Ask a Bartender: Why Do You Need My Credit Card to Start a Tab?

Ask a Bartender: Why Do You Need My Credit Card to Start a Tab?

The after dinner crowd is a fun crowd who is generally out for the night. They may be celebrating something, or simply rejoicing that they made it through the week and have a day or two off to fully relish a hike, or maybe a hangover. Saturday hangovers are much more bearable than a Tuesday hangover, after all. They often want to freely order drinks without being bothered with signing a credit card slip or fumbling with dollar bills. 

When a bartender asks, “do you want to start a tab?” it seems like a no-brainer until the bartender asks for their credit card, then it’s as if the music stops for a second. Relax, the bartender is not going to buy a round of Patron shots for everyone the second you turn around. Your card is going two places: to the register to enter your name, and to the tab jar or cup or Rolodex, or whatever filing system the bar has in place for organizing customer cards.

So, why do we need your card? Well, if it’s busy enough that we are asking for your card, chances are you are not staying in one spot in front of my register for the whole night. People wander. You might try out your best two-step and just get carried away and two-step right out the door by last call. You might think the line is too long and cut your losses leaving your card with us for the night thinking you’ll walk of shame back in the next day to pick it up with any lingering dignity you may have tucked away next to the coat check. Keeping your card is a guarantee that your tab will be paid at the end of the night regardless of where you wander off. Well, that’s assuming there are sufficient funds on your card and you aren’t scamming us, and/or buying out the bar by the bottle. Scams aside, keeping your card is security.

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What if you do happen to two-step out the door? Every bar has a different policy on keeping cards. For the most part you can come back later that weekend to pick up your belongings. Some bars are more strict (or heartless) and don’t keep a lost and found of abandoned cards for very long. Your best bet is to call the morning after—not at 2:00am when we are cleaning—and let them know you are coming in to pick it up. They might even go the extra mile and leave a note with it so no one else takes a pair of scissors to it.

Pam Martin bartends at Compass Tavern at 90 Harding Street in Worcester every Friday night and Sunday afternoon.