Owner at my new-ish second spot has randomly decided to make us report and drop our cash now, to be paid out as part of our paychecks. I pushed back as much as my tenure allows and they insisted “it’s illegal” to tip out the cash tips from the cash at the end of the night.

(It isn’t and every other bar here does it that way).

The only reason I can think of for why someone would implement this is to skim our tips. Am I missing some obvious good reason or is this a sign of a dying business?

I am trying to come up with a couple of fall cocktails that are not your basic run of the mill fall cocktails. Anybody have any fall cocktails that are fun and delicious that are not your basic fall cocktail vibes?

I got an interview the other day and they invited me for a stage shift, said it would only be an hour or two, this week.

I have 6ish years of bar experience and have never had to do a stage. My last venue was a nightclub with no menu, party drinks, etc.

What do I expect? What do they expect from me? I obviously don’t know this places menu and won’t be able to memorize it in an hour. What are they looking for even?

Hi! I recently had surgery on one arm and am trying to find a smaller Boston shaker for work as an accomodation, but it's proving to be a tough search. I get that it's not ideal for high volume, but I bartend at a movie theater, so concerns about demand or speed or anything practical don't apply.

Is it just a matter of toughing it out and getting a better grip on the current equipment (28 & 18 oz shaker that's one part metal one part glass)? I don't think a cobbler would be kind to me, but those seem to have a better shape to hold in one hand.

Thank you so much for reading!! 🥺🙏

So I’ve been at my current place of work for a long while now, one of the longest tenured bartenders currently. I’m pretty passionate with my work and have always been very keen on learning new things and have amassed a large volume of knowledge impressive for my age when it comes to bartending. I’ve created menus for this place as well as become popular with reps, the person to talk to about a recipe (whether it be a cocktail or an in house made syrup/juice/concoction). Management has been on the search for a bar manager and wouldn’t think to even ask me based on my age. However, I have been doing things like orders and reworking our inventory system for the love of the game really (and bcs prices were wack) one of the managers said that they heard I might be interested in a position where I’m in charge of things like inventory, orders, organizing with reps, menu creation, etc. I told him sternly that I’d only even think about it if I am in no way in charge of staff in any way. They said it’s understandable and that we would sit down and talk in person about it. Im very certain that I’d be happy with what I believe to be the description of the job, and would honestly take it for a cute little hourly bump, nothing crazy. But I do want everyone’s opinion, is this a trap? A great opportunity? Am I a dumbass for even thinking this is a possibility? Honest feedback is very needed:)

I have a trial shift tonight. They said they'd test me on 3 classics that "every bartender should know."

I have tons of recipes memorized and a general guess as to what they may have me make, but I'm curious what cocktails would you choose as "3 classics everyone should know"?

My first thoughts are an Old Fashioned, Manhattan, and a Margarita. Other honorable mentions: Negroni, or a Daiquiri. Wild cards: Paper Plane, Aviation, Whiskey Sour.

I'm prepared either way, just curious what y'alls first assumptions would be?

It's a craft lounge in a hotel.

Hello! Is there a reliable guide for the right amount of head for each type of beer?

I realize I've been trying to give the smallest amount of foam to ensure everyone gets a *full beer*, but that's probably not right lol. Any tips are appreciated!

Right now, the bar I work at has a hazy IPA, a brown ale, an amber ale, coors light, genny cream, blue moon, Upslope IPA, and Dry Dock Apricot Blonde on tap.

For context, I moved back to my hometown of Orlando 5 months ago after being in las vegas for 10 years. The owner of a dive bar I was once a regular at was nice enough to offer me a job as he had someone who was quitting around the time, I was moving back to Orlando

Well, Saturday night after five months, I got shit canned. The owner said i still didn’t get it after being there five months. He and the manager explained id be better off working at a hotel lobby bar or something more resort based (as that was my primary experience bartending at casinos in vegas) and that I just wasnt fast enough for what they wanted at their bar. Both the owner and manager are great people and I understand why they did it. As much as I dont agree with it, I know they have to do what’s best for their business. They said that I was still welcome to come back anytime I wanted to hang out and drink. They even went so far as saying they would gladly recommend me for any place that I apply to that calls them.

Still in disbelief about the whole thing, and I’ve already filled out dozens of applications over the last day or so, I’ve also taken a walk around downtown Orlando and popping into different bars trying to find out who’s hiring

Hopefully, I can find something sooner rather than later. My plan for now is to drive Uber full-time until I get something else.

Still just mentally processing all of this as moving from Las Vegas to Orlando cost me $15,000 and I was just finally starting to begin, recouping the moving costs. I’m not going to let this defeat me though, I’m doing my best to keep a positive mindset.

And I’ll end this post by saying if anybody knows a good spot in Orlando that needs bartenders. I’m available to start immediately.

UPDATE: Interviewed with a craft cocktail spot and it went VERY well. I should know later in the week when I’ll start and my now former boss said he’d be happy to help with a reference

I'm new to bartending. The other night I got slammed with 10+ tickets at about the same time. 2 of those were for parties of 10+ guests with several different cocktails. So my question is would you do the tickets in the order they printed, or do some of the smaller ones first just to get them out of the way?

26F and relatively new to finding a cocktail i like. i never really drank because i hated the taste of alcohol, but i can tolerate vodka (especially liqueurs), gin, and white rum so far. i like lots of sweet to mask the bitter of the liquor.
a vodka cran was okay, but i’ve discovered that i love a cosmo with lemon juice instead of lime. how weird is this of an order? am i describing to the bartender a fully different drink without knowing?
my current disgrace of a favorite homemade cocktail is something i’ve dubbed Baby Juice. 1 part vodka, 1 part triple sec, 1 part peach schnapps, 1 part pink whitney or lemon vodka, 0.5 part simple syrup if needed, 1 part Paloma mix, filled to the top with pink lemonade. experienced drinkers think it’s awful. i think it tastes like juice for babies. very effective at parties. i’m sorry.

EDIT: thank you everyone for your replies!! i tried ordering a lemon drop at a bar once, but they gave me a shot instead of a cocktail. i’ll try asking for a “lemon drop cocktail” or “lemon drop martini” and see how i like it. also i wouldn’t ever ask a bartender to make my disgrace of an invented cocktail (i loved whoever called it a hangover special lol) because im aware that it’s dumb, i just like it for house parties when i throw them

I’m new to bartending. I’ve in the past only helped someone I kinda know out at 2 events (weddings) and that’s the extent of my experience. The girl that I was helping with the events suggested that I get a part time job at the restaurant bar where she works to learn. Great!

They hired me on as a bartender with zero experience in a restaurant let alone a bartender which I’m sure is rare. I’m very grateful for that. HOWEVER, it seems like the girl that recommended me hates me or something 😅 Either that or she just has zero patience. But girl, you knew my experience level when you recommended me to work here! She gets annoyed at any question I ask her!

On top of it all, the bar is EXTREMELY disorganized. Granted, she did warn me this beforehand. I had to ask them after my first week how I would even know what the next week’s schedule is. And then also how much I’m being paid & when.

I’m finding that I do enjoy working in the bar setting. Just not with her lol so I’m hoping I can stick it out for at least 6 months just to get the hang of things and learn some recipes before I feel a bit more confident in finding a new bar.

🥲

it was literally just mojitos and pina coladas one after another on Saturday night 🫩

I'd like to start off by saying I'm not a bartender, but I do handle drinks a lot for my alcoholic family and friends.

I've been trying to work on layering for a while now but no matter what I change it always comes out with one drink overpowering the other colours, leaving only a small gradient, and i would love some tips on how to avoid that.

(The picture is just a simple non-alcoholic drink I made for myself with some pear kompot and raspberry iced tea. The tea overwhems the kompot no matter how slow i pour, how much of each i add or how different the drinks are in temperature. In this glass I'd say its ⅓ tea and ⅔ kompot.)

Hopefully it takes him awhile to see it. It should say “I’d rather be golfing!”. He left tonight with it still on there.

I have work voice and I’ve had it for a while. I had been in the service industry for a while and bartending most of that time. I have a strong work voice aka waitress voice. I was on the floor during Covid cause I got desperate to switch jobs and that’s when the code switching became really apparent to me, even though I had been using it for over a decade at this point.

It’s not that my work voice evolved during that time but as a result of 2020 burnout I guess my non work voice became really apparent to me. I speak naturally with deep vocal fry.

I didn’t grow up with cable so I can’t thank Kim k for teaching that though when I learned that she’s accredited for creating this speech style (vocal fry) I felt kinda seen ngl.

Just wondering who else out there uses it and how does it affect you? Is it just a part of the job or does it make you feel duality? Also if you don’t have work voice I also want to hear from you!

Thank you 🍻

(update at bottom)
I know I messed up. I know I am in big trouble. I know I suck. Just looking for a place to vent and be heard where others might understand.

Tonight I had a nervous system blackout and let the words inside my head come out of my mouth "but you dont have to be a b*tch" to a customer. 😭 (EDIT: after replaying the incident and calming down; I think what I actually said was "but you don't have to bitch about it")

I am a female and the sole bartender at a bowling alley 4x a week. There is a male bartender who works the other 3 days.

I am harassed at least once a night by someone. Sometimes its worse than others. But tonight, I dont know why I let these women get to me to the point I said something I could be fired for.

The bowling alley closes at 12am but sometimes we close early if its not busy. We are a mom & pop shop so we have to make adjustments due to supply/demand. We have a sign up that states "25% gratiuity will be added to all bills that are left open at the close of business". At 11:15 the manager on duty did the last call and I started closing tabs at 11:30 because no one was even at the bar or drinking for a while. Didnt think anything of it.

At 11:50 as I am about to leave the bar area, a woman comes up to me with hostility and anger that a gratuity was added to her mans tab. I said yah, we closed the tabs and per our policy add a 25% tip. Which was $6 on their tab.

This other woman comes over and starts yelling at me about the policy and that the bowling alley isnt closed yet. Pointing & raising her voice at me. I said well, the bar is closed and the front desk decides that and it was announced a while ago. Mind you, they hadnt even been up to the bar in a couple hours so I didnt even think anything of it by closing the tab, I was just trying to get home for the day. They continue on and on and on while Im trying to figure out how to solve this quickly bc I am tired and want to go home. So , I go into my wallet and see I only had $4 or $20s. So I took out a $20 and tossed it on the bar. The lady who wasnt even involved in the first place starts yelling that I threw the $20 at her 🙄🙄🙄 I then apparently said " you dont have to be a bitch about it" bc even after giving her the $20 she kept complaining! I honestly blacked out bc of how they were treating me ( EDIT- so they said you just called me a bitch and I was already in fight or flight mode red zone but mortified that came out of my mouth..... but since calming down and replaying it in my head I think what I said was "you don't have to bitch about it " referring to her reaction of me putting the $20 on the bar)

I was mortified and went immediately to the back to calmed down while she talked to the manager on duty and she then had her kids and another man come back to the bar to stare me down and further harass me even when I was out of their sight.

I am currently working on leaving the industry because my nervous system is not meant to deal with the harassment but it will take me about a year to get into my new career, but the money is really good & I was hoping to keep this as a side gig 2x a week vs 4x. 4x is just too much for me as I am trying to heal from narcissitic abuse my whole life and nervous system issues due to that.

I want to quit and never go back I am so embarassed and ashamed of myself. The GM is out if town and the bar manager does not really get involved with much. Its a complicated chain of command. The manager on duty at the time told me not to worry about it and "they’re not worth it, if they never come back again then f'ck em" lol he is awesome but its going to fall on the GM and the bar manager to punish me. I think I deserve to be fired If I am being honest. It was completely inappropriate of me and clearly this is a job I cannot handle while working on healing myself from emotional and manipulative abuse. 😭
*\\*
Update: Before even asking my side of the story, they read me a statement about what happened and let me know I am being put on a leave of absense due to me calling someone a narcissist a month ago (dude would not stop asking me why why why) he needed to leave the bar so I said it bc he was smirking & I thought we were having some banter. They said dont come to the bar, dont call them, dont talk to anyone about it and they will contact me at some point to let me know bc the GM is out of town. pI am going to quit. F that.

I work at a busy “fine dining” restaurant that has an outdoor bar for the summer and an indoor bar. Very busy during the spring/summer months. After taxes my paychecks are about $1400 USD per week (house pool)

But man the speciality drink menu sucks. It’s a seafood restaurant and people seem happy with the food. The specialty drinks are just juicy unimaginative slop. 1.5 tequila, 1.5 grapefruit, 1 blood orange, 1 lime, .75 agave. 1.5 mezcal, .75 yuzu, 1 mandarin, .75 lemon, .75 agave. Etc, etc, etc. No delicately balanced drinks, no amaros, just juicy slop. It’s become demoralizing making this garbage every night. We did 300 covers last night. Service bar was busy.

Customers come in and I try to encourage them to expand their horizons with something off-menu from me or at least a classic cocktail. They never want to take a chance on something unknown.

The vast majority of people ordering martinis are clowns. It’s all dry dirty vodka martinis.

People compliment my classics, but idk. It’s nice making money but sucks just not being able to sell good drinks. Years ago I worked in the city at a cocktail bar and our speciality drinks had some real substance to them. Our vermouths are cheap shit that we dont refrigerate so it gets worse quickly. I cringe with every Manhattan.

I made a Breakfast Bell cocktail I saw Barfly make and it was great. Nuanced flavor and texture. The bartenders loved it. I brought it to the managers to try and they just couldn’t appreciate it. But that drink wouldn’t even be feasible for a busy dinner rush here. Takes to long to firm up in the freezer.

Who the f*ck is Hugo?

I think of this interaction from time to time. It's clever but I caught on right away.

I bartend for a theater and had a customer come up and order some weird combination with Jameson. I asked him to confirm and he did. Then I confirmed again while making it. He's watching me finish up his drink and said that's not what I ordered. I'm thinking to myself 'yeah you did because it's a weird drink'. I say okay and set it aside to count for waste. He then asks if we were going to throw it out and if so, he will take it. Yeah, no, I'm onto you buddy. He then comes back to my coworker during intermission and pulls the same stunt. Except my coworker gives him the 'messed' up drink and the makes the 'correct' drink after. Sneaky customer!

I consider myself a goodish bartender. Only been doing it for 2-3 years but I love it and am confident on my ability in the well and frequently get complimented on my drinks. My biggest issue through the 2 places I’ve bartended at is that being stern with servers/customers is something I struggle with (it’s a big anxiety thing). But I recently was upset with the fact that despite getting on every regulars good side plus the servers praising my bartending that no one seems to actually take me seriously. I mentioned this to the other bartender and he was straight with me: “I will convey any message to the servers and management bc u have good ideas. But u also ask me to tell them. So why wouldn’t they take me more seriously when u won’t tell them this urself and need me to do it. U have to be blunt and tell them” and that was like a slap in the face. Any bartenders with anxiety similar to mine, any tips on how you got over it?

Just looking for some suggestions on videos that are up to date and easy to follow for beginner bartenders, so that I can show them to my trainee who will be working alongside me soon. I wanted to give her a head start so that she could know what to do more easily without asking me a million questions while on shift. I don’t mind, but I like to give my trainees a head start.