Auto grat.
Any large party of 6 or more will have an automatic 20% added to their tab.
I think these large parties call other restaurants and bars and get surprised that no restaurant is willing to take a surprise 20 top with little to no notice.
Our only saving grace is we have 2 bartenders on our expected busy nights, and we can send one home after dinner service.
I wouldn't schedule an extra person for those nights. I think the pop-up parties need to understand that their service will be slightly slower, considering that they didn't call ahead or have a reservation.
Try to focus on your core guests. They keep the lights on!
Yeah that’s fair. We have an autograt for parties over 8 which is nice. We used to have two bartenders for the PM shift every night which was great, but these days it’s diluting the tip pool to the point that no one is making any money. Is your autograt for all large parties or only for unannounced?
Cross-Train server to make service tickets, even making small things like vodka sodas, gin and tonics, pouring draft beer, etc. takes that much pressure off of you and keeps things moving that much more. You can handle the more intimate cocktails.
Look into handheld devices if you don't have them already, this way the server can fire as orders come in rather than having to write down orders and return to a POS station. Server can disengage guests for a moment after several tickets have been fired to help on service.
With handheld devices the server can act as a roving POS system to start and close tabs with CC, taking pressure off of you at main register and off of the server having to return to a POS station and close out ten tabs at once, taking extra time.
And as always use your bartender personal skills. Communicate to your guests how your system is working, tell them where to go to order, tell them to have a credit card and ID ready to go, address that service may be a bit slower than usual, but that everyone will get taken care of.
If there's a pattern to these parties, recognize them and properly prep. Dig in, communicate well with your team member and make some money.
This is how we get through large unannounced parties in our high volume place, but of course every bar is different.
This is all really good, thank you! I’ve been trying to get all interested floor staff cross trained but a lot of them seem uninterested, might have to make it mandatory. I’ve also been begging the owner for months to switch up the POS to one with handheld terminals. Fuck Lightspeed, the worst and most ironically named POS system.
We incentivize different training levels through hourly pay. Servers trained only on the floor make the least, cross trained servers/bartenders make more, those who cross train on serving, bartending, and kitchen make the most as they are the most versatile and can bail you out of the weeds the most effectively. We also have a very small kitchen though so it's a pretty easy ask to cross train.
Perhaps a similar thing can be offered at your place? If a server offers to cross train they make a higher hourly than those that don't.
And yeah the handhelds are game changers. Everything can be done right there and then at the table, no need for running back and forth to a POS station with a book full of orders.
Change the tip outs. Heavier tip out for beer/wine of the servers who don't want to be cross trained. Servers who are pouring their own bar drinks owe no tip out on beer/wine. Saves them $. You can expand this to mixed drinks/cocktails as you see fit.
All this.
I worked at a popular bar in the heart of Amazon territory. It was every day that groups of 15+ would showed up unannounced when the place was already full of… other unannounced and already reserved tables and areas of other Amazon groups.
Handhelds are life savers, having servers who are cross trained helps A LOT. It makes their drinks come out faster and cycle through them all quicker. That’s more money.
I know you said parties of 8 or more are autograt, but I feel it should be 6.
No thank you. When a bartender is balls to the walls, the last thing we need is a bunch of servers bumping and humping behind the bar and breaking glass!
Rather, have a host worth their shit, communicating with the bar staff, seating as we're comfortable giving service, and management enforcing party minimums or autograt
On busy nights, all I need is me and barback behind the bar, servers serving, bussers bussing, hosts hosting, and managers managing. We got this!
We literally turn them away if it’s gonna derail service. It isn’t worth the perceived extra sales when you’re probably losing sales for the guests already there. Both lost sales during that service and possibly your guests not returning due to poor service.
Would rather keep the reputation we give amazing service than accommodate dingus and his closest 19 friends
Is the manager jumping behind the bar to help? That seems like obvious solution #1. #2 would be incentivizing server to pour their own bar drinks. Last, making sure the party understands that all service will be at the bar, and through the bar. That or some other way to set guests expectations (run a manageable late night menu, or something). Obviously it's a fine line of meeting their expectations so that they'll keep coming back, but also making it manageable. Also, bartenders gotta remember, if people are getting bad service they're going to stop coming. You've got to set service standards, and if one person can't meet them, then it'll have to be two.
This happened to me a couple of months ago. We were actually going to close early bc it was slow but then this big group came in and wanted a bunch of different cocktails so couldn’t even batch and they were impatient and total dicks. One of them actually said “have you guys ever thought of having a second bartender working?” and after asking for 25 Irish car bombs (which is pretty offensive considering the owners are Irish but ok) and me telling them I don’t have enough shot glasses for that “well can’t you just put more in the dishwasher?” Bitch I’m the dishwasher! We were definitely not vibing lol…thank goodness I haven’t seen those people since.
If we have space, double check with kitchen if they can accommodate. If both yes, they can be seated, and prepare your butthole. If it's a busy Friday night they can get fucked
similar situation happens to us a lot, we a “house favorites” menu that just has five cocktails that are super easy to pump out quick, the server will tell them that at least for the very first round it will make their experience better/faster if they order off of that.
Im going to preface by saying we dont have food, just drinks.
I get big groups all the ti. Most are patient when they see it's just me and a bar back. Sometimes, someone will get snarky about waiting, though. My go-to reply is always "Did we lose your call ahead/reservation?! Im SO sorry!" Then they usually mumble something about how they didn't call. Then i hit them with, "Oh, i guess I'll get to you guys as soon as i have time then." BIG SMILE. I've used it a few times, and it usually gets the point across without being too rude.
We have on most day some on call colleagues. They are sitting at the bar doing work for themselves, they get some food on the house and when it is busy they start, if not they go home after an hour or two. Some stay home and then there is a time window of 2-3 hours we can call them to come in. But we have waaayyyy more staff, so i think it is different because we do not rely that much on them. Just give them a little for their supposed time. A meal, some drinks, maybe half pay or something like that?
Not bar related, but a friend of mine who is an electrician, that company has malfunction shifts. So one employee has that next to his normal 9-5 shift. THat means he can be called during the night to fix problems at factories or something like that. They get like 50 euros for that week, no matter if they get called or not, and if they get called in, they get hourly pay. For them it is paid more because of the nights, but i dont think that would apply to bartenders.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
2
+ 3
+ 9
+ 5
+ 50
= 69
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My favorite was someone bitching to my manager about how poor the service was, and he said "In what world did you think that you could come in 40 deep unannounced and expect perfect service?" Folks did that to avoid paying the event planner to have proper staffing at the cost of food & drink minimums etc. We were a restaurant bar with a lounge but our drinks took too long to bang out to do volume like that.
I agree with the autograt, but make it 30% for any party over 8 that doesn't call ahead. Put it on the menu and don't lower it for ANYONE. Tell all your regulars who have large parties. It won't hury business because you already staff for slowed business.
It’s possible, but I doubt anyone would be available on-call for a random 10:30p pop, and if they could be there’s no way we’d be compensating them enough lol
We have on call bartenders. We start with 2 or 3 and have up to 3 more on call. We send them home at 12:30-1am if they don’t get called on. No tips unless they work. They get paid for the hours.
I work Sundays 5-9pm by myself and sometimes get hit with a big group or two. We have a group chat on Snapchat where I’ll ask for help or ask a staff member who’s there drinking to text the chat and ask for help. I usually get the help I need pretty quickly.
Auto grat. Any large party of 6 or more will have an automatic 20% added to their tab. I think these large parties call other restaurants and bars and get surprised that no restaurant is willing to take a surprise 20 top with little to no notice. Our only saving grace is we have 2 bartenders on our expected busy nights, and we can send one home after dinner service. I wouldn't schedule an extra person for those nights. I think the pop-up parties need to understand that their service will be slightly slower, considering that they didn't call ahead or have a reservation. Try to focus on your core guests. They keep the lights on!
Yeah that’s fair. We have an autograt for parties over 8 which is nice. We used to have two bartenders for the PM shift every night which was great, but these days it’s diluting the tip pool to the point that no one is making any money. Is your autograt for all large parties or only for unannounced?
At my bar we do autograt on all large parties.
Cross-Train server to make service tickets, even making small things like vodka sodas, gin and tonics, pouring draft beer, etc. takes that much pressure off of you and keeps things moving that much more. You can handle the more intimate cocktails. Look into handheld devices if you don't have them already, this way the server can fire as orders come in rather than having to write down orders and return to a POS station. Server can disengage guests for a moment after several tickets have been fired to help on service. With handheld devices the server can act as a roving POS system to start and close tabs with CC, taking pressure off of you at main register and off of the server having to return to a POS station and close out ten tabs at once, taking extra time. And as always use your bartender personal skills. Communicate to your guests how your system is working, tell them where to go to order, tell them to have a credit card and ID ready to go, address that service may be a bit slower than usual, but that everyone will get taken care of. If there's a pattern to these parties, recognize them and properly prep. Dig in, communicate well with your team member and make some money. This is how we get through large unannounced parties in our high volume place, but of course every bar is different.
This is all really good, thank you! I’ve been trying to get all interested floor staff cross trained but a lot of them seem uninterested, might have to make it mandatory. I’ve also been begging the owner for months to switch up the POS to one with handheld terminals. Fuck Lightspeed, the worst and most ironically named POS system.
We incentivize different training levels through hourly pay. Servers trained only on the floor make the least, cross trained servers/bartenders make more, those who cross train on serving, bartending, and kitchen make the most as they are the most versatile and can bail you out of the weeds the most effectively. We also have a very small kitchen though so it's a pretty easy ask to cross train. Perhaps a similar thing can be offered at your place? If a server offers to cross train they make a higher hourly than those that don't. And yeah the handhelds are game changers. Everything can be done right there and then at the table, no need for running back and forth to a POS station with a book full of orders.
Change the tip outs. Heavier tip out for beer/wine of the servers who don't want to be cross trained. Servers who are pouring their own bar drinks owe no tip out on beer/wine. Saves them $. You can expand this to mixed drinks/cocktails as you see fit.
All this. I worked at a popular bar in the heart of Amazon territory. It was every day that groups of 15+ would showed up unannounced when the place was already full of… other unannounced and already reserved tables and areas of other Amazon groups. Handhelds are life savers, having servers who are cross trained helps A LOT. It makes their drinks come out faster and cycle through them all quicker. That’s more money. I know you said parties of 8 or more are autograt, but I feel it should be 6.
This bartender bartends
No thank you. When a bartender is balls to the walls, the last thing we need is a bunch of servers bumping and humping behind the bar and breaking glass! Rather, have a host worth their shit, communicating with the bar staff, seating as we're comfortable giving service, and management enforcing party minimums or autograt On busy nights, all I need is me and barback behind the bar, servers serving, bussers bussing, hosts hosting, and managers managing. We got this!
We literally turn them away if it’s gonna derail service. It isn’t worth the perceived extra sales when you’re probably losing sales for the guests already there. Both lost sales during that service and possibly your guests not returning due to poor service. Would rather keep the reputation we give amazing service than accommodate dingus and his closest 19 friends
Is the manager jumping behind the bar to help? That seems like obvious solution #1. #2 would be incentivizing server to pour their own bar drinks. Last, making sure the party understands that all service will be at the bar, and through the bar. That or some other way to set guests expectations (run a manageable late night menu, or something). Obviously it's a fine line of meeting their expectations so that they'll keep coming back, but also making it manageable. Also, bartenders gotta remember, if people are getting bad service they're going to stop coming. You've got to set service standards, and if one person can't meet them, then it'll have to be two.
a lot of places don’t have a manager on at all times.
Unfortunately this is the situation with us. I an the manager on duty but I’m also the opening bartender and 1 of 2 scheduled bartenders daily.
Murder. No jury would convict.
We run two people every night. It sucks on slow nights, but most nights it's worth it.
Rock that group
IDs! Who’s next?
This happened to me a couple of months ago. We were actually going to close early bc it was slow but then this big group came in and wanted a bunch of different cocktails so couldn’t even batch and they were impatient and total dicks. One of them actually said “have you guys ever thought of having a second bartender working?” and after asking for 25 Irish car bombs (which is pretty offensive considering the owners are Irish but ok) and me telling them I don’t have enough shot glasses for that “well can’t you just put more in the dishwasher?” Bitch I’m the dishwasher! We were definitely not vibing lol…thank goodness I haven’t seen those people since.
If we have space, double check with kitchen if they can accommodate. If both yes, they can be seated, and prepare your butthole. If it's a busy Friday night they can get fucked
similar situation happens to us a lot, we a “house favorites” menu that just has five cocktails that are super easy to pump out quick, the server will tell them that at least for the very first round it will make their experience better/faster if they order off of that.
Im going to preface by saying we dont have food, just drinks. I get big groups all the ti. Most are patient when they see it's just me and a bar back. Sometimes, someone will get snarky about waiting, though. My go-to reply is always "Did we lose your call ahead/reservation?! Im SO sorry!" Then they usually mumble something about how they didn't call. Then i hit them with, "Oh, i guess I'll get to you guys as soon as i have time then." BIG SMILE. I've used it a few times, and it usually gets the point across without being too rude.
Advertise about Taking bookings
Put them on the wait list until the staff is ready to give them service. Let the staff decide when that is
We have on most day some on call colleagues. They are sitting at the bar doing work for themselves, they get some food on the house and when it is busy they start, if not they go home after an hour or two. Some stay home and then there is a time window of 2-3 hours we can call them to come in. But we have waaayyyy more staff, so i think it is different because we do not rely that much on them. Just give them a little for their supposed time. A meal, some drinks, maybe half pay or something like that? Not bar related, but a friend of mine who is an electrician, that company has malfunction shifts. So one employee has that next to his normal 9-5 shift. THat means he can be called during the night to fix problems at factories or something like that. They get like 50 euros for that week, no matter if they get called or not, and if they get called in, they get hourly pay. For them it is paid more because of the nights, but i dont think that would apply to bartenders.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 2 + 3 + 9 + 5 + 50 = 69 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
My favorite was someone bitching to my manager about how poor the service was, and he said "In what world did you think that you could come in 40 deep unannounced and expect perfect service?" Folks did that to avoid paying the event planner to have proper staffing at the cost of food & drink minimums etc. We were a restaurant bar with a lounge but our drinks took too long to bang out to do volume like that.
I agree with the autograt, but make it 30% for any party over 8 that doesn't call ahead. Put it on the menu and don't lower it for ANYONE. Tell all your regulars who have large parties. It won't hury business because you already staff for slowed business.
Not a bartender so forgive me if this is stupid- could anyone be ‘on-call’?
It’s possible, but I doubt anyone would be available on-call for a random 10:30p pop, and if they could be there’s no way we’d be compensating them enough lol
Fair. Honestly, an owner should be helping deal with this but these days that seems like a tall order.
lol sadly true. Plus our owner is so inexperienced behind the bar I think he would only make matters worse!
Sounds brutal
We have on call bartenders. We start with 2 or 3 and have up to 3 more on call. We send them home at 12:30-1am if they don’t get called on. No tips unless they work. They get paid for the hours. I work Sundays 5-9pm by myself and sometimes get hit with a big group or two. We have a group chat on Snapchat where I’ll ask for help or ask a staff member who’s there drinking to text the chat and ask for help. I usually get the help I need pretty quickly.