Three Drinks on the Tab, Two Drinks in the Story
Thursday, 8:15 p.m. A 40-year-old man at the end of the bar has been there 75 minutes. His tab shows three rum-and-Cokes and one beer. He tells your coworker he has 'only had two.' In the last fifteen minutes he has knocked over a glass of water, told the same story about his boat twice, and is now speaking loudly with a slight slur. His eyes are bloodshot and he sways a little when he stands to visit the restroom. He is with two friends who have been drinking water and who say they will drive him home. He catches your eye, holds up four fingers, and calls out for a round - three for his friends, one for him.
1. Do you pour the round? Separate the facts that should drive your decision from the facts that should not, and explain why.
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Facts that matter:
- Observable indicators: slurred speech, repeating himself, swaying on standing, bloodshot eyes, a spill within the last 15 minutes, rising volume. These are behavioural signs of impairment, and they are exactly what a server is expected to notice.
- Pace and volume: four drinks in 75 minutes is fast, and it corroborates what his body is showing you.
- The gap between his self-report ('two') and the tab (four). Self-report is the least reliable data you have; the tab is a record.
Facts that should not change the decision:
- His size, his claim of a high tolerance, that he is a good tipper, that he is with friends, that he is not causing a fight. Tolerance affects how drunk someone looks, not whether they are impaired.
- The fact that three of the four drinks are for other people. You are not obliged to serve a round; you can serve individually.
Decision: No drink for him. His two friends show no indicators and have been on water, so a drink each is defensible - but only poured and handed directly to them, and only if you can watch the table, because the obvious next move is a 'friend' sliding a glass his way.
2. Write the sequence of actions for the next fifteen minutes - what you say, in what order, and to whom.
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- Go to him, not the other way round. Standing at his elbow with a low, even voice is lower-risk than calling across the bar.
- Use a policy statement, not a diagnosis. 'I'm going to stop you here for tonight - I can't keep serving you.' Avoid 'you're drunk'; argue about the number of drinks and you invite a debate you cannot win.
- Do not negotiate a 'just one more' or a 'smaller one.' A soft no invites a second request.
- Offer alternatives immediately: water, coffee (which does not sober anyone - say so if challenged), food, a seat, a cab.
- Bring the check without being asked. Closing the tab removes the open invitation.
- Enlist the friends quietly and separately. 'He's had enough - can you get him into a car when he's ready?' They are your best route to a safe exit and they have already offered.
- Ask about keys, do not seize them. You can ask, and you can offer to hold them until morning; taking them by force is a physical confrontation you are not trained or authorised for.
- Tell the other staff. Whoever takes over the bar in twenty minutes needs to know he is cut off, or he will simply reorder from a different face.
3. He insists he is fine, stands up to prove it, and stumbles into a barstool. His friends repeat that they will drive him. What do you do, and what do you write down?
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What to do:
- Treat the stumble as the answer to the argument. You do not need to win the debate; you need to not serve him.
- Assess the friends, not the promise. Have they been drinking? If they have been on water all evening and show no indicators, letting them drive him is the best available outcome and you should help it happen quickly.
- If the friends show indicators of their own, say so plainly and offer a cab or a rideshare on the house if policy allows. If an obviously impaired person is about to get behind the wheel, calling police or non-emergency dispatch is a legitimate option and is usually better than watching it happen.
- Know your limits: you may refuse service and ask someone to leave. You may not detain them, take their keys by force, or physically block a car.
What to record, that night:
- Time of refusal and the exact words used.
- The observed indicators, factually: 'swaying when standing, slurred speech, spilled water at 8:05, repeated story' - not conclusions like 'wasted'.
- Drinks served and the tab total.
- Who was notified (friends, manager, next-shift bartender).
- Whether a ride was offered and what was said in response.
Contemporaneous notes written that night are worth far more than a reconstruction a week later, both to the licensee and to you.