Buybacks: C/D?

http://www.or-die-trying.com/dietrying.jpg

so you have to pay $5 for a free drink? cool.

Buyback is a term that originated in gay slang to describe acts of unprotected sex, especially anal sex.

omg stop posting

this is a foreign concept in little rock.

You don't actually have to over-tip, although it helps. As someone else has just pointed out, probably 75% of the time all you have to do is be a good regular customer who drinks when it's not too busy to be noticed, and is understanding about things, and is engaging with the staff.

If you object to the idea of any of those things, feel free to do your thing! But don't claim that buybacks don't exist in the places you go.

Except at Daddy's.

so now do we have a thread about bottles vs. draught? or perhaps bouncer etiquette

I have heard people of the British persuasion have different views on tipping, perhaps this can be explored with hilarious consequences

also: hipster tacos, C/D?

good regular customer who drinks when it's not too busy to be noticed, and is understanding about things, and is engaging with the staff.

OK, this was not part of the original statement. Though I frequent some places more often than others, I don't consider myself a regular anywhere, and I don't really ever talk to bartenders, unless the place is super-dead. I don't think I'm all that unusual in that regard, though.

It's just weird that New Yorkers seem to know about it as a concept and I never would've heard about it if not for ILX. But maybe I'm not as much of an alcoholic as you guys are, lol.

LOL CIRRHOSIS

not to stir the pot, but i've seen the mythical buyback occur in chicago.

roffle @ dmr

it's more of a lowkey neighborhood-y thing, going to some typ brooklyn hipster hangout, esp on crowded nights, it ain't gonna happen.

i get them in la too, not just new york deal

I've gotten buybacks in:

LA
Omaha
Baltimore
DC
various parts of Maryland and Virginia
and other places I probably don't even recall

this is so dumb

buybacks: classic or so dumb

ABC = Always Be Cool

Anyway, it totally doesn't surprise me if you're a regular and talk to the staff. Now that I think about it, Brian at Leadway used to give me a free beer every now and again. But I just thought of that as Brian being a nice guy, rather than a "buyback" that conformed to some larger code of bartender etiquette.

-- jaymc, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 4:03 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS TERRIFYING AMERICAN CONCEPT

s'good business to be honest, house markup generally runs at 60-70% G.P so the drink cost is factored in several times over by the time you get your buyback

xpost - thank god for the xls

gersh i went to footsies last night and thought of you

got no buybacks tho

hmmmm, can't recall if i ever got one there

Just go to a cheaper bar.

or better yet, drink at home.

yeah that's the best solution of all. give YOURSELF a buyback.

"This coffee shop sucks - you need 20 punches on your card for a free latte!"

I've had bartenders often say (here in NJ) "that one's on me" during the course of a night.

I've never known it to be called a "buyback," I've always called it "getting comped"

I've never even called it anything but a "free beverage".

i get buybacks all the time. maybe they just don't like you.
-- tehresa, Monday, April 16, 2007 6:40 PM (Yesterday)

maybe you're a lush?
-- JW, Tuesday, April 17, 2007 9:17 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

MN also uses the "getting comped" terminology in my experience. only happens to regulars though, but if you do it right, you can average about a 50% free ratio.

What is a buyback? I normally just get free drinks from bartenders who are interested in me sexually.

KEY STRATEGY: double your normal tip on the comped drink. in the bar world, this is known as "proferring a bribe to get more drinks for free"

xpost

That's a buyback.xpost

all language ever in fact originated as gay slang

I think you're thinking of bareback.

I never get buybacks. I usually figure it's because the bartender already thinks they're doing me a favor by serving alcohol to a 12 year old.

This doesn't happen in australia bcuz tipping bartenders doesn't happen.

OMFG

i KNOW

Well I might as well compare buybacks to Hitler at this point.

WILTER = HILTER

hold on i was pretty sure there was an established universal tipping etiquette procedure in place

Oh, now I get it! In the UK we call them jollygoods so I was confused lol!

NO

XPOST

I got several of these in Williamsburg last month, but rarely in LA.

i think we really ought to get to the bottom of this tipping disparity before we move forward on the issue of buybacks

xpost, that would be free drinks and not whatever it is someone mentioned upthread.

wait how do you get free drinks again?

come over to my house

and then tip him more than a dollar per drink

But I just thought of that as Brian being a nice guy, rather than a "buyback" that conformed to some larger code of bartender etiquette.

I've never thought of it as etiquette or exchange, just something at the bartender's discretion for being a good customer or even just nice.

You tip anyone well in any field and nice things are bound to happen.

I've encountered this everywhere EXCEPT the cowboytacular bar I walk to from my house. The guy (bartender) seems uncomfortable with the mere presence of my friend and I secretly indulging in girly drinks. Plus this bar does not have ginger ale (7-up/coke/bitters thing just ain't the same). Yes, this bar is mediocre. BUT: I can walk there.

Point: bartenders can be nice and generous, and so can you.

unless you live in england

englande

Or Australia (bcuz we don't tip bartenders)

Everyone in the world can be nice and generous, but in American bars this can display itself in a relationship between a customer sharing extra money and a bartender dispensing of extra alcohol at no charge.

i think that australia is a state that is in england though right xpost

Even without 'buybacks' a bartender, when tipped, gets a very heavy wrist.

Catching up on this thread has convinced me to walk on down to my local, where the Wednesday bartender only charges for about half my drinks.

if it weren't raining i'd think about joining you.

i give free shit to regulars/nice customers all the time, even tho tips are uncommon here. this is what rude ppl don't seem to understand: be nice to your waitress and she shall be nice to you.

there is a middle aged lesbian couple who have been coming to my restaurant for 8 yrs and who recently gave me a handmade journal as a farewell gift, so i paid for their meal.

Walter you do know we've done the "LOL we dun tip here haha" thing before rite? Rite?

Excuse me I have some salt to pout all over my food I'll brb.

yuh

I feel like this thread is happening in an alternate timeline.

IN A WORLD

ONE DOLLAR

how is this not a poll

-------------

buybacks yes
no
waht
unicorns
who the fuck are you?
its my birthright
im european
just tip well and be cool

-------------

step yr game up homes

we had that poll

ok so the reason australians dont tip a dollar per drink is because they use the euro, right?

we had a buybacks poll how did i miss that - r u sure yr not thinking tipz poll?

yes, the AU€

xp

I thought our money were all baht or something nowdays.

rupees

there is a middle aged lesbian couple who have been coming to my restaurant for 8 yrs and who recently gave me a handmade journal as a farewell gift, so i paid for their meal.

This is so awesome. And also, exactly what I'm talking about.

or was talking about in whatever other out of 3-4 threads this topic came up in this after noon

When I used to pick up my mom from Applebee's after she finished her shift, I'd sit at the bar with these two gay guys who owned a restaurant across the street and came to Applebee's afterward to drink and BS. I'd give them footrubs and they'd buy me mozzarella sticks and a coke. It was all very sweet.

Australia uses the Aero, which is some kind of conspiracy

there is a middle aged lesbian couple who have been coming to my restaurant for 8 yrs and who recently gave me a handmade journal as a farewell gift, so i paid for their meal.

-- Rubyredd, Thursday, May 8, 2008 12:42 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

i thought that said gave me a handjob for a second

Yeah we don't exchange money for goods and services down here, we just place a value upon items with a series of grunts and hand gestures and then take things.

Slocki - roffle so did I actually.

Ingrates, we give you pounds shillings and pence and this is how you repay us.

you guys are pervy O_o

I don't understand Americans.

Everyone in the world can be nice and generous, but in American bars this can display itself in a relationship between a customer sharing extra money and a bartender dispensing of extra alcohol at no charge

IF YOU GIVE MONEY FOR IT, THE DRINK IS NOT 'FREE', EH, WTF?!

Shall we have the foreskin conversation now?

in america, we have secret free bars

in america everything is amazing and perfect

ESPECIALLY the bus.

Local, dive-y type bars are usually really good for the buyback. There was this shitty Chinese restaurant/karoake bar in the west Chicago suburbs we used to hang out in, I'd say on a typical night about 30% of our drinks were free. Of course, our group usually made up more than 3/4s of the crowd on any given Thursday.

IF YOU GIVE MONEY FOR IT, THE DRINK IS NOT 'FREE', EH, WTF?!

the drink is free, the service is what you're paying for.

http://www.americantail.com/images/mice.gif

Unless the cost of the drink in the first place is at wholesale, surely you're paying for the service in the ticket price?

whatever you say tuomas scik mouthy.

you are getting dangerously close to haveing the US feudal tipping system explained to you, xpost.

shipping AND handling, dog

I am aware the drinks, on some technical level that one can choose to consider, are not "free." What, are they supposed to give you a coupon for a 'free mixed drink of your choosing' which you immediately hand back to them? Would it satisfy your inner pedant if I said, "bartenders give you a drink"?