Last time I talked with people about that, I hear responses anywhere from a buck a drink to leaving the change on the bar to figuring out the percentage at the end of the evening.
I do the buck a drink thing when I’m traveling, going to cities that charge $6.00 or more for a pint of decent beer, but I’m never quite sure what to do around home, where a pint is usually $3.00, and my favorite watering holes have $2.00 pint nights with featured microbrews. Leaving a buck a drink is a 50% tip. That seems awfully high.
I buy the cheapest beers going - PBR is my first choice, but I’ve been known to spend an evening swilling Schlitz tall boys if they’re on special - and it’s still $1 per beer for me. Sometimes that’s a full 100% tip. I’d feel like a real jerk just leaving change.
The thing is, when I walk up to a local bar, my beer is waiting for me and the bartender is smiling. If there’s a crowd and service is slow, who gets their beer first? I do. If I drop a glass, the bartender laughs it off. If I forget my jacket, it’s recognized and tucked away nicely until I come back for it. If I want to set up a show, I’m already on good terms with the staff and have an easy time of it. If some friends and I get a little loud and rowdy, we’re tolerated. It’s a win all around.
It depends on what I’m getting and how I’m paying.
If I’m using a card & running a tab, I just tip at the end when I pay, and that’s typically a standard-ish 20% tip on the total. If I’m drunk it’s probably more
Cash, usually a dollar a drink - but if I’m paying cash, I’m generally not going to get more than 2 or maybe 3 drinks, because I don’t carry that much cash, so $1 each isn’t too much.
Standard rule of thumb is a buck a drink, if paying cash per drink, or 20% of the tab if you run one. (Unless the tab is less than $20, in which case most people tip a higher percentage.)
Some people do tip with change (fifty cents on a $2.50 beer etc.) but those people aren’t my first priority; as filling_pages notes, the speed and goodwill of the bartender is gonna be focused on the better tippers.
Just curious … When you’re really busy, how do you keep track of who’s put what in the jar? I usually leave my tip on the bar, but a lot of people put the tip in the jar while the bartender has his or her back turned. Bartenders have told me, “Oh, we know.” I’ve just always wondered *how *…
In a way we do; instinctively I am always watching my tip jars. Even if it’s peripherally and nobody is aware that I’m looking, I’m paying attention. Same thing for people who get their change and “take their time” with it, not making eye contact with me…I know they’re stiffing me and hoping I don’t notice it. If I walk off after I give you your change, I can still see peripherally whether or not your arm went anywhere near my tip jar. And if I don’t see that, chances are good I’ll see the money on top of the jar.
Yes, I watch that closely.
You would too if you were me. It’s your rent money you’re watching. You’d watch it like a hawk. Every bartender does. We notice far more than I think most people realize.
I *only *have regulars because of the nature of where I work but I still know who tipped what - at the end of the night I can almost tell by the way they are folded in my jar. People are mentally separated into “dollar a drink” people, “quarter” ladies and so on…
And yes, you had better believe it is investing. There is one guy I let get away with shit I would have kicked others out for and part of it is because he is a really good tipper. He has said more than once “oh, we don’t do change” which means I get whatever is left out of his cash when he pays. Of course, he probably does that because he knows he’s going to get drunk and say some stupid shit.
I’ve never seen a tip jar that a patron could reach. Every bar I’ve ever been too has the tip jar by the cash register.
I tip between 50 cents and $1. If I buy 2 drinks I tip $1.25 to $1.50. I always order the same 2 drinks when I first arrive at a bar and they’re usually waiting for me before I sit down.
It’s a buck/drink if I’m ordering for myself. If I’m buying the next round for a group of people, I tend more towards 20%.
As a bartender, I don’t really expect more than 15-20%, but it’s a little weird if beer is on special for $2 and someone leaves me 25 cents, but whatever. I’ll take it.
It completely depends on where I am, and/or how I’m paying.
There are a few places I go to regularly. They take good care of me, and I tip them accordingly. If I’m only having a drink or two and paying cash, I tip $2 per drink (on an $8 drink). If I’m staying a while and using my card, I tip a percentage, but it’s a large percentage. After all, a 50% tip isn’t too much of a hardship if you’ve only been charged for 50 - 75% of what you drank.
At any random bar, it’s a dollar (and whatever change) per drink if I’m paying cash, 20% (or more for great service) if it’s on the card.
So it sounds like most of you base your tip on the number of drinks, then, not on the price of the drinks? If you’re at the bar on “buck a beer” night, you tip 100%, and if you’re drinking $10.00 a glass cognac, you tip 10%?
I suppose that makes sense. The bartender doesn’t have to work any harder to pour the good stuff than he does pouring well drinks or cheap beers.
I do have a habit, by the way, that I’m curious if anyone else does. I tend not to drink complex or frou-frou drinks. My liquor is on the rocks and my beer is draft. But if I’m buying a drink for someone who orders something complicated and/or blended (especially on a busy night), I always tip extra. Is that standard?
No, I would tip more for more expensive drinks, although I probably wouldn’t be paying cash. But I seem to recall a few times when I paid cash for $10 martinis, and I probably tipped two or three bucks. Except for the drinks being more complicated, and the standards for everything being higher, bartenders in high-end places probably have it easier, in that they don’t have to deal with as many assholes or high-volume happy hours.
I think it’s definitely great to tip more for complicated drinks, especially anything involving a blender or the crushing of fresh mint leaves.
Oh, and to magiver: I’ve been in plenty of bars (usually high-volume clubs and pubs) with tips jars that are accessible to the customers. The bartenders give change, and the customers are supposed to slip the buck in. It saves the bartender a step. I’ve also seen bartenders throw people out for touching the tip jar. It’s pretty closely guarded.
I usually tip about $1 per beer and $2 per mixed drink, unless I’m running a tab, in which case it goes from 20% (if I’m still sober) up to 50% (if I’m, you know, not).
Thus, it’s totally worth it to the bartender to get me drunk. Sadly, they generally don’t seem to realize this.
And you live in San Francisco? :dubious: You must drink in the tenderloin.
Yes. And if I’m running into $2 drinks, I have no problem giving a 50% tip. Last week, I had three whiskeys filled to the brim by a bartender who I suppose likes me, and was only charged for one of them. I gave something like a 120% tip. If I can get a boatload of booze for around $14 bucks with tip included, I figure that’s a swell deal.
