A guy approaches the bar. I finish helping my current customer and then move on to him.
“How are you doing? What can I get for you?” I ask.
“Yeah good. I just got off work. I’m a bartender down at …”
He continues to talk but as soon as I hear “I’m a bartender” not only do I stop listening but my internal douchebag alert sounds off at a frequency too loud to ignore. This may seem like an innocent statement to you but I know better. He didn’t name drop his occupation because he wanted to talk shop and discuss different ways to pour a vodka cranberry. This dick toast is trying to get the hook up, but I am not going to fall for it.
It is clear this guy is new to the business. Young bartenders always feel really cool when they first start out and for some reason assume that bartending is some secret order that allows them to drink for free wherever they go. Some of my best customers are bartenders who I hook up on occasion but this is due to them being cool or having proved over time to be a good tipper not because of what they do.
Then there is the guy who within five minutes of meeting you starts promising free shit at his bar.
“Hey bro, I bartend down at D Street. You should come check it out. If I’m working I’ll hook you up fat.”
Obviously this guy believes he will in turn get hooked up at my bar. This is not the case. Just the opposite because anyone willing to give away the bar to a complete stranger isn’t going to have a job for very long. I learned a long time ago that giving away free booze is a great way to get fired.
A lot of times people who have a complaint will claim to be a bartender. That is their attempt at establishing what they call in the crack business “street cred.” How could they be wrong if they do this for a living, allegedly, and why shouldn’t they be showered with free booze as a result?
Like the girl who slams her half drank glass on my bar interrupting my interaction with another customer. I ignore her and try to focus on the transaction at hand.
“Excuse me,” she says.
I ignore her.
“Excuse me,” she says, this time louder.
I finish helping my customer and upon seeing no one else at the bar I approach the girl with the half drank drink.
“What can I do for you?” I ask.
“Um, yeah, my margarita doesn’t have any orange juice in it.”
“I’m sorry I thought you wanted it plain.”
“I did that’s why I was expecting it to have orange juice.”
We stare at each and I quickly realize I am dealing with an inferior species of human.
“There’s no orange juice in a plain margarita but I can…”
“Uh actually I’m a bartender and I have never heard of a margarita that didn’t have orange juice in it,” she says.
I find myself at a crossroads. I can either enter into a debate with an idiot or I can just pour some orange juice in her glass and save my brain cells for more important purposes.
“How about I just pour some orange juice in that drink for you miss?”
“Well I was thinking for my inconvenience my girlfriends and I should get a round of shots on the house. It’s pretty standard to take care of your customers. Every bar I’ve ever worked at would do the same without being asked to.”
This girl is a fraud and so are people like her. Not only was she wrong about what went in her drink but since she is freshly twenty-one I doubt how extensive her experience in the bar business could be.
Former bartenders might be the worst. They can’t wait to tell you how to do your job which according to them they are qualified to do based on the fact that they bartended at the busiest bar in bumfuck Minnesota over a fifteen year span that covered the eighties and early nineties. Believe me that wealth of ancient experience is not going to make statements like, “Why did you do that?” or “I’ve never seen that before,” or “You want to know how I used to do that?” are not going to get your drink filled faster.
Bartenders beware any person who claims to be in the business within the first five minutes of you talking to them should be double charged for everything they order. If you come across an issue with a so-called “bartender” making unintelligible complaints just pour orange juice in whatever glass they have in front of them. More importantly, if you come across a mouthy veteran of the bar game report them to the Home For Lost Barekeeps so that they may find someone who cares about what a mean mint julep they used to pour.
Tags: Bar, bar business, bar employees, bar regulars, bars, bartender, douchebag, mint julep, name drop, vodka cranberry
Jonathan Avella's Blog 
April 22, 2012 at 3:27 pm |
All the mags I ever drank never had any oj in them.You guys should get some god awful crap that goes in a glass for idiots like that bitch who wanted a free round of shots.Something so hideous that you cant get the taste out of your mouth for a week.A shot that will impale their simple minds with a reminder of what happens when your a fuckin lurp to a bartender just trying to do his or her job.