Pay Your Fucking Bar Tab!

The BBQ Pit
21

Audrey, notice, I said if the drinks are finished prior to the table sitting, then it should be paid out. I’m talking about situations where you pour a couple cokes and the table gets sat a few minutes later. I’m also assuming since it’s a busy weekend night you’d have lots of your own customers on top of tables waiting for a few minutes to be sat. That, coupled with being tipped out at the end of the night would equal decent money. Like I said before, I don’t know, I’ve never bartended, only waitressed. The restaurants I waitressed at that had bars, those bartenders always make bank, getting about $10-$15 each from 10+ servers, on top of their own tips. I know they always did much better than any of the servers, anyway.

YMMV.

22

I worked in the restaurant and hospitality industry for 15 years. I was a bartender, waiter, busboy, grill cook, dishwasher, line cook, seating captain, Maitre’d, cashier, service manager, food and beverage comptroller and general manager with 125 employees, 3 department heads and 5 supervisors reporting to me so I know a wee bit about tipping and service.

The #1 priority in any successful establishment is customer satisfaction. If you miss this then shut your doors and quit. I know its a pain to have to transfer a tab but its one that should be shouldered by the staff not the customer. Refer to priority #1.

I managed a private city club and a private country club where the customer is also an owner. I had 3x5 cards made up on EVERY customer listing their favorite drink, food, anniversary, birthday, spouses birthday and favorite activities like attending the opera, symphony or other happenings. My staff used these cards to better serve the membership. I took care of my staff and I made sure they took care of the customers with a cheerful attitude.

Tipping has always been a point of contention with waiters, bartenders and the like and I understand their position because I was one too. I’ve found through the years of my experience, the nicer you treat your customers the better the tip. A lot, and I mean A LOT of waiters, bartenders and the like have no clue as to what good service is and then EXPECT to get tipped based on their perceived view of what good service is.

The problem lies in the management not identifying poor service habits and training proplerly. I took over a city club which was failing and put the service staff, kitchen staff and support staff through intensive hands on training. I followed this up with CONSTANT monitoring because just because you show someone how to do something don’t expect them to keep doing it unless you hold them accountable.

I once asked a bus person to clean a table for some waiting guests. I got this as an answer “That’s not my section so I’m not doing it!” I said, “That’s OK go clock out and I’ll take care of it and your section too.” That was the last day that person worked for me.

Real service is where the customer’s desires are anticipated and addressed BEFORE they have to ask. I looked at every evening as a coreographed ballet when it came to service. Everything was in its place and nothing was out of line. When the guests entered our dining room every table was impeccable. Every tablecloth hung the exact distance from the floor. Every knife, spoon and fork was polished and in its proper place. Every knapkin was precisely folded and every glass and plate was in its proper place. The tables were arranged on a diagonal so that each table corner lined up with all the others in its line and the chairs were all positioned in an exact manner.

When it came to service there was a way to take a drink order like “Good evening Mr. Smith, shall I get you a martini with 2 olives and a twist?” The server knew that Mr. Smith drank martinis just like that. Further, when it came to serving dinner there was an order of service which was followed to the T.

Did you know there is a proper way to serve a plate and remove a plate from the table? Also, 1 cigarette butt in an ashtray is too many. I know this sounds a bit anal here but it works. You also have to realize these people were paying over $300 a month just to belong to the club and that was in addition to what they bought while dining.

After about 3 months of opperating like this we were packed each night with about 200-300 reservations and I had a waiting list booked a month in advance and kept it like that until I was hired away by the country club where I did the same. Unfortunately for both clubs I left the field about 10 years ago and the service has gone down considerably.

I know, I’m a member of both clubs now. Some of the staff I trained are still at both clubs so when I come in they know what I like and how to take care of me. Its great to have them there when I am entertaining clients, knowing that the details are being seen to. I’m a good tipper when the service is right but when I get stiffed on the service I might just stiff the server. I’ve even gone so far as to tell someone who had a piss-poor attitude one evening that they should consider another occupation which doesn’t require their “cheerful” demeanor.

I still get asked by the older members if I would consider going back and taking care of the club. I tell them they can’t afford me. :slight_smile:

23

In parts of europe everyone runs a tab, on nothing more sophisticated than the cardboard beer coaster and even if they don’t know you from Adam.

Each beer is signified by a written “X” on the coaster, and continued through the night, along with the food, ciggies, coffee, whatever. It sure makes things easier on everyone - payment is made once by the customer, instead of over and over and over and over, ad nauseam. Anyone who skips on payment won’t be welcome ever again.

It’s a great method, and may be paralleled with cash register/computers if necessary. Unfortunately, running a tab is illegal in many states.

24

Which what huh? Running a tab is illegal in many states? Where?

25

lezlers, Aceospades, and Audrey:

First, as I said, and perhaps didn’t say clearly, my ‘tiping practice’ (or lack thereof) is pretty much restricted to high traffic bars, where I’ve got to wait in line to even get service, not restaurant bars, or bars where the style is not so much that of a drive-up window.

So, with that in mind, I find the accusations of assholeishness unfair. If everybody is supposed to tip, then the folks behind the bars here would be the richest people in town.

Also, what percentage should I tip? The ‘standard’ for waitstaff is 15-18 percent (though I usually tip a bit higher than that), and they come around to the table a bunch of times, bring food, check up on me, etc etc. Bartenders pour me a beer from the tap and that’s that. I’ve got to get back up and go to the bar (assuming I’m not sitting there) to get another if I want it. Maybe 10% is reasonable? So, on one drink I’ll leave 25-45 cents depending? Does that make sense? No, it’d be insulting to the bartender for me to count out my nickles, I think. If I leave a tip I leave a dollar or two, which is a good 20-40% tip.

Frankly, I find the assumption that everyone should pay a tip for ‘service’ insulting to the customer, who gets no more special service than at any other type of shop where folks don’t rely on tips for their livelyhood.

I understand that bartenders do rely on tips (do they get the same below-minimum-wage-per-hour deal that waitstaff do?), which is why I do tip, but if you’re serving hundreds of people a night, you really don’t need each one of them to leave a tip, and to call them jerks for not doing so is jerkish yourself. (I’ll repeat here for clarity’s sake, that I’m talking about a high volume bar. I realise that typically at restaurants they don’t go through that many people, and I would not stiff my bartender at such an establishment).

26

Man, I come back from work and there’s a billion issues to address. :smiley:

Okay…obfusciatrist, I do ask for payment when drinks are served. Getting everyone to pay me when I ask them to is a whole other kettle of fish…and I feel it’s a bit rude to stand there tapping my foot waiting for them to dig out their wallets/purses/whatever. (Not to mention I rarely have the time.)

And so some people just “wander off.” That’s the whole point of my OP. They were told to clear out their bar tab and they didn’t. It gets old.

As for everyone who is wondering why I can’t/won’t transfer the tab…it is not the policy of the restaurant I work at to transfer bar tabs. A great many of those reasons are listed in the OP. It’s for speed of service for the entire restaurant; I simply do not have time to find out which servers/tables these customers are going to, in order to transfer their tabs. This policy was in place before I worked there and it will undoubtedly be there when I’m gone. It is also the policy of every other bar/restaurant I’ve ever worked at; just b/c there are restaurants where they do allow you to transfer tabs doesn’t mean that it’s allowed everywhere. Or that this policy I’m referring to is some strange anomaly that’s peculiar to this restaurant alone. At TGIFriday’s, for instance, one of the biggest bar/restaurant chains in the country, it is customary not to transfer bar tabs. It’s for the speed of service of the entire restaurant.

And once again, for Sailor, if you were to have an issue with our restaurant policy on transferring tabs, you should of course feel free not to come again.

Lezlers, I know we have encountered each other on this type of thread before, and we’re usually on the same page. :smiley: The only difference between you and I is that I have waited tables and bartended, and I stand behind what I’ve said. There are nights in my restaurant where it’s a “table crowd,” and the bar doesn’t make as much money as the servers. There are other nights where it’s a bar crowd, and I do walk out with more money than they do. Either way, I don’t think it’s fair to ask me to hand over a $30 tab to a server who did nothing for it, just b/c “I make money anyway.” You wouldn’t be happy if there were four people sitting at your table who had a tab with me, instead of you; they’d be taking up valuable space in your section when you could be making money off that table. (And trust me, people have tried this and I’ve never allowed it, b/c I know what it’s like to have a table who’s got a tab at the bar, and you’re not making any money off of it. It totally sucked, so I never take a tab from a table. I always insist that they go through their server, for this reason.)

Having a bar full of transferred tabs is the same thing to the bartender.

Tedster, I’ve never heard that running a tab is illegal.

Yes, Eonwe, in Texas bartenders get the same $2.13 an hour that waiters do. And I do see your point about high-volume bars, which is why I’ve never worked in one. (I’m assuming you’re talking about nightclub-type bars where there’s so many people in there it’s like living in a can of sardines.)

However, when I do go to such bars, I make damn sure I tip the hell out of the bartender on the first round, and so I don’t wait in line after that. Tipping is kind of an either/or situation, especially in high-volume bars; either you can tip really well, and get your drinks without a half-hour wait, or you can tip really poorly or not at all, and hope to God you get your drinks some time that night. Those bartenders remember good tippers, and “forget” bad ones, because there are so many billions of people in the bar that they can afford to be choosy as to who gets served next. I choose to be remembered, but it’s always your call.

whew

Did I miss anything?

27

If a tab got transferred, Audrey wouldn’t get a tip, and if someone else gets a tip ahead of Audrey, YOU ARE FUCKING SCUM!!!

audrey, if it annoys you this much that every month more or less you start the exact the same rant about how customers are scum because they don’t follow your guidelines for how to tip, perhaps you should get another job.

28

Audrey, gotta disagree here. These customers are not bar customers, they are there for the restaurant. The drinks at the bar are nothing but a diversion while they wait for a table. If a waiter was sent to me with a bar tab after I sat down, my answer would be to ‘Add it to my bill’. If it was demanded of me that I pay that bill, I’d pay it flat, no tip, and walk out, never to return.

You are both part of the same company, and I’m not there to get hassled or annoyed by the staff. Transfer the damn tab. Since you’re a restaurant, perhaps you should have, I dunno, a standard process for tranferring the tab. It can’t be that hard, other restaurants seem to do it all the time.

29

Aren’t you forgetting about what the customer wants here? Believe it or not, the bar is there to serve customers. Tips are just an expression of appreciation for good service, not an entitlement.

30

Audrey, I know we usually agree, that’s why I felt bad even taking the opposite stance. I see where you’re coming from, I really do, and if it’s indeed a $30 tab, then I can see your ire. Like I said before, I was more thinking along the lines of a couple of cokes or maybe a beer or two, far from anything equalling a $30 tab. I was also thinking of those instances where the customer would bring their half finished drinks to the table with them, resulting in me “taking over” the drink service, getting them refills and such on the drink you initially poured. If they’re alcoholic drinks that’s no big, they’d be charged for new drinks anyway, but sodas and other non-alcoholic drinks, I’d end up doing more work than you for it. Does it in turn seem fair that you’re getting the tip off of a drink you poured once, not even having to leave the bar, and I’ve had to refill 2 or 3 times, running all over the restaurant? That’s why I put emphasis on the timing of the seating vs. when they got their drinks.

I think we’re talking about different scenerios here. As far as high bar tabs and mulitple drinks go, yeah, I’m with you, as usual.

31

And SunTzu2U, your post was the reason I’d always refused to work in high end dining. All the table cloths exactly the same length? That’s bordering on OCD management. I remember when we got a manager like you in a middle class Italian restaurant I worked in. He lasted about a month before he was chased out of there. We weren’t havin’ it. We expected to be treated like humans, not robots. The table cloths were allowed to be 1/8 of an inch off with no fear of anyone losing their job over it.

But if your employees really were treated good, then more power to ya I guess. I’ve just found in my experience servers that worked in restaurants such as the one you described were typically treated like mindless and valueless peons, ready to be replaced at a moment’s notice. It’s bad enough to be treated like an inhuman worthless server drone by snobby customers, but to be treated like that by management as well really isn’t cool.

Someone needs to get over themselves, methinks.

32

Thats exactly the attitude that kills restaurants/bars, guess what if the service pisses me off I will, the food can be great to fair prices, everything else can be fine but when confronted with bad service all that does not matter. There are other places that will gladly serve my wishes, which have just as good food. I never stiffle a waiter or barkeeper for a tip, thats just cheap you can ask my favourite bars/restaurants but then again they all dont convey the impression that I am being served by gods grace when they hurl my stuff.

A friend of mine has for thirty+ years managed/owned bars, restaurants, bistros, casinos in short every service heavy establishment imaginable and maybe some that stretch it and he always knew that a customer once lost wont come back and while there are plenty others its not a bottomless supply.

Customers shouldnt be told thats the way we handle it, they should be convinced that the way the restaurant handles stuff is just how they like it. :wink:

33

TwistofFate, try not to be so astonishingly unoriginal, please. “Look! Someone posted to the Pit! Whatever they say can be invalidated by the phrase ‘Get a new job/spouse/apartment/family/whatever if you don’t like it!’ Look how smart I am! I’m a problem-solver!”

Please. I enjoy bartending and I’m damn good at it. That makes for a shitty thread, though, so when I do post about my job, it’s usually an aspect of it that gets on my nerves and I feel like venting. If that isn’t what the Pit is for, pardon me. (And prove to me that I start threads every month about my job. Do I post to others’ threads? Yep. If that offends you, I’ll try to care at some future point.)

Lezlers, I do see your point on non-alcoholic drinks. If it makes you feel any better, I don’t often get tipped on sodas, nor do I expect it. And I also agree with you about fine dining. Ugh. Never could wear a monkey suit to wait on tables. :wink:

For everyone else who seems to think that I have some measure of control over whether or not a tab gets transferred…Waverly, Cheesesteak, etc., I believe I have made it clear that I do not. It is restaurant policy. If you have a beef with restaurant policy, take it up with my boss; til then, as I said in my OP, you’re still paying your bar tab. I don’t invent policy; I just enforce it. So to anyone who is saying, “Transfer the damn tab, Audrey!” it isn’t my call.

Nor have I ever worked in a restaurant where transferring tabs is policy, and I’m coming up on eight years in this biz. :shrug:

34

Do you read? You stated, and I quoted, “Either way, I don’t think it’s fair to ask me to hand over a $30 tab to a server who did nothing for it.” I quite understand your restaurant policy, thank you. What you fail to understand is that your desire to pick up a tip on a $30 tab, while understandable, should come second to the customers wishes.

Customers aren’t some unfortunate byproduct of your job, they are the ones funding the whole operation.

35

And IMHO, as a former waitress/cocktail waitress/bartender, in your case, I don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with making you stand there till I’ve served all the tipping people before I get around to serving you your next drink. Try that in a Chicago high-volume nightclub, like the ones I used to work in. You’ll get pretty thirsty waiting too. You’ll get served eventually…really.

36

Point taken, Cerri, but I also don’t see why I should tip after spending between 5-15 minutes in an establishment trying to get service in the first place, fighting my way to the bar and then trying to get the bartender’s attention so he or she can finally help me, just for the priviledge of not having to wait quite so long the next time!

I get your point, and as I said, I understand that bartenders depend on tips, but there is nothing about that kind of ‘service’ that inspires me to pay extra. That’s not the bartender’s fault necessarially as much as it is the nature of the establishment, but that’s not my problem. I’m not going to be treated like one in a heard of cattle and feel 100% obligated to tip.

37

Justify not tipping all you want, Eonwe, just don’t expect the level of service given to tipping customers.

Honestly, we’ve had this conversation on these boards dozens of times and they all go the same. I’ll save you some time: throw out any excuse, explanation or justification you want for not tipping. You will still be considered a cheap ass and will not receive good service. Period.

Oh, and you’ll also be told to cease going out into the civilized world until you can handle the most basic of social ettiquites: tipping. Rightfully so.

38

Do you have a complex or something? You are tipping the bartender, not the proprietor. If the server is doing their best, you are an asshole for not tipping.

Make any excuse you like, but you are impacting that person’s income out of misguided spite. Want to be treated just a wee bit better than teaming masses? Tip. I’m not sure why are patronizing establishments that make you feel like cattle to begin with. Or again, you are being treated just fine but have an inferiority complex.

39

Based on some of the attitudes you’ve espoused in previous threads, my answer is “HAW HAW HAW”.

40

I may be missing something here, Twist, but I haven’t seen Audrey start more than one or two threads about her job. Seeings how she works with the public, I think that’s pretty damn good. She’s hardly nearing IDBB territory.

I can’t help but think either you might be thinking she’s someone else, or you disagree with her position but are unable to come up with a good enough argument against it and instead are going for the “cop-out” response of “don’t like it? Get another job!” when she never said anything of the sort.

I’m geniunely confused about why you’re going after her like you are. Her posting history doesn’t explain it, maybe you could.

:confused: