Let’s try this again in the right forum.
Title says it all. Followup question. Any interesting related stories?
Depends on which job. At the airport bars/restaurants pretty much never…except for one time a flight to vegas was delayed and a group of like 10 rednecks going to some tractor convention came in. They order rounds for each other while talking about tractors loudly. We took great great care of them since they were the only ones in the bar. When their flight was finally called, every single fucker stiffed us except for one guy who left a handful of change.
At nightclubs, I’d say say once a week someone buys a round for the bar, tho not for everybody in the house. Dive bars it can happen a few times a night, depending on the crowd. Usually more often when only a handful of people are around.
I’ve walked into my local tavern after a particularly good day, and thought "Damn, it’d be fun to buy a round for… ten, twelve, fourteen folks drinking pints and looks like ten people drinking cocktails.
So a round would cost at least a hundred and fifty… my day wasn’t that good.
I’ve walked into a bar when there was only one other customer, and told the bartender I wanted to buy everyone a drink. An hour later when there was a decent crowd the bartender was telling all who would listen that earlier kayaker bought a round for the house.
How does ‘buying a round’ work? I’ve only ever seen it on TV or movies in very crowded bars—how does the bar tender keep track of who has or hasn’t had their one free drink?
Or does this only happen in real life when there’s a small number of people in the bar?
I’m confused. I would have thought only regulars could run a tab like that.
Bars I visit hand out tokens good for one drink to everyone, then get the generous dude’s money. Drinkers “spend” their tokens as need arises.
I took “stiffed” to mean left no tip on this case.
Not a bartender, but I’ve never seen it happen except in the movies.
Reminds me of a story - supposedly true - that when Sargent Shriver was campaigning as George McGovern’s running mate in 1972, he went into a blue-collar bar, worked the crowd, and then loudly said, “You guys are great! Bartender, a beer for everyone here - and a Courvoisier for me!”
As someone who has spent, ahem, a fair amount of time in bars, I can honestly say that I’ve never bought a round for the house, and only once was I the recipient of the same. I was sitting in a booth with my two buddies in a beer tavern which probably had about 20 other patrons, when the bartender brought us a pitcher. Seems that somebody (we never did find out who) bought a pitcher for every booth and also bought draws for the few folks sitting at the bar.
Tangent. Maybe it’s a regional thing, or the kind of bars I frequent, but I haven’t see beer served in pitchers since the 1980s. Is it still done?
Well, this was back in the late 70s, so there is that.
But there is a bar in my hometown that will still serve a pitcher of one of the brews they have on tap. They are quite a bit more expensive than I remember, however.
How does ‘buying a round’ work?
In my local area when someone buys you a drink, or buys a round for the house, the bartender will place an upturned, empty shot glass in front of you by the drink you are probably already drinking and tells you that Jack, or whoever, has bought you a drink.
When you are ready you give her the empty shot and she gives you your free drink. And no, you don’t get whatever you want, you get whatever you were already drinking, no upgrades from a beer to an expensive drink. So it is not really very hard for the bartender to keep track of the sales, she rings up your new, free, drink under Jack’s name as the empty shot glasses come in. Sometimes they may try to ring them all up at once but that is at the convenience of the bartender.
This is not a Hollywood invention and if you have never seen it happen I am sorry for you.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I am not a big drinker, but I like a good rum cocktail, and Trader Sams on the Disneyland hotel grounds has fine ones. It used to be somewhat undiscovered and we could always get a seat, but no more.
However, we were in one crowded night, and we mentioned it was busy, but our bartender/waitress said “Yeah, but lots of Aussies, they stiff ya”- what she meant is that those from down under had not got the hang of American tipping.
Being without shame, I rather loudly said “Be sure to tip the staff!” and overtipped myself.
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I knew I would find you here 
And as for the OP: I have seen rounds for the house about ten times, ranging from 5 customers present to more than I cound count (that was a very shady local). I have also seen somebody buy a bottle of vodka and give the instruction to serve a glass to every customer who enters the bar until the bottle is empty. Took about half an hour, nobody refused.
Correct. They paid their bill. But left me and my cocktail waitress with a handful of change.
Aussies don’t tip. they see it as demeaning for someone to express their superiority in this way. Bar staff in Oz earn a living wage so not dependent on the ‘generosity’ of customers.
It’s much the same here in the UK. If you buy a drink in a pub here, I have no doubt that the bar person will happily take a tip, but they certainly won’t expect one. Under some circumstances, it is reasonable to offer to buy them a drink and they may well take the money instead.
Superiority? Who has access to a large number of razor sharp knives?
When in Rome…
In Oz, that is fine, although most of my Aussie friends say that leaving the coin change is standard. But this is the USA. So, you are just being cheap.
I’ve got some friends who all meet to watch football at the local tavern (Midwest, USofA, pointy-ball football). They serve pitchers that are relatively cheap, given how many glasses you can get out of them. And it’s handy to be able to pour a half-pint when you feel like it.
Though at the end of the night we’re always surprised when we total up how many pitchers we’ve had… 