Taking Sides: the British Pay-at-the-Bar-Straightaway System vs. the "Everywhere Else" Served at Table Run Up a Tab System

The Everywhere Else system would no doubt give me many embarrassing evenings where I get to the end of a night and realise I don't have enough money on me.

there must be a more succinct way of phrasing my question but never mind.

I discussed this with Fabrice in Prague earlier in the week. I was beginning to wonder whether the pay-straightaway system came about because the British were more untrustworthy than everyone else and so it was to prevent ppl leaving the pub without paying!

Running up a tab precludes the noble tradition of ROUNDS, so going to the bar wins. Except in restaurants, as I patiently try to explain to the hordes who will be descending on work in December, where it is a nuisance.

Pay as you go. I like it. Clean. Easy.

Also, I hate going out with a group of people (granted, usually a restaurant issue) and running a tab, or running just one check at a restaurant and then at the end, "We'll just split it evenly. Everybody had about the same thing." Except that my food was $15 less than yours and I had a glass of water instead of 8 cocktails. But then if you say anything, you're a cheapskate. Pay as you go. Separate checks.

In Germany, where I live now, it's understood almost everywhere that you'll tell the waiter what you ate/drank and he'll add up your tab separately. A good thing.

are there any other places where the system that I have said is British prevails? I would imagine Ireland? What abt Australia?

Table service. See, I like to bore the shit out of people. I like to corner them and expound for hours on whatever's in my THC-addled brain. When everyone's got an excuse to break away from me it's no fun.

canada has a pay per drink in most places. (this may b/c i drink in dives)

my american experience has been that you just tell the bartender at the beginning whether you'd like to pay as you go or keep a tab running. If it's busy and you want to keep a tab running, you give them your drivers license or credit card. I like pay as you go as well. However if it's a resturant the drinks get added onto the food bill, but many resturants will divide the bill up into individual seat orders if asked.

worst thing (actually poss best thing if you ARE A REPROBATE) abt the tab system when we were in czechoslovakia was that when yr glass got empty, the waiter wd automatically replace it with a full one and mark it up on your tab - oh how neat! this will save a lot of bother!! oh dear i am pissed, i'd better tell him to stop!! oh dear x2, my reaction times seem to be all fux0r3d, and now i have another litre glass of budvar to drink. oh dear x100 i cannot walk unaided!! oh dererg i vcannottt ghhbnnbbllll (etc)

As a whole I prefer the tab system, as it means you don't have to go through the rigmarole of standing by the bar alongside several larger and less evolved people, all of you scrambling to catch the one bar staff's eye.

Nonetheless, the one good thing about the pay-as-you-go system is that it means you're not stuck in the same seat the whole evening (perhaps stuck alongside some dull berk while the intellectual chat/raging laughter/girl you desperately fancy is sitting out of reach), and can mingle away merrily in the kind of musical chairs that ensues when people are forced to nip off to the bar every now and then.

"you must be from New York"
"why yes I am, how could you tell?"
"in San Francisco we put our money on the bar BEFORE we order"
"....ah"
"and it's your haircut or something, too"

- conversation with bartender of the "zam zam club" on haight street

Paying by the drink is definitely safer. When you're continually fishing bills out of your pants you at least have a fighting chance of understanding just how much money you're blowing. It's funny how nobody flinches at spending $20 on drinks but somehow if you're short on cash and you go out for a bite to eat you'll hesitate before going to a place that's $10 more expensive.

in NZ you pay at the bar unless it's a restaurant type place. This makes it much easier not to spend beyond your means. Though the rounds system defeats this.

Tab is way too dangerous. I'm still paying off the credit card I used for drinking excursions when I was underage. It's that much easier to buy a round of a dozen Cuervo shots when you don't have to fork over cash.

(note to Teeny: please please please always tell your server up front if you're talking about separate checks - there's nothing worse than trying to figure it out at the end when everyone wants to leave. And if you're buying drinks for each other and switching places, just forget it.)

oh yeah I thought it went without saying! and of course tip a bit more for the extra effort besides.

tracer, the old owner of persia aub zam zam, bruno, would throw people out of the bar on a whim, and on top of that, his hours were wholly unpredictable. he past away 5-6 years ago and now his kids run it. but seriously it was one of the most surreal bars when bruno was serving drinks.

read a few of the stories here: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=%22zam+zam%22+bruno

i'm not a fan of the tab/collective bill at the end of the night. this is because i usually drink way less than everyone else. i'd rather pay for myself and a friend or two, as we go. however, this gets complicated in the 'rounds' system because i'm probably drinking every other or every third time someone from the group goes up. how often should i offer to buy?

same thing in restaurants. since i'm vegetarian and picky, i usually get a starter, side and dessert. that just doesn't add up to the same as someone that gets a starter, steak and dessert. and yeah, people always try to make this into a 'thing' like i'm trying to sneak out of paying for my meal. grr.

wow gygax!! i was served by him!!! the stories you link to might as well be my own. i went there on my own one night; the ppl i was staying with warned me that i definitely had to order a martini or else bruno would give me guff. when i got there he had already put all the chairs up on the tables, leaving just the bar area for seating, and it was packed. he told me "no standing!!" i was like "but there's no chairs...?" and gave me a look like "exactly." however magically a stool opened up and we had the exchange i mention above. he would go on and on about being in the army. everyone was totally obsequious w/him, and i'll admit he was a "character," if not exactly interesting. i'd never have gone back though.

Toronto/Southern Ontario it depends on the bar and how busy said bar is. Out east it tends to be cash and carry unless you are aren't a student and happen to be a regular. Having only been to crappy dive bars or discos in Montreal and Quebec I can't comment on that other large central province.

Michigan?