How to Make Friends with a Bartender
Turn your favorite bar into a home away from home.
Up next in Bar Life & the Art of Drinking (37 videos)
Whether you're in a pub or a club, you'll be the life of the party, bar none, thanks to this Howcast video series on bar life and the art of drinking.
You Will Need
- Neighborhood watering hole
- Bartender
- Good attitude
- Good joke or bit of trivia (optional)
Steps
-
Step 1
Smile & wait patiently
Approach the bar, smile, and—most importantly—wait patiently for the bartender to approach.
-
Step 2
Be polite
Be polite. The bartender is a server, not a servant.
-
Step 3
Make conversation
If he isn’t busy, make some conversation. Avoid lengthy philosophical treatises in favor of a funny story from your workday or a recap of a great book you just read.
-
Share a fun bit of trivia or a good joke. Bartenders love to pass them on and will appreciate a customer who provides new material.
-
Step 4
Be upbeat
Be upbeat. Contrary to popular belief, pouring out your troubles to the person pouring your pint is not always appropriate.
-
Step 5
Don't be a pest
If the bartender is busy, don’t be a pest or chatter incessantly while he or she is trying to turn out drinks. Keep in mind that the server is at work.
-
Step 6
Tip generously
The quickest way into a bartender’s good graces is a generous tip!
-
Don’t ask for free drinks. A bartender can’t always provide them and won’t look kindly on someone who always has his hand out.
-
Step 7
Invite him out
To seal the deal, ask him or her to join you and your friends for a nightcap…at another bar, of course.
-
The term 'happy hour' originated on U.S. Navy vessels as slang for the time set aside for evening entertainment.
