be good to your bartender

After hitting up the Clinton Street pub and having a great time chatting and having a beer, Kate, Mary and I decided to go to the more "posh" Doug Fir and see some music in celebration of ol' Saint Patty's day. We arrived to find Mary's boyfriend, Drew, at the corner of the upstairs bar. After a few minutes observing the scene, it appeared that the bartender was severely annoyed with Drew and his friends for whatever reason. Drew kept apologizing for "bugging" the bartender. When Drew ordered 3 Mojitos for us gals, I thought the bartender was surely going to say something snide. But, he kept his mouth shut and just shot us a dirty look. YES, Mojitos are a lot of work to make (muddle, sugar, lime, mint, etc.) but this bar was NOT that crowded. Not to mention, it's your job and you might get hooked up (tips) if your attitude doesn't suck. Well, despite the amount of work this Mojito took, it tasted like crap. It was one of the most bland tasting Mojitos I have ever had.

Later on in this Doug Fir chapter, we were downstairs watching some live music and all of a sudden, I started to feel some immense stomach pains followed by nausea. I immediately went upstairs and puked up every thing I had eaten that day. Including some spicy Ethiopian food that does NOT pleasantly burn your throat when coming the other way. I went downstairs to tell the gals that I had to get out of this place, and Kate was feeling equally as bad. She was not as nauseated, but was having some very unpleasant symptoms right after our "Mojito." We left, walked outside to my car and chatted about how crappy we felt.

Just for the record, my puking didn't stop at the Doug Fir. By the time I got in bed, I could barely swallow. Kate stayed up watching LOST while trying to eat some food because she felt like she needed to get something in her system in order to avoid feeling crappy the next day.

The moral of the story here: I don't know what happened before we got there, but that bartender was pissed. And that mother-effer took it out on us with some magically poisoned rum or something. Ugh.

The other lesson though: Portland/Oregon service industry workers can really be shitty. If you act like that in the South, your ass is not going to get any kind of a tip. I come from a culture of people that will tip you extremely well, over the top even, if you have a good attitude. Even if your service is sub-par but you have a good attitude, you will be compensated well. But, if you are not even remotely friendly or pleasant, no tip for you. And being blatantly rude to a customer is a BIG no no! One would think that if you are in a recession, you would be extra polite and provide a great product/service in order to survive and keep customers. But, apparently some people enjoy that kind of behavior. Or just accept it. It's simply ridiculous to me.

For the record, I am yelping the hell out of the Doug Fir.

I just don't understand why it is so hard to simply be friendly in this world. You don't have to be over the top or even talk. Just NOT be a pill. Oh, and not poison people either.