One of the good things about the Elvis pub crawl last weekend was that I got to meet people I knew from Twitter, but had never met face to face. One of my Twitter friends suggested a blog topic while we were stumbling in our Elvis costumes.
“Bartenders aren’t very nice to customers ordering water,” she said. “They don’t give the same friendly service they do to customers ordering drinks.”
On one hand, that makes some sense… water is free. Since people usually tip on a percentage of their order, most people don’t tip when they get a water, even though the bartender has to do the same amount of work as they would pouring a beer.
However, my new friend pointed out, people drinking water is a big part of what keeps the bar business going. She was designated driver for her friend, so she was doing what she needed to do to keep both of them safe.
There are also people who drive to a bar, drink a few beers, and then drink a few waters to sober up before they drive home. Seems like they should be encouraged to stick around and drink those waters. If they don’t, they might get a DUI on the way home, in which case they’re probably not going to be coming back to the bar for more beers in the future.
So, we stumbled on to our next stop. I ordered a beer, and the bartender poured it and smiled and said, “There you go. Need anything else?” Then my friend ordered a water, and the same bartender poured it and slung it at her without a word. “All I ask for is a little eye contact,” my friend said.
Just something to think about, for those in the service industry. Water drinkers are people too.