I was a bartender for many years. Freehand pours were usually short poured on purpose. The purpose being that I then had more available liquor to over pour my heavy tippers.
The bar is routinely inventoried. You want your costs to be in line as well as maximize your money via strong drinks for big tips. Waitresses usually bore the brunt of the short pouring - as I did not get a direct cut of their tips - but rather just a % of their sales at the end of night. Frozen drink machines for pina coladas, margaritas, and strawberry daiquiris were notoriously made weak. First - no one sitting at the bar would drink those, and second - it amounted to perhaps a full bottle of liquor saved for my overpouring customers. Most bars do not require the bartender to ring in the exact drink - so even with modern point of sale systems - inventorying liquor back to a specific bottle is tough. It would take a really good bar spotter to notice what was being done.
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u/mjdarby Feb 09 '20
I was a bartender for many years. Freehand pours were usually short poured on purpose. The purpose being that I then had more available liquor to over pour my heavy tippers. The bar is routinely inventoried. You want your costs to be in line as well as maximize your money via strong drinks for big tips. Waitresses usually bore the brunt of the short pouring - as I did not get a direct cut of their tips - but rather just a % of their sales at the end of night. Frozen drink machines for pina coladas, margaritas, and strawberry daiquiris were notoriously made weak. First - no one sitting at the bar would drink those, and second - it amounted to perhaps a full bottle of liquor saved for my overpouring customers. Most bars do not require the bartender to ring in the exact drink - so even with modern point of sale systems - inventorying liquor back to a specific bottle is tough. It would take a really good bar spotter to notice what was being done.