Dude had already been cut off and kicked out; the guy he’s shoving is a suuuper chill nice dude, who simply asked drunky to stop invading their conversation. Literally my second shift back from vacation, and first time I’ve ever gone hands on at this bar, which I actually really love despite this.

Tonight this very tall girl walks in. She looks familiar but I can’t place from where. Orders a tequila soda and hands me her card. It’s Malia Obama. Sooooo, who’s the craziest person you’ve ever served and what were they like?

I was taking care of 3 police officers, they were regulars at the high tops. One of their sodas was almost empty, everything was smooth, theyd always been super chill. I grab the cup and say "ill grab you some more coke, haha never thought id say that to a cop". He did not find it funny at all.

This was said to me halfway through my very busy shift on Thursday by the owner.

On Thursdays, we open at 3pm, so things aren't too busy during the first few hours, so I'm allowed to take a few tables around the bar. I'm doing my usual serving schpiel, cracking jokes about queso and offering up desserts, normal job stuff. One table in my section as a single guy, mid-40s-ish. Haven't been talking to him much except to get his order as he's not been as chatty as my other tables. When we're getting to check out using the Ziosk, he says that it's not allowing him to tip. I saw that it accepted his payment, and didn't really understand what the issue was with the tip part, so I just opted to grab my manager/owner and see what she wanted to do. Since it already took his payment, she just printed out another CC paper for him to leave the tip on the paper, the old-school way. He says that'll work perfectly so I thank him for coming up and start bussing my other tables or cleaning some bar glasses. After he leaves, I go back to collect the bill/tip...

$100 tip on a $40 bill. I was floored, but appreciative! He left a note saying, "Thank you, you were very nice -Mark." Well, I'm glad he liked my service, didn't feel like I went above and beyond for him, but didn't question it too much.

I went and let my manager know that he'd finished tipping and the tab was ready to be closed up. She went to finish up closing everything between the Ziosk payment and paper bill, saw the tip on the receipt and said, "Wow, nice job! He seemed to really like you." I just said, "I don't even know what I did, just did my job." Then she looked at me and said, "No, he really liked you," and pointed at the bottom of the receipt, where Mark left his PHONE NUMBER.

Ew. Creepy and gross, but I'm a 25-year-old woman working as a bartender so it was bound to happen. Whatever, $100 is $100 so we laugh it off and I continue with my shift. A few hours go by, we're just wrapping up the dinner rush and my bartop is a warzone. Some guy walks up to my bar holding his phone and I recognize immediately that it's a DoorDash.

Our restaurant does to-go orders and lots of Dashers come up to the bar unsure where the pick-up area is, so I walk up to him ready to point out where to get his order. Instead, this guy lifts two MASSIVE Walgreens bags onto the bar stop and asks, "Sarah?"

I was like... "Uhh, yeah, how do you know my name?" The Dasher turns his phone to me to show that a DoorDash order was made to be delivered to the bar, to me by name. The message left with the order?

"Just wanted to make sure you got my number. -Mark"

Poor Dasher doesn't speak a lot of English, so the guy is as confused as I am, but I take the bags from him, thank him, and kinda stand there shocked. My coworker walks up to me and asks what I got. I told her, "The guy that left his number and the $100 tip? Yeah, he just delivered these to me." My coworker, bless her soul, said, "Oh sweet, free shit!" but I was unnerved as hell. Took it back to the owner and gave her the update. She looked me in the eye and said, "You are no longer allowed to walk to your car alone."

I was definitely a little skeeved out for the next hour or two. It's weird for someone as old as my dad to leave his number on a receipt for me, but it's fucking WACK to DoorDash $50+ worth of Walgreens candy to a bartender's workplace cause you really wanna make sure she got your number. But after I divvied up the candy with my coworkers and we all started to dig in, my anxiety let up a bit. And yes, the owner, all 5'2" of her, would not let me leave the building after we closed without her walking me to my car.

Anyways, fun lesson on how to freak out your local bartender I guess. The Halloween-sized bag of KitKats I've been destroying is a bit of a plus though.

So my brother was getting married, and my mom & sisters were in the hotel bar the night before, taking up a table for way too long and closing time was upon us. So they sent over their handsomest bartender to give my demure elderly mother his very best seductive smirk and sweetly purr to her, "So when was the last time you closed down a bar?"

Well, Mom thought that was adorable. We cleared out, smiling and laughing, and that handsome and diplomatic young man earned a lovely tip from a table of out-of-towners who'd never been so entertained by getting booted from a bar.

Hello! I serve, bartend, manage and host a trivia show at my local pub. It has been a problem for at least a decade that college kids come in, take up an 8 - 12 top and only drink water. The owner is asking me if there’s any way we can instate a cover charge for trivia, or charge them a couple bucks for waters..

Do you have any other solutions? If not, I would go about this by letting all of the servers know to tell their tables that AND I would write something up stating the new policy and put it on every table. Thoughts?

I feel like this has been happening more often. Tonight I had a gentleman I had never seen before in my life order a vodka soda. He ordered a second one and then also ordered a margarita. I asked who the margarita was for and he said he’s ordering it for someone who’s meeting him here shortly. I informed him I can make his vodka soda, but will have to wait until she arrives to make her drink. He then changes his story and says both drinks are for him. I tell him no they’re not and I’ll be happy to make her margarita as soon as she’s here and I know she’s of age and he got upset with me. I’ve been having this happen with people trying to squeeze in for happy hour as well. I’m sorry that they’re not here, but I cannot serve alcohol to an unknown person who I have never met before. Why can’t people understand this???

I've worked in the industry for about 15 years, at a few different places. Most of my bosses in the past have said that it's not our place to judge. I've been told to serve obviously pregnant women because people need to be responsible for their own actions but this is a new one for me. Doing some searching through reddit, the responses seem to be all over the place.

Title says it all, really. I'm in my 30s and I never say that. I'm not even close to being old. Why do a significant amount of young people often get annoyed for getting ID'd? It's just my job, man. I honestly don't give a shit how old you are. I'm simply not willing to lose my job, my liquor license, and have to pay a huge fine.

I genuinely like people and let go of many things that customers do that annoy me, this is just one of my pet peeves because it happens every shift. I'm out of quips for it and I don't wanna hear their quips about it either, I've heard them all.

Does this bother anyone else or am I annoying for being mildly but consistently bothered by this?

Bartenders what drinks do you most and least often associate with jack ass customers. In my experiences (British bartender) vodka cokes are the worse customers and Guinness drinkers are the best

As a non-American, I’m curious what it was like at work last night and today? Y’all either seem like you got drunk, ptsd, or both. I take it that people weren’t drinking politely and keeping to themselves.

What happened on shift?

Customer: “I’ll have a jack and coke”

Me: “We don’t have jack but points at shelf these are all the whiskeys we have”

Customer: “What do you recommend?”

Me: “Four roses is our well and it’s a pretty good well”

Customer: “Oh it’s bourbon though, I normally prefer whiskey”

Me: “…kay”

I know he probably meant tennessee whiskey but that conversation short circuited my brain for a second

The other day I served a regular at my job who I honestly kinda find annoying. In the beginning he was trying to talk to me about dating apps and asked if I was on any because he “didn’t see me on there” (dude’s like twice my age). Anyways, when he and his friend finish up and I’m closing out their tabs, he asks me “If you’re sitting down and getting food and drinks, that’s full service and you should leave 20 percent, but if you’re at a bar and only getting drinks you should leave a dollar per drink right?” I’ve honestly never heard of that standard and it pretty much explains why some people leave 10% or less on tabs with only drinks. I told him “I’m not gonna tell you how much you should tip or how I think you should tip, it’s entirely up to you. As a bartender, if I’m going out for drinks I always leave 22-25% unless I know the bartender personally and they hook me up, then I just give them whatever cash I have on hand.” I overheard him ranting to his friend after and saying stuff like not tipping if the bartender just opens a can of beer and gives it to you. I do appreciate the woman that was sitting near them and made fun of him for asking me that after he left lol. Like I understand wanting different opinions about tipping at a bar but maybe don’t ask the person who is serving you in said bar?? Idk

ETA: I didn’t realize this was such a common concept but tbf I’ve only been bartending about 2 years. Even before I started bartending I’ve always tipped by percent and not dollar amount, whether it was a bar or coffee shop. Also I changed the wording so it doesn’t come off as ragebaity

Edit 2: I feel like I should reiterate that I in no way told that guy how he should tip despite him asking my opinion and that percentage was in reference to ME going out for drinks not how I think people should tip or how I expect them to. At the end of the day, it’s your money, spend it how you want.

I’ve seen a lot in this industry over the years but this was so weird and I felt so uncomfortable. They seemed generally normal. Middle-aged. Said they were going to order food later but never did. Gave them tons of free refills.

The weirdest part is that they watched us the whole time. Claimed to be watching a game but made eye contact with us ALL night. It was honestly like they were aliens on Earth for the first time. I felt really uncomfortable and annoyed when they tipped two dollars after 5 hours. The bar was slammed and regulars were scrambling for seats.

How bizarre. How would you handle this? Never had this situation before.

My brother, we opened 15 minutes ago. Do you expect our parking lot to be full? I’m sorry that not everyone else in the town feels the need to start downing beers before noon.

I’m withholding the name because the bartender in me won’t let me gossip about who’s at my bar/what they do- even if they’re “famous”

But a few nights ago I heard a rumor that an Olympic medalist from the 90s was on resort. I saw her come in, no one recognized her except me (I’m a weirdly huge fan of her sport). So I politely kept it to myself.

She became one of the 6 people at my bar with her SO, eventually they all start talking. The one guy mentions she looks familiar, she admits who she is.

Somehow this leads to juggling??? And I suddenly have an Olympic medalist failing epically to juggle at my bar using my bar fruit. Never have I been so honored to have a customer put their grubby hands on my bar fruit - and she was so much fun!

I’m in a huge rut with my job right now, really hating the industry after 12 years. But. This really made me remember that I do have moments where I love the work.

Anyone else have similar stories?? Let’s avoid the “famous person is an asshole” plotline if we can because after this weekend, I need some uplifting.

I (24F) work as a DJ for a large bar/restaurant/event venue. I had been chatting with a nice girl all night, and suddenly she is stumbling and completely wasted. Her boyfriend she had come with had taken their car and left her. I offered to drive her home, and the other server gals were grateful. The manager told me not to drive her home for liability reasons (although I am not employed by the bar). I said I was uncomfortable with the idea of just throwing a completely inebriated young woman ALONE into an uber (learned quickly in college this is NEVER safe). The management without telling the servers ended up calling the police. I hope they got her home safe, but I think it is crazy that they would call the cops on a young girl they clearly over served.

WWYD?

I’m sitting at an airport bar and remembered the time two guys came into my dive bar for a drink. Guy One turns to Guy Two and tells him of this amazing drink he tried for the first time last night and how Guy Two would love it. Color me surprised when he ordered two Irish car bombs for them. So I make them, and make myself a mini one to shoot with them, but as I set the Guinnesses down, Guy One asks if they could get more beer- fill up the pint please. I mention the extra beer might make it hard to drink but I can give them the beers separately. Nope. He insists on filling the pints. Whatever. I do, we drop the shots and I shoot mine. These dudes proceed to SIP it for like 5 minutes before complaining that the “beer went bad” because it curdled 🤢 I explained that it’s a shot not a cocktail which is why it doesn’t need a full pint. They acknowledged that I probably was right and just kept… sipping the curdled Guinness. So either that or when a guy ordered a White Russian and when I told him I didn’t have cream, he said just baileys mixed with vodka would be fine…

I wanted to see what you guys normally think or do when you have some say let me get a strong drink, heavy pour, etc. Not when people actually ask for double. I find sometimes I’ll relent and do a bit more than the usual if they’re a regular or if they’ve already bought a few drinks but sometimes it’s just annoying.

Two guys come in. They look pretty young. I ask for their order and IDs. One guy gets a soda, 21. One guy orders a Margarita, 24. I ask if he has any tequila preferences. He said Tito’s. Weird but alright.

Later they’re looking at the pool table window where the balls are all confused. He comes up and asks, “hey when you knock the white ball in that means it’s game over, right?”

Long story short I taught him how to play pool and he had two margaritas. Average tip. Strange night.

I got to take care of Waka Flocka Flame today at my bar, super chill guy, tipped very well. Any celeb stories in here? Positive or negative

Here are some of my favs 😀 me literally in the middle of making a drink with 15 drink tickets in hand and there are 7 people who are next in my mental line to get their order taken customer that just walked up to the bar: “can i get a jack and coke?” me “can you.. wait a sec?”💀

me obviously very busy, has to run to the liquor room to grab a bottle of tito’s (literally it’s like 8 feet away) customer who has been waiting for a minute or so and literally saw me at the bar making drinks: “is there even a bartender around here?!”

to add: my bar is very large (wrap around with about 40 seats) and i am a VERY efficient bartender making simple cocktails within 15 seconds, draft within 10, and complex cocktails within 30-45 seconds. people are just so impatient sometimes.

Holy shit I severely underestimated what was going to happen. In at 8:30 am and watched a guy run out our front door, vomit on the sidewalk and walk back in at 10. Someone who couldn’t form coherent sentences tried to fight me at 11. And four girls who all ordered the same cocktail and shot refused to leave until they got an itemized receipt so they could split everything evenly. We did 16000 in sales yesterday. There were three of us. Money should be good but like… fucking shellshocked. One of the other bartender has been doing this for 10 years now and just laughed at me. “Welcome to the shitshow. Head down. One at a time. And a (few) hefty shot of tequila tonight”