If you can find it I recommend Ron Zacappa XO or Centenario for the dark rum. Centenario is probably the better bang for the buck.

Tito's for the vodka deal.

I spent the last few weeks travelling for work. In every bar where I had more than one drink, my tab was short a drink. I was talking personably (imo) with the bartenders and regulars and everyone knew I was out of town. In all instances I brought it to the attention of the bartender, who then corrected it, but I was wondering if it was standard to get one or two free drinks for out-of-towners and that I had forced them to correct it, or if it was just variance.

Sounds like you were a nice guy and nice to the bartenders and the other people at the bar. Fairly high percentage of the time, if you are as described and sort of hanging out with the bartender, you'll wind up with comped drink(s). Nothing to do with out of town. Standard is to increase your tip by a significant amount (exact amount debated on 2p2 and obv debatable).

The bartender did it on purpose. No need to point it out. Tip extra.

I'm a big fan of Buffalo Trace's output for American Whiskey and have their Blanton's single barrel, plus Sazerac Rye.

Wrt scotch, Lagavulin's a good one for peated Islays. If you want something softer for others a lowland like Auchentoshan, or an Arran Malt, wouldn't go amiss. I just use a generic speyside instead of blended, so can't really advise on that.

I have a bunch of Patron from duty free and yeah, it's not spectacular. Cazadores blanco was pretty tasty when I had a litre of that on the bar.

I personally like Plymouth but it was my local-ish distillery, so biased. Also I'd suggest an Irish, Jameson's or Bushmills would be fine - at the moment you're heavy on the American Whiskeys.

Finally, can't see if anyone else said this, but you gotta add Cointreau to the list of mixers. If you want to go crazy get triple sec and/or Grand Marnier Cordon Jaune instead, but Cointreau will do the job. It's an essential liqueur.

Also hear hear on the Gosling's, it's a beautiful dark rum.

Thanks for the input.

American whiskey, because I like Makers Mark and want to try different ones.

The rest was basically then build around that.
Lagavulin was basically a choice by name and memory. I quite liked it.

Is Jameson any good? I always thought it's like Jim Bean at the bottom of the value chain.

Cointreau is already added, but you were the first one to point it out.

Will check out the Gosling's.

Hi Spurious,

I'm biased towards Scotch in terms of location and Bourbon in terms of preference. Jamesons is a good 'hip flask' whiskey I reckon, it's on the sweet side and nice to take out with mates somewhere or hillwalking. I really only use it on occasion and mostly for an Irish Coffee around xmas.

Glad you default to Islay whisky - it's the correct option imo that said I have a Bruichladdich unpeated (Islay), an Arran (island malt) calvados finish and a generic Speyside, so try to cover a few areas of Scotland.

When you get the Gosling's, get ginger beer for a Dark 'n Stormy. Even better, get Crabbie's alcoholic ginger beer (or equivalent) for a Perfect Storm.

We've got an apple and vanilla sugar syrup in the fridge which has kept very well. As long as the bottle is well sterilised it should keep. A friend made a brown sugar and clementine one as well which was pretty good, but I had no room in the fridge and next time I went back to it it was fizzy and fermented - warmth and a not-quite-clean bottle did for it. Also we've made a passionfruit syrup once too.

Whilst sensible people might omit fruit salad from an old fashioned, infused syrups are pretty good. Orgeat (almond) is key in a Singapore Sling, e.g. That said, we've got shop bought violet syrup in the house. A lot of times it's better just to buy, but definitely possible to do at home

Thank you. I am not sure if Ginger Beer exists outside the UK, since moving here, I havent tried it once (a friend of mine loves it) and will be moving out of the UK soon. So let's see if I can mix it one day.

i read the first few pages of this thread and not to completely derail, in the past few months I have noticed that bartenders have a lot of power especially where i live. I personally think that they make too much money (especially given the fact I work about 60-70 hrs /week) , but I just always went along to go along always tipping 1$/drink or 20% minimum. However, given I live in a town that has strong industry nights and the relative douchiness I witness when i see those of the industry in a social scene or in their workplace i have greatly scaled my tipping back. Obviously in a few of the bars I frequent the most often on weekends I still tip well with service, but I recommend that we all scale it back a bit.

Obviously this is at a younger town but the *******ishness i see with the bartenders/how they are treated godlike while stealing from owners thus raising my costs perturbs me.

If you think the bartenders are douchey then you should work behind a bar for a while and see what kind of crap we have to put up with sometimes. I assure you there's a hell of alot more douchiness in front of the bar than behind it. Like not tipping for service because you think someone makes too much money.

I'd like to see you try this when/if you need a surgeon. "you make too much so I'm gonna pay less". Good luck

Well, generally in my limited (thank god) experience with surgeons, they have all been professional at all times.

Yes there is more douchiness in front of the bar rather than behind. That is because sometimes people want to be DB's. If they want to go out to a bar, pay a 500% premium for cocktails and leave a tip that is usually MORE than the same cocktail is worth, we do not expect to deal with DB staff. You get paid very well, don't act like DB's.

edit: There are a lot MORE people out in front of the bar as well.

where i am from we call it the SERVICE and HOSPITALITY industry, I don't feel like i need to pad the income of someone acting like a DB who is servicing me.

Prime exxample, I am at a downtown bar last sunday (sports bar) and I am watching all the NFL games. My buddy and I are not sitting next to each other at the bar because he is a NY fan and the game is on at the other bar. He orders a Cheeseburger off the girl, well done, Cheese only. They put on their 'special sauce' so he sends it back. in the mean time, there is a seat that opens next to me, and he notifies bartender he is now sitting in a new seat and asks that he bring his burger to him there. She complies, he gets burger now it has tomatoes, lettuce, mustard, bacon on his burger. He is like upset because he has already sent burger back once and doesn't want to be thought of as a DB but he is a picky eater so he is just going to eat fries. I tell him that he is paying 14$ for a cheeseburger and fries, he should damn well get it his way. So he tells bartender that he asked for a cheeseburger with ONLY cheese. She gets all pissy and cops him attitude but complies. He sheepishly goes to the bathroom, and bartender looks at me and says " why don't you eat his burger then, I am just going to throw it out since this guy is a pain in my ass."

I was confused by this because I figured she knew we were friends but thinking about it,, since i was jammerjawing with the two people on both sides of me she probably didn't think i knew him. So i ate said burger. Do i tip her well? I was in a bit of a moral quandry but i figured since I ate burger she helped me out , even though she is a total C. So on my next beer 4/5$ i tip like 6$. When his bill comes, obviously he stiffs her.

mark,

"but I recommend that we all scale it back a bit."

Sounds good. What are your recommendations for tip when I order the following rounds:
2x$5 beer = $10
2x$10 cocktail = $20
2x$15 wine = $30

i would say it depends. Like i said, I tip for service.

2 5$ bottles of beer 1$
2 5$ drafts, if and that is a big IF because my bartender gave me a beer that was poured so poorly that 2.5" were head like i had yesterday i will probably leave smaller or no tip. But good service I will give 2 bucks.
2 10 dollar cocktail probably 2 bucks (i order pretty easy things such as capt n diet, I.e. you are not behind the bar slaving on my order).
2 15$ wine, i would never order wine at a bar, but probably 3 bucks

mrmarky,

I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to tip me for being a douche. I was a pretty great bartender when I was doing it, if I do say so, and I think I was worth the $$. I.e. I was fast, knowledgeable, and remembered almost everyone's name if I met them once, and generally went out of my way to make people feel at home. You might try not going to ****ty sports bars--I wouldn't really expect the greatest or most competent service there.

Wrt to industry nights, I can see how a non-industry person might be put off by the tipping that goes on, but one thing to remember is that that money mostly gets cycled back into the industry pool of money. A bartender will tip another bartender 10 bucks on a round knowing he'll get taken care of next time the guy is in his workplace.

For "service" like this I wouldn't tip either but you OP was lacking examples of what douchiness means to you. Many people would call anyone they don't like a douche. I've seen plenty of bartenders whom I'd call that because of the person they are not because of the service they're giving and I'd still tip them. It sounded to me that you wouldn't tip because of the general way you perceived the person to be, not because of terrible service.
Also, it's unfair to ask everyone to tip less because you make bad choices and go to bars where you get bad service.

Nailed it!

CQ, no i am very aware that the money gets cycled. If i led you to believe from what bartenders tip one another, i know that is inflated..just like poker dealers you seem them in plain clothes throw the dealer 2-3 red birds when they take a 100$ pot down and you think WTF? but then you are there the next day and you recognize the dealer is the gambling maniac that was to your direct left the day before.

Well, where I have been, I have seen "industry" folks pretty much kick the **** out of people, adn since they are boys with the bouncers working that nite they tell the cops how they were provoked etc. Cops say oh ok, current bouncers are sober, OK! they are not lying!

That is example of douchiness that goes on within industry.

Believe me I am not cheap. Some bartenders would say I am extremely good tipper, and others would call me cheap. However, Poker dealers, cab drivers, and bartenders are three professions that piss me off REALLY easily. Every other facet of my life I am quite generous.

Idk, try not living in whatever redneck hellhole you live in I guess

lol i don't live in a redneck area at all....FTR

Tonight for MNF i show up at like a few minutes left in 2nd q.

I ask for specials. 4$ dos Equis. I pay with 10, he asks if i wanna start a tab, i pay cash plan on tipping. after i pay cash i realize they have a bunch of MNF teasers (i.e. if 2nd half starts with a TD you get $$ credit) so i give CC for next brewski. I end up drinking 4 more beers. total bill is like 15 bucks . I tip 6$ on card after stiffing on original 4$ and leave. service was not bad or good. i waited maybe 5 minutes on last beer despite place being about 1/15 of saturday night capacity.

Marky,

Where do you live? And were you watching the game by yourself?

You could always move to the UK, I was unfailingly polite as a barman and never got a tip. A few drinks bought for me, but not enough to become a lush.

Your gripes are with the service industry, which reaches well beyond bars, and with the nature of industries general, with endemic problems like you see being mappable onto e.g. politics (politicians giving each other work and non-executive directorships) and the oil industry.

I think you're entitled to not tip well because you expect a higher standard, but I sincerely doubt that will make it come about.

Also you'd like that 10% is standard here. I rarely tip below 15% but we don't see tip creep here either like in e.g. NYC where I hear 25% is becoming 'expected'?

El D

Yes I was watching game by myself. I was not in the city/town i mentioned prior so my location is not relevent.

mark

Friend's 35th last night, which he celebrated at a local cocktail place. I tried what was effectively their sexed up whiskey sour - it was bourbon, lemon, sugar and egg white, but in an absinthe rinsed glass and they added a slug of grand marnier to the above recipe.

The GM was totally lost in the drink but I liked the addition of the absinthe rinse, but I'm a sucker for absinthe rinses.

They also did an old fashioned with Canadian Club and maple syrup which was pretty poor - couldn't detect the maple - but what saved it was the grapefruit bitters and zest twist, which really made up ground.

The drinks did at least fit in well with the present for my friend - he got a bottle of Sazerac Rye recently so I bought him an old fashioned glass, lemon, and bottle of Péychaud's bitters, plus supplied a small atomiser filled with absinthe and a 50ml miniature of gomme, so he could go home and make a Sazerac post-haste.

Actually, having done that it occurred to me we could be ambassadors for the cocktail craze (at least, the home-bar is taking off here as drink prices go up and people try and economise by making stuff at home), the bitters were about $20 and everything else was off the home bar (plastic atomisers are well cheap and a good way of giving a little, but not a lot, of a high-octane or expensive booze)...

Anyone else drunk anything good lately?