Okay, having made 2000 snide, nearly content-free posts in OOT, I wanted to give something back for post numero 2001. I've spent most of my adult working life waiting tables and bartending. I think I probably have a few good stories to share (although it feels like maybe not as I type this), as well as opinions about bar etiquette, good drinks, good bars I've been to across the country, how not to look like/actually be a colossal butthole when drinking/etc.

Also, this does not strictly need to be an Ask Me thread. Interested in everyone's stories, fave bars, drinks of choice, and so on. The club is open!

Favorite bar in NYC?

Favorite bar when you were in LA?

How many people have you gone home with that you met that night at work? What's the biggerst tip you've received?

CQ,

How obnoxious is it to give a bartender specific instructions on how to mix a margarita ("X brand tequila, grand marnier, cointreau, lime juice, no mix").

Is stealing commonplace, IYE, for bar staff? That is of course the rep.

Matt,

Man, that's a hard one. I always liked Motor City in LES for happy hour during the day. Not many people usually, mostly locals. 2A and the Library are usually pretty solid, at least last I was in NYC (a while ago). Fresh Salt is a nice joint owned by a friend down in the South Street Seaport. Have heard PDT is fun but haven't been. I'm admittedly a little East Village biased.

Brooklyn-style, I have had many good times at Pete's Candy Store. I'm forgetting a million places, lemme think...

favorite bar in sunny Ithaca?

Since you favor gin drinks, any recommendations for something other than a gin and tonic or a gimlet? I like gin quite a bit but can't really take martinis (or at least couldn't the last time I bothered to try one, which was quite some time ago.)

C ****ing Q,

Favorite "walks into a bar" joke?

Strangest thing that has ever happened in a bar while you were tending?

When I lived in WeHo, I went to Coach and Horses a lot. Cat and Fiddle might be the place I've had the most fun at. Los Feliz/Silverlake, love the Drawing Room and Ye Rustic (the chicken wings rape). When I was feeling especially hipstery I went to Little Joy, down from the Short Stop (owned by Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli). Oh, and Footsies and the Roost, in Atwater Village, great places.

Man, this is making me want to visit LA again, love LA bars.

draft stock rising itt

Have you watched any episodes of 'Bar Rescue? Thoughts?

Surprisingly few. I mean, a couple here and there, but honestly the hours most places I worked have been so late that the drunk girl who looks good at midnight would be covered in vomit and passed out by the time I got off. On top of that, I've mostly had girlfriends/now a wife during my bartending stretch, so yeah, a handful, none of them a great story as I remember either. Shameful, I know.

Best tip would be Ben Best, of Eastbound and Down fame, who ran up a three hundred dollar tab with his buddies and left two hundred. His corporate credit card was "Rude Dog Entertainment." Total badass sweetheart of a guy.

Specifying liquor isn't obnoxious at all. The lime juice thing is a bit obnoxious b/c most places just have a mix and you're basically asking the bartender to stop what they're doing and cut and squeeze a bunch of limes special for your drink. Unless they have lime juice already, or that Reallime stuff, which I don't think tastes very good.

But if they're not busy, they might be happy to squeeze limes for you! So I guess my answer is, if a place isn't busy, not obnoxious at all. At night, maybe obnoxious. At any rate, fresh-squeezed lime margs are definitely the way to go.