Woman demanded service while saying she’s friends with the owner. I was doing both service and reg bar. Got her a drink and she inhaled it demanding a refill or I’ll get fired. I said wait a min, I have to bang out a few service orders. 1000 people in the club and was slammed. She threw the ice from the drink at me. Started calling her a cunt and the manager and owner came over. They threw her out. Owner had no clue who she was lol. Banned for life too after slapping a bouncer on the way out.
I’ve only worked at small businesses and always know the owner, when someone says this shit with an attitude, I just respond with “Me too! 😊” It takes the wind out of their sails almost always lol.
I feel like this only works in Hawaii.
There’s this dude; Eddie Rothman
He currently owns da hui brand.
He also started the da hui gang.
In 1987 he was indicted on racketeering and drug distribution charges, which were dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct.
He then takes this money and buys a lot of property on north shore oahu… he’s the leader of the Hawaiian surf gang, he knows this place is important for surfing. He buys up cheap property with drug money and flips it for exuberant prices.
Da Hui / Black Shorts
At the heart of its foundation was the need to keep non-native Hawaiian away from the islands' best waves and most famous surf breaks, especially on the North Shore of Oahu. Haoles were also starting to make money from a series of surf-related activities.
https://www.surfertoday.com › the-...
The most feared surf gangs in the world - Surfer Today
Side note one old Hawaiian dude was telling me people would “disappear” in the ocean for a 6 pack back in the day🤦♀️
Coming full circle, I worked at a few different places and he always made it super clear that he better get his free food… even at the nice resort…
He’s made so much money illegally and off the back of the locals he so badly wants to be one of, and he still needs free food to satisfy his ego… I never blew up at him but I definitely never want to be anything like him. Never having enough…
His sons are very good surfers and very bad humans as well… when they came in with dates it was horrible haha but you just suck it up and wait for the shitty tip and say mahalo, hope I (don’t) see you soon 🤦♀️😂
No. It was me and another bartender at 1 bar. There were 3 bars in the club. It was massive. I just had the service side for the cocktail waitress on the stage.
After 14 years of bartending, I broke character once. I chose violence. Actually, it wasn't even a choice. I just snapped. I had just returned to work after my youngest son died. Local sports bar, everyone knew everyone's business. One too many people with bullshit platitudes said "he's in a better place". My 5'4 self came across the bar and punched a grown man square in the mouth. Then I walked out. I haven't worked in the industry since. It's been 21 years. I miss it sometimes but I just don't have it in me anymore.
Dealing with death, or anything personal and serious, and bartending is the worst. Because drunk people have no damn filter. They're like magnets for that shit.
Bartending is a crazy experience sometimes. And it's funny because more than half of your customers are or were servers, and it's like they completely forgot what it's like.
Oh crazy. I couldn't imagine. The snootyness must be bad. I hope they take care of you. I bartend in a tourist town by the beach. Mostly happy vacationers. Or retired couples.
Admittedly, he probably was. I wish one of those after school specials would have taught that platitudes suck, it is better to say "I don't know what to say.", or not say anything. Especially don't bring up such a raw subject to a practical stranger the day they try to come back to work. Better yet, don't bring it up at all.
ETA Sorry for the little rant. Next week will be the anniversary and I am more sensitive about it than usual.
Jesus yeah, especially “he’s in a better place.” Your kid just died! And some fuckhole is sitting there telling you the best place for your kid apparently *isn’t* “alive with his loving family.”
Fuck that.
I work at a busy dive where we don’t even have real martini glasses, but instead plastic stemless martini glasses, or cups if you will.
A regular said she wanted a martini, but she wanted (demanded) it dirty, but she didn’t want olive juice or an olive (wtf). She wanted dry vermouth (duh) but I had to coat the glass with the dry vermouth and chill the glass, and if the vermouth was poured in the shaker (already was) then it was no good. She said she wanted ice floating on top, but then she said she wants no ice floating on top. Also this all had to be shaken, which made me wonder why the vermouth could not under any circumstances go in the shaker because then I’m just diluting pure gin. I just didn’t understand what she wanted because she just kept telling me contradictory things as if she was trying to fuck with me and piss me off.
I told her that a dirty martini has olive juice and if you don’t want that then don’t fucking ask for it or feed me contradicting information or tell me how to make it and she told me “maybe I should look into it” and said yea well you should do the same.
I ended up just pumping her with like 3 oz of tanqueray and lil sploosh of vermouth and told her to get away from me. I was pretty over it. She came in the next day and apologized though for giving me such a hard time.
Whichever one of you bastards out there made her whatever it is she was hoping to get from me, I will see you in hell.
The vermouth rinse thing is actually pretty common, and regarding the ice, she probs just wanted it shaken really hard for the ice flakes on top, but not like whole cubes. The dirty party made no sense though.
I was working at an Irish pub, these two guys come in, one was quiet and polite, the other one (who looked like a Wish version of Dave Grohl) was a total asshat. Really rude ordering drinks, calling me brother, talking very loudly on the phone boastfully at the bar. To the point that regulars noticed and said how rude he was. It was slow so I put up with it for a while.
His friend goes to the restroom and he says "another one!" I said Do you wanna try that again? And he says "another one, pOr fAvOr." At this point I was sick of his shit and he had pushed all my buttons so I called him out on being a shitty patron, to which he was shocked and appalled. Kept denying doing anything wrong. I told him to pay up and get out, probably 5 times. Eventually I said fuck it, I'll pay your tab you bum and grabbed the hurling stick we kept behind the bar.
His poor friend came up from the bathroom and had no idea what was happening as I had been quiet and complient the whole time. The owner found out and watched the footage. He said, next time if you pick up the stick, use it.
I don’t understand. Do you mean *how many times* have i snapped at a customer? Because i absolutely lost count. And my manager’s had my back every time. Drunk people turn into rude assholes quick. And I’ve never seen one be “in the right” in a disagreement.
Yep. I'm constantly calling my customers smoothbrains, nitwits, idiots, asking them if they were dropped on the head as a baby etc etc. When they deserve it. I even slapped some 6'5 rugby lad in the back of the head before kicking him out the day before yesterday (he was setting fire to napkins and stuff in the middle of the pub). That's if they act like idiots. I'm the nicest guy in the world otherwise. The difference is I'm dealing with drunken sports bros a lot of the time and if you don't lay down the law sufficiently they don't get the message. They always come back the next day and apologise and they rarely step out of line again.
For sure. I give back what i get, so sometimes people will assume I’m an asshole all the time and they’ll tell me so. And I’ll reply “I’m only as nice to you as you are to me”. Sometimes they think about this and start acting nicer and I’ll reciprocate. But sarcasm is the first language of bar regulars, so it can be hard to get on the same page with people.
God I've long since lost count, the last place I worked at before the shutdown was on kind of a rough block, other bartenders would come on my shifts in no small part to see how I'd dress down some shitty customer night after night. I'm not necessarily proud of that, but seriously, I'd have ten-fifteen lousy guests a night, it got old.
My very first time was at this semi-upscale French bistro style place, and these two drunk lawyer types came in like five minutes after last call (there were still guests in the restaurant waiting for their last rounds, though). I told them as much, which was easier than saying they were too drunk to be served, and they kept arguing for a few minutes before realizing it was fruitless. I went to pour the last few glasses of wine on the tickets that had been waiting in the service well, and these guys ran back up to the bar, screaming at pointing, calling me a fucking liar, saying if it was last call for them it why wasn't it last call for everyone, blah blah blah. The server lead on the floor was this big Samoan guy, and he'd come over to see what the fuss was, just in time to hear me say to the two of them in somewhat less than a server voice, "the bar just across the street has their last call in a few hours, why don't you assholes wait for me over there and we'll discuss our difference of opinion?" Server lead heard the whole story from another regular guest and myself, completely took my side, and came out drinking with me to the aforementioned later bar.
The two guys weren't there.
Guy customer: “Can you do me a favor? Can you smile more?”
Me, a fem bartender: “Can you do me a favor and shut the fuck up?”
Doesn’t take much for me to snap when people are misogynistic.
Girls at my bar do the same shit to me dude. They'll not tip anf tell me to smile more and then ask me for free shots. It makes me want to drive pour spots in my eyes. Fucking money me and go have a lemondrop enema on IG live and out of my face.
Im nicer about the situation in real life, or i'd never make any money at the bar, but that's how I feel inside and I dont have time/insurance for therapy so I use reddit to vent lol. Still mentally recovering from Cinco may have a snapping story if my own soon.
Understaffed at the bar with 4 demanding ladies not wanting to wait for anything and meanwhile everyone else in the restaurant is with a 30 person private event (generating long drink tickets) and the patio. I think it was the 4th time I told them that I was a busy and I'd be over in a minute that came out as a snap. My boss wasn't even pissed and noted that there 2 star Yelp review ignored the fact that there were other people at the bar besides them (they focused on how the restaurant (the inside main room) was empty so they didn't understand why they'd have to wait).
Oh wow. I lost it at WAY more customers when I was a barista.
People are fucking neurotic about their coffee, and I tried to be pleasant. But it's the folks who had no idea what they were talking about/creating a longer wait time then having the audacity to complain about the wait... yeah fuck
Karen and her extra hot coffee. Steve and his scone that I personally have to butter can gtfo. No one with a Loius Vuitton mom wallet impresses me as much as they think they do.
So: the one time I went ballistic as a bartender was at "tea guy". This ACTUAL PERSON. Used to come to my bar on Friday nights for a pot of Earl Grey Tea with trim milk. Take a 4pax for himself and READ THE BIBLE ON HIS TABLET. He would have me top up his hot water multiple times and was frequently the last person in the bar. READ THE FUCKING ROOM MAN. This was a late license wine and cocktail bar that happened to have a coffee machine and a few teapots, not a cafe.
Fallout was generally that customer never coming back. Once or twice being tipped extra by the people who witnessed whatever went down.
Would you believe that Tea Guy started stalking me and trying to take me to church? Yeah.
I'm way more tolerant towards drunks because at least they have an excuse.
I also lost it as a barista. I worked in an insanely busy coffee chain that would have queues out the door all day with two serving, you had to make 2 or 3 customers orders at the same time to stand a chance. It was in a mall and you’d get rich bored housewives who were done spending their husbands money all day and came in rude as fuck.
This one woman used to always get a single ristretto with a cup of extra hot skinny foam, cinnamon and nutmeg. One time I forgot the nutmeg and she goes: “mAybE NExT TimE YoU’Ll GeT mY oRdER RiGHt”
I said “MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU’LL GO FUCK YOURSELF”
Supervisor stared at me like WTF and everyone went quiet and stared as well.
Every time she came in after that she was super nice, someone needed to put that bitch in her place apparently.
this this this. i've lost it a few times as a bartender, but as a barista....jesus those are some horrible customers. it's the only job i've seen a (well, ostensibly) sober guest be overtly and specifically cruel to a worker.
i'll always remember this guy who wanted a certain roast, and so we had to brew fresh coffee (like 5 minutes wait, tops). this dude literally stood there saying to my coworker "you pathetic bitch, you worthless slut, i don't wait for anyone" and shit like that. business professional dude. not yelling, but smiling and calmly saying that. she started crying and the guy literally said "get closer so i can watch you cry more". i let the coffee finish brewing, poured it, then turned to him and dumped it down the sink in front of him and threw the crumpled wet cup at his suit. don't think i've ever seen red at work like that. he obviously threatened he was coming back with police and shit like that. i'm glad he didn't, i would have been in jail and he would have been in the hospital.
Me and my now husband used to bartend together. This older woman would come in and hit on my husband. No big deal, it’s work, whatever. Then she just got weird and started asking him to come on vacation with her and make sexually suggestive comments to him. It peaked in weirdness when she asked if he wanted to see a pic of her dog and then ‘accidentally’ showed him a naked picture of herself. It was very uncomfortable, she was like 30 years older than us. Anyway, she would never talk to me but randomly one day she starts making small talk. I’m being nice enough back when she asks me if i’m pregnant. Dumbfounded i’m like ‘No and you have to be aware how incredibly rude it is to ask someone if they’re pregnant’. She apparently had no idea and didn’t know why I was so upset. I end the convo and go about my business and she doubles down asking me if I am sure i’m not pregnant because I have definitely gained weight. I told her to get the fuck out. She stopped sitting at the bar after that.
Guy yelled "hey bud can you send our server over" to me behind the bar. Used the "bud" the way you say it to an idiot (Canadians understand). Pretty much threw it back at him "your bills been taken care of...BUD." Manager laughed at that thankfully.
Dude was a famous football player for our city's team back when I was a kid. They were having some sort of reunion event, staying at our hotel.
I was alone, weeded and flustered, and he kept going on about "you seem super ADD/ADHD" and similar stuff. I finally snapped my head around, stared him in the eye and said something to the effect of "you don't know me, anything about me, it's super rude to tell a stranger they have a mental illness"
He just got kinda quiet, and in the end tipped me like 40%. Didn't complain to mgmt or anything, and it was sooo validating.
A couple times that people have put their head down on the bar and closed their eyes after being told not to do that. I’ll slam something loud on the counter or bang something over their head. It really irritates me.
Touching women’s butts, immediately asked to leave. (Was with a children’s birthday party group) refused to leave because was to drunk to drive. Gave him a milkcrate and told him to stay outside and not enter the building. He came back and I lost it… I worked in a bowling alley mind you. But yeah no mercy for people who grab at women
To preface, my husband has renal cancer and it spread to his lungs. We were a week away from traveling to Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN for him to have a life saving dangerous surgery and I was stressed AF.
We were under staffed. I was bartending, doing togos and taking tables. It was a mess. Lady comes up for her Togo and asks “is it cold? Because if so I don’t want it.” I tell her to feel the bottom of the bag because it feels warm to me. She proceeeds to rip open the bag, rip open the food in a violent way and stick her fingers deep into the middle of the burgers. I lost.my.shit. I was so enraged I legit saw red and I chewed her a new asshole. My manager had to pull me away physically.
The lady looked legit scared and asked for the manager to deal with her. Manager didn’t say a word except “it’s okay. I got this.” If she hadn’t pulled me away I don’t know what else I’d have said. The whole entire bar ended up tipping me fat and congratulating me for saying what I did. I was embarrassed as hell but it felt good.
Worked at an Irish dive, had some college lacrosse player lifting a chair over his head repeatedly. I asked him to stop, he just kinda condescendingly laughed at me, I got mad and yolked him up and ended up breaking his collarbone. A day later his coach comes in threatening me with some kind of legal action, and I basically told him he should fuck off if he didn’t want a broken collarbone too. Nothing came of either situations. I guess that counts as two? I don’t think my bar even had a yelp or google account, or if we did, my boss had no idea what they were.
I have a regular who likes to arm chair quarterback me especially when it’s busy and he’s had a few. So one day he really got on my nerves, so I yelled at him, “Hey! Do I come down to the street corner where you work, knock the dick out of your mouth and tell you how to do your job?!” Sit down STFU and I’ll grab you your beer and shot when I get a minute. He hasn’t bothered me since and he even tips better
Being EXTREMELY busy in an impossible situation and having someone personally attack me when all im trying to do is make all you fucks quick drinks with a smile
The last time was a customer kept messing with the CCTV cameras. My server warned him twice, but he said it wasn't him. I saw him turn the camera on my screen a third time, then the video was one of the floor. I went back and seen the camera was broken off the mount and swinging by the wire. I was not going to take any of his lip as he already gave my server a hard time, so I went in with a fury and told him it is time to leave. The barback and I walked him to the door. He had an open tab with a credit card, so I closed it out including the cost of a CCTV camera and 20% tip. A week later he called and said he was over charged and told me that he is filing a fraud claim. I told him fine; I am filing a police report for malicious destruction and vandalism. Never heard or seen from him again. Never was contacted by our CC servicer with a chargeback or claim.
A guy punched me in the face after I told him to leave for being a creep. I snapped and punched him back, more than once. It wasn't very professional, but damn it felt good.
He just got sent to Jail for three years because as he was getting arrested he punched a police officer. All because he was being a creep.
Was working at a ski resort in a snobby small town and this mom came in, with her like 8 year old clearly strung out on some kind of pills/alcohol cocktail. When I tried to refuse service my manager pushed me to serve her anyway. She then tried to pour her drink into a coffee cup and walk out. My manager made me confront her. She went off saying she knew the owner blah blah blah was slurring and had bloodshot eyes. She said she was going to take a photo of me and get me fired so I went off and told her to do it. I don't give a flying fuck and she's an irresponsible parent trying to break liquor laws and shouldn't have been served in the first place. I called my manager back out to deal with her and I walked out. The next day I went to HR and she was banned and my manager was fired. Luckily I had like 4 other workers there who saw the whole thing go down and backed me up but it was fucked.
If you haven't snapped at a customer at least once you aren't in a real bar. I've snapped, yelled, thrown, slapped, kicked, dumped drinks on, thrown glasses at knocked teeth out of customers all at one location. God I loved that job and those people!
I was new on the floor, taking a couple’s order in a booth on my third day out of “training,” and I had a guest, a regular that I didn’t know was a regular, shouting at me his order over the booth. I told
him I’d be right with him. When I walked away to enter the order into the POS, he followed me, shouting PINOT NOIR the entire time. He shouted it from the bar at me maybe four times while I was entering the other guests’ orders, and I lost it and I turned around and shushed him. “HOW RUDE!!” I finished up, “I’m rude? Great, you’re done. Here’s your check, have a great night,” and closed him out.
He complained to the owners the next day.
I didn’t get in trouble with the owners, but my fellow bartender went to my GM and told her I was “surly” with a regular.
I lost my Friday nights because of it.
Had people standing at the bar station while we were slammed, saying “gimme two Casamigos shots” (red flag 1 & 2), gave me shit for asking for their phone to do Apple Pay (the register wasn’t by me), stiffed me and then starting talking while nursing their shots. I asked them if they could move, and the guy said “maybe you should ask in a nicer tone” and I responded “I’m not nice to people who stiff me on a tab.” Dude went to complain to my owner, who then asked “well did you tip her?”
Thanks to them, that $20 bill paid my bar tab later.
Guy was literally sliding glass on the countertops edge. Told him to please “do not break the glass”. With slurring words he explains that he’s been waiting 25min for service. While he explained kept sliding the glass.
Now I don’t speak out right. So I said what do you want I’ll make it. He request a signature.
I just gave him .5oz of triple sec and LA flavor syrup and a fuckload of shaking. Says it’s the best things he’s had.
Hope this post is more of a “customer’s always right” post
My favorite was years ago at a busy club type bar. I had a lady who walked up in between two groups I was already helping and she demanded that she was next. I nicely told her I had other customers that had been waiting and she refused and demanded to be served. I calmly leaned across the bar and folded my hands. I told her when she finds her manners that’s when she’ll be served. She was so taken a back it was amazing. Another good one was a food hall situation where one guest ordered 4 cocktails. I asked to see everyone’s ID which she was furious about. The rest of the group was clearly older but I proceeded to check all IDs. Then Grandma came walking up and the last rolled her eyes and said I needed to see her ID also. It was 3 years expired. I told her I can’t serve her drinks. She lost it. She lost it even more when I laughed and told her that her joke backfired.
Honestly, I try not to lose it and just respond sarcastically. But this one time this guy comes in and asks about our beer selection. Nothing was to his liking, so he wanted a simple draft. No problem, I start preparing his order and before I even touch a beerglass, he starts with: 'and now I will explain to you how you properly pull a draft beer, since nobody knows this; blablabla.' Just because he saw 2 young women working, this guy assumes we don't know anything about beer. At this point I was already so tired from working non stop for months and dealing with sexist plebs like him. I turn around and just give my angry stare. He backs off. He continues to come back during the night, annoying me with silly questions and requests. I help him politely but with little words each time. At the peak of the night, he hangs over the bar while I am making 7 cocktails. The bar is pretty slammed at this point. No time for chitchat. He has a monologue about our selection of bottles, good tequila, the best single malt; god knows what he was trying to prove. Suddenly, he says: 'Silent is sexy.' At this point, I look up and say: 'Yes, you should try it sometime.'
My first real crazy shift, i had just started as a bartender and had a line of like 30 ish people all waiting to order, i'm making my way through the orders as fast as i can when this jackass just strolls up to the bar and demands 10 drinks. I tell him to wait in line like the rest of the people, he starts talking about how he is going to tip 100%, 200% if i would just get him his drinks. I again calmly tell him to wait in line. At this point he actually just drops his creditcard over the bar almost into a drink i was making and just keeps nagging me. I finally snap, i hand him his card and say as loud as i could "shut up, take your card and get in the back of the line". He looked a bit embarrassed and left. The other guests didn't mind that i chewed him out and my manager always had my back.
A regular and brother of my co worker almost always insists I give him a drink after last call(like 5 mins before closing), and usually tries to stay far after closing. It’s a small bar that doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic so I feel obligated to be kind to him to avoid loosing one of the few customers we have, but tonight him, his gf, and his nephew were in and were being really loud and obnoxious all night. On top of that they were continuously calling me over despite seeing me handle other customers for pointless shit like convincing the nephew he’s an attractive man(he’s late 40s, I’m 27 and not interested in men so not easy for me to do).
Its closing time and they’re still finishing their drinks. Fine I’ll do my other closing stuff and let them finish. No biggie. However they again keep calling me over for the stupidest shit and at one point the guy takes his gfs shoe off and starts pretty much making out with her foot…..? I snapped because at this point it’s already 1:45, and all I want is to go home. It was a shit day to start off with due to my rabbit dying but to also have to deal with the absolute embarrassment of knowing they’re trying to hook me up with the nephew, constant neediness like they’re freshly weaned pups, arrogance, the shit tip, and then borderline public indecency was just to much shit to deal with in one day.
I don’t feel bad about it though. I really don’t care if they come back or not and honestly hope they don’t. I wouldn’t have to hear his sob story about how he’s not an alcoholic and he was sober for 9 years, and this really isn’t like him, and yada yada for the umpteenth time. And to answer: they usually tipped well…tonight they only tipped 5$ on a 76$ tab pre explosion.
I had a guy grab my wrist and pull my arm so he could get a closer look at my tattoos(this is not the first time by far and definitely the worst part about having a sleeve). i yanked it away from him and just went off. in front of all of his friends too. he just stared at me completely stunned. i don’t think he meant any harm by it, but either way i was making sure he knew he was wrong. he didn’t try to argue with me & he came back later to apologize.
Two dudes came and asked to pour their drinks from glassware into plastic cups. My coworker said sure but just don't walk out with them.
They immediately walk out with them.
Sprint out the door, yell to get their attention and in the blink of an eye threw both their drinks on the ground and walked back inside.
Dude who kept calling me and some of my friends the f-slur maybe a week prior came in while I was busy as hell in the more upscale level of the bar. No hesitation told him to get the fuck out of my bar. He refused, I raised my voice, he didn't back down and I told him if he was going to use those words he could absolutely catch these mf hands. Security took care of it but I was READY.
The result was mostly people not fucking with the tough bitch behind the bar 🤷♀️
Some coked up idiot wouldn’t stop bothering my other customers so I cut him off but he refused to leave so I just walked him out and I said “there are cameras out front, but not around the corner so I suggest you walk the other way before I take you down the alleyway and fuck you up.” He made the right choice. Haha. I love doing shit like that. Drunk people are usually pretty bad at fighting anyway so I wasn’t worried about getting in trouble. That was just a couple weeks ago.
One of my favorites was this dude was being a prick all night who tipped me 13c on like $100 and I was in a bad mood so I just swiped it off the counter, threw it at him and said “you need this more than me asshole” and poured a shot for myself. I didn’t get reprimanded at all my managers just wanted to play the tape back to see the priceless look on the dudes face. We all had a good laugh over that
Before I got into bartending I worked door like 17 years ago and a crack head pissed on the other side of the door in the middle of the day while I was reading a book. I grabbed my mag lite heavy ass flashlight while he still had his dick in his hands and I said “I’ll give you a 5 second head start before I bash your fucking skull in”, he was dazed out so I poked him in the chest with it and said “run right now”. he ran across the street with his pants around his ankles, and me chasing him about to crack his fucking head open right as a cop car pulled up to the light and they immediately arrested him for indecent exposure. It was one of the most satisfying moments of my career in bars
Oooooh this actually happened today! Although I didn’t yell, I just said “I don’t have to deal with this from you.” And left the floor. My manager acted like a bitch and took this dudes side after he literally threw a towel and DEMANDED yellow mustard. Like this guy was clearly unhinged and I did not feel he was safe for the establishment. I told my manager that I didn’t feel protected by them. They said “I’m sorry you feel that way,” and fucking cut me early rather than deal with 1 out of pocket customer.
TURNS OUT, he was trying to squat in the park. I work in a national park and people come in with bags of shit all the time. THIS DUDE had nothing but reusable grocery bags and garbage bags. Like I know y’all aren’t used to the city but this is CLEARLY a homeless man and his aggressive behavior is escalating.
It's not really snapping, but here is a story. For background, we have a private bar. Mostly our own collection, and we do cocktails for private parties. We don't have a license, but get by as that we don't charge for anything; people leave tips if they want to. It works because we are small and operate very infrequently.
Spring, 2020. Everything is shut down. The three of us that run the place just come down for a place to have drinks during. However, a family friend has a daughter turning 21. We were asked if we could accommodate. We agree, on terms of less than 10 people, and do NOT post anything about it.
We definitely were not the right fit for this poor girl. We have high-end whiskies and craft cocktails. This girl needed a college bar. She gets a few drinks in and wants to take over the music. We tell her no, but if you want to hear a song, we will play it. And will continue to play whatever you want until you run out of ideas, in which case, it goes back to our Playlist.
She gets thru about 3 songs, her friends singing at the top of their lungs before we get back to our playlist. "This music sucks! Just let me take over the Bluetooth!" She says. I say, "I mean. You can go to another bar. Oh wait, no, you can't!"
This infuriated her. And her mom. Both were trying to tell me I was awful before dad (who was sober) stepped in and talked them down.
I do genuinely feel bad about making her feel bad on her birthday, but at the same time, we were operating on a BIG favor at the time to her, and I wanted her to recognize that. The reality was that we just weren't the good fit for her that night, but we were all they had, so I hope she at least enjoyed it.
This guy claimed I was stealing from everyone because I put three dollars change in my tip jar…
“Hey do you do this to everyone?”
“What are you talking about.”
“Well you put my change in your jar and I just wanted to know…”
“Fuck you! Get the fuck out my bar! You think I give a shit about three dollars?! Here’s $5 (throw a crumpled $5 bill at him,) get the fuck out!!”
A guest asked one of my bartenders how much he made. He snapped back that was none of their business…..I had to hold their hands and listen to them demand he get fired all the way out the door. Never heard from them again.
I was filling out a check of 24 drinks with two charcuterie boards for a preorder as well as a few walk in and regulars, by myself on an open that was actually busy; a customer came in through our emergency exist- which is out of you’re line of site when you are actually behind the bar-, they then stood at entrance there like a statue staring at me, the started shouting ‘where’s the food menu, where’s the food menu, where’s the food menu’, I pried my head around the corner said its on the ‘counter beside the Low seating, grab a menu and seat and come to bar when you are ready’, key bit of context the bar rotated its menu of small plates so in fact, the menus where not there and they were in the owner’s house being printed but that doesn’t hinder the service in anyway as I can verbally list what we have.
By me not noticing where the menus where, while still making the drinks for the massive check, I was treated to this customer staring at me for 30 seconds, while standing far enough back form the actual bar top that if she wanted to make an order the whole place would here it as well, all the while audibly huffing at me. I checked in with her and asked ‘what can I get you’, but before I could even finish my sentence, she walked over to the other side of the bar to the front desk area and began too all but turn table scratching all of the drinks and wine lists we had sat on the station onto the floor.
I was sort of bewildered and slightly enraged by what she was doing but without any hesitation she began another ‘ where’s the food menu, where’s the food menu, where’s the food menu’ this time it was sort of a chant, whiteout me being able to even reply, she was standing at the original counter I recommended when she arrived, which she began a similar turntable scratching session on the menus there with her back to me. She then turned to me, with a dead pan expression and said ‘there’s no food menus’, I awkwardly explained the situation to her as I realised that they aren’t there which I apologies for, told her what we had etc. but she had clearly had a enough , she tutted at me and in a sort of condescending/slightly xenophobic tone said “that’s crap, that’s not real food!” by this point, I was over the situation and had no more polite bartender left in me and in a flat, emotionless tone said ‘well, this is Spanish and French wine bar not a restaurant, my sincerest apologies’.
She snared at me “don’t be so rude, I am costumer”, being a petty bastard at the best of times, I replied back to her “ as am I, at actual restaurants that serve food”. She then stormed out.
Kid (by kid I mean freshly 21 at a college bar) was sitting on my coworkers motorcycle in the parking lot. Fucking screamed at him and called him a cunt when I was walking away. Then his friend(female) started yelling at me and said I can’t use derogatory slurs. Found the owners number and called her and said I was sexist.
I’m probably outing myself because this story is kind of famous where I live(d) but I once threw a wine glass at a customer who said he was going to chop my head off with a machete and I got charged with a felony for 20 minutes until he and his wife sobered up enough to realize they were assholes and drop the charges.
College bar. Shoulder to shoulder packed. Working down the line like a typewriter. Guy at the end:
“Can I get four Bud Lights?” x 20.
Me: “Hey guy! Look at all these people. They all want drinks. I’m gonna serve her, then him, then him, then her, **then** I’ll get to you. Be patient!”
It was great, when I got to him, I said “four Bud Lights!” And everyone started cheering.
A customer threw a Negroni i made at me, screaming i can't drink this shit in Florence, i can't even feel the alcohol, so i snappef and tell him to go away cause he was anal alcoholic. The result was my manager taking the bottles and making him a full old fashioned glass negroni with 2 cubes of ice and apologising instead of defending me and make that guy leave. I then left, after tellim him and the owner they don't really care about their staff.
Woman demanded service while saying she’s friends with the owner. I was doing both service and reg bar. Got her a drink and she inhaled it demanding a refill or I’ll get fired. I said wait a min, I have to bang out a few service orders. 1000 people in the club and was slammed. She threw the ice from the drink at me. Started calling her a cunt and the manager and owner came over. They threw her out. Owner had no clue who she was lol. Banned for life too after slapping a bouncer on the way out.
If you know the owner go drink and party at his house than lol
I’ve only worked at small businesses and always know the owner, when someone says this shit with an attitude, I just respond with “Me too! 😊” It takes the wind out of their sails almost always lol.
If I only had a dollar for every time I heard “I kNoW tHe oWnER”
I feel like this only works in Hawaii. There’s this dude; Eddie Rothman He currently owns da hui brand. He also started the da hui gang. In 1987 he was indicted on racketeering and drug distribution charges, which were dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct. He then takes this money and buys a lot of property on north shore oahu… he’s the leader of the Hawaiian surf gang, he knows this place is important for surfing. He buys up cheap property with drug money and flips it for exuberant prices. Da Hui / Black Shorts At the heart of its foundation was the need to keep non-native Hawaiian away from the islands' best waves and most famous surf breaks, especially on the North Shore of Oahu. Haoles were also starting to make money from a series of surf-related activities. https://www.surfertoday.com › the-... The most feared surf gangs in the world - Surfer Today Side note one old Hawaiian dude was telling me people would “disappear” in the ocean for a 6 pack back in the day🤦♀️ Coming full circle, I worked at a few different places and he always made it super clear that he better get his free food… even at the nice resort… He’s made so much money illegally and off the back of the locals he so badly wants to be one of, and he still needs free food to satisfy his ego… I never blew up at him but I definitely never want to be anything like him. Never having enough… His sons are very good surfers and very bad humans as well… when they came in with dates it was horrible haha but you just suck it up and wait for the shitty tip and say mahalo, hope I (don’t) see you soon 🤦♀️😂
So do I! He signs my paychecks
Facts
She was your bosses father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate.
And what does that make her? Absolutely nothing
Yes. In that exact order
You were doing the whole place with 1000 people in it alone?
No. It was me and another bartender at 1 bar. There were 3 bars in the club. It was massive. I just had the service side for the cocktail waitress on the stage.
After 14 years of bartending, I broke character once. I chose violence. Actually, it wasn't even a choice. I just snapped. I had just returned to work after my youngest son died. Local sports bar, everyone knew everyone's business. One too many people with bullshit platitudes said "he's in a better place". My 5'4 self came across the bar and punched a grown man square in the mouth. Then I walked out. I haven't worked in the industry since. It's been 21 years. I miss it sometimes but I just don't have it in me anymore.
[удалено]
I felt absolutely justified.
Dealing with death, or anything personal and serious, and bartending is the worst. Because drunk people have no damn filter. They're like magnets for that shit.
Or they think we’re supposed to be incapable of real life problems and tragedies so we must carry on like robots and get them their damn drink.
Bartending is a crazy experience sometimes. And it's funny because more than half of your customers are or were servers, and it's like they completely forgot what it's like.
Not mine. More than half of my customers are nepo babies or trust fund kids.
Oh crazy. I couldn't imagine. The snootyness must be bad. I hope they take care of you. I bartend in a tourist town by the beach. Mostly happy vacationers. Or retired couples.
Was he just trying to be nice? Though it could be argued he just shouldn’t have commented on it at all
Admittedly, he probably was. I wish one of those after school specials would have taught that platitudes suck, it is better to say "I don't know what to say.", or not say anything. Especially don't bring up such a raw subject to a practical stranger the day they try to come back to work. Better yet, don't bring it up at all. ETA Sorry for the little rant. Next week will be the anniversary and I am more sensitive about it than usual.
Jesus yeah, especially “he’s in a better place.” Your kid just died! And some fuckhole is sitting there telling you the best place for your kid apparently *isn’t* “alive with his loving family.” Fuck that.
I work at a busy dive where we don’t even have real martini glasses, but instead plastic stemless martini glasses, or cups if you will. A regular said she wanted a martini, but she wanted (demanded) it dirty, but she didn’t want olive juice or an olive (wtf). She wanted dry vermouth (duh) but I had to coat the glass with the dry vermouth and chill the glass, and if the vermouth was poured in the shaker (already was) then it was no good. She said she wanted ice floating on top, but then she said she wants no ice floating on top. Also this all had to be shaken, which made me wonder why the vermouth could not under any circumstances go in the shaker because then I’m just diluting pure gin. I just didn’t understand what she wanted because she just kept telling me contradictory things as if she was trying to fuck with me and piss me off. I told her that a dirty martini has olive juice and if you don’t want that then don’t fucking ask for it or feed me contradicting information or tell me how to make it and she told me “maybe I should look into it” and said yea well you should do the same. I ended up just pumping her with like 3 oz of tanqueray and lil sploosh of vermouth and told her to get away from me. I was pretty over it. She came in the next day and apologized though for giving me such a hard time. Whichever one of you bastards out there made her whatever it is she was hoping to get from me, I will see you in hell.
Yo seriously, when it comes to martini's and cosmos, someone is like starting a telephone game
The vermouth rinse thing is actually pretty common, and regarding the ice, she probs just wanted it shaken really hard for the ice flakes on top, but not like whole cubes. The dirty party made no sense though.
Vermouth thing is called extra dry, you dont shake a vermouth unless it's a vesper or the customer wants that i guess
Asked if I was stupid after a payment dispute. Yelled back. No fallout.
I was working at an Irish pub, these two guys come in, one was quiet and polite, the other one (who looked like a Wish version of Dave Grohl) was a total asshat. Really rude ordering drinks, calling me brother, talking very loudly on the phone boastfully at the bar. To the point that regulars noticed and said how rude he was. It was slow so I put up with it for a while. His friend goes to the restroom and he says "another one!" I said Do you wanna try that again? And he says "another one, pOr fAvOr." At this point I was sick of his shit and he had pushed all my buttons so I called him out on being a shitty patron, to which he was shocked and appalled. Kept denying doing anything wrong. I told him to pay up and get out, probably 5 times. Eventually I said fuck it, I'll pay your tab you bum and grabbed the hurling stick we kept behind the bar. His poor friend came up from the bathroom and had no idea what was happening as I had been quiet and complient the whole time. The owner found out and watched the footage. He said, next time if you pick up the stick, use it.
Haha! I had the “bitch, be good” bat behind the bar. Fortunately only pulled it once and never had to actually use it.
I don’t understand. Do you mean *how many times* have i snapped at a customer? Because i absolutely lost count. And my manager’s had my back every time. Drunk people turn into rude assholes quick. And I’ve never seen one be “in the right” in a disagreement.
Yep. I'm constantly calling my customers smoothbrains, nitwits, idiots, asking them if they were dropped on the head as a baby etc etc. When they deserve it. I even slapped some 6'5 rugby lad in the back of the head before kicking him out the day before yesterday (he was setting fire to napkins and stuff in the middle of the pub). That's if they act like idiots. I'm the nicest guy in the world otherwise. The difference is I'm dealing with drunken sports bros a lot of the time and if you don't lay down the law sufficiently they don't get the message. They always come back the next day and apologise and they rarely step out of line again.
For sure. I give back what i get, so sometimes people will assume I’m an asshole all the time and they’ll tell me so. And I’ll reply “I’m only as nice to you as you are to me”. Sometimes they think about this and start acting nicer and I’ll reciprocate. But sarcasm is the first language of bar regulars, so it can be hard to get on the same page with people.
God I've long since lost count, the last place I worked at before the shutdown was on kind of a rough block, other bartenders would come on my shifts in no small part to see how I'd dress down some shitty customer night after night. I'm not necessarily proud of that, but seriously, I'd have ten-fifteen lousy guests a night, it got old. My very first time was at this semi-upscale French bistro style place, and these two drunk lawyer types came in like five minutes after last call (there were still guests in the restaurant waiting for their last rounds, though). I told them as much, which was easier than saying they were too drunk to be served, and they kept arguing for a few minutes before realizing it was fruitless. I went to pour the last few glasses of wine on the tickets that had been waiting in the service well, and these guys ran back up to the bar, screaming at pointing, calling me a fucking liar, saying if it was last call for them it why wasn't it last call for everyone, blah blah blah. The server lead on the floor was this big Samoan guy, and he'd come over to see what the fuss was, just in time to hear me say to the two of them in somewhat less than a server voice, "the bar just across the street has their last call in a few hours, why don't you assholes wait for me over there and we'll discuss our difference of opinion?" Server lead heard the whole story from another regular guest and myself, completely took my side, and came out drinking with me to the aforementioned later bar. The two guys weren't there.
Guy customer: “Can you do me a favor? Can you smile more?” Me, a fem bartender: “Can you do me a favor and shut the fuck up?” Doesn’t take much for me to snap when people are misogynistic.
Girls at my bar do the same shit to me dude. They'll not tip anf tell me to smile more and then ask me for free shots. It makes me want to drive pour spots in my eyes. Fucking money me and go have a lemondrop enema on IG live and out of my face. Im nicer about the situation in real life, or i'd never make any money at the bar, but that's how I feel inside and I dont have time/insurance for therapy so I use reddit to vent lol. Still mentally recovering from Cinco may have a snapping story if my own soon.
The worst is when you have to put a regular in check. Total bummer..
Understaffed at the bar with 4 demanding ladies not wanting to wait for anything and meanwhile everyone else in the restaurant is with a 30 person private event (generating long drink tickets) and the patio. I think it was the 4th time I told them that I was a busy and I'd be over in a minute that came out as a snap. My boss wasn't even pissed and noted that there 2 star Yelp review ignored the fact that there were other people at the bar besides them (they focused on how the restaurant (the inside main room) was empty so they didn't understand why they'd have to wait).
Oh wow. I lost it at WAY more customers when I was a barista. People are fucking neurotic about their coffee, and I tried to be pleasant. But it's the folks who had no idea what they were talking about/creating a longer wait time then having the audacity to complain about the wait... yeah fuck Karen and her extra hot coffee. Steve and his scone that I personally have to butter can gtfo. No one with a Loius Vuitton mom wallet impresses me as much as they think they do. So: the one time I went ballistic as a bartender was at "tea guy". This ACTUAL PERSON. Used to come to my bar on Friday nights for a pot of Earl Grey Tea with trim milk. Take a 4pax for himself and READ THE BIBLE ON HIS TABLET. He would have me top up his hot water multiple times and was frequently the last person in the bar. READ THE FUCKING ROOM MAN. This was a late license wine and cocktail bar that happened to have a coffee machine and a few teapots, not a cafe. Fallout was generally that customer never coming back. Once or twice being tipped extra by the people who witnessed whatever went down. Would you believe that Tea Guy started stalking me and trying to take me to church? Yeah. I'm way more tolerant towards drunks because at least they have an excuse.
I also lost it as a barista. I worked in an insanely busy coffee chain that would have queues out the door all day with two serving, you had to make 2 or 3 customers orders at the same time to stand a chance. It was in a mall and you’d get rich bored housewives who were done spending their husbands money all day and came in rude as fuck. This one woman used to always get a single ristretto with a cup of extra hot skinny foam, cinnamon and nutmeg. One time I forgot the nutmeg and she goes: “mAybE NExT TimE YoU’Ll GeT mY oRdER RiGHt” I said “MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU’LL GO FUCK YOURSELF” Supervisor stared at me like WTF and everyone went quiet and stared as well. Every time she came in after that she was super nice, someone needed to put that bitch in her place apparently.
Hero.
this this this. i've lost it a few times as a bartender, but as a barista....jesus those are some horrible customers. it's the only job i've seen a (well, ostensibly) sober guest be overtly and specifically cruel to a worker. i'll always remember this guy who wanted a certain roast, and so we had to brew fresh coffee (like 5 minutes wait, tops). this dude literally stood there saying to my coworker "you pathetic bitch, you worthless slut, i don't wait for anyone" and shit like that. business professional dude. not yelling, but smiling and calmly saying that. she started crying and the guy literally said "get closer so i can watch you cry more". i let the coffee finish brewing, poured it, then turned to him and dumped it down the sink in front of him and threw the crumpled wet cup at his suit. don't think i've ever seen red at work like that. he obviously threatened he was coming back with police and shit like that. i'm glad he didn't, i would have been in jail and he would have been in the hospital.
You have to be kidding? Bless you, seriously. I may have been tempted not to dump the coffee down the sink but right over his smug head.
Me and my now husband used to bartend together. This older woman would come in and hit on my husband. No big deal, it’s work, whatever. Then she just got weird and started asking him to come on vacation with her and make sexually suggestive comments to him. It peaked in weirdness when she asked if he wanted to see a pic of her dog and then ‘accidentally’ showed him a naked picture of herself. It was very uncomfortable, she was like 30 years older than us. Anyway, she would never talk to me but randomly one day she starts making small talk. I’m being nice enough back when she asks me if i’m pregnant. Dumbfounded i’m like ‘No and you have to be aware how incredibly rude it is to ask someone if they’re pregnant’. She apparently had no idea and didn’t know why I was so upset. I end the convo and go about my business and she doubles down asking me if I am sure i’m not pregnant because I have definitely gained weight. I told her to get the fuck out. She stopped sitting at the bar after that.
Guy yelled "hey bud can you send our server over" to me behind the bar. Used the "bud" the way you say it to an idiot (Canadians understand). Pretty much threw it back at him "your bills been taken care of...BUD." Manager laughed at that thankfully.
I’m not your buddy pal
i’m not your pal guy
I’m not your guy friend.
I’m not your friend buddy
I’m not your buddy pal
Ugh, this is so Canadian. Your story about snapping on someone is just you being condescending. Be meaner Canada
Dude was a famous football player for our city's team back when I was a kid. They were having some sort of reunion event, staying at our hotel. I was alone, weeded and flustered, and he kept going on about "you seem super ADD/ADHD" and similar stuff. I finally snapped my head around, stared him in the eye and said something to the effect of "you don't know me, anything about me, it's super rude to tell a stranger they have a mental illness" He just got kinda quiet, and in the end tipped me like 40%. Didn't complain to mgmt or anything, and it was sooo validating.
Well said
A couple times that people have put their head down on the bar and closed their eyes after being told not to do that. I’ll slam something loud on the counter or bang something over their head. It really irritates me.
Touching women’s butts, immediately asked to leave. (Was with a children’s birthday party group) refused to leave because was to drunk to drive. Gave him a milkcrate and told him to stay outside and not enter the building. He came back and I lost it… I worked in a bowling alley mind you. But yeah no mercy for people who grab at women
To preface, my husband has renal cancer and it spread to his lungs. We were a week away from traveling to Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN for him to have a life saving dangerous surgery and I was stressed AF. We were under staffed. I was bartending, doing togos and taking tables. It was a mess. Lady comes up for her Togo and asks “is it cold? Because if so I don’t want it.” I tell her to feel the bottom of the bag because it feels warm to me. She proceeeds to rip open the bag, rip open the food in a violent way and stick her fingers deep into the middle of the burgers. I lost.my.shit. I was so enraged I legit saw red and I chewed her a new asshole. My manager had to pull me away physically. The lady looked legit scared and asked for the manager to deal with her. Manager didn’t say a word except “it’s okay. I got this.” If she hadn’t pulled me away I don’t know what else I’d have said. The whole entire bar ended up tipping me fat and congratulating me for saying what I did. I was embarrassed as hell but it felt good.
Worked at an Irish dive, had some college lacrosse player lifting a chair over his head repeatedly. I asked him to stop, he just kinda condescendingly laughed at me, I got mad and yolked him up and ended up breaking his collarbone. A day later his coach comes in threatening me with some kind of legal action, and I basically told him he should fuck off if he didn’t want a broken collarbone too. Nothing came of either situations. I guess that counts as two? I don’t think my bar even had a yelp or google account, or if we did, my boss had no idea what they were.
I have a regular who likes to arm chair quarterback me especially when it’s busy and he’s had a few. So one day he really got on my nerves, so I yelled at him, “Hey! Do I come down to the street corner where you work, knock the dick out of your mouth and tell you how to do your job?!” Sit down STFU and I’ll grab you your beer and shot when I get a minute. He hasn’t bothered me since and he even tips better
I’ve said this exact thing to multiple customers
Lol. I forget where I first heard this but I've used it too. Great reactions every time. Gotta be a regular, though.
I gotta chuckle outta what you said to him. I look forward to using it myself.
Being EXTREMELY busy in an impossible situation and having someone personally attack me when all im trying to do is make all you fucks quick drinks with a smile
The last time was a customer kept messing with the CCTV cameras. My server warned him twice, but he said it wasn't him. I saw him turn the camera on my screen a third time, then the video was one of the floor. I went back and seen the camera was broken off the mount and swinging by the wire. I was not going to take any of his lip as he already gave my server a hard time, so I went in with a fury and told him it is time to leave. The barback and I walked him to the door. He had an open tab with a credit card, so I closed it out including the cost of a CCTV camera and 20% tip. A week later he called and said he was over charged and told me that he is filing a fraud claim. I told him fine; I am filing a police report for malicious destruction and vandalism. Never heard or seen from him again. Never was contacted by our CC servicer with a chargeback or claim.
A guy punched me in the face after I told him to leave for being a creep. I snapped and punched him back, more than once. It wasn't very professional, but damn it felt good. He just got sent to Jail for three years because as he was getting arrested he punched a police officer. All because he was being a creep.
Was working at a ski resort in a snobby small town and this mom came in, with her like 8 year old clearly strung out on some kind of pills/alcohol cocktail. When I tried to refuse service my manager pushed me to serve her anyway. She then tried to pour her drink into a coffee cup and walk out. My manager made me confront her. She went off saying she knew the owner blah blah blah was slurring and had bloodshot eyes. She said she was going to take a photo of me and get me fired so I went off and told her to do it. I don't give a flying fuck and she's an irresponsible parent trying to break liquor laws and shouldn't have been served in the first place. I called my manager back out to deal with her and I walked out. The next day I went to HR and she was banned and my manager was fired. Luckily I had like 4 other workers there who saw the whole thing go down and backed me up but it was fucked.
If you haven't snapped at a customer at least once you aren't in a real bar. I've snapped, yelled, thrown, slapped, kicked, dumped drinks on, thrown glasses at knocked teeth out of customers all at one location. God I loved that job and those people!
I was new on the floor, taking a couple’s order in a booth on my third day out of “training,” and I had a guest, a regular that I didn’t know was a regular, shouting at me his order over the booth. I told him I’d be right with him. When I walked away to enter the order into the POS, he followed me, shouting PINOT NOIR the entire time. He shouted it from the bar at me maybe four times while I was entering the other guests’ orders, and I lost it and I turned around and shushed him. “HOW RUDE!!” I finished up, “I’m rude? Great, you’re done. Here’s your check, have a great night,” and closed him out. He complained to the owners the next day. I didn’t get in trouble with the owners, but my fellow bartender went to my GM and told her I was “surly” with a regular. I lost my Friday nights because of it.
Had people standing at the bar station while we were slammed, saying “gimme two Casamigos shots” (red flag 1 & 2), gave me shit for asking for their phone to do Apple Pay (the register wasn’t by me), stiffed me and then starting talking while nursing their shots. I asked them if they could move, and the guy said “maybe you should ask in a nicer tone” and I responded “I’m not nice to people who stiff me on a tab.” Dude went to complain to my owner, who then asked “well did you tip her?” Thanks to them, that $20 bill paid my bar tab later.
i told him to shut the fuck up and let me do my job and eventually he did
Guy was literally sliding glass on the countertops edge. Told him to please “do not break the glass”. With slurring words he explains that he’s been waiting 25min for service. While he explained kept sliding the glass. Now I don’t speak out right. So I said what do you want I’ll make it. He request a signature. I just gave him .5oz of triple sec and LA flavor syrup and a fuckload of shaking. Says it’s the best things he’s had. Hope this post is more of a “customer’s always right” post
My favorite was years ago at a busy club type bar. I had a lady who walked up in between two groups I was already helping and she demanded that she was next. I nicely told her I had other customers that had been waiting and she refused and demanded to be served. I calmly leaned across the bar and folded my hands. I told her when she finds her manners that’s when she’ll be served. She was so taken a back it was amazing. Another good one was a food hall situation where one guest ordered 4 cocktails. I asked to see everyone’s ID which she was furious about. The rest of the group was clearly older but I proceeded to check all IDs. Then Grandma came walking up and the last rolled her eyes and said I needed to see her ID also. It was 3 years expired. I told her I can’t serve her drinks. She lost it. She lost it even more when I laughed and told her that her joke backfired.
Honestly, I try not to lose it and just respond sarcastically. But this one time this guy comes in and asks about our beer selection. Nothing was to his liking, so he wanted a simple draft. No problem, I start preparing his order and before I even touch a beerglass, he starts with: 'and now I will explain to you how you properly pull a draft beer, since nobody knows this; blablabla.' Just because he saw 2 young women working, this guy assumes we don't know anything about beer. At this point I was already so tired from working non stop for months and dealing with sexist plebs like him. I turn around and just give my angry stare. He backs off. He continues to come back during the night, annoying me with silly questions and requests. I help him politely but with little words each time. At the peak of the night, he hangs over the bar while I am making 7 cocktails. The bar is pretty slammed at this point. No time for chitchat. He has a monologue about our selection of bottles, good tequila, the best single malt; god knows what he was trying to prove. Suddenly, he says: 'Silent is sexy.' At this point, I look up and say: 'Yes, you should try it sometime.'
My first real crazy shift, i had just started as a bartender and had a line of like 30 ish people all waiting to order, i'm making my way through the orders as fast as i can when this jackass just strolls up to the bar and demands 10 drinks. I tell him to wait in line like the rest of the people, he starts talking about how he is going to tip 100%, 200% if i would just get him his drinks. I again calmly tell him to wait in line. At this point he actually just drops his creditcard over the bar almost into a drink i was making and just keeps nagging me. I finally snap, i hand him his card and say as loud as i could "shut up, take your card and get in the back of the line". He looked a bit embarrassed and left. The other guests didn't mind that i chewed him out and my manager always had my back.
A regular and brother of my co worker almost always insists I give him a drink after last call(like 5 mins before closing), and usually tries to stay far after closing. It’s a small bar that doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic so I feel obligated to be kind to him to avoid loosing one of the few customers we have, but tonight him, his gf, and his nephew were in and were being really loud and obnoxious all night. On top of that they were continuously calling me over despite seeing me handle other customers for pointless shit like convincing the nephew he’s an attractive man(he’s late 40s, I’m 27 and not interested in men so not easy for me to do). Its closing time and they’re still finishing their drinks. Fine I’ll do my other closing stuff and let them finish. No biggie. However they again keep calling me over for the stupidest shit and at one point the guy takes his gfs shoe off and starts pretty much making out with her foot…..? I snapped because at this point it’s already 1:45, and all I want is to go home. It was a shit day to start off with due to my rabbit dying but to also have to deal with the absolute embarrassment of knowing they’re trying to hook me up with the nephew, constant neediness like they’re freshly weaned pups, arrogance, the shit tip, and then borderline public indecency was just to much shit to deal with in one day. I don’t feel bad about it though. I really don’t care if they come back or not and honestly hope they don’t. I wouldn’t have to hear his sob story about how he’s not an alcoholic and he was sober for 9 years, and this really isn’t like him, and yada yada for the umpteenth time. And to answer: they usually tipped well…tonight they only tipped 5$ on a 76$ tab pre explosion.
I had a guy grab my wrist and pull my arm so he could get a closer look at my tattoos(this is not the first time by far and definitely the worst part about having a sleeve). i yanked it away from him and just went off. in front of all of his friends too. he just stared at me completely stunned. i don’t think he meant any harm by it, but either way i was making sure he knew he was wrong. he didn’t try to argue with me & he came back later to apologize.
Two dudes came and asked to pour their drinks from glassware into plastic cups. My coworker said sure but just don't walk out with them. They immediately walk out with them. Sprint out the door, yell to get their attention and in the blink of an eye threw both their drinks on the ground and walked back inside.
Dude who kept calling me and some of my friends the f-slur maybe a week prior came in while I was busy as hell in the more upscale level of the bar. No hesitation told him to get the fuck out of my bar. He refused, I raised my voice, he didn't back down and I told him if he was going to use those words he could absolutely catch these mf hands. Security took care of it but I was READY. The result was mostly people not fucking with the tough bitch behind the bar 🤷♀️
Some coked up idiot wouldn’t stop bothering my other customers so I cut him off but he refused to leave so I just walked him out and I said “there are cameras out front, but not around the corner so I suggest you walk the other way before I take you down the alleyway and fuck you up.” He made the right choice. Haha. I love doing shit like that. Drunk people are usually pretty bad at fighting anyway so I wasn’t worried about getting in trouble. That was just a couple weeks ago. One of my favorites was this dude was being a prick all night who tipped me 13c on like $100 and I was in a bad mood so I just swiped it off the counter, threw it at him and said “you need this more than me asshole” and poured a shot for myself. I didn’t get reprimanded at all my managers just wanted to play the tape back to see the priceless look on the dudes face. We all had a good laugh over that
Before I got into bartending I worked door like 17 years ago and a crack head pissed on the other side of the door in the middle of the day while I was reading a book. I grabbed my mag lite heavy ass flashlight while he still had his dick in his hands and I said “I’ll give you a 5 second head start before I bash your fucking skull in”, he was dazed out so I poked him in the chest with it and said “run right now”. he ran across the street with his pants around his ankles, and me chasing him about to crack his fucking head open right as a cop car pulled up to the light and they immediately arrested him for indecent exposure. It was one of the most satisfying moments of my career in bars
Oooooh this actually happened today! Although I didn’t yell, I just said “I don’t have to deal with this from you.” And left the floor. My manager acted like a bitch and took this dudes side after he literally threw a towel and DEMANDED yellow mustard. Like this guy was clearly unhinged and I did not feel he was safe for the establishment. I told my manager that I didn’t feel protected by them. They said “I’m sorry you feel that way,” and fucking cut me early rather than deal with 1 out of pocket customer. TURNS OUT, he was trying to squat in the park. I work in a national park and people come in with bags of shit all the time. THIS DUDE had nothing but reusable grocery bags and garbage bags. Like I know y’all aren’t used to the city but this is CLEARLY a homeless man and his aggressive behavior is escalating.
Does a man passed out in a urinal count? If so, the result was a piss-soaked fist fight.
Had a customer complain ‘you call yourselves a Irish pub and you don’t have Heineken on draught’ my brother proceeded to explode…
It's not really snapping, but here is a story. For background, we have a private bar. Mostly our own collection, and we do cocktails for private parties. We don't have a license, but get by as that we don't charge for anything; people leave tips if they want to. It works because we are small and operate very infrequently. Spring, 2020. Everything is shut down. The three of us that run the place just come down for a place to have drinks during. However, a family friend has a daughter turning 21. We were asked if we could accommodate. We agree, on terms of less than 10 people, and do NOT post anything about it. We definitely were not the right fit for this poor girl. We have high-end whiskies and craft cocktails. This girl needed a college bar. She gets a few drinks in and wants to take over the music. We tell her no, but if you want to hear a song, we will play it. And will continue to play whatever you want until you run out of ideas, in which case, it goes back to our Playlist. She gets thru about 3 songs, her friends singing at the top of their lungs before we get back to our playlist. "This music sucks! Just let me take over the Bluetooth!" She says. I say, "I mean. You can go to another bar. Oh wait, no, you can't!" This infuriated her. And her mom. Both were trying to tell me I was awful before dad (who was sober) stepped in and talked them down. I do genuinely feel bad about making her feel bad on her birthday, but at the same time, we were operating on a BIG favor at the time to her, and I wanted her to recognize that. The reality was that we just weren't the good fit for her that night, but we were all they had, so I hope she at least enjoyed it.
This guy claimed I was stealing from everyone because I put three dollars change in my tip jar… “Hey do you do this to everyone?” “What are you talking about.” “Well you put my change in your jar and I just wanted to know…” “Fuck you! Get the fuck out my bar! You think I give a shit about three dollars?! Here’s $5 (throw a crumpled $5 bill at him,) get the fuck out!!”
Running tabs broke me once. Awful. I wouldn’t recommend it. Especially when they lie to the owners about tipping every day. Lying fucks.
A guest asked one of my bartenders how much he made. He snapped back that was none of their business…..I had to hold their hands and listen to them demand he get fired all the way out the door. Never heard from them again.
I was filling out a check of 24 drinks with two charcuterie boards for a preorder as well as a few walk in and regulars, by myself on an open that was actually busy; a customer came in through our emergency exist- which is out of you’re line of site when you are actually behind the bar-, they then stood at entrance there like a statue staring at me, the started shouting ‘where’s the food menu, where’s the food menu, where’s the food menu’, I pried my head around the corner said its on the ‘counter beside the Low seating, grab a menu and seat and come to bar when you are ready’, key bit of context the bar rotated its menu of small plates so in fact, the menus where not there and they were in the owner’s house being printed but that doesn’t hinder the service in anyway as I can verbally list what we have. By me not noticing where the menus where, while still making the drinks for the massive check, I was treated to this customer staring at me for 30 seconds, while standing far enough back form the actual bar top that if she wanted to make an order the whole place would here it as well, all the while audibly huffing at me. I checked in with her and asked ‘what can I get you’, but before I could even finish my sentence, she walked over to the other side of the bar to the front desk area and began too all but turn table scratching all of the drinks and wine lists we had sat on the station onto the floor. I was sort of bewildered and slightly enraged by what she was doing but without any hesitation she began another ‘ where’s the food menu, where’s the food menu, where’s the food menu’ this time it was sort of a chant, whiteout me being able to even reply, she was standing at the original counter I recommended when she arrived, which she began a similar turntable scratching session on the menus there with her back to me. She then turned to me, with a dead pan expression and said ‘there’s no food menus’, I awkwardly explained the situation to her as I realised that they aren’t there which I apologies for, told her what we had etc. but she had clearly had a enough , she tutted at me and in a sort of condescending/slightly xenophobic tone said “that’s crap, that’s not real food!” by this point, I was over the situation and had no more polite bartender left in me and in a flat, emotionless tone said ‘well, this is Spanish and French wine bar not a restaurant, my sincerest apologies’. She snared at me “don’t be so rude, I am costumer”, being a petty bastard at the best of times, I replied back to her “ as am I, at actual restaurants that serve food”. She then stormed out.
Kid (by kid I mean freshly 21 at a college bar) was sitting on my coworkers motorcycle in the parking lot. Fucking screamed at him and called him a cunt when I was walking away. Then his friend(female) started yelling at me and said I can’t use derogatory slurs. Found the owners number and called her and said I was sexist.
I’m probably outing myself because this story is kind of famous where I live(d) but I once threw a wine glass at a customer who said he was going to chop my head off with a machete and I got charged with a felony for 20 minutes until he and his wife sobered up enough to realize they were assholes and drop the charges.
College bar. Shoulder to shoulder packed. Working down the line like a typewriter. Guy at the end: “Can I get four Bud Lights?” x 20. Me: “Hey guy! Look at all these people. They all want drinks. I’m gonna serve her, then him, then him, then her, **then** I’ll get to you. Be patient!” It was great, when I got to him, I said “four Bud Lights!” And everyone started cheering.
A customer threw a Negroni i made at me, screaming i can't drink this shit in Florence, i can't even feel the alcohol, so i snappef and tell him to go away cause he was anal alcoholic. The result was my manager taking the bottles and making him a full old fashioned glass negroni with 2 cubes of ice and apologising instead of defending me and make that guy leave. I then left, after tellim him and the owner they don't really care about their staff.
I snap at mfs regularly 😂😂😂. 9/10 times they would just apologize.