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I haven't had to press charges yet (knock on wood) although I have 86ed a bunch of people.
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Feb 14, 2014 01:03
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How does that work at a walk-up beach bar? Ours is easy, only one entrance, most of them never really try and come back. Ever get people just mean mugging you from afar?
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Feb 14, 2014 02:00
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Only one I can recall is someone who grabbed a tip jar and tried to bolt. One of the bartenders tackled him, and when security got there they found a knife he'd been carrying. We pressed charges, don't remember what happened though. Edit: Just remembered two more. The first was relatively straight forward, just someone super drunk, really aggressive, tried to start a fight. We always kept cops on staff, he slugged one of them as they tried to remove him, he got hauled off. The other was pretty funny (I've told this story here before), nobody went to jail but it was close. That bar had a lot of old photos of Houston on the walls, and a couple tried to steal one. Cops found them a block down, walking to their car with it under the guy's arm, hauled them back to the bar. Turns out they had asked one of the bartenders if they could take a photo, and she said sure - thinking they meant a photo of her, not off the wall. Once we all stopped laughing, the cops told them to get out and not be so loving dumb next time. Shooting Blanks fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Feb 16, 2014 |
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Feb 14, 2014 18:09
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mooyashi posted:How does that work at a walk-up beach bar? Ours is easy, only one entrance, most of them never really try and come back. Ever get people just mean mugging you from afar? I just tell them to leave and if they refuse I call the cops and have them trespassed. Then, once they are "officially" trespassed if they come back they will be arrested. People will talk poo poo but I just give it right back, and I've had drunk dudes come at me but other people always stop them. We have lots of regulars that have our backs, that's one of many pros to having a good regular clientele.
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Feb 16, 2014 01:21
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Got a hand around my neck one night. Nothing I did, but dude was drunk as hell and being an rear end in a top hat and after I cut him off for being too hosed up, decided to do the whole "yo, come over here for a second" thing. I go over, he grabs me around my neck, and I don't move. I just stare at him with a sort of "really dude? really." look. Instantly, bar security and my manager at the time grab him, and we all walk him out together with the rest of the bar cheering at us. We literally threw him out--picked his rear end up and tossed him out of the bar. That was kind of a fun night (:
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Feb 16, 2014 09:00
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There should be a sign on the front door of every bar that reminds people that if you're a dumbass, legally, you can and will be ejected and there's nothing you can do about it. Except of course, not be a dumbass. Seeing guys get tossed into a snowbank, or even better, the giant puddle where the snowbank used to be, and then get up and try and take on 4 doorman, just makes me wish I was a doorman again so I could say OK OK WOAH WOAH, STOP. Ok buddy, you know what. You did it. You passed the test, you can go back in and party again! Just to see the looks on their faces for that split second. Oh wait, you just called my lady bartender a loving oval office faced slut whore and took a swing at me? Why sir, now I see your point, there mustn't be any liquor in your drink! Let me get you sorted out some free bottle service at our best table!
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Feb 16, 2014 22:54
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But I caint taste tha likka! --Option 2-- My Grey Goose and cranberry taste like juice!
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Feb 16, 2014 23:00
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Sheep-Goats posted:But I caint taste tha likka! No ice. Man, there's no liquor in here!
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Feb 16, 2014 23:24
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Hey wow I forgot about "Nawt so much ice!"
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Feb 17, 2014 00:04
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Sheep-Goats posted:But I caint taste tha likka! My favorite response to that is "Oh you wanted a double? My bad." or "Next time I'll skip the coke, mmmkay?"
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Feb 17, 2014 00:25
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Sheep-Goats posted:Hey wow I forgot about "Nawt so much ice!" Yeah. Can't beat the good old "Not so much ice, I don't want my drink watered down!" Sometimes I miss the industry. Then I remember the "not so much ice"ers.
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Feb 17, 2014 00:58
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I barely get a hangover after getting blackout drunk on mixed rum drinks with lots of ice in them, is it all the water?
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Feb 17, 2014 01:44
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Slaapaav posted:I barely get a hangover after getting blackout drunk on mixed rum drinks with lots of ice in them, is it all the water? You actually drink less water if you have lots of ice in your drink. They keep the drink colder. Less ends up melting. And because they take up space, you have less mixer in there. So the alcohol to mixer ratio is higher. More ice means a colder, stronger drink. Maybe it's all the sugar in the mixers (cola?) that causes your extra bad hangover when you are ice-shy?
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Feb 17, 2014 01:46
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Sheep-Goats posted:Hey wow I forgot about "Nawt so much ice!" Make me a STRONG island, bro!!
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Feb 17, 2014 01:47
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Masonity posted:You actually drink less water if you have lots of ice in your drink. I get havana club since I am a dirty euro and usually mix it with sugar free 7up or local ginger ale( has a fair amount of sugar I think) Also where do I go from this if I want to try make slightly more advanced drinks with havana club? What is the next step in complexity after rum+sodamixer+ice?
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Feb 17, 2014 02:02
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fresh citrus juices are a nice complement to rums I've found, also things like brown sugar or maple syrup. Get real ginger beer if you can too.
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Feb 17, 2014 03:05
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JawKnee posted:fresh citrus juices are a nice complement to rums I've found, also things like brown sugar or maple syrup. Get real ginger beer if you can too. Yeah you really can't go wrong with a bit of Havana, (I'm also European), a bit of freshly squeezed lime, a bit of sugar syrup (or sugar dissolved in a tiny bit of hot water, then cooled) and some ice to shake over. You can then either have it as is (a proper, authentic Daiquiri) or add some fizzy water/soda and some mint leaves that have been slapped against the back of your hand (not mushed, just whacked a few times against your hand to release the oils)along with WHOLE ice cubes (not crushed poo poo) and have a proper Cuban Mojito. If you like your rum and ginger, switch to either a dark rum or an aged Havana (I'm a fan of the seven or the Reserva). Squeeze a lime in to the ginger, mix it, then float the rum on top. Dark & Stormy technically needs a dark rum, but the aged Havanas are an interesting play on it, and not that different to what you are used to. edit: I'll always go 3:2:1 with rum:lime:syrup as a general rule, but it's ultimately down to taste. Get it right with a Daiquiri first, then it'll be nicely balanced for the Mojito when you add mint and soda, or for the fancy fruit Daiquiris you might be tempted to play around with. some people go for twice as much rum or half as much lime/syrup as I do, but I like mine really fruity. Masonity fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Feb 17, 2014 |
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Feb 17, 2014 03:30
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My favorite line has to be a guy ordering a scotch and coke with no ice, then boasting to a girl about how he drinks scotch because he 'loves the taste.' If I was crazy person I would've leaped over the bar and forcefully poured Lagavulin down his throat whilst screaming 'HOWS IT TASTE BIG SHOT?!' Good thing I'm not a crazy person.
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Feb 17, 2014 03:32
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The Slippery Nipple posted:My favorite line has to be a guy ordering a scotch and coke with no ice, then boasting to a girl about how he drinks scotch because he 'loves the taste.' I would love any bartender that tried to pour Lagavullin down my throat.
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Feb 17, 2014 03:39
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Masonity posted:
I usually get the 7 because in norway its prized mostly by alcohol content so you should always buy decent stuff because even the shittiest booze is expensive as gently caress.
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Feb 17, 2014 03:48
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Slaapaav posted:I usually get the 7 because in norway its prized mostly by alcohol content so you should always buy decent stuff because even the shittiest booze is expensive as gently caress. Try reserva too then if you can. It's the step up from 7. My last bottle was only £15 in duty free at heathrow heading out to Norway but it's usually around £25-30 while 7 is more £20-£25.
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Feb 17, 2014 03:54
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please pour lagavulin down my throat. thank
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Feb 17, 2014 03:57
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nrr posted:please pour lagavulin down my throat. thank This.
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Feb 17, 2014 21:08
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Anyone not in accordance is cordially invited to gently caress themselves, thank you.
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Feb 17, 2014 21:09
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Masonity posted:Try reserva too then if you can. It's the step up from 7. My last bottle was only £15 in duty free at heathrow heading out to Norway but it's usually around £25-30 while 7 is more £20-£25. Havana Club Anejo Reserva is a younger rum than the 7 Y.O., usually thought to be about 5 years old. It's also cheaper than the 7 year old by about $5/bottle in Canada. Are you sure you're comparing the same size of bottle? They're both good rums, though, so drink whichever you prefer. The 3 year old is my favourite for things like daiquiris and mojitos, personally. Anejo Reserva and up are sipping rums for me.
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Feb 17, 2014 21:33
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Masonity posted:You actually drink less water if you have lots of ice in your drink. I've heard this before but it never totally made sense to me. I know more ice usually means a consistently colder drink but does it really mean less water? I would think that lowering the temperature of the drink is a fixed equation. It takes X amount of ice to cool a drink Y degrees. I would think that regardless of how much ice you put in, a given amount is going to melt to get it to equilibrium. Hypothetically, if you have two drinks of the same volume, and at the same temperature, and pour one over a full glass of ice, and one over a half glass of ice, they'd each melt the same amount to chill, assuming it didn't melt all the ice in the half-filled glass. In practice, more ice in the glass might mean less drink to cool, which means that less ice overall melts, but the drink is still watered down the same. This is of course separate from the "not so much ice" bullshit rational from the drinker.
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Feb 17, 2014 22:12
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LogisticEarth posted:I've heard this before but it never totally made sense to me. I know more ice usually means a consistently colder drink but does it really mean less water? I would think that lowering the temperature of the drink is a fixed equation. It takes X amount of ice to cool a drink Y degrees. I would think that regardless of how much ice you put in, a given amount is going to melt to get it to equilibrium. The equilibrium temperature of a water, alcohol, and ice mix is an interesting question, but not relevant here, because even at equilibrium, the ice will continue to melt, just slower (also I strongly doubt that most drinks are large enough to reach equilibrium).
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Feb 17, 2014 22:35
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See the trick here is with less mix you're done faster, obviating the melting problem.
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Feb 17, 2014 23:03
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Quit doing the math and finish your drink!
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Feb 17, 2014 23:04
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Need your help, thread. The place I work at is a cash only college bar. Among the 20+ bars within a few blocks of us, cash only use to be a fairly common thing. Now I think we're the only bar left who hasn't gotten with the times and started taking cards. My GM has been working here for 25 years. He has never dealt with cards at all, doesn't use his when out at bars, and really has no clue about the ins and outs of the whole card process. I've dealt with them fairly regularly doing guest bartending gigs around town but my experience is only on the bartender level, I'm just as clueless when it comes to the back end and end of night stuff. We're at a point where the discussion of finally taking cards is becoming serious. I've explained to the GM everything I know about it and cleared up a lot of misconceptions he had that were keeping him adamantly against it. Then the conversation got to the end of the night stuff, how that works, what you do, and I didn't have any answers. And it's not the sort of thing I can just google to figure out. So I was hoping a few of you could give me the step by step of what you do after you lock the door. You sort through the receipts, get all the merchant copies and then..? How do tips on cards work, what do you have to do after the fact to get those tips onto their card? How much longer are you at the bar because of card stuff every night? What kind of things am I likely completely unaware of on a night to night or week to week basis? Potential headaches that we're likely to stumble into but could avoid? I plan on asking my bar manager friends about all this but I thought asking you guys would probably be a better source of information overall.
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Feb 23, 2014 10:45
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So, do any of you Canadian bartenders have the dubious pleasure of opening up for the gold medal game this morning? I know Alberta's given all licensees an extension to be able to start serving at 5 AM, but I'm not sure about the other provinces. My buddy's bar was fully reserved as of yesterday. I'm going to need some stories, because I think there'll be some good ones.
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Feb 23, 2014 12:33
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At most places you first collect all the copies, make sure they're signed and add up to the total shown by your software, find the tip amount shown by your software (if for some bizarre reason you don't have this info you manually add it from the receipts), pay the tips to house staff in cash, put everything in a labeled envelope that goes into a manila envelope for the month that goes into a box for the year and then close. Depending on how rigorous cash closing procedures are this could either be the fastest or the slowest part of closing. Some places have a service like Paychex and hook it up so that tip amounts automatically go onto paychecks but this is less common because of the variability of tip pooling and tip outs (and all also servers don't like it). There will be chargebacks. For large checks you should make an imprint of the card (using an old fashioned cha-chunk machine) in addition to swiping it and for very large checks you should have the customer sign the imprint as well. Without the imprint the bar will eat the charge. With the imprint the customer will have to pay. These are credit card company rules and work for everyone except for American Express who always sides with the customer on any charge back (hence the preponderance of "no American Express" signs at nightlife places). You fight these by calling once you're notified of the charge back and eventually mailing in the receipt and the imprint. When staff fails to get signatures (like for walkouts on tabs or due to idiocy) policies vary. The strictest I've seen is that the server is made to cover the tab, is given a copy of the receipt, and in 90 days can check back with management to see if there was a chargeback or not and if not can be re-reimbirsed. In general if you don't get the signature you lose the tip amount on the bill (either forever or it's put into limbo for X days in case of a chargeback). Many places require an ID in addition to a credit card to start a tab. Walkouts are often accidental and they come back for their ID more often than their card and they can sign then. You'll need a little alphabetical file to keep left cards in, typically paperclipped to the receipt that they owe. Other places just eat the occasional walkout with chargeback (if it's a non malicious walkout you can still charge them and if it's never disputed not having the receipt won't matter) and only swipe the cards. One last issue is that sometimes people don't have credit for what they spend and what do you do if you swipe at the end of the day and it doesn't clear? Policies vary but what you can do is swipe at the beginning (if you have a real POS) and either manually or through software preauthorize the card for a likely amount. This ensures the bill is covered but a) wastes bartender time in busy situations with the preauth and possibly the imprint and requesting an ID and b) will cause an unending stream of complaint calls on Monday about "WHY YOU CHARGE ME HUNNRRT DOLLERS I AINT SPENT HUNNRRT DOLLERS YOU UH THEIF" because the preauths can take a few days to clear and customers aren't familiar with them. College kids also hate them because while the auth is on that money is locked up. For these reasons (and to cook the books better) many bars in NYC are cash only. However IMO getting the card is always good because it's the best way to get people to open up their purse strings and spend more money at the place. Your credit card problems and the amount of extra work they create well obviously vary immensely with how lovely your clientele is.
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Feb 23, 2014 13:52
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I'd agree with just about everything Sheep Goats said. For a college bar, just don't accept AMEX - it's a lot more important if you're going to be getting a higher end clientele in that uses it for everything, and especially if you see people come in on expense accounts. From your description, that doesn't seem to be the case. Assuming you're going to be getting CC machines from your processor and using the bangers to perform transactions, then definitely get IDs with every tab. Personally, working high volume, using a POS system was a much better option - it automated a lot of processes (itemizing large bills, splitting tabs), made organizing tabs much easier, made inventory easier to track, etc. There's a lot of variance in the quality of POS systems, but there are good ones. If you're going to use bangers, I can't really help with organizing your tabs - never done that. Especially if you share tabs and split tips, or if bartenders work individual wells and keep their own tabs/sales. Don't know how you do it, I'm sure someone else will chime in. For walked tabs (either accidental or intentional), we kept 2 signs up behind the bar. Not big, just a large readable font on 8.5"x11" paper, one of them let customers know that all walked tabs would be closed out at the end of the night, the other informing them that XX% gratuity would be added to all walked tabs. I only worked higher end places, so we almost never had a problem with chargebacks (especially going back to the POS, itemized bills, and fixing any problems before the customer signed - I could give a dozen examples). Tips on the card are just entered into the machine - if you're not slammed, you can do them a few at a time throughout the night, otherwise each bartender gets to spend time entering their tabs (or, if pooling, one bartender enters them all - whoever is best at reading drunken scribbles). If you are slammed, and everyone pays with a card, it can easily add 10-20 minutes or longer at the end of the shift. I've never worked a college bar so I can't tell you any peculiarities about that atmosphere, but one thing I will mention is to keep an eye out for common names - Smith, Jones, etc. When someone puts a drink onto Smith's tab, and it turns out there's 3 Smiths there that night, and the dude wandered off with his drinks before you catch him it's a pain. Either get a first name, or ask them what kind of card it is. That one's bitten me in the rear end more times than I care to admit. And yes, like Goats said, distribute the cash every night, don't let Paychex do it. They only screw things up, in my experience.
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Feb 24, 2014 06:22
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Last name first initial is how I prefer my tabs be named, but that isn't 100% either (mostly due to people ignoring the last initial). I would try to warn the people I was working with when I started a second Smith but you don't always have a chance.
raton fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Feb 24, 2014 |
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Feb 24, 2014 07:25
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Sheep-Goats posted:Last name first initial is how I prefer my tabs be named, but that isn't 100% either (mostly due to people ignoring the last initial). I would try to warn the people I was working with when I started a second Smith but you don't always have a chance. It's even harder when there's multiple bars starting tabs, and they all share one system (we shared tabs and split tips across 4 bars and 7 bartenders at the place I'm thinking of). We'd swipe for the name, which covered us in getting the name 99% of the time, it's just always remembering to get a full name when you go to ring them up. Didn't work out one night I remember, though, when we had 3 tabs open with some crazy Russian name that filled up the entire field with no room for a first initial. Thankfully those guys stuck around til close and helped us sort it out in the end, would have been real interesting if one or more of them had walked.
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Feb 24, 2014 08:10
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Sheep-Goats posted:Last name first initial is how I prefer my tabs be named, but that isn't 100% either (mostly due to people ignoring the last initial). I would try to warn the people I was working with when I started a second Smith but you don't always have a chance. A month ago I had two different guys named "John Smith" or whatever that started tabs the same night. Ended up being fun at bar time when they were settling up.
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Feb 24, 2014 08:22
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Why not just give a numbered card with each tab? It even works with multiple bars! You have a card book behind each bar. a1-a99 or 701-799 for the first bar, b1 or 801 for the second and so forth. No tab card, no drinks added to that tab unless you knew the people and their tab. Easy to find cards at the end as they go in to the book where the tab card comes out. You can even work it around table numbers if you have them so 100s is section 1, 400s is tabs, etc. Then again I used this with a pos system. Keeping manual tabs this way could be a touch harder I guess, rather than pinning bills to the card or whatever you guys do.
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Feb 24, 2014 10:42
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Thanks guys, I knew you two would respond! I really appreciate it.Shooting Blanks posted:Tips on the card are just entered into the machine - if you're not slammed, you can do them a few at a time throughout the night, otherwise each bartender gets to spend time entering their tabs (or, if pooling, one bartender enters them all - whoever is best at reading drunken scribbles). If you are slammed, and everyone pays with a card, it can easily add 10-20 minutes or longer at the end of the shift. How exactly does that work? (You're right about us using the bangers along side the machines from the processor and I understand this will probably vary depending on machine and software.) These machines must keep a log, so you just match up the card info on the machine with the merchant copy receipt, and adjust the original transaction to whatever it should be after adding on the tip? And just do that for each one? That's kinda how I assumed it worked, and if so, seems like it would make for a lot more time at the end of the night being as high volume as we are. But if it could be done here and there during lulls maybe not so much? This is likely going to be my biggest hurdle with the GM as he's convinced taking cards will mean he or I will be there for at least another hour every night doing this. The organizing of tabs, common names, splitting tips, tipping out, that kinda stuff I'm not worried about. I've worked at a few places that have a similar setup to what we'll potentially have and I've got a pretty good idea on how to go about all that but tweaked for us and/or better. But things like how this adjusting for tips works, or the whole AMEX stuff, chargebacks, making an imprint of the card (I doubt we'll need this often but I sure as poo poo want one of those devices if we do), that's the kind of stuff that I don't know and absolutely need to know to sell him on making this transition.
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Feb 24, 2014 11:03
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PT6A posted:So, do any of you Canadian bartenders have the dubious pleasure of opening up for the gold medal game this morning? I know Alberta's given all licensees an extension to be able to start serving at 5 AM, but I'm not sure about the other provinces. My buddy's bar was fully reserved as of yesterday. Most of Canada granted special exceptions as far as I know...although most of them had it sorted out before 2:45 on a loving Friday. What I'm saying is gently caress Allison Redford and the AGLC, as I've heard a ton of horror stories from places because trying to drum up staff to work on such short notice at an incredibly off hour is pretty hard. Service was pretty bad because most bars had skeleton staff working...place I was at only had 2 people in their kitchen, while another place had multiple food orders go missing because of server or kitchen fuckups. Had bars been given the opportunity to prepare a bit, things would've been a lot smoother and people would've had far better service. For example, Toronto does this poo poo all the time with stuff like TIFF or the World Cup. Could've been worse, though. You could've been living in Saskatchewan. Or more specifically, Prince Albert. My joint wasn't open because "reasons", but the place I went to was slammed and we got our bartender wrecked to the point that he tapped out by the beginning of the third period. Basically cashed out and finished up at my bar went to another place, and blew a large amount of my tips on drinks, laser tag and a Jonathan Toews jersey. I may or may not have been incredibly shitfaced. Blubububub.
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Feb 24, 2014 11:39
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| # ? May 15, 2024 07:22 |
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Dirnok posted:Thanks guys, I knew you two would respond! I really appreciate it. The way to sell him is the extra "spending money they don't have" dollers IMHO. The rest of that hoopla is all for access to that. I've never worked without a POS but I've seen people run the report from the little credit card machine thing at the end of the night. When you run the cards through it you enter SALE then TIP and it prints out separate lines for those. If someone hasn't entered their tip amounts during the night you then have to make adjustments which can be a pain in the rear end doing all the time. The little machines just spit that all out on their paper. I see a lot of businesses using tablets with an attached card reader to do their credit cards today too. Don't know why. Maybe the it's easier or cheaper or both. Oh and you know that if they bill is for 200 the credit card company doesn't pay your business 200 right? They keep a small percentage and / or a flat fee per transaction. This one of the reasons for credit card minimums and these fees have to be negotiated by each vendor and some businesses, especially smaller ones, sometimes get raped on them pretty hard.
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Feb 24, 2014 13:55
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