Just Call Me Bet...

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Songsheet

At the Start
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May 2, 2003
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OK you lot - it was the Guiness and lemonade thread that panicked me...

In an effort to get out more and also fill the always empty coffers, in a fit of lunacy I offered my services to our local pub behind the bar on a couple of nights each week. As it is too many years since I care to remember when I last worked in a pub (all right, it was my student days.... :lol: ), I am apprehensive to say the least that I'll cock it all up.

It's all those slightly 'different' drinks that I know are going to baffle me - I now know what the difference between lager splash and lager top is now but if you hardened pub drinkers can think of any useful tips, list 'em below, please!!

Just hope all the punters are simple rustic folk, not sophisticated townie types like Ian D and LordH, asking for their Pina Coladas.... :P
 
Low cut tops are an effective means of covering up any errors which you may make in the course of your duties. ;)

Always rinse the detergent off the glasses properly to avoid making the lager flat.
 
You need professional advice - send for Gearoid.

Meanwhile, I can always assist in compiling answers to such questions as "Where have you been all my life?" ("For most of it I wasn't born") etc

Pina Colada???
 
Songsheet, please don't put the tonic in my gin, I'll do it........thanks.

Get to know what a couple of the regular, regulars like to drink and then just confirm with them before they have chance to order, they'll appreciate that.

Try and slip in a refill for a waiting regular while you do an order for someone else, you can catch up with the paying later.

Clear the dirty glasses from an empty table before people want to use it.

It's dependant upon your employer, but I feel that it's just as important to talk to your customers as to sell them drinks, so if all the work is done.......talk to them, or talk to them while you work. I have no doubt you will be able to do that.

Anybody can work behind a bar, it's just that some do it better than others and it's always the little things that make the difference.
 
Don't jump down the punters throats if they start a debate or disagree with you.
Click to expand...

Why the f*ck not?


Anyway...

I worked as a barman for a short time in my needier years. I was pretty damned good at it, I thought. I could serve three or four customers at once (they were usually three deep at the bar for most of the evening) and never made a mistake with the money or lost my cool with any of the customers.

I jacked it in because I was so p*ssed off with the chargehand. She would stand at the end of the bar serving one person at every five minutes while holding a conversation with one or two long term regulars. She must have seen my colleague and me rushed off our feet but did feck all to help. For every drink she sold, she was having one bought for her (could never understand it - she was a middle aged dog) while we did all the work and got about three drinks bought for us the entire night.

Then when it came to the staff drink after we'd cleaned up for the night, she'd go mental when I asked for a bottle of Whitbread (which I can hardly believe was my favourite beer at the time) instead of a pint of 'normal' draught.

Then I saw her emptying an inch or so of leftover beer into glasses ready for the next morning's customers. I was disgusted. I offered to help clear up the leftover beer and promptly started emptying the glasses into the sink. She went mental again. I told her I couldn't be part of such a scam and left.

Advice?

Only work in a pub if you really have to.
 
Another tip Songsheet, always try and remember the order in which the customers should get served. There is nothing more frustrating (for me) than being stood at a busy bar, and the bar staff keep asking whose next... and someone fibs! :angry: :)

Also, try and greet customers with a smile (which I am sure you would anyway) as there is nothing nicer than walking into a country pub and seeing a friendly face with a warm welcome.

I went away to Goodwood for the weekend last weekend, and just down the road from the hotel was a lovely pub called Let The Fox Live (or something equally as strange). The pub was open all day, so in we wandered. It was a lovely welcoming pub and the landlord and his staff were brilliant. I could have stayed there all afternoon. I am always nervous of "real" country pubs, especially those where they all go quiet when "strangers" walk in. This pub was the exact opposite and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone in the area! The food looked good too.
 
No Somerset - a well known breeder , beef farmer and IT director works part time behind the bar :lol:
 
One tip, make sure it's a quiet pub - it pays roughly the same for not that much at all.
Well i was a barman in a catholic club and found that the older (65+) customers wanted to be served quickly (presumably in case...).
Anyway, if you're on the other side of the bar and you're tall putting your formarms on the bar always helps get noticed.
If you're drunk then erm leaning on it works :shy:
 
Always be polite even if you cant stand the person.
If an ashtray has a ciggarate butt in it then its dirty - clean it.
Never put a mixer in for a customer.
Ask if they want ice and lemon in there drink.
A larger top is when you put the lemonade in after you pull the pint. Just leave a couple on cm of space between the the larger and the rim of the glass and put in the lemonade.
A larger splash - put the lemonade in first.
 
Geary-baby - thank you!

I am putting in some lateral thinking here and feel an e-learning software programme niche market coming on - a bar person's version of the ECDL... muliple choice would suit well..

The lady wot does my nails up until recently ran a pub and has been brilliant in giving me tips very similar to Gearoid's above.

Apparently, it's a good move to clean the ash tray's with a brush - never a wet cloth, as punters hate that (as a non-smoker, it wouldn't have occured to me).

Essential always to use a clean glass everytime real beer pints are pulled, because of the backwash (I would have thought that was a good principle for every pint... and aren't there these new-fangled micro - something glasses for certain lagers? God, it's all so technical

I understand bitter tops/splashes are also quite popular?
 
In Ireland a bitter shandy uses red lemonade! The other reason for not using a cloth for the ashtrays is when the said cloth gets used to wipe lipstick off a glass or wipe down tables. The best thing is to have a seperate towel. Just was them under the sink and dry them off. Make sure the towel has no other uses.

Another thing which getss you onside with customers is rounding off the price of a round. Not sure how your boss would cope with a £2 shortfall at the end of the night but if a round comes to £20.20 you would be surprised what a differnce asking for an even score can do for you.
 
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