ahem what’s degrading about being a stripper?
Out of interest, does anyone know if it is common practice in any country other than the US to tip in bars?
I’ve certainly never encountered it in anywhere in Western Europe.
pan
I’m from the UK and I don’t tip in bars.
I tip in restaurants and cafes, usually about 10%-15%.
Bars and Pubs don’t expect tips. Sometimes, if I’ve been paid or am feeling flush I’ll offer the Bartender a drink or tell him to keep the change, but otherwise, no tip.
My girlfriend is a bartender and she apreciates every tip she gets. Except when someone rings up a fifty dollar tab and only leaves pocket change. Also you would be amazed at the amount of scumbags out there who don’t leave a dime!
I’m not saying I don’t tip, or am a lousy tipper. In fact, I do tip upwards of 50% when eating out (depending on the service). I just resent the I’m-helping-myself attitude that some servers seem to take.
Robin
Well, my theory when ordering a beer is that the bartender is actually getting paid to pour it. Admittedly, it’s probably just a bit over minimum wage, but it’s not a particularly complicated task. Hold the mug under the tap for 30 seconds tops. A dollar tip for a beer would work out to maybe $120.00/hour. So yeah, sometimes I tip change. If you find it insulting, give it back.
(Yes, I’m cheap, but I sincerely overtip servers because I feel they deserve it.)
Scylla – you deliberately made complex drinks that tasted bad to save yourself work? And you felt you deserved tips, why?
[/quote]
Scylla – you deliberately made complex drinks that tasted bad to save yourself work? And you felt you deserved tips, why?
[/quote]
No. I did not expect tips in that instance. But when you have a crowded bar with people waiting 4 and 5 deep to get served, and some half-sloshed nitwit asks for a “skylab,” or a “purple headed love worm,” experience has taught me he ain’t gonna leave a tip anyway.
In that same amount of time I could serve 5 or more customers. So, in this case, I’m taking social justice into my own hands by giving the guy his just deserts. I’m also serving self-interest by discouraging a bad customer from taking up my time.
I used to say “We’re too busy. I can’t make that right now,” but then you just end up in an argument. If the person seemed nice or reasonable I’d point out that I didn’t have time for that at the moment and would he care to modify his order, but people who order Daquiris or Purple headed love worms in a crowded bar are rarely reasonable.
Well, I’m glad you’re doing your part to ensure that bartenders don’t earn $120 an hour. :rolleyes:
Finagle:
You guys, for very different reasons, have got to come to a future NY dopefest at a roadhouse bar like the Village Idiot or Red Rock.
The bartenders there have been known to throw change at people who leave it (unless, of course, there’s also a buck; it’s not the change itself but the amount).
And their response to “may I have a (fill in 10-ingredient frozen drink here)” is “what kind of beer do you want with that Jack Daniels shot?”
Scy, you’d have a blast. Finagle, you’d probably have a quarter stuck in the back of your head.
I’d almost be tempted to leave 90 cents in change just for the sheer pleasure of being able to grab the bartender and tell him that he’s under arrest for assault. (Then you get to sue the club for a couple million when they falsely arrest you.) Throwing change (or anything else) at customers is illegal, not to mention bloody stupid.
Ha! Dancing on the bar in an establishment without a cabaret license is also illegal. So is having a pig roast in a commercial establishment without a restaurant license.
For that matter, a bouncer beating someone into an unrecognizable goo and leaving them in the middle of 11th Avenue across from the Javits center is probably illegal, too. But that’s pretty much what happens if you grab a bartender in a biker bar.
And for whatever it’s worth, in context the change throwing thing is pretty damn funny.
Well, I’m still a bit puzzled about why anyone feels that I should be obligated to tip the bartender at all. The bartender may feel that way, because he or she took the job because it offered a lucrative amount of tips for the skill and effort required. But strangely, no one seems to feel as though I should tip the cashier at MacDonalds who has an equally demanding, annoying clientele, probably an equivalent rate of pay, and with whom I have exactly the same level of interaction, that is to say, less than a minute.
Equally strangely, no one felt they had to tip me in my youth when I did various service industry and heavy lifting type jobs for minimum wage.
I regularly tip waiters/waitresses 20+ % because I know firsthand what a miserable job it is, and they have a direct effect on how much I enjoy my dinner. I tip my barber as an acknowledgement of his skill when he does a good job.
The guy who ignores me for 10 minutes and then gets around to pouring me a beer? He could be replaced by a spigot and a coin slot for all I care.
Don’t be a shmuck. Do you really think that a bartender goes through less shit than a waiter or waitress?
Well Finagle, that’s great.
Here in the US it is generally accepted that you will tip the bartender. Their pay is based on that expectation just as a waitress’ is.
And, the job is every bit as demanding as a waitress’.
When I bartended, I’d get to recognize people. If the last time you came in, you didn’t tip you would have been lucky to only be ignored for ten minutes. If you don’t feel that you’re expected to tip then recognize that a bartender doesn’t feel expected to serve you.
Similarly, if you were paying cash as you went all night and didn’t tip, you became invisible as far as I was concerned.
Watching such people get angry and frustrated as people would walk up right next to them and get immediately served while they stood there hopelessly ignored was one of the great pleasures of bartending.
And don’t forget who keeps the bar clean and unsticky, the glass frosted, who keeps the clientele happy and lubricated, who washes the glasses (the barbacker mostly, but we’d do it on occasion,)who keeps ice in the hoseboxes from the tap so your beer is cold, and don’t forget who gets their fingers pickled to such a degree that the fingernails turn soft and mushy.
Don’t forget who will light your cigarette, call you “Sir,” make you feel special and welcome after a hard day at work, mix up something special “just for you,” and who knows the names of all the good looking girls in the bar, and can make you cool to them and hook you up.
Also don’t forget who might hawk a loogie into your glass, pour you a glass of foam, or just cut you off if you’re a jerk.
I do. Maybe it’s different in Quebec, but we Dairy Queen waitpersonnel do get tipped. (These days, practically all of my mad money is in tips.)
Then again, we don’t just shove a sandwich at you, we make the dessert from scratch right there in front of you. God knows when someone orders five or six jumbo milkshakes (each of which takes about four minutes when there are other customers waiting, and leaves an unholy mess), has me attempt to divine what kind of double hard ice cream their monolingual Tagalog-speaking mother wants, and then leaves a four-cent tip, I get kind of upset myself.
You know, Scylla, as a poster I like you a lot, but as a bartender, I’m getting the feeling you were kind of a jerk.
Spitting in a glass? Ignoring customers? You were getting PAID to do the job. I don’t know why I’d have to bribe you to do it well, like some petty official in a banana republic.
I guess I’m still not convinced that bartenders get as much shit as servers. I’m open to being convinced, but as I said, my interaction with the bartender is a 30 second “Give me a draft”. I’m no trouble and I don’t want anything from the bartender but the drink. I don’t want a light, I don’t want to be his or her friend. If I order a 3.00 beer and leave a dollar tip, that’s a 33% tip. That must be some pretty outstanding, Tom Cruise-in-Cocktail-style bartending.
So here’s my question. When bartending, tips included, how much did you typically make an hour? What skills did you bring to the table that made you worth that, aside from knowing how to make vile or adulterated drinks for people that displeased you?
And frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass if the bartender remembers me or not. I’ll drink one or two beers in the local watering hole every couple of months. By that time, the bartender has probably moved on. I have no investment in making him my buddy.
It would literally be unthinkable to tip people who work behind a counter at a fast-food restaurant or Dairy Queen in the U.S. In fact, accepting tips may be ground for firing in those places. (I’m not passing judgement, just saying that’s how it is.)
When I bagged groceries in high school, I had to join the local of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Union rules prohibited us from accepting tips. You know, we were making that princely minimum wage and all. Needless to say, many people offered them, and I gladly accepted them.
Finagle:
Oh yes, I could be an unpleasant jerk. I could also be very nice. The choice was yours.
It varied wildly. On a Wednesday night working from 4 p.m. to about 3:30 a.m. I might sometimes clear $50.00-60.00.
On a Saturday night working from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m. I could make ten times that on a good night. The problem is you have to work (or I did,) Tues and Wednesday and Saturday, or Monday Thursday Friday. The schedule gave you a roughly equal share of crappy versus decent time.
I bartended in New Orleans and the day of a parade, we worked two hours on, two hours off from about 10 A.M. to 6 A.M. the next day. Each bartender had his own barbacker, and all we served was tap beer. I made almost $1,500 that day and earned every penny.
I could make excellent drinks for polite or normal people. I could hold a drink order for a table of 6 in my head and provided they were well type drinks, I could fill their order in a couple of minutes.
I make the best Margarita in the universe, I’m in the top percentile for my Bloody Mary’s.
On a busy night my hands would fly with a will of their own and though people might be lined up at the bar 3 deep you never had to wait long (unless you were a jerk.)
I could keep an eye on the waitresses, my fellow bartenders and the customers and make sure things stayed cool, and the party fun.
I could clean your smelly puke off the bar and call you a cab to make sure you got home ok, or take you in the back and fix you up with coffee.
I could have six plastic bottles of handmade mixers at the ready to produce superior quality drinks on a moment’s notice.
Or I could just take a second and pull a beer for you promptly with a friendly nod, give the area in front of you a wipedown, and clear the ashtray so you can enjoy your drink in a clean atmosphere, return your change to you promptly and keep my eye on you so that when your beer got low I was ready to offer you another one.
And, if you had two beers, spent $3.50 and left 50 cents that seemed about right. If you left a quarter I figured you must be a cheapskate, and if yo left nothing I would consider whether I had offered bad serviced, whether you had merely forgotten, or were just an asshole. If it was the last, I didn’t bother to move the ashtray, wipe the bar or keep my eye on you the next time I saw you.
Not true dear. Here in the lovely District of Columbia it is quite common to see tip cups placed at the register of non-waitstaffed restaurants. This seems to me a very crass thing to do. They’re already charging an obscene amount for a frickin’ sandwich. Why the heck should I tip someone just for ringing up my sale? I do tip cab drivers, bartenders and waitresses because I know they make less than the minimum hourly wage and they are dependent upon tips to make a living.