Monday, September 30, 2013

How to Help the Bartender Not Eff Up Your Order

Do bartenders ever get your drink order wrong?  If yes, sorry- it happens.  There’s good news here- you can do something about it. 

In this post I'm going to go over some dos and don’ts when it comes to ordering at the bar. This will help the bartender give you better service and get your drinks right.  Unless you want to be one of those people the bartenders make fun of later in the night…

1)     Talk LOUD
It’s loud in bars and clubs.  If you order speaking slightly louder than normal, the bartender won’t hear you.  We can’t read lips.  

You have to project.  I.e., yell.  This way we will clearly hear what you want and not have to ask a few times.  It will also stop the bartender from hearing the wrong thing.

2)     Don’t Spit When you Talk
Yes, people do this, especially when talking loud.  And you may be one of them.  A lot of times the bartender will lean in a little so they can hear you better.  However, this also can put them into spitting range.

Not only is it gross, it’s distracting.  So while you are ordering and potentially spitting everywhere (mostly in and around our face) we get distracted (by the spit) and don’t hear all of what you want.  

Would you risk more spit in your eye to ask what the order was again?  Thought not…  

3)     Know Your Order Ahead of Time
Has nothing to do with this post,
but it's what came up when I did
a Google Image search for "decisive"
Bartenders are under a lot of pressure to serve everyone waiting quickly.  If it’s busy and the bartender gets to you and you’re all, “ummm… uhhh… I think…” or have to ask your friends standing behind you what they want, it’s pretty fucking annoying.  

When you finally do get your order out, chances are we may be busy thinking that you’re a jackass instead of all the way listening.  So please just have your order ready to go.

4)     Say Your Order Once, All the Way Through
This is the most important one.  Along with the spitting one.  

Again, has nothing to do with this
post but I had a hard time finding
pics for this article.  And I think this
picture is awesome.
If you say your order all the way through, then it’s pretty easy to remember and get right.  Here’s an example of how the order a few drinks the right way: “I’ll have one vodka soda, two vodka tonics, and two gin and tonics”.  Clear, right?  Right!  

DON’T:
-Pause in the middle
-Back up
-Repeat yourself
-Make changes mid-order

Doing this is effing confusing.  If you do this, we can mostly just guess what and how many of what you actually want. We probably also forgot half of it. 

So stop being that guy/girl. 

David

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