Tips for Bartender

Interested in what people say. We are having open bar and the bartenders are included and work for the venue. I don't want my guests to have to tip. Should I tip at the end of the night? If so how much per bartender?

I probably wouldn't do a tip jar. I don't want my guests paying for anything, and a jar out is implying that they should be. If they really want to tip the bartender and it is their idea, then fine. But I think I will be tipping them at the end of the night (well not me personally, I will give the envelopes to my planner and she will hand them out). Also as a guest I usually don't even bring in money.

I would not do a jar on the bar. People will tip them anyway; I see this every week, but a jar is crass.

It's hard to tell what to tip for me. Because my contract says my service charges (which ends up being like 4,000) includes gratuities for the staff. My contract says the only members that should be (aren't included in our service charges) tipped are the valet and housekeeping for our rooms.

So I don't know. I don't know what my bartenders are making.

@celia-Any Suggestions ?

100 dollars is 25 dollars an hour for 4 hours. Bartenders make more then that? Damn. If it's more than 25 dollars an hour then they make more an hour than nurses do.

Maybe I shoulda been a bartender lol

I always tip at weddings, and agree the actual jar screams that class is missing from the bar and the event.

I think most guests tip at weddings even if it's an open bar. I know I do. My uncle is notorious for slipping the bartender a couple of 20s with his first drink and gets prime service all night. It's a family joke lol

Okay, I will not leave a jar out and allow that to happen as it may. I will tip the amount the venue suggested along with the tips for the coordinator and wait staff. Thank you ladies!

Yea people always tip bartenders regardless of jar so no tip jar. My venue requires 22% service fee (which I then have to pay the 10% sales tax on) so my bartenders are making significantly more tip than that. My gratuity alone is $132 an hour for bartenders (with 5 hours of service). I'm thinking they will probably provide 2 so they each get $66/hour. In addition to whatever my guests tip. but they'll keep my guests happy. Just wanted to give you a point of reference $100 seems really low!

ETA: service fee goes 100% to gratuity and I'm in California

No TIP jar pleeez. This is so classless. Whoever is footing the bill should tip him/her discreetly in an envelope assuming the services were great. I went to one wedding where the bartender had an attitude and seemed to feel he was doing you a favor simply by being there. I felt like somebody should have tipped him with a maraschino cherry.

No tip jar!

Agreed no tip jar. If people choose to tip that's one thing, you can't control that. You can control not having that tip jar! Tip jars may shy people away from drinking if they dont have tons of cash because they can't tip the bartender!

I was wondering if I would ever see one of these threads...surprise! I'm a bartender. I'm not going to address @Nancys extremely classless suggestion to tip someone with a maraschino cherry just because she perceived an attitude from him but I'd love to address the initial and follow up questions. First off, bar tending is extremely difficult. You said they make as much as nurses and were surprised but if you think about it, we have very similar jobs, just in different areas of study. There are thousands of drinks and liquors to memorize, quite literally dozens of things you have to multitask at any given moment, you work on your feet for a lot more than 4 hours on any given day (setting up and breaking down a bar takes forever, plus you have to clean everything because fruit flies are a bitch), and you have to be nice and personable and smiling like a loon all the time. The other part of this equation is that most of the time, the service staff does not get all of that tip, even in California. It is split between the venue (yes they take a portion of the tip a lot of the time), the banquet/event coordinator, sometimes the chef, and all the service staff (waiters, bussers, etc) so when they say tip $100 I'd be surprised if the bartender got to keep more than $65-$70 of it. Some places even just pay the service staff a flat hourly and keep whatever is left over. Of course not all places are the same but I've been in this business for over 20 years and I've worked in everything from little tiny restaurants to extremely expensive hotels and what I've said is pretty much industry standard. I agree that tip jars are crass, but please don't assume your servers and bartenders and other staff just get that money straight from your envelope or evenly split that $4000 gratuity without a lot of stuff being taken off the top. The best way to have a really great bartender is to do what someone said their uncle does: throw money at them before anything starts and you'll have a happy hustling drink slinger keeping your guests well lubricated to enjoy your day.

If I don't have a tip jar the venue adds 18% gratuity onto the bar tab...which seems like a hefty tip for a bartender.

We are not doing a tip jar. I think it's tacky to make guests bring in dollars to tip the bartender. We will be taking care of tipping.

A by the way. I definitely wasn't trying to down bartenders. I was just truly shocked.

I know @miranda! I didn't think you were, I just like to try to shift people's perspective a little because a lot of the time they just don't realize how many things actually go into it. I have no idea how much effort goes in to a lot of other jobs, (and would never presume to judge their efforts,) but because of the tipping people feel like they can judge service people all over the place (not saying that is what you were doing but we just have to look up a little to @kate to see it).

@ Jessi :I wasn't trying "dis" bartenders either. I think jars are classless. Bartenders DESERVE a tip. I think it should be done discreetly at the end. The maraschino incident was my idea at one particular wedding where the guy definitely had an attitude. Why reward rude behavior?

@Nancy why be petty and rude back to someone who may have been having a really horrible day but still had to work? Are you a perfect ray of sunshine all day long every single day you work?

So should I still tip my bartenders even though the service charge will tip them too? (I mean tip them at the end of the night) I guess I could ask my venue how much of that goes to them and then decide if I want to add more.