Bar Hassle
Ever wonder what everyone is drinking when drinks are surrounding you at the bar? Do people get a variety of different drinks? Do men and women have different requests and tastes? What happens if the tab is left unpaid? How do you know when someone needs to be cut off, and what do you do?
Most people who arrive at bars do not even think to order anything new so they stick to ordering their same old drinks.
Sara Kaufman, a current Bloomsburg University student is a bartender at the famous Jenks in New Jersey, and has a lot of insight on drinks, “Men mostly order a Bud light, while women usually go for the cranberry and vodkas.” These vary, as different deals are available on different nights. People are going to try and spend as less money as possible when they are at the bar scene, so they go for specials like “dollar drinks,” says Kaufman.
Ordering drinks such as cranberry and vodkas are more common than ordering beers or shots because of the price difference. “People tend to spend more money once they are a little more intoxicated,” says Kaufman.
Something that really gets under the bartender’s skin is when people have a tab going and order so many drinks that they then forget to pay it at the end. This causes the servers to have to stay later than usual closing out these tabs. Some bars even have a fee of five dollars for customers who forget to close their tab.
One of the servers at local bar in Bloomsburg known as ‘Hardware Bar,’ Andrew Hunt, said that “it’s a lot harder getting people to come in and close their tabs than you would think.” Most people don’t want to take the time out to come in the next day and sign a piece of paper. “Without their signature it holds the bar liable for their tab and we just can’t have that,” says Hunt.
Being asked to leave a bar can be for many reasons. College student, Michele Leo, said, “I was asked to leave after me and my friends spilled drinks on the bar and we were persistent for the music to be changed.” Bouncers seem to have lower tolerances for intoxicated people, and they normally ask people to leave before anything gets too crazy.
