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Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

Frozen Horse posted:

Welcome back, thread and inhabitants. What would it take for you to actually permanently cut off a regular for their own good? Have any of you done so?

I assume you mean what would it take for someone to get forever barred, rather than cut off. Here's a short list of things that have resulted in lifetime bans and criminal charges, some of them regulars, others just random shitheads:

- Living in the basement of another regular's house, have scammed them of some of their money and are now selling their expensive classic automobile to try and pay for tabs and other financial fuckery
- Selling drugs
- When they turn in their VIP card to get the same status at another bar that just opened
- Hurling racial slurs at a black bartender
- Going up to a waitress, telling her that you know where they live, how old their kid is and what car they drive and demanding they go out on a date or her other job will find out she works at a nightclub on the weekend
- Attempting to set the building on fire
- Standing around on a street corner about half a block from the establishment, waving a machete, hosed out of their tree on PCP after being 86'd earlier in the evening

EDIT:

- Telling the Diageo rep they have no idea what they're talking about, that they're a nobody and they need to gently caress off. At a huge Diageo sponsored event that was being put on in the bar.

Perdido fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Aug 8, 2012

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Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

TwoPair posted:

So how does one get into bartending? I've applied a few places, but it seems like every place wants prior experience, and I can't get any experience without getting hired somewhere. It's a real catch-22.

Barbacking if you're a dude, serving if you're a female.

Barbacking is probably the best experience next to becoming a bartender (although I'm biased as all hell as that's where I got my start) as you get a look at how the bar works.

Plus, you can either get the opportunity to pour at bigger establishments (place I work at has 3 bars that has 2 wells for a single station and 1 bartender working them some nights...BAs are expected to hop on and assist when it gets busy) or learn things from bartenders.

Also: lie. I got my first industry job by saying I had barbacked at another place (out of province) for 3 months.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
Perdido: High volume nightclub, Canadian

What a great weekend. Solid tippers and no idiots, aside from the one guy who thought he was in a cheesy 1980s film. Started a fight because some other guy was "talking to his girlfriend."

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
gently caress Europeans*.
gently caress barbacks who are as big as a Sherman tank and run behind the bar with open jugs of Clamato.
gently caress people who don't tip.
gently caress Brazilians*.
gently caress short staffed nights.
gently caress owners who think they're Jon loving Taffer and ranting and raving about cleanliness will elevate the bar to new goddamned heights.
gently caress leaving the goddamned bar at 6:00 AM.

Yay ringing $5,000 on a Wednesday night, though. :shobon:


* = Just ranting, we had over people from over 30 goddamned countries in my joint tonight. Apparently my Portugese is a lot better than I thought.

Perdido fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Aug 16, 2012

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

nrr posted:

ahaha i wish i couldve seen how this turned out

[sub]never tell your barbacks to stop running though. make sure they let you know when they're in your blind spot with a simple "BEHIND" to avoid problems, but otherwise, that guy is on the money.

Moving swiftly/quickly behind the bar? Sure.

Full on running, though? That's a recipe for disaster and I ended up eating poo poo and getting drenched in Clamato because he was going full speed ahead and there was literally no goddamned room for me to move.

The other issue with running is it gets our bouncer's dander up if they see a staff member sprinting somewhere. We're told not to run as bouncers will follow whoever is running.

Jogging, etc. is fine, but full on running like you're Usain Bolt is Not A Good Idea at my joint.

I say this as a former BA. I can't think of a time where I've needed to run, unless it was a one time situation where like my bartender had just run out of Jager and was pouring 10+ shots and needed it right away. Generally, I can do my job without sprinting.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

Coldfire posted:

Out of curiosity; what are your go to shots? Someone got their scowl on at me the other day for enjoying a shot of Jim Beam White, and I realized it was a bit of a guilty pleasure to drink well spirits over back bar during service.

Depends on who is ordering,

Burt Reynolds
Shaken marshmallow vodka
Porn Star

For myself, I enjoy either Bulleit Bourbon or Honey Jack/regular Jack. Don Julio reposado for Tequila.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
RE: Other jobs,

I know a ton of folks who have gone over into real estate.

Shooting Blanks posted:

I am firmly with nrr on this one, I just wish I would have seen it happen.

You guys expect your BAs to be flat out running?

I'm not saying they shouldn't be moving, but running full tilt is dangerous.

quote:

Well that does make sense. Also I'm sorry but that sounds like it was hilarious. I think it's the clamato that does it. Of all the poo poo to get drenched in, it was tomato and clam juice.

At least it wasn't a bus bin full of urine! Which we did once, to a server that was universally hated.

Perdido fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Aug 17, 2012

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
The busbin full of piss,

Essentially, there was this girl that was hired because the GM of the place I was at at the time was loving her and she wanted to work there to impress her friends. She was attractive, biggest draw was her implants, but was also a huge rear end in a top hat who did little work and was thought to have been stealing from other employees.

She didn't care for the job and was just there to basically look cool.

Since our GM was loving her, she basically had carte blanche to do whatever the hell she wanted. Sucked, but everyone has a story about the son or daughter of the owner or something similar. You just have to deal with that poo poo.

Anyway, not long after being a 'team member' (:v:) she gets asked to fill in for one of our bartenders because he's sick. That pisses off a lot of people in the club as there were other folks who felt they deserved the shot over her and/or just flat out hated her.

However, the bar she was working on was directly below the DJ booth, which was an elevated little stretch, forming a T section. Our DJ, Bill, was notorious for being a complete dick to people if he didn't like them -- patrons, co-workers, celebrities, etc. Didn't matter who you were, if Bill didn't like you, tough titty.

He loved to gently caress with drunk people. For example, he'd keep a sharpie around and if a guy was wearing light colored shoes, would scribble on their shoes, onto the floor and draw a line with an arrow out of the DJ booth telling the dude to get out.

Normally, this would lead to Bill getting his poo poo pushed in, right? Well, the charm about Bill is that he could be a complete prick to your face but play it off as though he was just joking around with you.

So anyway, Bill gets this idea to fill up a busbin full of piss and use it to soak this bitch at the end of the night. So he rounds up a bunch of us dudes and has us all piss in it. He then recruits another bartender that he'd been having some drama with to come up to the DJ booth and get into 'an argument' with him and pretend to have Bill and his assistant toss the busbin at him.

One of our managers would be down at this chick's bar telling her she needed to do something, so she would be in position.

Me? I'm this pasty faced busboy who was like a month in to this job and was confused as gently caress when I was ordered to piss into a busbin.

So end of the night comes, music is off, house lights are on. Argument starts, girl is positioned where she needed to be. Bill and his assistant chuck the urine out of the busbin, the bartender ducks (keep in mind that this girl is loving our GM and we need witnesses to make this look credible) and the urine goes up, over and down onto the chick in what was the most horrible 'accident' in the world.

I ended up having to clean it up the resulting mess. Bill paid me $100 for my trouble.

Girl quit because she had loving urine poured on her, GM found another girl to screw.

Such is life at nightclubs! :v:

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

Bash Ironfist posted:

What do you guys think about barbacking/bartending in a nightclub for your first job? A very good friend of my brother works for a man who owns several nightclubs. My brother's friend basically goes from club to club, does regional manager stuff, talks to sales reps to get good deals on product, stuff like that. My brother is going to contact him, see if he can help me get my foot in the door.

My first BA job was at a nightclub. High volume is good, because if you can work at that speed, you can handle any speed as a barback/BA and slot in anywhere. If you can get in, get in.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

nrr posted:

Holy poo poo that's brutal. I'm all down for ~*HiJiNkS*~ but that's pretty intense, and crosses the line pretty badly. There's better ways to gently caress with people, and I guess like has already been said, it's lucky there were no charges pressed. I can't believe she didn't question why there was a bus bin full of piss just hanging around in the booth above her to be accidentally thrown over her bar.

Yeah, it was terrible and the place that happened at has a long history of 'rowdy' behaviour and has since closed its doors, partly due to a poo poo ton of infractions with the Gaming Commission.

To be perfectly clear, I was brand new to the industry, was told to piss into a bus bin by one of my bosses, with absolutely zero idea as to what the gently caress was going on (I thought it was just some weird dumb hazing poo poo or something...a lot of the male staff were former hockey players and, well, Canadians are loving weird when it comes to hockey.)

At the time, I legit thought that it was an actual argument and the girl actually did get accidentally soaked. I found out much later that wasn't the case.

There's been some other serious poo poo that's happened in my time, too. I should talk to my friend who worked there a lot longer than I had, I'm sure he has a bunch of stories that would make that one pale in comparison.

EDIT: I actually know two people who were there, if there's interest in hearing horror story poo poo, I'll see if they're interested in sharing.

----

On a completely unrelated note, does anyone here have experience working in clubs that offer greasing? Either officially or unofficially? How did that work for you?

Perdido fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Aug 18, 2012

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

nrr posted:

Yeah Perdido, as much as that one was loving rough, I don't think we'd be able to hold our heads high if any of us said we didn't want to hear more horror stories.

You're in Van, right? I'm trying to connect the dots to work out a place thats closed now that had a DJ booth in piss filled bus bin throwing range of a bar. Buffalo club? The Bourbon?

Nope, I'm not in Vancouver. Calgary and Toronto, with a short stint in Edmonton.

I'll ask my buddies tonight if they have any stories they want to share.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

Icen posted:

This might be a REALLY dumb question, but I'd rather ask here than in person at a bar.

I looked up the difference between straight, up, and straight up and got different answers from multiple sources. What do these terms mean?

Straight up/straight usually means in a shot glass where I'm from, whereas neat means no ice.

This typically only applies to people who are 40+. Younger people typically have no loving idea how to order their drinks and use improper terminology all the time.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

leica posted:

How does a DJ suck? All he has to do is play music, right?

A DJ will make or break your party (read: drinking, read: money) very easily.

A good DJ can read crowds, can motivate people to dance, can get people not to dance while still having a good time, is making sure folks are having a great time and, most importantly, is bringing people into the club.

And I'm not talking about the 4-5 regulars who are buddies with him. I'm saying that he's a following and folks will come out specifically to see him or her, because the DJ is an awesome person.

A lovely DJ will play a bunch of hard rock music when the crowd is predominantly TAPOUT/Affliction t-shirt wearing meatheads who are spoiling for a fight, and get them amped up to the point where they'll be wanting to fight.

A lovely DJ will not take requests or will tell customers 'No', leaving them frustrated or upset with the dickhead who has the headphones. Unhappy people leave.

A lovely DJ will have terrible transitions, dead space or gently caress all to say on the mic. This kills the party, because people notice that poo poo, think it's amateur hour and it reflects poorly on the bar.

I've worked and dealt with DJs who are extremely loving good at what they do and take their craft seriously, and I've dealt with loving yahoos who think having a microphone in a nightclub means they're going to be pulling all the tail they want. Good DJs make you money. Crappy DJs can lose your bar money.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

Halloween Jack posted:

I understand why Jagerbombs are the drink of assholes ("I can make bad decisions with more energy!") but I have no cultural expectation whatsoever when it come to cognac and juice. What the hell? Are there other based-in-fact stereotypes regarding particular cocktails and liquors? I knew that asking for a Jack Rose marked me out as a hoity-toity rear end in a top hat, but this is intriguing.

I was the DJ in the bar tonight. I had drink tickets. I tipped. Rail gimlets are pretty great.

Like everything else, it comes down to marketing. Hennessey is marketed pretty broadly to urban black people, particularly in hiphop culture, and is seen as a status symbol/symbol of affluence.

Not the best article I was thinking of, but it sort of touches on it here. Also, IIRC, the rep interviewed there talks about how they don't market to youth, but I'm 99.99999% sure that they've done a ton of paid product placement for rap lyrics. I might be thinking of Dom or another brand, though.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1229058--how-hennessy-cognac-became-linked-to-the-danzig-st-shooting

Jagermeister, on the other hand, markets really hard to the mid 20s contingent and has thus gained a foothold as a party drink. They tend to attach themselves to concerts and other special events, much like Red Bull has with extreme sporting events and other things. Sort of makes sense how they're bed partners...

My club usually has 1-2 Jager events a year. They usually hand out calendars, which features 'tour dates' of the Jagerettes and what festivals/etc they'll be appearing at across Canada.

So, I wouldn't say that they're 'based in fact' stereotypes, but stereotypes that came up after the fact.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
Those godawful plastic spouts are intrusive and would literally make me incapable of doing my job. :cry:

I've never dealt with those levels of controls, but it has always striked me that places that need to have that level of control on their product are either A) in trouble and the staff will find ways to get around the system regardless or B) some lovely chain that you really don't want to be spending a lot of time at anyway.

Looking at this supposed foolproof system, I see potential ways to exploit it.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

nrr posted:

That's one of my pet peeves with Canada. You shouldn't have to ask for a double mojito, margarita, caeser etc. That's the drink.

Caesar was invented in Canada and calls for 1 oz of Vodka.

That's one of the things I like about America: 2 oz is standard for pretty much everything.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
This sounds a lot like the joint I work at -- we're having a wake this Saturday for a regular that died of e coli.

Then again, my place is also a joint that has a wall of suicide notes and memorials all over the goddamned place.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
'Real' absinthe bars? Nope.

You can only import absinthe for personal use in Canada.

There's a bunch of places in TO that serve absinthe. Souz Dal (iirc, that's the name of it, I've been out of Toronto for a few years now) on College is a nice little place.

EDIT: I should clarify, unlike certain kinds of liquor (eg, Champagne) there are no regulations on what can/cannot be called or branded 'absinthe' so, yes, there are 'absinthe' products in Canada, but not 'traditional' absinthe, if that makes sense.

Perdido fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Oct 11, 2012

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
Well:

Smirnoff
Jose Cuervo
Gordons
Seagrams
Captain Morgan's

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
Star Trek (Evil Spock? You're basically just wearing a t-shirt. If you have a BA you could make him a red shirt :v:)

Mustard / Relish / Ketchup (Just yellow/green/red t-shirts and pants, with the word 'Ketchup' or whatever across the chest. Need partners, though.)

Star Wars (We're doing Luke/Leia/Han this year)

Clockwork Orange (You'd probably be a mess at the end of the night in an all white getup, but I barbacked in a droog costume and wasn't too too bad)

EDIT: I could use costume suggestions for myself. Was thinking of doing the Joker or Jughead. I'm by myself for Halloween proper, am expecting to get my poo poo pushed in, but still wanna dress up and have fun.

Perdido fucked around with this message at 10:22 on Oct 16, 2012

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
Had my first drink thrown at me by a patron last night. :toot:

((She was a former server who got fired over a year ago because she was an insufferable, insane piece of work and she specifically came in to my bar to do that because she's moving away on Sunday.))

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

nrr posted:

You guys who get drinks thrown at you know that you have a gun on hand that sprays endless streams of liquid at high pressure with a simple finger jammed down the nozzle, right?

Man I miss working in a club :(

My bar station is an L-shaped bar and I didn't see her (had my back turned) when it happened.

I basically laughed my rear end off when I realized who it was and told confused patrons that she was an ex-girlfriend who's mad that I broke up with her because she's crazy.

Oddly, no one challenged my claims of her being crazy.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

leica posted:

If all she did was throw a drink on you she's not that crazy, you got off lucky.

REAL crazy women are loving scary.

Holding a grudge for an argument that happened over a year ago isn't crazy to you?

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

leica posted:

No, breaking a window with her bare hands, bleeding profusely trying to get to you in a locked apartment is though.

I would have taken a drink to the face all day long over that.

:stare: Point taken.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
Never working in a costume without pockets again.

Good night otherwise. I got Katy Perry and Batgirl's phone numbers. :v:

What was the 'fad' costume in your neck of the woods?

Mine was Ted from the movie Ted and the Gangam Style guy.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

nrr posted:

You guys hate money? Weird.

My experience is that the people who would most 'benefit' from staying open an hour later are the types who can't hold their liquor and you're just dealing with more overservice problems (puking, fighting, etc.) than anything else.

Also, would you close early in the spring? Fair's fair!

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
$1500


$500 in $20
$500 in $5
$200 in $2
$250 in $1
$50 in quarters

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

PT6A posted:

Do any bars have those tap-to-pay wireless credit card terminals? That would seem to be the best in terms of convenience (though I suppose you'd still have to enter a tip).

Are US credit card issuers starting to use chip cards? I never thought it would be so slow to deal with credit cards, but if you're dealing with getting a signature every time, I can see how it would take a lot of time.

I have to swipe, hope that my ancient POS will recognise the card, if not I have to manually punch in the card number and expiry date, hit Send, which causes the POS to lag and lock up for about 30 seconds, then wait another minute or so until the printer barfs out the receipt.

And since we're on the topic of credit cards, a hearty gently caress you to the rich little kid who kept paying for each of his Smirnoff Ices individually with a credit card all night and then stiffed me for every single drink.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
^^^ This sounds like my loving weekend, right down to the loving college invasion. Holy gently caress I want to stab things right now.

PT6A posted:

That's lovely. Aren't you Canadian? I don't think I've been to a bar in the past three years that hasn't had wireless PIN pads that accept chip cards. I think it's still a bit slower than cash, and obviously there's the processing fee (having looked at the processing systems for my own business, I think it's 5 cents plus 2% per transaction, or in that general range), but all in all I still don't think it's a major inconvenience if done with a modern system.

I'll definitely pay cash if I have cash on me, and I wouldn't ever pay per-drink with a card, but I don't always carry enough cash to settle up a decent bar tab, especially if I've had food.

Yeah, and PIN readers are commonplace in restaurants and retail, but I haven't really seen them crop up in nightclubs (which is where I work.)

Credit cards are the loving worst at my place because they take up so much goddamned time and, given how archaic our POS hardware is (we run Micros, which I have no problem with) are full of problems.

The POS I have for the bar I spend the majority of my time on doesn't read cards half the time and I don't have an actual printer -- my printer is actually hooked up to a server's printer which is the 'backup' printer. So every time I run a credit card or print a bill, I have to wait for the error message to pop up, hit the "SEND TO BACKUP" button, then get my poo poo. Like any good bartender, I try and get a customer or two's orders going while waiting on a credit card, so I sometimes forget to hit it.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

rikatix posted:

The Irish are usually my best euro tippers. Actually I would say they are the best. French and Spanish the worst.

Edit: worldwide, excluding America, I'd say the Japanese are the best.

Australians and New Zealanders are pretty solid tippers as well. I see a lot more of them as I'm closer to the west coast than east.

Curious if nrr has similar opinions, given he's right on the coast.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
Is there ever a time where it's acceptable to do the 'Hey, I'm a bartender' thing?

I ask, because I was out at a joint tonight. I'd done most of my drinking earlier at another joint and was just wanting to chill for a while, so I ordered a Red Bull, which at this place is $4.50.

I hand her a $20 and she gives me back two quarters, a $5 and a $10. I ask if she could give me some coins with the five and she goes "Oh, it's just a Red Bull, hon. Don't worry about it."

I wanted to tell her that I'd never had a bartender turn away a tip and that it's always a good idea to give some coin back and I wanted to tip her as a loving courtesy because it was dead (about a 900 occupancy joint that had maybe 100 people in it at midnight on a long weekend.) I didn't, though, because if you're going to be that stupid, gently caress yourself.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

nrr posted:

I was just wanting to chill for a while, so I ordered a Red Bull,

I was popping in to say hi to a friend who was supposedly working, she wasn't, so I hung around for another 20, then hosed off home.

Unless you're talking about drinking a Red Bull to 'chill', then, yeah, I'm a dummy, as I'm still awake!

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
Weird. I always tip, even if it's for a glass of water. I've never had someone say 'No, that's okay, you don't have to tip me,' ever and was really taken aback by someone saying that.

I'd certainly never tell someone not to tip me, although I don't expect people to be tipping me.

Maybe it's a Canadian politeness-through-guilt thing or something.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

nrr posted:

Yeah, caffeine fucks me up to the point of having a red bull at 8-9pm will probably keep me up to 7am or so and the idea of having one to chill is pretty funny.

...

On the flip side, I've had Americans come up here to Canada and think they don't have to tip, or at least not as much, just because they're not at home anymore. It's kind of weird the way these things work out sometimes.

Yeah, Americans love to pretend to be confused by our 'funny money' and only drop quarters into the tip jar.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
Sambuca or Scotch

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

Ted Ed Fred posted:

Hey Bartenders.

I've been drinking beer for about 15 years and it's making me fat. I like alcohol and would like to continue drinking it but in a less calorific manor. I'd also like to know a bit more about basic mixing of drinks.

I already like neat single malt whisky, and would like to know more about gin (Gordon's - should I get some Hendrick's next?). I've been drinking gin, soda water and lemon juice so far. I've grated some lemon zest into that and it makes it more awesome.

What else should I look at doing? Simple things would be best, but I am more than willing to buy other mixers and ingredients. I'm a chef so I can deal with technical stuff. I'd like to add coriander to my gin, soda and lemon, how should I do this? I have one and a half weeks off coming up and I would like to spend it drunk. Tell me what drinks to mix with what things bartenders?

I'm willing to try most things, though super sweet drinks don't really do it for me.

You might find this of interest, cribbed from YLLS:

http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle.html

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

navyjack posted:

making $$$

quote:

NYE

You're funny!

((To be fair, I actually had a good night, but holy gently caress I had to work for it.))

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER
Had some guy take a swing at a dude in a wheelchair last night.

Wheelchair guy's buddy broke that rear end in a top hat's nose.

Am putting in a request to have gatling guns installed at all bars. Will train all barbacks in proper belt ammo loading techniques.

Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

PT6A posted:

How common are barfights, really? Having gone to a bar pretty much at least once every other day (on average) for the past 5 or 6 years, all over the world, I still have never seen one. I've seen things come close, but never has it actually reached the point of a true fight.

Depends on the severity, but at least 2-3 a weekend at my place.

A lot of minor squabbles and poo poo start, but our staff is pretty well trained, we employ a lot of doorstaff, and a number of our bartenders are former bouncers.

The great thing is that we've never had a serious incident involving weapons -- outside of the one time this one drugged out dude was a block or so away from our club waving a machete on a street corner at passing cars -- and our patrons are basically just a bunch of rednecks who will beat the piss out of a guy, then buy him a beer afterwards once things are 'settled.'

Other bars around aren't as great. There was a huge issue with the professional wrestler the British Bulldog back in the 90s at another club which according to scuttlebutt wasn't helped by the doorstaff acting like shitlords. Their door staff has a reputation for being really rough with unwanted patrons and are incredibly unprofessional. Another club, now shuttered, was under new management and their first big show was a hiphop gig where someone was shot. I get that weapons incidents aren't unheard of at big nightclubs, but they're pretty rare up in my neck of the woods and especially in the part of town that it happened at, so it raised quite a few eyebrows.

I've a question for some of the nightclub bartenders, particularly the NYC ones who have been around a while. Have you noticed a discernible change with the younger crowds and alcohol use? A buddy of mine was talking to me about this the other night and he's of the mind that a lot of younger folks are growing up in an era where recreational drug use is far more commonplace (in terms of acceptance, access and cost) than it was when we were growing up and a lot of kids these days don't really give a poo poo about getting drunk/drinking.

He's been at it in the industry far longer than I have and he just doesn't see a lot of champion drinking going on anymore. Part of it is due to government involvement in a lot of poo poo (eg, we're regulated on the number of drinks we can serve to patrons past 1AM, there are minimum cost requirements AND amount requirements for alcohol so you can't do .25 draft night or anything like that anymore, plus lots of rules about 'games' and 'entertainment' for licensed establishments) which has put a lot of damper on the 'allure' of nightclubs, but he also feels that it goes hand-in-hand with recreational drug use.

I don't entirely agree with him, as the bar we both work has a ton of younger folks in there any given night. I also think that for the nightlife industry in general that it's not the case... a lot of places will just adapt and re-market/re-brand their poo poo so it'll work and those that don't will inevitably shutter themselves up.

Basically, do you think drug culture has taken a significant bite out of the nightlife and/or have you noticed any trends with the younger crowds the more you've worked in nightclubs?

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Perdido
Apr 29, 2009

CORY SCHNEIDER IS FAR MORE MENTALLY STABLE THAN LUONGO AND CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURES OF GOALTENDING IN VANCOUVER

Old Man Pants posted:

Are any of you required to take TIPS certification classes or similar alcohol serving classes?

I think just about everywhere in Canada there's some sort of mandatory program. Ontario has Smart Serve, while Alberta has ProServe.

You're legally required to have this certification in order to serve alcohol. Useful, as it covers some of the more esoteric rules we have (we're only allowed to serve a strict maximum of drinks after 1AM.)

Most bars/pubs aren't too strict about it, but the place I'm at is the most rules abiding club I've ever seen.

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