Attention...bartenders and servers!!! Tell me your best, worst or funniest story you had in this business!?!
I think you get the drift.....look forward to hearing from everyone.
Answers: Looking for experiences/stories that you had from front of the house to the back of the house...from being in the weeds, best tip, worst tip or no tip at all, how many years you have been in this business, table that you will never forget...and why, most memorable customer or celebrity, most embarrassing moment...etc....
I think you get the drift.....look forward to hearing from everyone.
I have tons!
I was a server on a harbor cruise ship. The 4 floor ship would do 3 tours a day. A 2 hour breakfast cruise, a 2 hour lunch cruise and a 3 hour dinner cruise. During one lunch cruise I had a group of girls scouts at one table & their parents at another. To make it easy on my food runner, I rang the girls drinks on one tab the adults on another. Near the end of the cruise it was time for the group to pay and the adults asked for the tabs to be put together. I'm not authorized to do this myself, so I had to find a manager. Since the ship is so huge, it took me a while to find a manager, meanwhile we are still in the middle of the water. I find a manager on the 1st floor of the ship. I figure since I'm down here, I'm going to bring up dishes to prep for the dinner cruise coming up next. I was gone about 20 minutes. The woman who's credit card I had, accused me of stealing it. She raised hell. All my workmates were laughing so hard at her. (The only way ANY of us would get in that filthy wretched water, would be if the ship was on fire.) My manager knew I wouldn't take it and the woman was not trying to hear me apologize for taking so long. I just wrote her a note apologizing for taking so long amd letting her know that I myself was a girl scout when I was younger and that I would never steal from anyone. And humbly mentioned where could I have gone in the middle of this disgusting river. Eventually the other parents were laughing at her for getting wrongfully angry. She gave me a hug and left me a great tip.
I was bartending and this woman barked at me her drink order for a margarita. She wanted fresh lime juice, top shelf tequila and grand marnier (costs about $16.) So I prepared her order as requested. She hated it and claimed I didn't use the ingredients she requested. So I made a new one using crap. Bottled sour mix, Tortilla brand tequila and Montezuma brand Triple sec (costs about $4.) This broad raved about it. I just let her think she has refined taste.
While hosting for a 4 star restaurant, the other hosts and I would get the servers to leave us mimosa's in the fire escape. Totally made the time pass.
My most embarrassing moment? I was scheduled to work Easter Sunday and my manager (who is the sweetest lady in the world) tells me her family will be coming in for lunch. I was excited because she just had a baby and I'd finally get to meet the little guy.
Well, I was running food and as I walked out of the kitchen suddenly realized the bottom of the tray was scorching hot - it had apparently been sitting in the expo line for a while - so I made a quick detour to the bar to set down the tray and grab my hot pad...as I did so, I mutter, "S***, this is f-ing' hot!" (but not censored)...
My manager's husband looked over from the opposite side of the room, said very calmly, "I HEARD that...," gave me a very stern fatherly look (as he's holding his young daughter, still in her Sunday School dress), and went back to his meal.
Whoops.
Well, I'm not going to write a novel for you, but my best time was the day the guy came in and tried to swizz me for 20 pounds (in England)...I guess he figured I was a ditzy barmaid and ran like the wind when I wouldn't let him con me.
Worst moment...working on New Years Eve. That SUCKED.
Most embarassing...trying for the first time to make a 'black and tan', which is guinness and cider mixed together. I found out pretty quick that if you don't mix it in the right order, the whole thing explodes into a mass of foam and makes a HUGE mess.
All my customers were great. I'm Canadian, and working in a British pub with that kind of accent brings on some pretty funny conversations...like 'do you have koalas where you come from?' Ya...koalas...wrong dollar mate!!
Duck came into my bar the other day.
Ordered a #10 martini.
I asked him, "wanna pay cash, or start a tab?"
He said, "put it on my bill."