothering to talk to" me. You're paid to serve drinks, not be my buddy, and I'm certainly not going to act like I enjoy the nosiness. I understand their complaints, but I think they need to consider the situation from the perspective of others. There is such thing as inappropriate friendliness.
But then, bartenders are typically very social people, so the concept might seem entirely counter-intuitive to them.-COLLAPSE
too true
On the thing above, 7 was meant as reply to the 8th point.. and 5 and 6 should have included 7 as the only valid points in the article.
1.If I go to a bar busy or not *this has happend in a non busy bar* and I look at the bartender and he obviously knows I'm there and I ask for the bartender and he or she ignores me...I yell bartender and he or she ignores me...well I am damn well going to snap my fingers or at worst tell the bartender he or she can go to hell and leave.
2.If I go to a bar and the bartender is brain dead and...+READ
1.If I go to a bar busy or not *this has happend in a non busy bar* and I look at the bartender and he obviously knows I'm there and I ask for the bartender and he or she ignores me...I yell bartender and he or she ignores me...well I am damn well going to snap my fingers or at worst tell the bartender he or she can go to hell and leave.
2.If I go to a bar and the bartender is brain dead and can make at most about 10 drinks, Then I damn well will ask if he or she can make something, and if they cant ask if they could If I gave them the instructions...This has actually worked quite a few times in the past.
3.as much as I like to be nice Bartenders are not known to be the best of people they are bartenders for all mighty's sake so If a bartender seems to be busy more often then not how are you is simply a word to let the customer know hey im listening whats your drink.
4.I usually know what I want, But look at point 2 way too often bartenders are braindead which is how they got a bartender job don't know how to make me and my parties drinks...so when a bartender sits there and literally says I can't make that then Obivously I have to change my order or at point 2 show them how.
5 and 6 are really the only valid points, Of course its stupid to put your hands in the condiments and additives. but one point I'll say is I will bug the hell out of the bartender when they don't give me the extra olives and even olive juice I asked for in my perfect margarita.
7.Sadly its not possible to bypass this since most of the decent looking bartenders got their jobs because of their physical looks not their ability to competently participate in the drink mixing science...If you want a good drink find the ugly bartenders...-COLLAPSE
@ToddBradley - as a bartender I can tell you FIRST hand that people USUALLY will not tip extra when it's crowded and want a mojito/ blender drink/ etc. If they did I would make them ALLLLL night for people.
How about a list that highlights what customers get annoyed by from bartenders? They are human also and quite often lack the skills needed to be a credit to their occupation.
Unbelievable! I agree with JonParker, this article shouts "HEY, quite being a tool!!" How HARD is it to not act like a self-centered jerk in a bar BEFORE one has had a few?
I like mojitos, and if a bar stocks fresh mint I assume that means they are willing and able to sell me one. If a bartender doesn't want to make drinks that take extra skill (and earn extra tips), hey the bar at Applebees is always hiring.
Actually if it's slow, I welcome people ordering mojitos. It's one of the more challenging drinks to make really well and is a good chance for me to show off my craft. But if the bar is five deep and you can barely hear yourself think, then you're best off sticking to simpler concoctions.
The only thing missing from this is "Don't order a mojito."
if only more people could parse that one, JP!
The problem with lists like this is that the people who need them aren't going to pay any attention to them. These all amount the same thing, "don't be a jerk."