How do you get the attention of a bartender?

Ginntonic13 · 2012-04-22T22:47:22+00:00

Tip well.

fatless · 2012-04-23T00:28:01+00:00

A long with eye contact, I tend to get faster service when I've got both hands or elbows on the bar, with my wallet half-showing in one hand. I don't have cash or a card out, however. I never waive my hands, or point, or shout, or take my hands off the bar really. As far as I eye contact, I also try to imagine "smiling eyes" instead of just a stare-down, even if I'm not smiling. Try it - you have very subtle muscles in your eyes that can stare in a "happy" way or in a "bold/serious" way. Sounds like you've got the "amiable eyes" thing just fine. If there's music, bop your head a little and try not to act too annoyed that you're waiting to be served.

So far in my experience this has mostly worked. I recently was called a "dickhead" by some AFC at the bar who whined to me that he had "been there first". I told him "sorry, I'll still sleep soundly tonight, dunno about you."

For the lulz (and insights), check out The Bartender Hates You series on youtube.

yesthisisforme · 2012-04-23T01:36:32+00:00

Be able to read where they are in the process of making a drink: If they are mixing up 6 bloody maries, then don't sweat it (ie, don't stare at them and try to get their attention) because they have a couple minutes of work to do before they can get to you. Give them some space and don't feel like you're getting ignored just because the bartender is making drinks. As soon as it looks like they're wrapping up, get in their face - make eye contact, say "hey!", slide over so you're right in front of them, whatever works. This approach of hunting down a particular bartender works, but don't forget to keep your eyes on all the other ones as well, in case they become free. Be a little hungry. It also doesn't hurt to already be holding cash in your hand so they know you're about your business. When it comes time to order, speak clearly and know what you want (it's very simple: "I'll have two Caronas and two vodka cranberries please."). Bartenders can smell if you're ready to order or if you're going to waste their time with indecision.

And tip well :)

Throwaway_like_a_fox · 2012-04-23T13:45:36+00:00

Always pay cash at a bar, OR open a tab at the beginning of the night and keep it open.
If you are paying cash, tip VERY well after the first drink while making eye contact with the person serving it. The bartenders know who the tippers are and will keep coming back if they see you as a steady revenue stream. Making your first tip a big one does not allow you to abstain from tipping the rest of the night, but you can be a little more consistent in your tipping.
After the initially large tip, continue to return to the section being covered by that bartender so that you get to reap the benefits of the large tip. It becomes very expensive very quickly to tip multiple bartenders this well.
Read the bar. If it is crowded, do not hang around until you know exactly what you want. If there are a lot of people and the bartender asks you what you want, anything along the lines of "I'm not sure yet" will cost you about 5 minutes of waiting as the bartender comes back around to you.
The maximum complexity of your drink should vary inversely with the amount of people at the bar. If you're the only person there, you can order a Lillet Martini with an extra twist; if you're in a crowded bar, ordering anything more complex than a whiskey sour will create resentment in the best case, or will cause you to wast your time and the bartender's time while you try to come up with another drink after being told yours isn't available. These negotiations are almost always accomplished by a good deal of unintelligible yelling that only stresses people out. It also makes it clear to people that you're not in control of a situation.
Don't be too picky. If you order a Bud Light and are given a Miller Light, don't whine if they're the same price. Likewise if the bartender says, "We don't have Budweiser here, sorry" you should respond quickly with "OK, whatever you have that's close". Another example of being picky would be 10-minute long conversations about the exact makeup of all the drinks. If you have an allergy to certain types of liquors, don't order them, but don't try to get the bar's recipe for a long-island iced tea. If something is at all likely to contain an ingredient you won't like, order something else. Period. Peak hours at a bar are not the time to record an episode of Martha Stewart Living.
Once you have the drink, leave the bar area. Depending on your wait period, you should have already begun opening on nearby talent, and if you are both taken care of, say something along the lines of, "Hey, come back to my table/closer to the floor, these guys are crazy busy, don't make their job any harder than it needs to be." This will not only (hopefully) get the girl to move with you, but also is an oblique way of showing that you are a genuinely nice (not to be confused with beta) guy. Remember, someone who is nice to you but mean to the waiter is not a nice person.
Pick a bartender who has a bar back working NEAR them, but not one who is in the place where the bar back will need to be. This means don't pick anyone that works directly in front of any ice machines or any doors behind the bar that clearly lead to storage or utility areas. The area behind the bar is crowded, and in order to accommodate the bar back the bartender will need to move around in a very chaotic way, and will be regularly interrupted from his drink making, thus lengthening your wait period. Finding a bartender who works near these resources is a good idea because they avoid being in anybody's way and still have consistent access to all the resources they'll need to make your drink.

All these rules base themselves on the idea that your job is to make the bartender's job as easy as possible. In any tip-based job, your pay corresponds very closely to the rate at which you can help customers, so they don't like to waste time while you're pondering the meaning of life or whether you prefer Angostura or Peychad's bitters in your Manhattan. This is all stuff you can do after the bartender has already made first contact with you. To achieve this crucial point, try the following:

Make sure that you're going to pay with whatever is in your hand. Hold cash and cards in a way that the bartender can see so that he knows you're ready to go.
Make solid eye contact with everyone behind the bar. This, combined with your display of payment from (1) will make you hard to ignore.
DO NOT use obnoxious hand gestures in an attempt to "flag down" the bartender or begin yelling at him for attention. Not only does this make the bartender and the other customers like you less, but it also increases your chances of being thrown out or cut off, which defeats your original purpose for going to the bar to begin with.
DO NOT use obnoxious hand gestures in an attempt to "flag down" the bartender or begin yelling at him for attention. (I've repeated this one for emphasis. Nobody likes that guy, trust me on this one).
Having written (3) and (4) already, don't be afraid to add on a slight hand raise from the bar ONLY if you're actually close enough to the bar to have some part of you resting on it. This should not be a grand gesture, and should not be repeated EVER once the bartender acknowledges it. Think about the degree of movement that professional poker players use to look at their cards. This is all the attention-grabbing movement you should be making. This is also why eye contact with bartenders is key. The customary acknowledgement of this behavior will come in the form of a head nod (colloquially known as the "man nod"). Once you receive this acknowledgement, just sit and wait. You are now on the bartender's list of people to help, and if you begin to annoy him, your wait time will grow dramatically.
Bring at least one pretty girl to the bar with you if at all possible. Have her approach beside you, but do not let her lead you. The more cleavage the better. Bartenders know that girls drinking=girls dancing=guys wanting to build courage/seduce girls=buying more drinks. Hot girls are the easiest way to get a bartender to come near you. If you're paying, order for both of you. If you're not paying, then you should wait until the bartender has returned with the lady's drink before ordering yourself. If he asks your order at the same time, and you are not paying for the girl, say something like, "Oh, we're paying separately, but I'll have a...".
The point of making eye contact is not to intimidate the bartenders, but to form a connection with them. This means that you should not be giving a death glare, nor should you appear to be zoned out. Smile, look friendly, relax your facial muscles and avoid threatening posture.

TL;DR Seduce the bartender

pjb374 · 2012-04-23T05:43:36+00:00

I trick I always use is to hold a twenty dollar bill in my hand and to rest that hand casually on the counter. When he looks your way he'll (or she will) see that you're prepared, and more importantly, he (or she) won't be able to resist the money.

Title	How do you get the attention of a bartender?
Author	shivalry
Upvotes	10
Comments	15
Date	April 22, 2012 8:16 PM UTC (14 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/seduction
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/seduction/comments/sn1lp/how_do_you_get_the_attention_of_a_bartender/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/seduction/how-do-you-get-the-attention-of-a-bartender.1331631 https://theredarchive.com/post/1331631

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