I was out watching some football and thought about tipping the server at a sports bar versus a regular restaurant.
There’s no table turnover for several hours when football games are on, but servers are running around serving food and doing drink refills and such, just like a regular restaurant.
What do servers in sports bars think about this? Do people seeking serving jobs give consideration to this when applying for the job? Should tipping in a sports bar be different than tipping elsewhere, assuming tipping is going to happen anyway?
If the server is continually servicing a given table, that would mean that that table would be continually receiving drink refills and/or more food. If the tip is based on the bill (as is customary) then the tip should more or less reflect the amount of service.
Now, if people just sit and watch the game without ordering a lot of refills or food, then the server won’t make as much for the evening. They also won’t be running around as much, but I’m sure they’d rather be working harder and making the higher tips.
So I guess the question is, is the amount of money spent per table per hour in a sports bar equivalent to the amount per table per hour spent in a restaurant?
Yep. If you want somebody to serve you rather than going and getting it yourself, you should tip them accordingly. The difference is that in a restaurant, the server makes fewer trips to your table. If they are going to be running around for hours getting you stuff, then just leaving a normal percentage of the bill is cheaping out. Never stiff the hired help - it’s bad karma.
I think it’s just customary to tip a percentage on the tab (drinks and food) as per usual. Otherwise, if you are just getting rounds of drinks piecemeal, tip as you go.
That is my understanding of how it works in a normal restaurant/bar. However, when the “sports bar” restaurant has TVs all over the place and people just sit there for 3 hours taking free soda refills with the meal while watching a game, the server ends up with no table turnover and a low tip over the 3 hour period. A server in a normal restaurant will have 3 hours of table turnover and more tips for what seems to be the same amount of running around serving people.
Maybe a sports bar server actually does less work in 3 hours than a normal server.
Smart too. When I see bars charging for sodas, apart from thinking, “how cheap can you be?” I think “man I’d hate to have plaintiffs’ lawyers in a DUI/dram shop liability case point out the perverse incentives I created by charging as much for a soda as for a beer.”
Okay. I don’t spend much time in bars. I would have assumed that an establishment as described in the OP wouldn’t give free refills for either alchohol or sodas. Considering the low turnover rate, it doesn’t seem very profitable for the bar or the servers.
No one’s going to give free refills on alcohol other than the occasional buy-back/shot you might get from some bartenders.
IME, people drinking soda for prolonged period of time in a sports bar, and not ordering any food (the worst case scenario for the bar owner) are pretty uncommon. I do see people drinking soda, but usually in either a DD sense, a I-don’t-drink-but-I’m-out-with-my-group-of-drinking-friends, or I-really-just-wanted-a-burger-not-a-beer people, who generally won’t stay for a whole game/day of sports. None of those pose a real threat to profitability, and may actually help it.
Fact is not many people would want to sit in a bar for a long time and drink only soda (drunks are very boring to non-drunks).
To the OP – yes, anytime someone comes to your table and hands you a glass, of whatever, s/he needs to get a buck or two. With table service the logistics are a bit different as you’re probably running a tab, but at least mentally set that amount aside for when the bill comes (plus whatever the percentage based tip is on your food).
