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Do certain band's fans tip better than others? Sasha Frere-Jones does an uncontrolled study at Bowery Ballroom -- and Chromeo fans, you're busted.
“When Chromeo played, their crowd drank house vodka and Budweiser. Didn’t tip. Some of them did what I’ll call the slide-backs. They put a dollar down on the bar, wait until you turn your back, then palm their buck and walk away. Classy. When your night starts out with “What’s your cheapest drink?” that’s also not good.”Classy, indeed. So who is picking up the slack and keeping these bartenders in the green? It's the hard-drinking hard-rockers, of course. Specifically Preistess fans who fancy a little whiskey with their beer and often tip $2 per drink. Similarly, Bogmen fans aren't tight-fisted either, as Bowery bartender Amy Korb tells SFJ, "It’s nearly impossible to keep the Bud Light stocked in the cooler or the Ketel on the shelf. They draw investment bankers, guys who shout and get inappropriate, but, damn, they need that Bud Light."
What do musicians tip when they're in the audience? We asked Craig Wedren (ex-Shudder to Think) to divulge his tips on tipping. He tells us:
"My (general) rules for tipping: ALWAYS TIP. ROUND UP, not down (this applies more to taxis and restaurants than bars).What kind of change are you leaving at the bar?0-5$ drink=1-2$ tip
5-10$ drink=2-3$ tip
10$ and up=3-5$ tipBeing a bar tender is hard, you have to deal with horny drunks and loud music, so I always try and tip well."
Photo of tips at Don Hill's via NYCGP's Flickr.
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A dollar a drink. That's it. The reason people don't tip at the Bowery Ballroom and other venues is because the drinks are ridiculously expensive. I tip at shows, but I'm not happy about. Call it what it is.
I saw They Might Be Giants at Bowery Ballroom last year and John Flansburgh admonished us from the stage for being lousy tippers. Evidently, TMBG fans are notorious. I work for tips, so as a rule I always overtip on the principal of "tip karma."
i love craig wedren and i have also been a bartender, but leaving a $4-$5 tip (as a rule) on a $10 drink is asinine.
I tip $1 on a beer. I don't care if that beer costs $2 or $10. All the bartender had to do was reach into a cooler and pull it out. I'm sorry, but that doesn't deserve anymore of a tip regardless of the price.
On mixed drinks, that's different. If there's time and effort involved, I always tip more. But to simply tip based on the price of the drink at a bar is idiotic.
Anyone who does the "slide-back" is a total douchebag.
a dollar a drink. two dollars if it was on the house.
Who the hell tips bartenders based on price? That's just dumb, tipping on difficulty of preparation makes sense, but on price?? It's not like it's harder to open one scotch bottle instead of another, but one scotch might cost 10 and the other 30. Why would I increase my tip for that?
If you've ordered a long island ice tea or something that goes into a blender I can see sliding an extra buck or two, but $5 HA!
$1 a drink regardless of its cost, especially if all you do is buy the damn drink and walk away
if I sit at the bar and nurse a drink, I will (of course) tip more because I might be taking up a seat that could be used by an alcoholic
As a rule, people should tip a dollar a drink. I actually tip more ($2 on a $5 beer) if a bar is empty or its an establishment I regularly frequent.
But of course, if you're used to drinking $15 cocktails, by all means, throw them some more money.
No one tips bartenders based on price. No one I know at least.
I go with $2 1st drink, $1 2nd, $2 3rd, etc. At 5 drinks I start to forget or overtip. I figure it balances out.
$3/2 drinks seems right to me.
If this becomes an issue you will need A.A.sooner
or later. Buddha's birthday is April 8th.Study
Buddha and be free of anxiety,the need for attention
and comparisons or expectations.
Oh,Oh! here comes the Buddha BD cocktail, no doubt!!!
No question about it, people who have worked for tips are the best tippers.
Overtipping is usually a symptom of low self-esteem. You want the recipient to like you.
$1 a drink is the rule. Tipping based on price surely is what bartenders would love but anyone who does that is a tourist.
I am sorry, I have been a waitress several times, but if I pay 12 dollars for a high end vodka on the rocks, I am NOT going to tip 3-5 dollars. That is BALONEY. That bottle of booze is just as easy to pour as a bottle of Popov or Smirnoff. If anything, I should tip more for the Popov since they have to bend over to get it from the bottom shelf! OW! MY BACK!
I tip $1 dollar a drink, unless there is serious work involved in it (ie grinding up mint for a mojito, or blending a lot of insane ingredients etc.
Are you kidding me?
I think a dollar a drink is more then enough for most NYC bartenders, unless they give exceptional service. Just because you make a $8-10 gin and tonic doesn't mean you should get a better tip.
However, if a bartender can actually make a complicated cocktail (hence the higher price) then I can see tipping better.
We tip too much for everything in this country. My drunk Australian friends are *incensed.* $1 per drink for all drinks at all times.
Isn't your tip also based on whether you give a shit if the bartender likes you or not?
With a big show, long lines, and harried service, give them a pity $1 at best. They won't remember you, and you probably aren't going back, so who cares.
But, if you are sitting at the bar and soaking up some jazz, you want to tip better.
I like to drink good beer on tap, no mixed drinks for me. It takes just as much time and effort to draw a $8 pint of Ayinger hefeweizen as it does to draw a $2 pint of Coors Light (around 20 seconds). A buck a beer.
Lame. $1/drink, unless it's extra, ultra special. I don't order anything I think is excessively priced. It's all going to be flushed away the next day.
dollar a drink. flat rate.
A dollar a drink, unless it's an expensive drink, in which case two dollars a drink. Why would I tip close to half the cost of a drink? That makes no sense! On the other hand, if you're only having one drink and sitting around taking up space, yes, double the tip is totally worth it to keep your bartender from hating you.
I don't understand tipping an extra dollar for an expensive drink. What exactly are you paying extra for?
If I sit there for an hour or two, fine, but then I would do the same for a cheap drink!
Tipping has gotten out of control.
$1 per drink. $3 per buyback. That is the law of the land.
A dollar a drink. That's it.
Agreed.
As for the "Being a bartender is hard" sentiment, so what. A lot of jobs are hard. The person who cleans the joint up at the end of the night has a much tougher job, and s/he doesn't get tips or to flirt with the patrons.
Yeah, sure bartending is hard, but getting an extra $50-$100/hour in tips makes up for it pretty well. On a busy night, a bartender will make several drinks a minute, if everyone tips a dollar, as myself and just about everyone else here seems to advocate, they'll pull in some pretty decent scratch. I've tipped more for complicated mixed drinks, but I will never tip more than a dollar for a beer, thats just stupid.
It must be nice to have Craig Wedren's trust fund and be able to tip $2+ per drink. Just kidding, I know Craig's rolling in cash from all those Shudder To Think album sales. I kid because I love.
In general, my rule is $1 per drink if I'm walking away from the bar, such as when I'm at a music venue. If I'm sitting at the bar and keeping cash on the table, I tip at the end of the night and I'll tip at least $1 per drink and throw in an extra $5 to $10 as a sort of shift tip. If I'm paying by credit card at a bar (rare, but it happens), I tip in cash to the tune of $1 per drink. If I'm paying with the company credit card, the bartender is going home very happy.
It also depends on what the drinks cost (i.e., a a $16 round for three drinks will get you a $4 tip), how good the service has been and how drunk I am. Crappy bartenders get crappy tips and great bartenders get great tips.
I have many friends who are bartenders and I've tended bar in the past. Yes, it's a tough job, but as others have noted, most of us have tough jobs. Also, you're bartending out of choice. And, of course, unlike those of us with day jobs, bartenders don't typically pay taxes on most of their income.
More important than tipping - what's the story on buybacks? I can't get a buyback in Manhattan these days unless I know the bartender or unless it's the bar is on the divey end of the scale. It wasn't always like this (amazingly, I did garner buybacks during a recent visit to The Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Terminal).
listen CHEAPASSES
$1-2 DOLLARS A DRINK
$3 DOLLARS IF ON THE HOUSE
IF YOU JUST TIP A DOLLAR A DRINK DON'T EXPECT ANY FREEBIES OR BUY BACKS OR EVEN THE BARTENDER TO LIKE YOU
slide backs are equivalent to hate crimes
bartenders deal with so much crap
A few comments from a bartender:
To short a bartender because drinks are expensive is ludicrous. The bartender doesn't get money from that drink, and they didn't make up the price.
Saying that people who over tip have low self esteem is silly. I over tip. Yes, because I work in the industry, but also because I know some douche bag is going to stiff the bartender later, and maybe the extra few bucks I threw in will make up for it. This does not mean that you should not tip because someone else will make up for your thoughtlessness later, doing such would make you a douche bag, as stated above.
The idea that anyone who over tips is a tourist is just false. Tourists are THE WORST tippers! It's not customary to tip in other countries, so some people simply don't know and others pretend like they don't know. Fellow Americans who may be visiting from outside NY are also generally bad tippers. I'm from the midwest, and there people tip a dollar a round, maybe two dollars. But the cost of living is also much, much cheaper.
Please people, at least tip a dollar a drink. If the bartender gives you one on the house throw them an extra couple bucks. Just because something is free doesn't mean you shouldn't tip.
Finally, bartenders aren't paid hourly. We pay our bills, tuition etc. with tips.
Happy Drinking!
oh boo hoo hoo poor little bartenders!!! I can't even tell you how many times I've been screwed over by a bartenders, or witnessed them screwing other people, usually at big clubs where they assume everyone is too messed up to notice. It's amazing how you go to one bartender and 2 vodka tonics are, say, $14, and the next time, with a different bartender, they're $20! I've never seen or heard of anyone I know of getting buybacks, ever. And God forbid you forget your credit card at the bar after a night of drinking, they will feel free to add thier own tips on it. Don't tell me it doesn't happen. All this and more is why I rarely trust them. I'm polite, I tip $1 a drink, but that's it. One of many reasons why going out in NYC is hardly worth it anymore.
Not all bartenders work for only tips. At one place I occasionally go to the hot blonde Hungarian bartender gets 60 bucks from the house for walking in the door.
ONE DOLLAR A DRINK!!!!!
I've noticed that you get better service and get buybacks more often if you open a tab and pay with your credit card. They have to wait until the end of the night before they know how well you'll tip, so they work a little harder for the big payoff at the end.
I was alone at a bar on W44 St a few years ago, ordered a scotch rocks while the rest of the customers were drinking beer. At that time the scotch was $7 and the beers were $2. I put a ten on the bar and the bartender rang the register (remember them) it showed $2. he gave me $3 change. Needless to say I didn't tip.
I knew the owner and called him the next day to tell him what happened. His answer was something like "Gee, he's my best barman, I'll have to talk to him". Needless to say I never went back.
@33: I'm confused by your story -- Did he overcharge you?
anyone who hasn't worked in the service industry HAS NOT BUSINESS LEAVING A comment here...you know nothing what its like...absolutely nothing...
#34, he didn't overcharge me, he pocketed the $5 difference. He was scamming the house. He rang up $2 instead of $7, returned $3
in change to me. Another ploy that I heard of is a bartender bringing in his own bottle of whiskey and putting that in the place of one that he emptied in the course of his or her shift. I think the figure is 18 drinks to a liter. So he could steal about 18X the price of the shots poured.
0-5$ drink=1-2$ tip
5-10$ drink=2-3$ tip
10$ and up=3-5$ tip
dude, Craig.. you're nuts. $5 on a $10 drink? right.. keep smoking the privileged stuff.
Seriously, it's as simple as the service.
GENERAL RULES
If the bar is crowded and you get a drink fast, and it's a proper pour, then sure.. you get a better tip. And if you're ordering multiple drinks, then add a buck for each drink.
If i'm standing there forever and it's a typical house pour, then nothing more than a buck/drink.
Now, if you're ordering something that takes time like a mojito, and it's super crowded.. then $2++/drink, depending on service.
NOTE: Just because you're ordering a rare imported Ale doesn't mean you tip more than you would for a PBR. That's retarded. It's not like the bartender is importing the beer. They're just taping a pint or pulling a bottle.
But here it is:
THE GOLDEN RULE:
you get more bees with honey, and you get better drinks with cash. Keyword: CASH. Credit Cards? Please.. CASH! CASH! And CASH! Why? Simple.. start with a big tip, and follow with another big tip. Your bartender will pick-up on this quick (if they're smart) and will reward you with quicker service and better pours. Build a rapport; go to the same bartender. It's simple reciprocity. Take care of each other and you'll both have a good night. Follow these rules and you may just hear the magic words, "this one's on me."
Now is that so complicated?
And yes. I HAVE worked in the service industry, both as a bartender and as a horny drunk.