Story: The Patrons You Love to Wait on
This may sound cynical, but I tend to look at the majority of my patrons as dollar signs. Early in the night, it is easy to talk, laugh, and joke with people around the bar when there aren't 600 thirsty people trying to get a drink. I can make friends, do some bar tricks, tell some jokes, share some stories, and, for the out of towners, talk some smack on their football team. All of it is in good fun, and one of the coolest guys I met last week were in town to cheer for the opposing team.
Anyway, I'm waiting on this group tonite who are, again, fans of the "other team." I give them the usual ribbing about how their team sucks and we're going to win and blah blah blah, but truthfully, I've never been a big sports fan. If we're winning, I'm probably sleeping or doing homework throug the game. If we're losing, I'm usually doing the same. Sports have just never caught my attention. I know, I'm a closet nerd.
So I wait on these guys for a good hour as they are my only company as I crank out a slightly above average number of drinks for the service well. Nothing out of the ordinary and certainly nothing I can't handle. I make friends and then all of the sudden the rush hits.
Saturdays are strange to say the least. Normally, we'll have a small to medium crowd of out of towners and a few locals in to watch the college football games and oggle the hot waitresses (hey, I really can't blame them). However, around 9 or 10 oclock, all hell breaks loose. We'll go from having 200 people in the club to 600 in a matter of 20 minutes. That puts a severe strain on the bartenders and waitresses alike as they try to serve all the new guests who are drinkless. The problem with service bar, is that it is the first well that guests see when they walk into the Club.
What happens, and it isn't pretty, is that server tickets will spit out of the printer while half of all the new patrons try to get a drink from me. Luckily, many regular customers have learned to hit the beer tub or slower stations for their first drink (even if they are my friends, the bastards) simply because I can't make enough drinks to keep up with the demand. There are few if any bartenders there that can, as evidenced by the fact that I work service well almost every shift.
Today, something crazy happened. server tickets were spitting faster than I've ever seen and they were larger than usual. So not only was I getting hit with more tickets, I was getting hit with bigger tickets.
The way I usually work is to grab three tickets, memorize the 4-8 drinks, and go make them, come back, wait on 2-3 patrons, then go back to the printer. I tried doing that but I was getting huge backup on the printer (i'm talking 6-10 tickets deep).
So I had to try something different. I pulled ALL the tickets, put them all right in front of my well and cranked out every drink, then tried to make it around my station while the printer filled back up.
This is where my favorite patrons come in. I'm a fairly messy bartender. I spill ice out of my well, spray soda down the sides of glasses by accident, etc. However, I make the most drinks per hour and I always pour a proper drink. This being the case, the area I was laying my tickets was soaked and i was getting soggy tickets I could barely read. I went to go pour some draft beers and i came back to a ridiculously dry bar top with all my tickets aligned nice and neat. I looked up at Jim and Tony who were the "other teams fans" and they smiled and waved a bar towel at me. I loved them! They cleaned up my shit when I couldn't and helped me and everyone of my servers make more money. That is the best tip I could get. Truthfully, I don't remember if the group as a whole were good or lousy tippers, but they could have stiffed me for all I care! Their little bit of help surely helped put more money in my tip buckets and the pockets of my servers.
I of course asked my manager if I could by them all a shot, and he came back with the usual, "absofuckinglutley"
So tonite, I toast to Jim, Tony, Carol, Jeff, and the guy drinking tall Beam and Cokes.
Enjoy a:
Rocky Mountain Mother Fucker
1/2 oz Amaretto
3/4 oz Southern Comfort
1/4-1/2 oz of Lime Juice.
Shake well and serve as a shooter!
Anyway, I'm waiting on this group tonite who are, again, fans of the "other team." I give them the usual ribbing about how their team sucks and we're going to win and blah blah blah, but truthfully, I've never been a big sports fan. If we're winning, I'm probably sleeping or doing homework throug the game. If we're losing, I'm usually doing the same. Sports have just never caught my attention. I know, I'm a closet nerd.
So I wait on these guys for a good hour as they are my only company as I crank out a slightly above average number of drinks for the service well. Nothing out of the ordinary and certainly nothing I can't handle. I make friends and then all of the sudden the rush hits.
Saturdays are strange to say the least. Normally, we'll have a small to medium crowd of out of towners and a few locals in to watch the college football games and oggle the hot waitresses (hey, I really can't blame them). However, around 9 or 10 oclock, all hell breaks loose. We'll go from having 200 people in the club to 600 in a matter of 20 minutes. That puts a severe strain on the bartenders and waitresses alike as they try to serve all the new guests who are drinkless. The problem with service bar, is that it is the first well that guests see when they walk into the Club.
What happens, and it isn't pretty, is that server tickets will spit out of the printer while half of all the new patrons try to get a drink from me. Luckily, many regular customers have learned to hit the beer tub or slower stations for their first drink (even if they are my friends, the bastards) simply because I can't make enough drinks to keep up with the demand. There are few if any bartenders there that can, as evidenced by the fact that I work service well almost every shift.
Today, something crazy happened. server tickets were spitting faster than I've ever seen and they were larger than usual. So not only was I getting hit with more tickets, I was getting hit with bigger tickets.
The way I usually work is to grab three tickets, memorize the 4-8 drinks, and go make them, come back, wait on 2-3 patrons, then go back to the printer. I tried doing that but I was getting huge backup on the printer (i'm talking 6-10 tickets deep).
So I had to try something different. I pulled ALL the tickets, put them all right in front of my well and cranked out every drink, then tried to make it around my station while the printer filled back up.
This is where my favorite patrons come in. I'm a fairly messy bartender. I spill ice out of my well, spray soda down the sides of glasses by accident, etc. However, I make the most drinks per hour and I always pour a proper drink. This being the case, the area I was laying my tickets was soaked and i was getting soggy tickets I could barely read. I went to go pour some draft beers and i came back to a ridiculously dry bar top with all my tickets aligned nice and neat. I looked up at Jim and Tony who were the "other teams fans" and they smiled and waved a bar towel at me. I loved them! They cleaned up my shit when I couldn't and helped me and everyone of my servers make more money. That is the best tip I could get. Truthfully, I don't remember if the group as a whole were good or lousy tippers, but they could have stiffed me for all I care! Their little bit of help surely helped put more money in my tip buckets and the pockets of my servers.
I of course asked my manager if I could by them all a shot, and he came back with the usual, "absofuckinglutley"
So tonite, I toast to Jim, Tony, Carol, Jeff, and the guy drinking tall Beam and Cokes.
Enjoy a:
Rocky Mountain Mother Fucker
1/2 oz Amaretto
3/4 oz Southern Comfort
1/4-1/2 oz of Lime Juice.
Shake well and serve as a shooter!
posted by Bartender Savant at 4:58 AM
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