[Drinking] What is your preferred way of ordering drinks in a pub/bar?

[METALMICKY]

I used to frequent a pub in central London after work and was always amazed at the memory of the older gentleman behind the bar.

Place was always rammed and no matter how large the first round, he'd always ask "Same again?" when ordering again. (And he wasn't looking it up on the till either!)

Was in William the Fourth a couple of weeks ago and having quickly finished the first couple of drinks asked the same young lady that had served us for the same again please, to be met with "How would I know that"

Trouble is, I'm getting to the age it takes me a while to remember myself

Never mind barman we had a bloke like that in Eastbourne who used to run a kebab shop not far from the pier. Every weekend the place would be rammed with pissed up punters between 12 - 2am. Amidst those happily drunk, those spoiling for a fight or eyeing up the ' 10 to 2 ' pounce, his recollection of what everyone had ordered was astonishing!

 

[METALMICKY]

I don't remember a time when there haven't been people who try and jump ahead or take advantage if the bar staff got to them first. Happily most people still seem to say "oh he's first" if they know they're not next in my experience.

Obviously if they don't I do some serious judging of them and say absolutely nothing about it.

To be honest, the queuing thing isn't something I give a shit about, but I was amused to notice when I just googled it to try and understand why anybody would care that this story appeared over a year ago and seems to have suddenly flared up again for some reason.

I definitely think it's got worse. I've often said ' oh he's first ' and the recipient of my gesture has looked at me with an expression that says ' mug as I wouldn't do it for you '!

 

[Peteinblack]

Scrum at the bar. It's still a queue, good bar staff will mentally note the order of the queue. Us customers will also mentally note the order of the queue & if the staff get it wrong,, will point out the person that was before us should be served first. Especially if someone further back of the imaginary queue has tried to push in front. That's when we do the eye contact with the staff & gently nod towards the people that were actually next in he queue.
QR code & table for Spoons.

A small gesture I know, but when someone says "s/he was next", it restores a little of my dwindling faith in human decency.

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

Completely innocently, two seasons ago my season ticket neighbour walked up to the back of the very short queue for a drink at the outside Harvey’s bar opposite the East stand and got two beers in about 5 minutes. As he walked away he realised he had joined the back of that part of the queue where the people behind had left a large gap for people to walk through if they weren’t waiting for a drink. No one in the queue mentioned anything to him at the time.

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

The blocking technique always helps. One of you waits to order at the bar and another spreading next to him/her to take up as much room as possible until one of you gets served. When service begins the other can then move away from the bar.

 

[Skuller]

"Can I get" is perfectly cromulent.

Just like “cromulent”, “can I get” belongs to another part of the English-speaking world, but maybe you’re whooshing me. I admire anyone who forces me to head for a dictionary.

 

[Braggfan]

if its not traditional, then you're not in pub, at least not a very good one.

 

[Milano]

Back in the late 80s I got my first bar job as a green 18 year old, it was in a long gone pub called the Game Bird in Horley, it was an eye opener!! Anyway my first lesson from the ‘sage’ 21 yo was to learn to remember the scrum; and after a few weeks I actually started to take a bit of pride that I could remember the running order of a 2m deep bar, until perhaps a tight top wearing young lady messed with my short term memory!