Bar Talk With Your Host, Clare Quilty - Other Topics Forum - Discuss Pop Culture, Arts and Entertainment

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!

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09-29-2011 , 06:25 PM

MattSuspect

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Favorite bar in NYC?

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09-29-2011 , 06:25 PM

SalmanRushdieFTW

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Favorite bar when you were in LA?

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09-29-2011 , 06:28 PM

DonkeySlayer81

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

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09-29-2011 , 06:30 PM

Nootka

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Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 5,656

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").

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09-29-2011 , 06:31 PM

SalmanRushdieFTW

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

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09-29-2011 , 06:35 PM

Clare Quilty

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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...

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09-29-2011 , 06:35 PM

sylar

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favorite bar in sunny Ithaca?

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09-29-2011 , 06:37 PM

gumpzilla

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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.)

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09-29-2011 , 06:38 PM

#10

ToTheInternet

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C ****ing Q,

Favorite "walks into a bar" joke?

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

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09-29-2011 , 06:39 PM

#11

Clare Quilty

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Quote:

Originally Posted by SalmanRushdieFTW

Favorite bar when you were in LA?

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.

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09-29-2011 , 06:39 PM

#12

Anacardo

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draft stock rising itt

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09-29-2011 , 06:43 PM

#13

Dubey

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

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09-29-2011 , 06:45 PM

#14

Clare Quilty

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Quote:

Originally Posted by DonkeySlayer81

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

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.

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09-29-2011 , 06:50 PM

#15

Clare Quilty

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Nootka

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").

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.

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09-29-2011 , 06:51 PM

#16

SalmanRushdieFTW

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What are your thoughts on the whole "mixology" thing, and fancier bars having staff mixologists with fresh fruit and ingredients on the bar and whatnot?

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09-29-2011 , 06:53 PM

#17

pwnsall

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Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 65,613

How often do you spit in peoples drinks? How often do you make really drunk people drinks with no alcohol in them but charge them anyway?

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09-29-2011 , 06:54 PM

#18

Clare Quilty

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Quote:

Originally Posted by SalmanRushdieFTW

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

Not IME. But I've mostly worked for locally owned places run by friends, or people who became friends. When I waited tables at Applebees it was a nightly gangrape by the servers, so I can only imagine the bartenders were basically emptying the till into their pockets. So yes, in corporate places I think stealing, or trying to steal, is probably the norm.

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09-29-2011 , 06:56 PM

#19

Clare Quilty

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Originally Posted by sylar

favorite bar in sunny Ithaca?

Felicia's. Although the Chapterhouse is kind of the ne plus ultra of old-school college bar, and they have like 100000 beers (Racer 5!) on tap.

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09-29-2011 , 06:58 PM

#20

Clare Quilty

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Gump,

Have you tried a negroni?

Besides having a terrific Anacardo-esque name, it is a classic summery gin concotion, equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari.

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09-29-2011 , 07:01 PM

#21

Lagtastic

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Did you have any cheers types regulars? A norm? A clavin? Sam?

Spent time in Chicago at all? What are your favorite/memorable bars here?

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09-29-2011 , 07:04 PM

#22

SalmanRushdieFTW

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What do you think of your regulars? Do you like them for the most part? The only bar I'm a semi-regular at - I get treated well - never have to wait for a drink when it's crowded, get a free drink/shot every now and then, developed familiarity with the staff which when I was single and some of the staff was hot was fun... I assume this is standard protocol and you look to hook up your regulars?

Last edited by SalmanRushdieFTW; 09-29-2011 at 07:12 PM.