Raising the Bar

"Yelling is a definite no-no," said Jennifer Harvey, a bartender at the Lucky Bar at Red Rock Resort.

How about snapping your fingers? Or maybe whistling?

"When you start yelling out and then waving your hands and snapping your fingers, that’s when they get annoyed," said Lisa Leroux, beverage director at Caesars Palace.

"Yeahhhh, the doggie call doesn’t work either," Harvey said. ‘Sometimes we’ll even make you wait longer."

The bartenders and associated personnel we talked to all emphasized that they do whatever they can to provide the best service possible. But there’s a lot that bar customers can do to make their jobs easier and more pleasant, and better service will generally be the result.

So start when you first walk up to the bar.

"I work in a busy bar," said Patricia Richards, a mixologist at Parasol Up at Wynn Las Vegas. "I think the biggest complaint I have is everyone wants their drinks as soon as they walk up to the bar. We’re all busy people; we’re all in a hurry."

But maybe your hurry doesn’t quite fit with the bartender’s.

"I may have 110 things in my head at that moment, and I’m not quite ready for that guest," she said. "It might just take me a second."

Richards said she generally makes eye contact to acknowledge the guest, but concedes that not all bartenders do the same.

"Don’t just ignore the guests," Richards said. "You are there — you have your job — because of them. It should be a mutual-respect thing."

Which brings us back to the guest.

"I would say just come up to the bar and wait your turn," said Tommy Smith, manager of Revolution Lounge at The Mirage.

"Have your money in your hand; that way they know you’d like a drink," Harvey said.

"Patience and eye contact are great ways to get a bartender’s attention," said Drew Levinson, Bellagio master mixologist. "Being assertive, but not aggressive. Anything condescending will get you to the back of the line quickly."

"It depends if you’re three-deep at the bar," Richards said. "Usually you just try to move your way up to the front. You do need to wave once in a while — we don’t mind — or kind of raise your hand a little bit," especially if the bar is filled with people who aren’t going anywhere and you can’t get close enough to be noticed.

There are a few other things that will make things easier for a bartender — and get you better service in the process.

"Especially in a busy bar, know what you want and know it before you get the bartender’s attention," Levinson said.

"I understand that people want to try new things," Harvey said. "One of the things I hate is when people come up to the bar and say, ‘What do you guys have?’ I have a full bar. What do you want?"

"For the most part, bartenders hate when you say, ‘Make me something you like,’ " particularly if the bar’s busy, Smith said.

Better questions, Harvey said, are, " ‘What types of martinis do you have?’ ‘Can you recommend something?’ Bartenders can point you in the right direction."

And again, this sort of thing can be averted if bar management is savvy.

"When people come in and they don’t know what to order, if you have a good bartender or a good cocktail server or you have a good cocktail menu at your bar, it’s always very helpful," Leroux said. Research, she said, has shown that women customers, especially, will pick up a bar menu and order from it.

If you’re with a large group, make it easy on the bartender and order in groupings; for example, Richards said, "I’ll have five Absoluts, two with tonic, two with cranberry, one with soda."

"I can retain more in my head if they do it more systematically," she said.

"It does make it easier; that’s what cocktail waitresses do," Harvey said. "As people are naming things, I can put them in my head. If they can do that, it’s awesome."

Be specific, if possible.

"Know which rums or spirits that you like and order them first — ‘Cosmopolitan with Belvedere,’ " Levinson said.

"They say, ‘Just give me a whiskey,’ " Richards said. "And then I have to go, ‘Bourbon? Blended, like Crown Royal or Canadian Club? Scotch, single-malt, blended? Irish whiskey?’ There’s so many whiskeys out there. I just have to get the information out of the guest."

"They’re trying to help them along because the last thing they want to do is come out with a drink that’s made wrong," Leroux said.

Then there’s the terminology issue.

" ‘Can I have that neat on the rocks?’ " Harvey said. "You have no idea what you’re talking about. ‘Neat’ is the same thing as ‘up,’ which means no ice."

Ah, but on this point even the experts disagree.

" ‘Neat’ definitely has been bastardized," Levinson said. "It’s used in many different ways. It means unadulterated, hasn’t been touched. Just the spirit in a glass. ‘Neat’ always means no ice, not chilled, nothing like that.

" ‘Rocks’ is with ice. ‘Up’ generally means it has been chilled."

Glassware generally isn’t standard these days, which may make things easier.

"I don’t think the guest generally would notice anything about glassware," Leroux said. "Especially here in Las Vegas, so many properties use so many different types of glassware because everyone just wants to be different."

Still, there are a few standards.

"A nice cognac or Scotch, I would prefer in a snifter," Levinson said. "The snifter will bring out the flavor in an aged spirit like that.

"A nice tequila or possibly a rum, I actually prefer those in a small port glass or a little tulip glass. What that does, because the oak isn’t as prevalent, it brings the nose closer and picks up the intricacies of the spirit itself."

And sometimes you’ll find the same drink in different glasses in the same bar.

"Most bars have a short glass and a tall glass," Harvey said. "People who drink a drink that’s usually in a short glass know, and they’ll say, ‘Can I have a tall rum and Coke?’ That just means there’s going to be more mixer, so it won’t taste as strong."

For best service, don’t forget to tip — even if you’ve been comped. And here are a few more tips:

• The reason bars like to run a tab if you’re paying by credit card is so they don’t have to run the card a half-dozen times. "The first thing we’ll ask is ‘Would you like to put this on your room?’ to make it a convenience," Levinson said. "Then you’ll have the check ready for them to sign and it expedites the process; say the guest wants the drink and wants to go." If paying by credit card, he said, "give them the credit card to start the tab; that will initiate the process more quickly and easily." And Levinson noted that the practice also is for the bar’s protection. "We have the opportunity for a lot of walkouts."

• Shaken or stirred? Shaking cools a martini more quickly and aerates it, but may make it cloudy. Stirring is a slower process that affects the drink less.

• Remember the difference between a gimlet and a gibson if you’re having either of these gin drinks. An easy reminder from Levinson: Gimlet, which has an "L" in the name, "is the lime one; gibson, with the ‘O,’ is the onion."

• What do you do with the umbrella? Let the drink drip off of it and then lay it aside. Same for a swizzle stick — unless you want a poke in the eye.

• Watch the lipstick. "We have that type of lipstick now that’s like a 12-hour lipstick, and it doesn’t come off in the glass-washers," Leroux said. Bartenders, she said, "have to get detergent and a rag and scrub it off." Use a straw, if possible, or avoid it altogether when you’re drinking.

• Remember you’re not the only person who will use that glass (see lipstick tip above). "People still chew tobacco, and they spit in the glassware," Leroux said. Staff, she said, "throw it in the trash, because they don’t even want to deal with it."

And you might want to remember one age-old bar fact of life.

"Naturally," Smith said, "they’re gonna serve the girls first if they’re a guy. The girls serve the guys first."