How To Run Bar Tabs on a Busy Night…

For over 20 plus years I’ve bartended in many bars from south Florida (Fort-Lauderdale, Miami) to the city of Atlanta where I’ve been from tourist spots, fast paced restaurant bars, night clubs and finally Hartsfield-Jackson airport.  Most of these bars you can do about 6 to 10 grand in a 4 hour span so it should tell you how serious these bars can be.  To top that off every year downtown Atlanta has what they called their peach drop bringing in the New Year and at that time I have served nearly 20 to 50 thousand people in one shift because the estimate crowds will run from 75-150 people all in one location and only one bar facing the peach drop that serves alcohol and not just beer.  It was truly and awesome time and I do miss those 1500-2500 dollar New Year celebration shifts yet life goes on.  Which brings me to how does one keep up with all that damn money? do you just have a terrific memory, do you have an accountant on that shift, is there a cashier of some kind or do you run bar tabs..  The answer is simple you should use your own instincts and judgement on the guest who sits at your bar.  For technical purposes lets just say that your bar is able to run bar tabs where as most bars won’t allow it anymore.  Now first thing first if they are regulars than we won’t put them in this scenario and we’ll focus on lets say the NFL play- offs with Dallas and the Saints; clearly the bar is  packed before kick-off and people are everywhere.  Folks are mingling around the bar walking from chair to chair table to table and the money is slamming, but you turn to give the gentlemen at the end of the bar his ticket after his 5th beer and damn he’s gone?  No need to panic here’s a few insight that may help you in your quest of getting your cheese before your guest is in the breeze.  As I noted first hand just simply use your own judgement with your guest by reading their body language for instance if he/she is quiet and just sits at a busy bar watching you, watch his/her ass; I mean come on most of the time their trying to see if you’re getting busy or flustered to try to run game on you at some point.  It may be by refuting the bill or simply by complaining about the drinks they’ve already dranked but I tell you to watch who ever is too quiet sitting their watching you work it aint natural dude.  Second try placing the tab in front of them in a glass or sticking out of the bar mat in order to be ready when their ready but note this especially when he/she moves  that the tab will move with them, some guest are known to cruise the bar and never sit down so if that’s the case give him the 2 drink minimum if you can’t keep up with him/her by cashing them out on the 2nd beer.  If they tell you that they will be awhile then politely tell them that if a guest is standing that you aren’t able to run tabs at that time,your manager should back you up on this one; I’ve seen many bartenders get burned on this one many times including myself I don’t know why when their standing up they want to by everybody a damn drink then slip out on the tab with the benefactors going “no I never met him before he just bought us a drink.”  A third rule is if you’re getting yourself behind in making the drinks and getting overwhelmed in cashing people out then get a manager to help you to cash those people out who want to leave.  What I can’t stand is a prideful bartender who when they get busy they don’t want any help not even from a fellow server, bartender, busser or manager; don’t be a bone head man get the help take the help and take care of your priority number one.. the customers.  A fourth thing you might want to try is use a cook, cashier or someone who’s getting off their shift to help with the bar maintenance such as pulling the trash, washing the glasses, running your food (crucial one) and just cleaning up any breakage or spillage you might have as well as getting more ice for the bar; the point here is to maintain availability to collect the money without having too much to do at one time.  Finally the reason why I named a lot of things dealing with issues other than just running bar tabs solely is because in order to run bar tabs you have to be able or well aware of who’s drinking what and who’s paying for whose drinks.  If your running around trying to take care of basic bar duties (when you’re the only bartender) the night can turn on you in a matter of minutes where you could have one customer complaint turn into a domino affect where 6 or 7 customers are complaining and 2 or 3 are leaving without paying for their tab.  A night like the one just described can take the entire shift to get under control and even by then you spend extra hours trying to find walk outs and checks that need to be voided.  So use your own discretion and don’t have wandering customers who’s buying up the place and watch out for the silent types that are lurking and looking not at the t.v. but at you.  Other than that stay focused and get that money!!!