
I’m sure there are some shitty ones out there. I cannot speak for every bartender or server. But in New York, not only is it the new (and rightfully so) minimum, it is the LEAST you can do when you watch someone bust their ass on Christmas. The last piece I did (), a lot of people thought a 20% minimum tip was outrageous.

Look, a lot of people just don’t agree with me on this one. 9. Verbal tips can’t buy Christmas gifts. Or if you do, don’t expect to receive it anytime before your first course/Christmas day. But something like a basil cucumber jalepeno infused margarita with salt that requires a trip to the kitchen for an ingredient, or a drink with 37 different ingredients on opposite ends of the bar when the bar is four deep, please just don’t. Do yourself and us a favor – order a glass of wine, a beer, a two-mix drink like Jack and Coke or vodka soda, hell, even a martini. So when you order a muddled cucumber watermelon margarita, or a muddled blackberry Elderflower mojito, or something extremely intricate off the drink menu (which we actually take off the tables on Saturdays and Sundays), please don’t be surprised if it takes a while. It simply exists because more people are present. This has nothing to do with my efficiency as a server or bartender. 10. Muddled drinks are like dial-up Internet.Ĭhristmas time means high volume. Here are ten ways to help keep your bartender/server from going insane this Christmas. But for all the new bartenders, waitresses and servers out there who are padding the back of the coat check so they have somewhere to hide when a woman who looks like Honey Boo Boos mother berates you for six minutes straight because the well done steak she ordered took an hour to come out (like you told her it would) on a busy Friday night, I got this. I also see a lot of green and in many ways, I have learned to become desensitized to the tragedy of people who aren’t just Grinches at Christmas, but full-blown Satans. With that being said, I also see a lot of good.
BARTENDER 4 BLACK FRIDAY MAC
Both of which are clearly my fault (I built the table, I made the mac and cheese. I have left the floor/bar twice in four years to go cry in the coat check because people have been so downright terrible to me over things like the table being too small or mac and cheese being not hot enough. People who make Christmas time a stressful time. People who don’t tip, people who aren’t patient, people who are condescending.

BARTENDER 4 BLACK FRIDAY TV
Those nutjobs who shop at Walmart on Black Friday, get arrested for punching an old women over a TV and then get released on bail? Yeah, those people usually end up at my place demanding drinks and food. Working so close to Times Square, I see what is arguably the worst of humanity in so many ways. It’s a six-week phenomenon that I both dread and look forward to, mainly because it means I can book vacations for January and June that will renew my sense of sanity.īut we call it blood money for a reason.
BARTENDER 4 BLACK FRIDAY CRACK
Bank of America probably thinks I sell crack because of the uptick in my deposits. My mom and sister know not to expect me home for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, I spend it with the wait staff drinking Coronas in the kitchen after that shift. My friends know not to call to ask me to hang out on a Saturday – I probably worked a thirteen-hour shift and have to work another one Sunday. I have learned that there isn’t enough Xanax in the universe to help make the blood money of Christmas time in the service industry entirely tolerable.
