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Wow...I wish most of you drank at MY bar!

I have been a bartender for almost a decade, and am working for the first time in a very upscale establishment ($11-21 for a martini-style drink). All of our drinks are handshaken, use fresh fruits and fresh-squeezed juices and premium spirits. An average bloody mary takes a while to make, as we grind our own celery salt and grate our own horseradish. A mojito or a bramble can take even longer, what with the hand-selection of the best mint and berries and the muddling. I take a lot of pride in the drinks I serve, I love my job, and I always serve them with a smile.

You would be appalled (or if you're not, I may be describing you) at the stingy tips I get. Many people even use the higher price of a drink as the reason for not tipping better! As though I set the prices! I make minimum wage, and don't expect a lot from a patron if all I'm doing is pouring a glass of wine or a pint of beer. But if I'm making you a $16 bramble with fresh mint, limes and blackberries, I damn well expect more than a dollar!

And for those of you concerned with the poor service of cocktail waitstaff adversely affecting your bartender, you're absolutely right. I work where there is a generous "tip-out" from the servers, and I still get only 8% of their total liquor sales at the end of an evening (usually works out to $15-20 per server). So if they screw up your table and you tip them 10% on the total bill, I'm seeing 30-80 cents on that table. If your drink is great but your server sucks, by all means, stop by the bar on your way out and TIP THE TENDER! We will remember and be appreciative...and you'll probably not get sat down in the crappy section ever again (yes, we can influence these things).

Phew...glad that's off my chest.

Re: free drinks: i worked at a high-end martini bar, and drinks that we as employees would buy would be 50% off up to a point, and we'd get a drink for ourselves at the end of the night anyway. i'd occasionally count my "shift drink" as one i "bought" for a customer. note that the one time i did this for customers, they were [EXPLETIVE] and extremely ungrateful, so i never did that again. way to ruin it for everyone else...

anyway. our regular customers were fantastic, but at times overstayed their welcome. so. don't just assume that because you tipped $50 on a $70 tab the night before that your bartender will just let it go when you "forget" your wallet.

since i worked in food service, i have left a bad tip ONCE. i felt terrible about leaving 10%, but he wasn't even worth THAT much. my usual is 20% for average service.

I tip 20% in general for wait staff, bartenders, stylists, etc. I really wish resturaunts would pay their staff decent wages and we could just do away with tipping. Yes, I know it would make my dinner price rise. I don't care. I'm so tired of the tipping conversation. If the waitress sucks, then just fire her. Whatever.

I love bacon, but I don't like it when people use xkcd web comics without giving credit. It would be a shame if the single greatest page of bacon on the net got shut down because the author was too lazy to cite sources.