Saturday, I kicked the restaurant’s butt. On Sunday, karma returned, and I had mine handed to me. Both days I was in the bar doing cocktail service, and I am resisting the urge to stereotype patrons based on this weekend. Saturday is, of course, college football day. Sunday, the Steelers played. Based solely on this weekend, we Steeler fans need to get a grip on going out and need to learn to tip properly. I made $200 MORE on Saturday thanks to you college football fans and your understanding of how to tip.
Saturday brought some very friendly men into the bar. I watched as one fan walked from his table into the bar about every 10 minutes to check the score of another game that was showing only in the bar. He followed me through the crowd a few times, saying he couldn’t make his way because of all the people, so he would let me clear the path. After about ten visits to the bar, he turned to me and said, “I think I’m in love with you,” which is an odd pick up line considering I wasn’t even his server and had said perhaps three words to the man. He grabbed my hand and kissed it. He came back about 15 minutes later with a friend who asked if I was single. I explained that I wasn’t married, but have a guy. They proceeded with 20 questions and ended with the hand-kisser telling me, “I don’t care. I still love you.” That is when he kissed me…yikes! Didn’t see that coming.
I also had a table Saturday offer me a ticket to Sunday’s Steeler game…free if I’d sit with them. I had two groups of guys come back after the game because, they said, they wanted to see me again. I had one guy who kept ordering rounds of drinks that came to $16 and giving me $20, no change, if I’d give him a hug. As I walked across the bridge, there were three guys walking towards me. One guy said, “I’ll catch you later guys, I’ve just met my future wife.” I did not stop to talk to him.
On Sunday, however, I was not so fortunate. We cannot serve alcohol until 11:00 but open at 8:00. At 11:00 on the dot, every server will ring in 20 drinks. The bar was overloaded with orders, and it took 15 minutes for me to get two bottled beers. At one point I walked away to get more orders, only to return and find that my two bottled beers had disappeared. Either a customer or another server took them, meaning my people were still without beer. Because of the incredible wait, people stopped ordering from me and went to the bartenders themselves. Or, when I would finally return with their $5.75 drink, they handed me $6 and said, “Keep the change.”
At the end of the night, the managers took off all the drinks that the bartenders spilled and that other people took, so I don’t have to pay for those drinks. But the computer still counts them in my tip out because the bartenders made those drinks. That meant that I had about $50 of undelivered drinks that I was never tipped on that I had to give a tip out to. It doesn’t seem like much to say that I had to give $2 to the bar, but when I only made 25 cents for each beer I delivered, I had to deliver EIGHT drinks in order to break even on those spilled and stolen drinks. And when it took 10 minutes for each beer I ordered (because people won’t order all at once, but one beer at a time), I worked for an hour and a half to get out of the red…and did I mention I had to pay to park my car? It was the hardest money I’ve ever worked for, and the odd thing is that there is really no one to blame but myself for going into work. And of course, I generalize. There were some people who did tip $1 per drink, but over half of my service resulted in 50 cents or less of a tip.
So bar-goers please remember my Sunday story. If the drinks take a long time, please don’t beat up the cocktail waitress. I would have GLADLY gone behind the bar to get my own bottled beer, but I am not allowed; I’d get fired. And I have no control over the fact that there were 100 drinks that needed to be made simultaneously. All I can do is put the order in and wait for it. Please don’t punish me for that. Be like college football fans and tip appropriately. I would have been happy with $1 per drink yesterday, seeing as I delivered about 100 drinks. What I learned this weekend was that if I am not scheduled to work, I do NOT pick up extra shifts; they don’t work out for me. And I also learned that the bar, like the restaurant in general, is hit or miss. Here’s hoping I hit next weekend!
