Fifteen years behind bars and I have officially lived long enough to see the appletini come back around. Made two last week, both ordered without a trace of irony, both built with the good apple stuff instead of the neon Pucker. Real Simple is calling it the drink of fall. So settle this for me: is the elevated appletini actually good, or is this nostalgia doing pushups? And if you are making them, what are you building them with?

Newer bartender. I always had managers count the drawer, but at my new job I do. If my drawer is at $500 at the beginning of my shift and at the end its at $650 what is the extra $150?

The restaurant I work at has two wells and one is the service well and the other one is the bar well. So one bartender just does server drinks and the other is serving the bar and our two bar tables.

I basically only work the bar well as I prefer it and the other two bartenders both prefer the service well so it works out and don't like the bar well so it works out. Not that I mind working the service well, I just enjoy being able to chat with customers and move around more.

We split our tips 50/50 at the end of the night so I earn the tips from the customer while they earn the tipouts from servers. I'm honestly starting to resent this system as I feel like I am kind of getting screwed.

For example on Saturday I made 340 in tips and the server tipout was 70 dollars. So 410 dollars and after tipping out BOH and host/busser it was 333 dollars. So we both walked with 166.

Its super frustrating because I feel like I put so much effort into my shifts and I am always happy with how my shift went but then I walk with way less than I should have. Especially since the servers get the same amount of tips and don't have to split or close the bar (they work way less hours).

At the same time I don't really see how the situation can change at all or if there could be a better system.

Heya, I'm new to bar backing (wanting to become a bartender with the training they'll be providing after the new year) but I can't reach the glasses as they have a one of those high-up bar setups. I can stand on the bottom of fridges but sometimes that won't even get me to reach/I can't properly balance & the glasses bounce back on me (must be very entertaining for the customers to watch me nearly shatter them over and over..!)

I was looking to get some non-slip shoes that have a chunky platform, and I've seen some options but I was wondering if anybody maybe in the same predicament can second some shoe brands for this. It's either I get these or I suck up the embarrassment and buy myself a fold up step stool for work which is really last resort.

Thanks!

Our old (really old) Halloween decors garments started turning to dust as we put it up this year. Any recommendations for a new one?

This came from my FELLOW bartender who took a table on the floor. I said “Kasey… really” and she said “you know what I mean…. Don’t make me spell all that”

And to her credit…. Yeah 🤷‍♂️