Busy Bar, Busy Money
I’m fast. [Brief commercial] Under the right conditions when a bar isn’t built so screwed up and the POS isn’t a Piece Of Shit so that I don’t just raise my hands up over my head in total frustration with the stupidity and needless roadblocks and say “Fuck it!” I’m one of the fastest moving bartenders on the planet, napkin and stirrer included. [End of commercial].
Slow bars are the places where you’re making $100 a night in tips. Those are the places where (if you’re good) you’re doing the place a favor by working there, because you sure as shit ain’t gettin’ paid (in volume of tips) what your capacity to perform will earn you in the right kinds of places. You’re doing them a favor working there for less. (God I’m an arrogant son of a bitch, aren’t I? Moving right along…)
There’s a limit to how much speed, how fast you actually handle more & more customers, will increase your total tips. That’s a fact. What’s not a fact, but just a theory of mine, is why.
Let me explain that. On thousands of occasions I’ve had a packed and crazy bar with hours and hours of many deep in a drinking frenzy where I had to muster all of my control NOT to break a glass setting it down on a napkin on marble topped bars, and NOT to ever shatter a bottle swinging it back behind me to it’s place among 100 others on glass and mirror shelves backed by mirror and light covered walls. I’ve actually seen way more than a few glasses do a microscopic one millimeter bounce because I let go of the stem a thousandth of a second too early. There is a speed of service at which personal and eye contact, order taking, drink making and cashing out transaction time is so damn brief that customers don’t form any human bond with the bartender whatsoever – even though they got exactly what they wanted in crazy little time. The volume of total sales transactions is up 100% or 200%, but the return in tips inches up only marginally by 20% or 30%.
On slower nights the tips are always great.
That’s OK though, in my book, because my professional service goal is to get everyone served without anyone waiting so long they start losing their buzz and wandering out looking for a more happening place. My job is to make my bar that place, even if it costs me (meaning more work at a lower return in exchange for my efforts)
Selfless Motivation
What continues to supply forward motivation to work and focus on moving ever faster in a situation like that?
Thinking if others. Obviously the customers are the primary concern; making them want to come back again because of the fast service. But there are more people, way more people, involved in the benefits chain who rely upon your efforts. There are the dishwashers, security, and everyone else working directly in the place you’re supporting with your sales. YOU are supporting them because YOU are making the drinks and ringing it all up – not someone in an office somewhere, when it comes to who’s physically putting money into that register, it all comes down to YOU! (Can you tell by now I have a Superhero mentality?)
Even though there’s less personal gain when it gets too packed and busy, mastering the task of keeping up and hardening mental focus when selflessly motivated to do so prevents burnout, slow down, the “fuck-its”, and frustration when doing it all for the greater good.
Site Author, David J. Curtis: David Curtis, a seasoned professional with decades of bartending and bar management experience began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife club scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in iconic Midtown clubs and tended bar briefly in the Wall Street area, generating over $1,350,000.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia and now Tampa in Exclusive Platinum Service Awards Clubs, Florida. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.
