Bar Etiquette

Can we lay down some rules?

like don't overstay your welcome. Have your 4th, assuming it's on the house, and move on.

https://gettingreadyfor2015.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/beheading-frontpage-copy.jpg

this is an intervention, calstars

your posting has become a problem

People who order a beer in bars wtf amirite

your mom has become a problem

j/k

gonna have a child just so i can buy it five drinks at every bar calstars visits

4th?? be better at drinking

http://summersession.ucmerced.edu/sites/summersession.ucmerced.edu/files/documents/summer_rufus.jpg

take off your hat

I am unlikely to be moving on from anywhere that's giving me drinks on the house

calstars, is it OK to put a coaster on my half finished drink while i go to the restroom?

People who hog the Touchtunes queue c or d

love you guys

I am unlikely to be moving on from anywhere that's giving me drinks on the house

that is due to . . . tipping

You go to a bar to avoid having to give two short fucks for etiquette

^^^ fuck yes, gets it

like isn't the bar hoping you'll stay beyond your 4th and keep drinking?

esp on sporting days, I've been at bars six hours before...p sure they enjoyed the high ticket price and the tip.

calstats obv gets a little sloppy after his 4th, it's ok

what's everyone's largest bar tab ever?

at Roadhouse Cafe & Tavern, you better believe that the customer comes first. That's why after every 9 drinks, the 10th is on us. Roadhouse Cafe & Tavern: Barf or Go Home

and then shit gets smashed with a roundhouse kick

this whole "pretend freebies" is beyond me, my booze-sozzled mind is stuck in the old "buy drink, drink drink, repeat" model

what's everyone's largest bar tab ever?

$190 ten years ago at the Dolphin II

granted the Dolphin II is a gentleman's club, but we were at the bar, not the rail, only 40ish of that was spent on private dances. gentleman's drinks are expensive.

a great way to get drinks on the house though is to "be in the band". you don't have to be good or anything, all you have to do is be in the band

what's everyone's largest bar tab ever?

― Neanderthal, Monday, September 26, 2016 1:03 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

True story: We, six skint students, were celebrating New Years Eve in Istanbul, 2001. We'd spent nearly all of our money on entry tix to this haute New Years bash (200 p.p.) in an old cistern. That ticket meant free drinks all night. It was a nouveau riche thing: red carpet laid out in front, limo's driving to and fro delivering attendees. Soap opera stars. Artists. Bankers. Lobster. Caviar. Champagne on the house, There were tabloid photographers outside snapping shots of the guests. We were so friggin exited. We spoke to some Turk - he had the build of a wrestler - who had flown in from Milan just for this New Years party. That was the crowd. Amidst the tuxedos and fancy dresses we were there too, dressed completely inappropriate for the occasion: New Years in Istanbul, free drinks, a location that was insanely beautiful. It would be the best New Years ever!

11.10 pm. The live band suddenly stops playing (or so it sounded - their electricity was unplugged), the big lights go on shining a bright and unforgiving light on the approx 300 attendees. Commotion. People started shouting: what the fuck is going on?! The police had come to 'break up' the party. That is to say: they came with a false claim that the licensing for the party wasn't in order. In clearer words: they demanded a big sum of money from the organizers, cash, or they'd stop the party all-together.

11.25 pm. The organizers had locked themselves up, both from the police and from the crowd, which got angrier by the minute, bashing on doors and windows, throwing over tables. Bottles were smashed. It was a scene, man. The dude from Milan, who said his name was Bruno, was livid. His girlfriend was literally hanging around his neck trying to stop him from throwing chairs at the room the organizers were hiding. To no avail.

11.35 pm. One of the blinders of the organizers room goes up. A man looking frightened as if he were staring grim death right in the face had a stack of bills in his hand the size of a brick. In the other hand he had a megaphone and started yelling something we couldn't understand. Bruno filled us in: every attendee could get half of the ticket money back ($100) and be on their way, please dont destroy the cistern and let us get out of here alive k thx bye.
He handed out the equivalent of $100 in lira to everyone showing up at his office. Lots of pushing and shoving. Bruno was beside himself. "I didn't fly over from Milan for one night for this fucking shit!" We were simply astounded and laughed our socks off at the whole shambolic spectacle. Now this was a story!

11.49 pm. The six of us, with two English tourists we'd met at the Cistern, were running down unknown streets in Istanbul. Drunk and in a complete head rush by the drama that just happened. Eleven minutes to go and it would be New Years! We had to find some bar, any bar, to be on time for New Years!

11.53 pm. We come across some bar that seemed packed, but this hustler boy outside recognized us as a party and said he could fit the eight of us in on the first floor. We go in (11.56 pm) and he sits us at a lovely table in a beautiful bar on the first floor. No other people there, strangely, but who cares rigHt? What do we want to order? Champagne you fool, champagne! We made it from that crazy adventure and still have three minutes before midnight! Bring it on!

11.59 pm. The waiter opens the champagne bottle, pours us all a wee bit (the bottle was divided by eight) just in time for New Years. At midnight we toast. We made it. Drunk and in disbelief of everything that unfolded this crazy night. Amazing.

02.35 pm. Half past two the waiter is kindly telling us they are going to shut the place for the night. Billing time is when it gets brutal: the champagne, that one single bottle we called for at midnight, is on the tab for $900. In disbelief over the price - we were being fucked so clearly - some of us start making a scene. The waiter shouts something and immediately two huge bodyguard type guys show up, blocking our way out. We argue for some time but to no avail. Lucky for us the British couple was with us, so they could chip in too. With the $100 we all got back from the cistern and some loose money on the side here and there we manage to scrape together the fine sum of $1100 that is the tab ($200 beers worth, fair enough, and fucking $900 for that one measly bottle of champagne).

Remember kids, never just ask for "champagne" when in Turkey, or elsewhere. But it still is the best New Years I ever had.

bars charging a dollar to "try/taste", wtf. I'm going to unfairly assume this is the fault of the showy morons who fancy themselves connoisseurs, "tasting" beers every time they go out. man, suburban drinking culture is fucked up

wow - most of my breweries will allow that for free

yeah get a sampler or something if you need that many samples

yeah flights are the best if you're that dude that just has to sample everything

if you don't have cooties you can share your flight

Why not just buy a damn beer?

You go to a bar to avoid having to give two short fucks for etiquette

this is so untrue. it's hardly starched linen or ritualistic bowing to just be polite in a bar, or not skip the queue or have a loud braying conversation or let your kids go crazy - it's just a given in a nice bar.

Misread that as 'ritualistic bowling".

LBI thanks for that story :)

Welcome Tracer :)

ha great story, thank LBI

bars charging a dollar to "try/taste", wtf. I'm going to unfairly assume this is the fault of the showy morons who fancy themselves connoisseurs, "tasting" beers every time they go out. man, suburban drinking culture is fucked up

― brimstead, Wednesday, October 5, 2016 6:40 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow - most of my breweries will allow that for free

― Neanderthal, Wednesday, October 5, 2016 6:41 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah get a sampler or something if you need that many samples

― dr. mercurio arboria (mh 😏), Wednesday, October 5, 2016 6:42 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea, my standard for etiquette for sampling beers is the following:

1) only request a sample if this is a bar specializing in craft beer or a brewery with a lot of taps and unique beers. if it's just like a regular bar then just order a damn beer
2) if #1 is true, only request one sample - ONE - and then order your beer. if you like the sample then order the sample. if you dont like the sample then you have to just order something else and hope its good. you can ask for a sample each time you order a drink but don't request more than one sample at a time before ordering something.

i've definitely been in friendly bars/breweries though especially during off-hours where if you have good rapport w/ the bartender then they will freely share lots of samples with you. there is this brewery called mcneill's in brattleboro, VT, this tiny little mountain hippie town, every time i've been in there they are just throwing samples at us and it is really great. etiquette in that case would just be to give a really big tip and continue ordering beers even if they are letting you try absolutely everything

marcos otm

I don't think, at a non-brewery place, I have ever really requested a sample rather than having it offered to me? Like, I'll ask what they have in some style or give an idea of what I'm into, they offer me a sample, then I either order that beer or fall back on something I'm familiar with

How much do you guys tip per drink?

agree with marcos's rules - i never get it when some people are sampling like three or four things with a big queue behind them. also ime these people end up sampling three things then ordering something mass-produced or the most commercial bland beer in the place, whereas somebody who actually cares more will gamble on one sample (if even) and then take the risk beyond that. i find generally i'll just give something a go, mostly due to the fact that there doesn't tend to be 10 beers i haven't tried before when i'm out somewhere, usually more like one or two.

i've definitely been in friendly bars/breweries though especially during off-hours where if you have good rapport w/ the bartender then they will freely share lots of samples with you. there is this brewery called mcneill's in brattleboro, VT, this tiny little mountain hippie town, every time i've been in there they are just throwing samples at us and it is really great. etiquette in that case would just be to give a really big tip and continue ordering beers even if they are letting you try absolutely everything

i love when this happens. it's definitely something i've noticed if i've been travelling in europe solo - it's a bit bigger now but for a while the beer scene was kind of growing and so in france and spain if you went to a small craft beer bar and had a chat suddenly they'd be giving you everything for free. there's one amazing off licence in marseille where the owner is this real livewire belgian woman, i went in there about 11am and after 10 minutes of chat she was like "let's have some beer" - was just doling out beers, i was drunk when i left.

sometimes I'll want to taste a beer in advance but usually even in a brewery/craft place I just order. what's the worst thing that happens, you don't like it? I mean you order food without tasting it first generally, right? and it's still beer so it'll still make you wobbly

the only time i ever regretted not tasting a beer first was at The Phoenix in London, they had some kind of wack lavender beer, yes you read that right, except nothing on the pull indicated that, it just looked vaguely "crafty" so i ordered it. i took it back and was like "here is your massively disgusting beer back" and they were very nice about it, practically apologetic, and gave me something else.

ronan i want to go to your marseilles offie, sounds amazing!

I generally tip 20% pretax on the total bill for a typical check that includes both drinks and food.

For drinks alone, the old dollar-a-drink tipping guideline should only apply to uncapping a bottle or simple pours.

Nice cocktails that involve house-made bitters, muddled herbs, flavored glass-rims? A dollar is kind of insulting.

Question: Do Britishes still eschew cash tipping in favor of the "and for yourself?" method?

Perhaps 5 years ago in DC, I heard a woman trying to tip an American bartender by saying "and for yourself?" and the bartender genuinely didn't understand. In my experience American bartenders usually aren't allowed to drink on the job. Even if they could, if every table in a busy bar bought them a half-pint they'd be horizontal by midnight.

that's awesome

it reminds me of hanging out at the bar here that has belgian and belgian-style beer. they practically have a script to warn people who just wandered in about what to expect

pretty sure they've now settled on keeping hoegaarden on one of the taps in case the negotiations get too intense when someone really doesn't know what to do

do not hv sex in the loo unless there's another one empty

I still do $1/drink tip (and 20% on drinks+food), if it's a fancy cocktail idk I still do a $1 bc figure the rest is figured into the cost, those things are expensive. Maybe that's shitty of me?

In my orbit, yr typical brewpubby place will definitely permit one or two samples, then it is appropriate to go ahead and buy something already, even if it's not one of the samples you've tried.

If you got a generous sample and didn't like the beer enough to drink a full one, it's up to you whether to finish the sample. If you hated it, though, it may look a little tacky to then eagerly shlurp down the rest of the sample glass.

One of my fave places has a note on the beer list that says "we encourage you to be adventurous, but we don't offer refunds if you simply don't like it."

striving to evolve in this area

Bartender gave me a bit of very good news today - that another frequent customer that had given me a bunch of agitata - had moved out of state

Hope you had your fourth and left tbh

why is that?

Bartender gave me a bit of very good news today - that another frequent customer that had given me a bunch of agitata - had moved out of state

Customary to tip your bartender $2 when he has someone whacked for you

unfairly dismissed last night for dropping my trousers

https://im-01.gifer.com/8770.gif

Oh wow you found the CCTV footage

going to have that image inexorably linked with NV now

Far from me to judge (or give a fuck) but this chick seems to be making it hard on this intrepid dude by bringing up an ex and a random male friend

Well now they’re kissing and I should really leave !

This thread would be perfect for Ask A Drunk. Except for the "etiquette" part.

Barmaid is an overflowing reservoir of gossip about other barmaids; I could give a f but it gets me $3 off the good stuff so

breastfeeding in bars: c or d

depends on the age of the titty iirc

When you’re the only one at the bar, it’s ljke your own private bar!

Ditto the movie theater! That’s livin

only one at a bar if you have something to read: classic

only one at a movie theater: better than not seeing the movie, but dud compared to the experience in a good audience

with one other good friend at a movie theater: that's livin

with one other good friend at a movie theater EXCEPT one other person comes in alone before the movie starts and you call to them "hey! it's just us, we're everyone! come sit with us!" and they don't, and they go and sit half the theater away behind you, and every time you laugh at something in the movie you think about how they must be feeling such regret now but are too embarrassed to come & join you halfway through: classic

something to read: yeah, people

hmm private bar is ok if you’re at the bar and have something to do and there’s a mutual level of comfort with you and the bartender

if you have nothing to do, should have brought a book

if it’s a place where they serve you at a table and you have an entire reading nook across the bar, absolutely excellent

I don't go to a bar alone unless I have something to read. But it has to be something that doesn't invite conversation. I choose carefully. Ancient history or a 19th century novel work fine. If I don't have something with me I will stop and get a newspaper. Also a pen, if I don't already have one. I will generally do a crossword if I am done with the paper and don't have a book.

Pro tip: hotel bars lack character, but they're often quiet (lacking "regulars" and a "scene" and a "beverage program." There's often a lobby shop that might have a newspaper. So you can kill two birds there.

Most bars these days have TVs. This can be an annoyance. Ok if they're showing sportsy stuff. Ok if they're showing news with captions on. But why o why do some have a TV showing the news with the sound off, and no captions? I don't want to see Tucker Carlson's fucking face for an hour unless someone is punching it. Or at least throwing fruit (I'm a peaceful man).

Bartenders remain fascinated that I'd bring a book to a bar and read it instead of thumbing my phone.

that post combines beautifully with your display name and your original display name

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig3pcF-M4LI

a memorable movie

I was at a bar last night and we were talking about how a different bar was very good for being alone and striking up conversations with people and the one we were at was bad for it. Everyone who was sitting alone at the bar was on their phone and it was a depressing sight.

I think we were also saying that one was more likely to talk to someone reading a book as opposed to someone looking at their phone. i don't know how true this is, we were all kind of drunk.

that is maybe more true, and also more annoying sometimes

I’m practically a bouncer at this point

I’m hijacking this thread to say that I’m in a bar that has a machine that can print text and images into the head on a glass of beer. (Needless to say its in Japan)

Nice
When you say head, do you mean foam? Or?

Yeah, it's head in British .

I got really into watching YouTubes of Japanese barmen carving ice cubes for cocktails a few years back. I miss good cocktails.

It's head in American too.

What do we think of bar trivia? Ehhhhh

I love bar trivia. I like doing it in random places while traveling. I used to do a music trivia night at the record store/bar I worked at. It was a bitch writing the rounds of questions every week though.