Brite Thoughtful Tip: How Much to Tip the Bartender

Brite Thoughtful Tip: How Much to Tip the Bartender ( a little twist on the “thoughtful” tip)

Well, obviously our mission is to get our drink for free (don’t scoff, you know this is true), but when we must revert to plan “B”, here are some thoughtful tips about appropriately tipping the bartender…

 

1. Assess the crowd. Watch how others are tipping. Use that observation as a “baseline”, and do not tip below it, barring overt rudeness on the part of your server.
2. Being patient for the first round is the key to an enjoyable evening, whether the bar is visibly “busy” when you walk in or not. Other things outside your purview — shift changes, for instance — may result in slow service of your first drink. A little patience goes a long way in these crucial first moments.
3. Always be ready to pay when you order. Have your money out, or close at hand. Don’t wait until the drinks are made and your server has “totaled out” your round before you take your wallet out. Fishing for money not only wastes your server’s time, but annoys others waiting for their drink orders to be taken. (Supposedly, you’re there to socialize with them; and if you make them wait, you alienate yourself from them.)
4. Tip $1 per drink as a baseline, lacking anything better to go on, even if the only visible drink preparation involved is opening a bottle of beer. This will vary, depending on the kind of bar you’re in. This is why crowd assessment matters. A tip of $1 per drink is always an “acceptable” tip. On complicated orders, a bit more is always deeply appreciated. Typically $1 is an acceptable tip for a beer (draft or bottle), but tip $2 for mixed drinks. More if its a complicated mixed drink.
5. Figure that most mixed drinks cost around five dollars: $1 istherefore around 20%.
6. Overt and consistent overtipping is not only “flashy” and “rude”, but in the eyes of bar staff, constitutes an attempt at a bribe to do something that could get them fired and/or land them in jail. Your tip expresses appreciation for services rendered. Nothing more. If your order involves shaking or blending multiple “call” liquors and pouring them into separate chilled glasses, a $2 or even $3 tip per drink is fine. If you’re a martini drinker who draws subtle distinctions between a “whisper” and a “breath” of vermouth, you should pay for this difference to find its way into your cocktails. However: overtipping on simple drinks raises legitimate concerns among staff that you expect “special” treatment in exchange for your exorbitant tip, which will only get you watched like a hawk by employees whose legal certification relies on not overserving intoxicated patrons who they generally have to assume will be driving home, placing not only themselves but the general public at risk.
7. Remain aware that bar staff have to protect their jobs — tips notwithstanding. Tipping too much, too often raises red flags, and bar staff doesn’t want to kill innocent people on the roads, even at the risk of alienating tipping customers. Bar staff would rather alienate customers than go to jail so you can get more wasted than you are. Period.
8. Handle free drinks carefully. Most bartenders expect tips on free rounds. Tipping more is fine, but don’t tip the full amount of the drink’s cost.
9. When at an “open” bar, always tip generously per drink, but not the full amount the drink would cost you if you were paying for it.
10. Tipping high for your first drink and then not tipping at all is considered “pathetic” and will make bar staff worry about their third party liability the minute you hit the road.
11. Budget the cost of your tips into the cost of your drinks and distribute them more-or-less evenly over the course of your night out. Tipping a bit high early on in the evening is fine, and may expedite service later, but don’t “tip out” completely on your first few rounds, unless you want to get thrown out, later.
12. There is almost never a good excuse for not tipping a server. Rude service may deserve a lower tip, but service needs to be considerably bad. Only overtly rude service deserves no tip at all.
13. Servers (including bartenders) usually have to give a percentage of their nightly earnings to bussers, food runners, barbacks, dishwashers, and/or doormen/bouncers. If you leave no tip for a server because you disliked your drink, you’re not punishing the owner; you’re punishing the server. Not only are you stiffing the server because you didn’t like your drink, but he still has to pay out the above mentioned staff whether he gets tipped or not. The “tip out” comes from his sales figure, not his actual tip pool.
14. In general, err on the side of tipping “generously”, but don’t “overtip” overtly, if you can possibly avoid it. – wikihow

And if you can’t afford dishing out lots of tips, check out these girly flask sites: Home Wet Bar, A Groovy Boutique, Elighters   Just remember: Don’t pull this out in public.  Pace!  Don’t get messy/sloshy – this is NOT Brite girl style!