Mind Your (bar) Manners

In the summer it’s easy to walk into a bar in Bloomington and get a drink. You can walk from the front door to the back of the bar without having to maneuver through a crowd, and wait-time for a drink is practically nonexistent.

But in a little less than a month, students will return in droves to get settled in before classes start. Downtime before the start of school will inevitably have students trekking down Kirkwood and up Walnut Street, jamming the bars and making it nearly impossible to get service ... unless you have proper bar etiquette.

WEEKEND sat down with three local bartenders and talked about what it takes to get service, why some people seem to be treated better than others and the things that will make bartenders ignore you the second you walk in the door.

Everyone wants the bartender to pay attention to them, but throwing things doesn’t work.

“Anybody that throws shit, just don’t come to the bar,” said Chris Wilds, a bartender at The Upstairs Pub.

Common sense says that throwing things is bad, especially when the target is your bartender, but Wilds said this is something that happens repeatedly. Matt Suter, agrees. He said someone threw a 9-oz. glass at him about a month ago at Kilroy’s Bar and Grill where he works.

“Oh, ah, actually now I’m going to serve you,” Suter said. “Like you got my attention. Thanks for throwing that glass at my head.”

Everyone has to wait in line, but some people get to cut.

It’s common for customers who lack bar etiquette to do things like wave their credit cards, reach over the bar and try to touch a bartender or even scream at them to get their attention. But this kind of behavior leads to the opposite result.

“That’s going to piss the bartender off so much more because it’s messing with their system and they get all flustered, and, you know, it’s going to take a lot longer to get their drinks,” Suter said.

If you want to get a bartender’s attention, have your credit card in your hand, but don’t tap it on the bar annoyingly, Suter said. It also helps to pay in green. Bartenders like to see cash even more than a credit card in hand because it’s quick and simple. They don’t have to run a card and wait for a customer to sign the slip, Suter said.

If you’re standing at the bar and haven’t thrown any glasses at your bartender, he or she will make his or her way over to you, Wilds said.

“You tend to work the line,” Wilds said.

But sometimes some people get to cut.

“You’re going to have people we’re going to go out of our order just because we know they tip more percentage wise,” Suter said.

The opposite holds true as well.

“If you don’t want to tip, that’s fine,” Suter said. “Just don’t expect to get served.”

You don’t have to buy the bar to get service.

That doesn’t mean you have to tip 100 percent on every order to get a bartender to pay attention to you. Someone who consistently tips a proportionate amount might not get a drink in front of 10 people, but he or she won’t be ignored like the cup throwers andcard tappers either.

“If you’re tipping 20 percent or 15 percent, being a good customer over and over again and we know that’s what we’re going to get out of you when you say an order, we’ll get to you,” Suter said.

Staying within your budget is another way to keep your money in your wallet and a smile on your bartender’s face. Crazy Horse bartender Andy Schull has a name for people who don’t adhere to this rule.

“I call them the 30K millionaire, the wannabe baller,” Schull said. “He buys like six shots of Patron and tips you a dollar. It’s like, dude you just dropped like 48 bucks.”
Wilds agreed.

“Just buy a cheaper shot,” he said. “You don’t have to buy Patron for everybody.”

In the end, a little kindness goes a long way.

If you’re not snapping your fingers or whistling to get a bartender’s attention and you’re tipping proportionately with regard to your bill, you will get served. But if you want to be treated well when you go out, but don’t have enough money to tip like a rap star, you can simply treat the people who are serving you well.

“One thing that I really appreciate is people that understand and appreciate good service,” Schull said. “Like if you give them good service and at the end of the meal they say, ‘hey, thank you for your hospitality, we’ve had a great time,’ that means a lot.”