4 - Cocktails You Shouldn’t Order in a Crowded Bar

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Or, how to be kinder to your bartender

An homage to one of Bill Maher’s New Rules: The more complicated the drink order, the bigger the jerk. That applies DOUBLE during busy bar hours. Say, um, from open to close at a popular spot, or almost anywhere during happy hour.

You know, it’s hard out there for cocktail pros. So give them a break. Bar patrons, if you’re waiting to order at the well, or you can see from your table that it’s crazy behind there, KISS and don’t tell the bartender to make any of these:

• Long Island Iced Tea. This drink takes a lot of time to make well because there are so many ingredients – and each has to be correctly measured to get the right finished product. That slows down the whole bar during a rush.
• Bloody Mary. You may think it’s just vodka and tomato juice mix (and it may be at home). At a good bar it’s a time-sucker because of the garnish.
• Mojito. Because each individual drink requires muddled mint it’s complex, sticky and hard to make in a rush. You may wind up instead with mint in your teeth and sugar on your hands.
• Margarita. Unless it’s prebatched or frozen, each nicely made San Antonio classic should be shaken for a full 20 seconds. Do the math. That’s an hour in bar years.

And if you’ve made a career in the food & beverage world, check out several industry oriented SACC seminars on coping with stress, designed just for industry folks. Look for mid-morning Yoga class, a roundtable discussion on the care and nurturing of the bartender, and practical skills for making yourself more street savvy and stress-ready.