Bowery Bartender On Which Bands Have The Best-Tipping Fans
New Yorker-sponsored professional concert goer and Muxtape enthusiast Sasha Frere-Jones found himself at Bowery a few times over the past few weeks and, so taken by the caliber of bands he was watching, launched an anecdotal investigation of the tipping patterns of various segments of the rock fan population. His source is Ballroom bartender (and, full disclosure, Sasha's friend) Amy Korb. And if you've ever felt paranoid that you were being silently analyzed and judged while ordering drinks early in the night, it's because you probably were (via Vegan):
"If you can't afford to tip, don't buy a drink," she said to me, and to no one. She elaborated: "In a music venue, like-minded people get together. They like the same music, they like the same liquor. They also seem to have been socialized together, and they usually tip the same."
And if you've ever felt paranoid that you were being silently analyzed and judged while ordering a Long Island Ice Tea at any point during the night, it's also because you probably were...
Whenever the night starts out with people asking for Long Island Iced Teas, you are in trouble. Vodka, gin, tequila, rum, Triple Sec, sour mix and Coca-Cola blended together in one drink? Fortunately, we don't serve those at the Bowery. It's house policy, and it helps weed the population.
...but let's face if, you deserve it for ordering cocktails like a freshman in college. Next Sasha asks Amy to name names when it comes to the best/worst tippers of them all, and she kindly complies.
First, the worst:
When Chromeo played, their crowd drank house vodka and Budweiser. Didn't tip. Some of them did what I'll call the slide-backs. They put a dollar down on the bar, wait until you turn your back, then palm their buck and walk away. Classy. When your night starts out with "What's your cheapest drink?" that's also not good.
And now, those who are most likely to tip:
Hard rockers, the bourbon drinkers. Priestess and Bogmen fans are in a league of their own. The Priestess crowd are here to see the show, not to hook up. They go hard on bourbon and Irish whiskey, usually Jameson, Jack, and Maker's Mark with beer. I won't get stiffed and will often get two dollars a drink.
There's nothing like the Bogmen crowd. It's nearly impossible to keep the Bud Light stocked in the cooler or the Ketel on the shelf. They draw investment bankers, guys who shout and get inappropriate, but, damn, they need that Bud Light, and they are not tight-fisted.
Interesting. It may not be entirely fair for one person's subjective experience to define an entire group of people, but this is still within the framework of music writing so at least that's nothing new. However if there are bartenders out there that have found, say Chromeo fans are the best tipping music fans out there, or that just have equally pointed opinions about particular bands' fans and their gratuity tendencies, the floor's yours if you want it. And remember: if you like someone's comment, vote it up a point, you cheap bastards.
Posted at 8:11 AM
Tags: Chromeo | The Bogmen
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HMMM, This is a weird post kind of irrelevant and pointless, Reason being i have a problem with the belatedness of Sasha Frere-Jones wanting a Tip, how can you say "if you can't afford to tip don't buy a drink" why does the consumer even have to tip, i thought a tip was a sign of gratitude on good service but when the consumers is actually tipping as to bring up the bartenders wage up to the average than maybe it should be the employer who is made to feel bad rather than the consumer who gets a dirty sneer for not tipping. Also whose fans tip most is irrelevant as everyone is there own person and you could take this article in another sense and say Chromeo's fans are independent and do as they feel so if they don't feel the service is good they don't tip so maybe Sasha Frere-Jones weren't doing so well behind the bar that night. And maybe the Priestes crowd are thinking i can't be arsed to deal with some bartenders bad attitude so ill just tip them to shut them up. How about you save you anger for your employer and as a whole bring up the bartenders wage that way a tip can actually be a sign of gratitude for good service and there can be some good vibes when you walk up to a bar as opposed to tension and negativity.
Score = -18
I read this the other day on BV and couldn't figure out where i stand but I've come to the the conclusion that both sides of this issue are bullshit. If you're a bartender you are not automatically entitled to a tip unless the customer feels your service deserves it and I personally feel you deserve NO tip for beer, that requires no thought and little effort (unless I'm ordering a bunch). On the other hand, I also agree with "if you can't afford to tip, don't drink." Don't complain about the price of drinks, its not the job of a music venue to get you drunk; either drink before hand or start using drugs but don't hate on the bartenders for the markup.
In the end though, its such bullshit to categorize fans of bands based on the tips one person got. There are just too many things to factor in to make vague statements about the personal integrity of certain band's fan bases.
Score = -1
west, you have obviously never worked in the service industry. And besides, this is a light hearted investigation and post. Keep up the good work Gum. West, you must be ghetto.
Score = 6
As a former waitress of two years I can attest to the fact that servers judge you based on what you buy. If everyone at the table orders water, you're likely to get worse service as your waiter concentrates on the tables that are more likely to pay off.
As someone who's been on both sides, I've come to find such attitudes as "If you can't afford to tip, don't buy a drink" to be a little useless. You'll never hear the opposite, i.e. a cap on a tip.
The reality of the situation is that people join the service industry because the money is good even if you have to be someone's b!tch to earn a living. You get bad tips all the time, and they can ruin your night, but you'll also get tips you don't deserve that are well over 20%. In the end it more than evens out otherwise no one would take the job.
For my own "karma" I tip decent to well (depending on the service and depending on whether or not I want better service), but I do not feel for servers and no longer care to hear them complain. The vast majority of unskilled hourly jobs pay significantly less. It took me a full two years of working in an office to make more than I did waiting tables just after college.
Score = 16
As a former bartender in all sorts of places, including busy rock clubs, I will admit that tipping, or tipping well is not mandatory. However, unless you want to wait a very long time for a very weak drink, it's recommended.
Score = 8
I don't even live close to NY, but I've been to the Bowery once. I had a few drinks there before seeing EL-P (which was fucking awesome). The bartender was rude and for most part a bitch....so hell no you didn't get a tip. Why should I tip? By the way, she probably makes more money than I do. Which probably isn't saying much....lol
Score = 0
> The bartender was rude and for most part a bitch....so hell no you didn't get a tip. Why should I tip?
ermm, you don't happen to see a correlation here? perhaps if you tipped her you'd get a better attitude you cheap bastard.
Score = -10
No I don't see a correlation retard.....If someone is rude to you from your first order..no they don't deserve a tip....And it has noting about being cheap, tipping is for service that is above what is mandatory, which could be something as little as a "hello" or even a "sorry I'm a bitch" .....and by the way giving them more money to be nice to you...wow, that genius...."thanks for being a bitch, here's some more money...now be nice to me..".
Score = 12
nice attitude. no wonder you get a bitchy attitude from the bartenders there. you'd be amazed how much better your evening could be if you just smiled and tipped, regardless of their grumpiness. its understandable though, they've been dealing with jackasses like you all night.
Score = -10
You make no point what so ever, but nice try....
Score = -1
yeah, my experience at bowery has been slow bartenders giving me an attitude with my 6 dollar beer..so, uh, go fuck yourself, thanks.
Score = 16
ive been in the bar industry for many years now, and i can tell you tipping is mandatory if you want to be served. in new york bartenders dont get payed minimum wage. hell, i dont get paid at all by my employer. so if you arent going to tip me for opening that beer, no matter how easy it is, dont expect me to open you another one. besides west, how much of your job requires no thought and little effort? do you think you shouldnt get paid for being at work just because parts of it are easy? we arent just paid for the task, we are paid for our time.
Score = 13
I would have thought the Dead or Phish would win. Some of them are still living in a perpetual flashback.
Oh, wait, *tipping*... Is an extra buck a drink really that tough? These people serve us our lifeblood!
Score = 9
As a bartender who has worked in venues, hipsters are the WORST tippers ever. I generally make more money on electronic/"hippy" shows than I ever would at say....a Justice show.
If someone hands over exact change for their drink and I can see they're not going to tip, they get a very loud "$5 OUT OF $5". Loud enough so that anyone nearby can hear. And as they start to take their drink they get a "THANK YOU! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!". This usually embarrasses them into tipping. My mother was a bartender and a server for years as well and she raised me with the "If you don't have enough to tip, you don't have enough to go out." saying. You'll stiff a bartender but would you stiff a waiter? No. Same difference. People who don't tip are cheap bores. Tipping is part of our culture. If you don't like it, eat at home.
Score = 0
"You'll stiff a bartender but would you stiff a waiter? No. Same difference."
i wouldn't stiff a waiter because he has been waiting on me all night, cleaning up my shit, taking away dirty dishes. at a bar (especially bowery ballroom) you are WAITING on the bartenders.
Score = 7
Small city living? Around here waiters just take your order. A runner brings the food, and a busboy cleans up.
Score = -3
Yep. I have to tip out my cook and my dishwasher. So I am paying for all that work that's being done for you.
Score = 2
Any hip hop show must be the worst, by the way. All of you out there in server land no the reason *wink wink* why.
Score = -18
Shmeh, black people tip as frequently/infrequently as any other blanket ethnicity. It's really the upper middle class white guys with expensive sneakers, Cuomo glasses, and all-over print neon jackets at the hip hop shows who never tip. As a matter of fact, a white hip hop head "friend" who was sent to buy drinks for my friends and I actually pocketed the extra money we gave him to tip the bartender. He figured he deserved it since he was "waiting" on us. Nevermind that the bartender was waiting on *him*, and us by association.
And as for not tipping bartenders because they don't "wait on you all night": Who do you think cleans up all the half-drunk PBRs you cheap bastards are leaving behind at night? You do know that it's not only the bartenders who keep those tips, right? Most of the time, the bartender has to tip out the bouncer, the barback, and the DJ's pay usually comes from the bartender, too. Sometimes even the manager takes tips home. It really is unacceptable not to tip here in America, especially in a metropolitan area. You enter a social contract when you go into a bar. Just as you enter a social contract not to be unclean and smelly when you use public facilities.
And remember, the restaurant owners aren't trying to stick you with paying their bills. Running a restaurant is super expensive. If management had to pay a fair living wage to every waiter working in one night (could be 20+ people, since everyone needs their food so damn fast) they'd never turn a profit. Most restaurants just barely scrape by as it is.
Score = 8
Cool it on the attitude Van Damme.
"My mother was a bartender and a server for years as well and she raised me with the "If you don't have enough to tip, you don't have enough to go out." saying"
That's nice. Did you ever find out who your real father is?
Score = 5
I'm one of the best bartenders you'll ever meet and quite possibly one of the friendliest. I have absolutely no attitude behind the bar until the customer starts being an ass to me. Then service just basically grinds to a halt for that person. That or I just tell them to leave. I only work in places where the management backs up it's employees and doesn't let them be treated like dog shit by people like you.
And yes, I know who my father was. Thanks. My parents were very married. Dipshit.
Score = 0
First, let's remember that this was an "anecdotal investigation," i.e., a farce that means nothing. An anecdote is a story, or, in this case, a collection of one person's observations.
"tipping is mandatory if you want to be served"
"Tipping is part of our culture. If you don't like it, eat at home."
You people cannot be serious. Serving is mandatory if you're a bartender. Being decent toward other people is part of our cultue. If you want to be a giant dick, stay at home. Or, better, if your employer doesn't even pay you (which, if I'm not mistaken, is unlawful) get a real job and stop tending bar. I would stiff and have stiffed a waiter for crappy service, inconsiderate demeanor, and so on, and I am a generous tipper if you deserve it. If you have problems serving people, don't work in the service industry. Your attitudes suck.
Kelly's attitude, on the other hand, is outstanding. Dealing with @ssholes is part of everyone's day, but if you let it get to you, *you're* the @sshole. Sack up, you babies.
Your friend,
Brian
Score = 10
It's shitheads like you with your "get a real job" attitude that need to go play in traffic. You people are my god damn nightmare customers. I'm not some Mickey Mouse bartender pounding out gin and tonics all day, I'm mixing, muddling, cracking eggs, setting things on fire. It's a fucking tough job and a rewarding one if you take it to the right place. It's no different than being a chef if you choose to apply yourself. I absolutely love my job and plan on opening my own bar in a few years. But I guess owning my own business isn't a "real job". All you internet tough guys are so so laughable. Talk big behind the screen but I'd love to see you offer your opinions to the staff in a bar or restaurant face to face. Fucking cowards.
I'd also LOVVVVE to see you behind the bar on a packed night. You'd probably be crying your eyes out within 30 minutes. Seriously.
Score = -5
Tipping is so ridiculous these days. First off, tipping is supposed to be a reward for good service, not an incentive to ward off bad service. I hate going to restaurants and being treated like shit after starting off my meal with a round of waters. Secondly, almost every job that requires interation with customers has as much of a service element to it as waiting, yet the girl in the clothing store who asks if i need new sizes, or searches the back for different colours and picks upall my clothes off the floor after I've left teh changeroom gets diddly squat. Lastly, tipping is just a way for employers to sherk off their responsibility for paying fair wages. If wait staff have to have their income supplemented by donations and guilt from customers, just to make their jobs worth it something is very wrong
Score = 19
Unfortunately Jill, you nailed it with your last point. While tipping is supposed to be a reward for great service, employers have definitely used it as a way to not pay their staff and adequate wage. That being said, it is the way it is, and until it changes, tipping is STANDARD for average, fair to middling service. If it's exceptional, then so should the tip. And if it's downright shitty service, then no tip should be given.
Score = 5
it's nice to see that Sacha could take some time out of his busy schedule of printing things Stephin Merritt says out of context to make him look racist to cover the service industry.
Score = 4
y'all need to learn how to tip
are you really that attached to that dollar bill? what are you gonna get? a pack of gum later?
sure the drinks are too much money to begin with, sure you are there to see a show, not to get drunk. but if you go up to that bar, give them a good tip!
TIP, FOOLS!
Score = -9
is tipping a bartender a buck a drink (yes, that includes opening a beer) really goign to break your bank? no? well you NOT tipping definitely DOES mean that a bartender / waitress etc might have problems paying their rent because of the $3 an hour service wage.
don't be a cheap fuck, give up the buck. (damn, i should make bumper stickers with that(
Score = 1
That's a stupid logic. By the same token, is my ONE DOLLAR really going to make that much of a difference for that bartender? If I applied your logic to the position of the customer (me), then why would I tip? That dollar is just as useless to the bartender as it is to me apparently.
Score = -2
vampire weekend is overrated
Score = 17
I use tipping as a reward for good service. Yes, employers pay waiter/waitresses and bartenders less because they are expected to get tips, but they also expect their employees to treat their customers well. If you want to get a good tip, do your job and treat me nicely. I will never not tip, however. If I get poor service then I will leave you a piddly tip, somewhere around 50 cents, not because I'm cheap but because I'm trying to tell you something. If you want good tips, be a good server and you'll get them. If you can't be bothered, don't come bitching about poor wages and bad tips.
Score = 3
If you want to tell me something, then just tell me. Don't be a coward, leave 50 cents, and then scurry off to the corner. Jesus. Man up.
Score = -4
To the bartenders: just do your damn job and let us worry about tipping.
Score = -1
Tipping is not mandatory.
However, I will say that tending bar is a sales job. If you had the option to knock a thousand dollars off the price of a car when you go to a dealership.....you would do it in a heartbeat. I don't care how good the salesman is, you would choose to keep the commission in your pocket because buying a car (just like pouring a beer) is something you feel you could do just as good by yourself.
BUT, the point is that bartenders do not have the option of getting a commission from the sales of the bar. A good bartender can be really entertaining, can get their friends to come in, can makes sure you don't drink/drive, can get you past the line, can get you laid, and can most importantly get you fucked up.
As a bartender, I always tip well when I go out. Even if the service is so so, you have to understand that your tip is also going to the bar backs, to the kitchen staff, to the cocktail waitresses, to the bouncers. It's not about the bartender getting a tip or not, but rather it's about contributing the standard tip or more just so the staff doesn't get screwed.
Score = 6
I tip 2 bucks a drink. It bumps me straight to the top of who gets paid attention to at a busy bar. I'm not rich or anything, but I don't go out to stand at a bar and wait. If the bartender isn't nice, that's none of my business, they get paid to recognize me when I want a drink, and there's no more problems.
Score = 2
yeah, i usually do a buck a drink. honestly though, if i'm waiting for 20 minutes and they are ignoring an entire side of the bar, they'll probably just get the coins. i always tip but i'm not going to buy my way into better service if they're acting like assholes.
Score = 0
Good service first = Good tip
Bad service = no or little tip
If you want more money try a job that doesn't make your living hinge on tips...
You have no right to expect a tip. It doesn't work that way. Never has. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I have heard that wait staff depend on tips to make a decent (barely) living and have experienced it myself as a former waiter (and I tip 15-20% for the majority of my meals or drinks). However, the real shitty part of all this is the lame-ass hourly rate the owners give the staff.
Make a demand for higher hourly rates, not better tips. You'll get the tips from MOST people if you service is good. Don't let the assholes that don't tip no matter what ruin your service for the next person.
Score = 1
And one more thing since this thread survives. Bartenders, and waiters especially, must split their tips with other staff members, ie, bussers, runners, barbacks, etc. Sure, people like ourselves can get better hourly rate or salary jobs, but the service industry is the perfect place to work for people in school, those that are artists, and others looking for extra cash. Any good server or bartender knows that you check your problems at the door and treat everyone equally and nice. But to those of you on this page bitching about tipping and shitty service, just know that it takes a different breed of person to be able to tolerate the shitty clients many of us deal with on a regular basis. It is not an easy job nor for the faint of heart; maybe I should go and heckle you at your job. Fucks.
Score = 3
Wow, Amy, way to go... you just 100% FUCKED yourself and every other Bartender on the Bowery Ballroom staff out of tips for LIFE with that interview.
I've been to the Bowery for tons of shows, for many many years.
$20+ a ticket every night, $6 for a Budweiser, nasty doormen, bouncers who at every show are looking for a fight, and fashionista bartenders who are nasty and ignore customers all night.
I have sympathy for bartenders at clubs, no doubt, but not the Bowery. If your boss doesn't pay you enough, then take it out on your boyfriend, not the customers. Sorry that your paycheck didn't pay for your cocaine tab, maybe ask Daddy and he'll send you some more money like he always does.
And to be clear, a "reasonable" tip at that place, they expect $2+ a drink, or they ignore you all night. I have no sympathy for whiny new york bitches.
Score = 3
Hey Rich, apparently you're the asshole who she talks about it the article, what with your entitlement issues and shit (Cocaine tab? Daddy? Apparently you know what you're talking about, Momma's boy). And don't give me that I got "sympathy except for..." shit. A reasonable tip is a dollar a drink. No more no less. Get over yourself you whiny out-of-towner douchebag!
Score = -7
I usually tip 2 bucks for the first drink so that hopefully I won't have to wait long for the second one. then it's a buck a drink after that. Yeah, bartenders are usually bitchy and rude, especially at packed venues like the Bowery, but I'm not trying to have a social interaction with them, so who cares.
Score = 0
Tips are given after being served. There is a reason tips are left after you get served and not before. its not a requirement for good service. it should be a reward for good service. i lived off of tips for 4 years. i always pride myself on my service. I always started out being nice to people and turning on the charm when serving them so that i can help bring up my tips at the end of the night. I worked with a bartender that was a complete asshole to people right off the bat and only treated friends, hot ladies or good tippers nicely. At the end of the day i usually owned the other dude in tip totals, sometimes clearing close to double than he pulled in. There is a reason for that.
Good Service should come first and Good tips will always follow (at lest as an overall average). Sadly, we pooled our tips and i made a lot less when that douche worked with me, but thats not the point here. point is good service brings good tips... thats how the whole fucking system is designed...
Score = 7
I wish the bowery would give me my fake back
Score = 2
"Korb sat on top of a freezer with her legs folded, ate part of a Clif Bar, and frowned."
I wouldn't tip either. Are you at work or at lunch, slacker? If you want to be compensated like a professional, stand up and put away your snacks!
Score = 2
the bowery bartenders are super nice to me and often do buy backs. Never had issues with them.
Score = 0
We all know that drinks at clubs are stupid expensive. I don't understand the person who is willing to shell out $40 for drinks but won't spend the extra $4 - $6 for the tip. If you've decided to drink at the club, it's what it is. I drink before hand and possibly top myself off before the headliner with one more beer on which I leave at least a dollar tip. People who approach the situation as some sort of unfair price fixing monopoly in which the bartenders act as con-artists, tricking you into paying more will always be able to justify their actions. Still, it doesn't make it right.
Score = 1
Well, I don't know about larger venues, but there are a few of those tiny little clubs in Atlanta where I'm almost certain that the bartender remembers me. I waited on/tended to folks for four years during college, and now I make more money and have a better place to live, so I feel like tipping's my way of giving back to those people who might live without heat or air conditioning like I used to.
Sure, they may have just wiped the ice off a beer for you, but they also hauled the ice from the machine, cleaned the mold out of the bottom of the cooler, loaded the beer from the back room or hooked up the keg, wiped your ashes and spilled beer off the bar and later mopped the floor where your drunk-ass friend spilt her PBR all while trying to deny the fact that even in their most comfortable shoes, they have swollen ankles and knees.
Score = 4
I didn't know bartenders were such whiny bitches. This post has enlightened me.
Do your job and STFU
Score = -1
In Europe and other places, tipping is only for exceptional service. Waiters are paid a reasonable wage. That is how it should be - this ambiguous business with tipping IS pretty confusing. Someone not used to eating out could be excused for not understanding that you're going to have to pay a few dollars more than the menu price. And I have been to a few places (Aveda hair salons, for one) that don't do tipping at all. It's refreshing.
Tipping is such a gray area: on one hand, it's a great way to "put your money where your mouth is" and express your opinion with your wallet. There aren't a lot of other businesses that let you do that directly (if you don't like the service at Burger King, simply don't go there again). On the other hand, because it's not strictly mandatory and must be socialized, it's completely possible to screw someone over simply out of ignorance or a misplaced sense of resentment (it's not the waiter/bartender's fault that he relies on tips for money).
So, tipping as practiced in America sucks. But it's the cultural norm, and if you don't tip, you're stiffing someone out of their pay. I've never experienced being treated worse because I've bought water at a restaurant, but then again I try to tip even when ordering water at a bar.
And btw, this is just an interesting sociological study - Whether or not a band should be judged by its fans notwithstanding, I think it's interesting to investigate whether say, hipsters or metalheads tip better. Whether this varies by city or neighborhood. Obviously this wasn't conducted with the most scientific of methods (who knows what this particular bartender's bias was?), but responding to someone's observation by calling her a whiny bitch isn't very nice or encouraging for future debate.
Apologies for the long post. I haven't posted on Stereogum in a while.
Score = 1
man, if you hate to tip so much, you should move to europe.
that one dollar gets split up between the bartender, the bar back, the busser, the dishwashers, and sometimes the DJ, other people who work at the bar for tips
people who think tipping is not mandatory should realize that most waiters and barstaff are getting a minimum wage far less than the 'regular' minimum wage. usually just enough to cover the TAXES THEY PAY ON THEIR TIPS. so in other words, your server most likely only makes money from tips.
SO
THINKING TIPS ARE NOT MANDATORY IS LIKE THINKING YOUR WAITER SHOULD WORK FOR FREE, UNLESS YOU LIKE THEM
grow up and leave a couple bucks, you cheap bastards! remember what happens to mr pink
Score = -1
man, if you hate to tip so much, you should move to europe.
that one dollar gets split up between the bartender, the bar back, the busser, the dishwashers, and sometimes the DJ, other people who work at the bar for tips
people who think tipping is not mandatory should realize that most waiters and barstaff are getting a minimum wage far less than the 'regular' minimum wage. usually just enough to cover the TAXES THEY PAY ON THEIR TIPS. so in other words, your server most likely only makes money from tips.
SO
THINKING TIPS ARE NOT MANDATORY IS LIKE THINKING YOUR WAITER SHOULD WORK FOR FREE, UNLESS YOU LIKE THEM
grow up and leave a couple bucks, you cheap bastards! remember what happens to mr pink
Score = -1
If owners paid their staff higher wages where do you think the money for those pay increases would come for? Higher prices. Douchebag.
Score = 0
Can't you-all see what's happening here?
The employer has completely abdicated his or her responisibilty to pay the employees s living wage! Instead, they've left it to tips, and set the employees and the customers against each other as competitors! Divide and conquer.
The bad guy in all this is the employer. Pay your bartenders a decent wage, you fucking cheapskates! Why make them hustle around like homeless guys with squeegees, begging for tips? It's demeaning and inhuman. These people are making your establishment run! No drinks served, no money made, bar closes, too bad so sad. But instead of paying the bartenders, you treat them like an afterthought and let them scratch and claw for tips in order to survive.
So on this thread, we have bartenders and drinkers locked in a death-match. Who wins? Who's sitting back collecting the money and laughing? It aint' the bartender, and it ain't the customer, I assure you that.
All that said, with the reality as it is, you gotta tip if you buy drinks in the USA. Neither the customers nor the bartenders like it, but that's just the way the bar owners have fucked us all over right now.
Score = 4
If i'm asking for a drink that takes at least a tiny bit of effort to create, then i'll tip.
But i am not going to leave a tip for a bottle of beer.
I will not compromise in this. Not even in the face of Armageddon.
Score = 0
God, there's no one so self-righteous as someone in the service industry.
Been there, done that, guys. Just work hard and hope that for every person who is a dick, you get a someone who is generous. More often than not, it works out that way.
And if you don't like getting dicked over, work somewhere else. I, for one, didn't realize how wonderful I had it until I was sitting at a desk for 40 hours a week.
Score = 3
SERIOUSLY GUYS!!!!!
i've been a bartender since i was 11 and if we have to listne to all you mamby pamby customers and you never pay us but some do and thats how i pay my bills i have kids to clean and i make almost NOTHING
TIPS ARE IMPORTATNT FBDHDFGHHDHDSHDSFHFDSHSRTYSGS
Score = 0
and i'm guessing you failed to tip your bartender earlier tonight.
Score = -1
Some of my NYC friends and I have a running joke about how douchey the staff of the Bowery are (2nd douchiest in the world by my calculations). I'm normally a 20% or $2/drink tipper but I refuse to reward consistantly bitchy service that also takes forever. Cry into your $6 Bud Lights.
Score = 1
I think it has to do a lot with the city you live in. I live in a small college/music town where most of the "hipsters" work in the service industry, and they tip a lot better than the sorority/fraternity crowds. Those kids typically don't work and aren't spending their own money. They're spending their parents money, and don't really understand that people pay their rent with tips. I work at two venues in town and I can tell you, the hipster kids here, most of them anyway, treat bartenders well. The whole Frat/Sorority girl crowd are usually they rudest and fucking destroy the club. Nasty.
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The funniest thing about this post is how much these bartenders are actually making hourly on tips. You think they serve more than 20 drinks an hour at the Bowery? I'm guessing the hourly averages out to about 40-60 bones an hour.
I served at a restaurant forever, so I know how it goes. You bitch and moan about getting stiffed, because your potential earning gets lowered, but still walk away with more than your friends working as administrative assistants in crappy offices.
Fast. Easy. Money.
And those hipster kids who aren't tipping are broke-ass-borderline alcoholics. It seems like par for the course if you work in the alcohol industry.
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I am one of those Bud Light drinkers at the Bogmen shows! Great to know we are appreciated! Next time they play at the Bowery set up a few more beer stations please.
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From my experience, non tippers are going to stay non tippers regardless of service.The "good service=tip, bad service=no tip" paradigm is not as clear as those outside the industry think. Each customer has their own rationale, set of expectations, and history. I treat all my customers the same (in my position I have no idea what I'm getting tipped until after I drop the bill - and would like others to treat me this way). The business survives on liquor sales (that comes through me ) so obviously those customers that drink more get more attention (they're drinking more....so REQUIRE my attention). If I'm running around serving (free) waters to those of you "non-tippers" it would seem ridiculous to tip me less for making other customers wait. No tip on waters? How about a discussion on that. You non tippers won't tip on beer right? How about vodka on the rocks? How about water? No? Where's the line?
As a waiter/bartender I give outstanding service at all possible times - when I get swamped I apologize (free drinks at times, etc.) and hope the customers understand. "Bad" service from me is rarely due to my "slowness" or forgetfullness" but the structure/system of the bar operations, the kitchen, and dealing with customers who expect the bar to stop for them and their 15 different shots. Its not even the demanding customer....but the customer who has to wait for me to provide the 15 waters, with the 15 shots, to the person who bitches about the price and then tips me a dollar.
This industry gets under your skin...and it can be extremely rewarding for sure. But it also has the side effect of making you hate people. I'm not a fan of the bitchy - ass hole bartenders who seem to think this attitude is being real or whatever....I still tip more than I probably should...because like customers who want to be treated fairly - so do bartenders. I treat staff like I would like to be treated (empathy) and I understand that things can fall apart. Once I react or the customer reacts, and the game of "punishment" or "retribution" begins...save us all.
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