There are also financial motivations for buybacks, or lack thereof. “Don’t come to the bar each time asking, ‘What do you make good?’” It’s just helpful to understand how your orders impact the bartender’s workflow. That’s not to say you need to order one thing all night, every night. “If you keep ordering the same thing, and it’s easy to remember, you’re more likely to get one on the house,” says Floyd. Rule #4: Understand how your order affects the bar. A $20 bill is an industry handshake, one that says, “I appreciate you and will be back again.” You don’t need to overtip to draw attention (see Rule #2), just lay down a simple $20 and be comfortable in the fact that if you are well-behaved, it’ll karmically come back to you in the form of free drinks, friendship, or just satisfaction of being a good person. That said, if you’re trying to make a new bar your local and plan to return repeatedly, throw down a $20. Tipping well can be part of being a good customer, but only in conjunction with the first two rules regarding not being an asshole. The world is full of terrible people with money to throw around, but that doesn’t mean it’ll gain them entry into the hallowed grounds of, say, a bar lock-in. While tipping well is a fairly straightforward way to become a preferred customer, tips alone won’t grant you free drink status. “If you’re polite and there with a book and just doing your thing, I’ll get you.” Rule #3: Tip well. “I’m a sucker for buying a drink for the lone person at the bar,” says Greg Floyd, bartender at The Holler in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Free drinks are secondary to the other benefits you’ll gain from being kind. Happily take a backseat if it seems like those around you would prefer not to talk. Respectfully engage with your bartender and other patrons. “Don’t ask ‘What’s your strongest drink?’ I mean, how old are you? If you’re just trying to get drunk, you can pay for it.”Īlso, be a good customer and a good neighbor. “Don’t ask for ‘a little extra,’” says Devin Ayers, general manager of Catfish in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Be understanding and don’t try to bully your way into free drinks. Sometimes the customer is wrong and sometimes the bar is wrong, too. Be a good guest by recognizing that you’re in the bartender’s second home, and “the customer is always right” is a throwback phrase that doesn’t really apply in the modern world. Don’t act like an entitled jerk to staff or other patrons. Be cool and don’t harangue the bartender for free drinks. Rule #2: Be cool.Īn addendum to Rule #1, this goes beyond asking for free drinks, and governs all bar behavior. The second you talk about it, the magic is broken, and you pay full price. This intrusion on their discretion will cause most bartenders to reject any freebies outright, on principle.Įvery other tip or technique to procure buybacks is predicated on you never, ever explicitly asking for one. If you ask for or even imply that you feel you deserve a free drink, you’re unwittingly attempting to usurp the bartender’s agency. Free drinks, along with the ability to 86 customers, are the two main tools a bartender has to exercise control over their domain. It even supersedes more commonly assumed bartender-endearment techniques like being a good tipper. Rule #1 For Getting Free Drinks: Never expect a free drink. That said, in the interest of looking behind the curtain (or under the lowboy) of bar culture, let’s explore at why some people are more likely to get special treatment at bars while others won’t. But the catch-22 is that, by trying to get the bartender to give you free drinks, you’re almost always disqualifying yourself. Don’t misunderstand, free drinks-referred to as “buy backs” in industry parlance-are as common in bars as wobbly stools, bathroom graffiti or people who drunkenly rap along to the first 6 bars of Biggie’s “Juicy” before losing all rhythm. The most asked question in Bartender Basics is one we’ve gone out of our way to avoid: How do you get free drinks in a bar? Decorative Wine Racks & Modular Systems.
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