The Bar Blogger

Happy bartenders equal happy customers and happy customers like to spend money. It makes a lot of sense to ensure that these very important staff are taken care of, but it’s easy to overlook one guaranteed thing that will annoy your customers.

I was asked a very good question by a bar owner during the week. He wanted to know what the best way was to handle the fact that customers were arriving at his bar, having a drink or two at the bar before moving to table for dinner. The drinks consumed at the bar were being added to the restaurant check with the wait staff benefiting from the full tip for food & beverages.

He wanted to know if bartenders should get a percentage of each check, or whether tips should be pooled, or if it all balanced out in the end anyway?

He said that his bartenders were fuming at the money they were losing on busy nights in the restaurant.

My initial thoughts are that it depends on the establishment and how much of a problem this is perceived to be. This bar owner maintained that customers would not be interested in cashing out at the bar and the table as it is too much work for them.

I personally don’t think it is too much to ask of customers, but if your service level is such that you don’t want to inconvenience customers in any way, then you may need to address this issue by enforcing some kind of tip share policy to ensure that all staff get their fair, earned share of the tips.

One method would be to pool all tips and split them according to the food & beverage split percentage in the establishment and divide between bar and restaurant staff.

Whatever the solution, it looks like there is no solution that pleases everyone. what would you do?

Ignoring the issue doesn’t seem to be the answer so all suggestions are welcome!

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As I’m writing today’s post I’m sitting in a bar where the bar staff and the management have clearly decided that there is no hope for the survival of the human race, let alone the possibility that the business could actually be a success.

What greeted me in this bar were restrooms that were so dirty a number of cockroaches were protesting outside the door with banners that said: “You can’t expect us to live in these conditions”.

Despite the fact that the bar is in an upscale area of the city, in the middle of a business district, the limping, uni-toothed bartender has his hood up and is wearing gloves as he puts my drink napkin in front of me? Is he in agreement with the cockroaches and refusing to touch anything too?

Another bartender is asking his group of customers if they’ll watch the bar while he goes outside for a cigarette. Puzzled customer faces abound as they struggle to take in this litany of abuses against the bar industry.

“would you like a menu?” the bartender mumbles in desperate hope that somebody will buy something and potentially tip…but unfortunately the damage has already been done and nothing in that bar will be touching my lips.

“I’m waiting for someone else” I sheepishly say as i finish this blog post and pack up to leave. A bullet avoided.

Have you ever entered your bar as a customer and seen what they see? If not, it’s time to step outside the bar counter and make sure this isn’t your bar!

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Let’s face it, staff are one of the most important aspects of running a successful hospitality business. While recruiting the right staff is essential (and sometimes difficult), retaining staff can be even harder. This is particularly true in the hospitality industry where staff turnover can tend to be high.

Keeping your staff happy will not only make them likely to stick around for longer, but you will find that happy staff are more productive which has a positive effect on your profits.

Don’t panic! Keeping your staff happy isn’t necessarily about being the most lenient employer with the highest wages. [...]

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