The Bartenders
Bartending at a restaurant is a lot different than late-night bartending. At a restaurant, bartenders often spend a lot of their time making drinks for servers and waiting on bar tables. At high-volume restaurants there is usually at least one bartender dedicated solely to running the expo bar (where you pick up your drinks) and another to serve cocktail tables.
The way the bartenders perceive you from across the expo line will affect your ability to get your drinks out quickly, and thereby your money as well. Someone just knocked over a glass of wine and now you need another one? You can't remember how to garnish one of your cocktails? Some of your friends came in to surprise you and you want to hook them up with a free round? You'd better be on your bartenders good side.
First of all, whatever you do, don't become that annoying server that interrupts them to tell them to make your drinks, or the one who starts calling out what they need instead of waiting for the bartender to read the ticket, or the one who never pulls their tickets after their drinks are made. Trust me, if you've never bartended before, it looks a lot different on the other side of the fence. How would you like it if you were talking to one of your tables and someone from another table started shouting out orders at you?
So what can you do to help out your bartenders?
It's amazing how often bartenders will let the rest of their station fall apart before asking one of the servers waiting for their drinks to go do something to help them, so jump on the opportunity; if you see that your drinks are going to take a while, try to think of something you can do to help your bartender out while you wait.
By the time you get back or finish, you can be sure your drinks will be sitting there perfectly lined up and waiting for you.
I don't want to get into the serving vs. bartending debate. In my experience, most people know intuitively which position they'd rather have from day one and it never changes. Only a few people will like them both the same. I don't recommend being both a server and a bartender at the same restaurant. You'll end up with the worst shifts of both positions.
Most people assume restaurant bartending pays better than serving, and sometimes that's true, but they usually work harder, stay longer, and have a lot more annoying people to take care of than servers do. They have to stock the bar, clean it up, cut the fruit, change the kegs, and kick out the riff-raff. They have to make a ton of drinks for you (remember when you had that 8-top order eight different martinis at once?), and usually they have to ignore their guests and hurt their own sales to do it. So tip them nice and help them out, it will come back to you.
The way the bartenders perceive you from across the expo line will affect your ability to get your drinks out quickly, and thereby your money as well. Someone just knocked over a glass of wine and now you need another one? You can't remember how to garnish one of your cocktails? Some of your friends came in to surprise you and you want to hook them up with a free round? You'd better be on your bartenders good side.
First of all, whatever you do, don't become that annoying server that interrupts them to tell them to make your drinks, or the one who starts calling out what they need instead of waiting for the bartender to read the ticket, or the one who never pulls their tickets after their drinks are made. Trust me, if you've never bartended before, it looks a lot different on the other side of the fence. How would you like it if you were talking to one of your tables and someone from another table started shouting out orders at you?
So what can you do to help out your bartenders?
It's amazing how often bartenders will let the rest of their station fall apart before asking one of the servers waiting for their drinks to go do something to help them, so jump on the opportunity; if you see that your drinks are going to take a while, try to think of something you can do to help your bartender out while you wait.
- If there's no food runner, try to run out as much of your bartender's food as you can.
- Bus some of the dishes from the guests sitting at the bar or just entertain them for a minute.
- Help organize the drinks waiting to be run and/or tray them up.
By the time you get back or finish, you can be sure your drinks will be sitting there perfectly lined up and waiting for you.
I don't want to get into the serving vs. bartending debate. In my experience, most people know intuitively which position they'd rather have from day one and it never changes. Only a few people will like them both the same. I don't recommend being both a server and a bartender at the same restaurant. You'll end up with the worst shifts of both positions.
Most people assume restaurant bartending pays better than serving, and sometimes that's true, but they usually work harder, stay longer, and have a lot more annoying people to take care of than servers do. They have to stock the bar, clean it up, cut the fruit, change the kegs, and kick out the riff-raff. They have to make a ton of drinks for you (remember when you had that 8-top order eight different martinis at once?), and usually they have to ignore their guests and hurt their own sales to do it. So tip them nice and help them out, it will come back to you.
