Managing Intoxicated Regulars: Effective Hospitality Strategies for Bar Owners

How do you handle intoxicated regulars without damaging relationships or disrupting your bar's atmosphere?

Regulars bring loyalty and community, but their sense of ownership can make enforcing rules tricky. Without the right approach, these situations can escalate, affecting other patrons and your team.

• Learn subtle techniques to cut off intoxicated patrons gracefully and avoid conflict.
• Discover how clear policies and consistent training empower your staff to handle disruptions effectively.
• Gain insights into fostering professional relationships with local law enforcement for added safety.

Listen now to uncover expert strategies for managing intoxicated regulars while maintaining a safe, welcoming bar environment!

Learn More:
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The Bar Business Podcast Website
Chris' Book 'How to Make Top-Shelf Profits in the Bar Business'

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A podcast for bar, pub, tavern, nightclub, and restaurant owners, managers, and hospitality professionals, covering essential topics like bar inventory, marketing strategies, restaurant financials, and hospitality profits to help increase b...

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Today I want to talk about one of the most challenging issues bar owners face on a regular basis, which is what do you do when a regular becomes too intoxicated and disruptive? Hello and welcome to the Bar Business Podcast, where we help bar owners increase profits, attract loyal guests and simplify operations so you can avoid burnout and finally enjoy your life outside of your bar. I'm your host, chris Schneider, the Bar Business Coach. Before we get started, a quick thank you to our sponsors, spot On, who provide a great, modern POS solution for the bar and restaurant industry, and Starfish, who use AI to turn your books into actionable steps to increase profits. So today we're going to talk about not just what to do when you have a intoxicated or disruptive guest, but what happens when that guest is a regular, because that changes things a little bit in how a lot of people approach the situation, although we could argue that approaching a situation differently because it is a regular is actually the wrong thing to do.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Now the thing is we should be monitoring folks while we're serving them. We don't want anyone to become highly intoxicated, and so some of that is making sure your staff is trained to understand how to prevent someone from becoming intoxicated. Some of that is paying attention to the person, because there are times and I'm sure everyone listening to this has had this experience Somebody comes in the bar, they seem perfectly sober, you give them a beer and now they're absolutely fall down drunk, probably because they took some drugs on the way in the door that you didn't know about. Or you know. Sometimes it's illegal drugs and somebody doing the wrong thing. Sometimes it's just someone that's on a drug and they haven't had any alcohol since they've been on that drug and they don't understand that there's a bad reaction between a legally prescribed drug that they're on and alcohol. What do you do? And when it's not a regular you know it's just some random person you've never seen before the answer is pretty simple right, you kick them out and you have that conversation. But when it's a regular, you got to be a little bit more careful and you have to make sure that you're always handling things fairly. And again, this should be the same whether they're a regular or not. But regulars obviously feel in our industry I was about to say a bit more entitled. Let's be honest here. They feel way more freaking entitled to do what they want in your bar because they see your bar as an extension of their space. It's their third space where they hang out and, frankly, they think they own the bar just as much as you do.

Speaker 1: 2:37

So what can we do? Regular, not regular, but how can we mitigate this situation? Well, the first thing is make sure you have policies in place on how to handle these situations. The worst thing you can do is have a regular say you over-served me and then you kicked me out and you treated me unfairly. And I watched Jim the other night get drunker than I was and nothing happened to him. So you need policies in place, you need procedures in place so that you're treating everyone fairly.

Speaker 1: 3:06

Now we all know that oftentimes, when we cut somebody off, they have a negative reaction to being cut off. One of my favorite techniques when it comes to cutting people off it's not to tell you know, be busy. If it's a busy Friday night, that's easy. If it's a slow Tuesday afternoon, that might be a little bit more difficult because there may not be many other people in the bar. But if you can just ignore them for 10 minutes, that gives them 10 more minutes to process that alcohol. The other thing that you can always do is, you know, put a glass of water in front of them. But again, you need a policy in place that says hey, here's how we handle this here, so that your team always is doing the exact same thing. Now, along with that, you need to train your team on psychology so that they understand better how to handle difficult situations.

Speaker 1: 3:56

One thing that I see all the time that is like the worst thing you can do if someone's really drunk is to get aggressive with that, to say anything definitive. And you do have to say definitive things. But the softer you can be about things, the less harsh you can be, the less likely that person is to have an adverse reaction to being cut off or being told hey, it's time to go home, man. Now, with the regulars. Something I always used to tell them when they would get kind of towards that point is I'd walk over and say hey, jim, I know you're having a great time. I love that you come in here, and I think you might have had a little bit too much of a good time so far tonight. I'm going to have to cut you off for the night Now. Tomorrow, we're all good, no problems at all. Now, sometimes that goes fine. Sometimes they have a really negative reaction, in which case I would look right back at the guy and say hey, jim, if you really I don't want to cause a scene. I don't want you to cause a scene. I don't want any of us to say something we're going to regret. If you're not okay hanging out here and not having a drink in front of you, you might want to go home. Let me call you an Uber, let me get you a cab, let me get you a ride, whatever that may look like, but providing them an option.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Too often, especially with drunk people but this is also true of anybody that's angry or upset in a bar or restaurant the response from the staff, the team working, is you must do this, you must do this gives someone no free will, and when you restrain people's free will, that fight or flight response in their head kicks in. Now, with drunk people, you're much more likely to get fight than you are to get flight. They're much more likely to get aggressive with you than to just turn around and run out the door. So you need to be gentle in how you handle the situation. You need to be professional and it needs to be the same every time and all your employees need to know how to do it. Now, the other thing is, every once in a while, these situations will get out of hand.

Speaker 1: 5:59

I tell every one of my clients even people that are doing fancy bars, even people that are doing bars where we should not have issues say, hey look, you're getting people drunk. I mean, or you're not getting people drunk? Right, you're responsibly serving people, but people will get drunk in that process and every once in a while, I don't care who it is, some people are going to get in a fight. I remember one of the bars I owned. I had a fight between two 60-year-old women who, based upon what they looked like coming in, seemed to be kind of professional, but one of them started hitting on the other, one's husband and I'll tell you it was game on and it was a very difficult fight to break up and it took multiple guys and actually physically restraining these women to stop the fight. So I don't care what kind of bar you are, you're going to run into cutting people off and sometimes they're going to have an adverse reaction to that and want to fight you.

Speaker 1: 6:57

But that's why you have to have policies and procedures in place and also when it gets bad, a lot of bars, a lot of bartenders, say well, we can't call the cops, that's a negative thing against us and we don't want to run to our bar. Now, obviously some jurisdictions are a little stricter about this than others, but I can tell you from my experience, from everybody that I know, from talking to cops and people on liquor boards and all sorts of different folks when you need help you should call for help, and nine times out of 10, if you're proactive and you're trying to keep your bar safe and the community safe, you're not in trouble. You're doing everyone a favor. So if you're going to cut somebody off and you have people in your bar becoming intoxicated and disruptive again, whether it's a regular or not regulars you have to handle with a little bit more kid gloves. But in general, you need to make sure your staff understands your policies and that there is a standard way to handle all this. Your staff understands your policies and that there is a standard way to handle all this.

Speaker 1: 8:00

You need to make sure that you have training for your team on psychology, on how to talk people down, on how to get someone that is being belligerent or drunk actually comply with what you're trying to get them to do rather than fight you, and you need to maintain a professional relationship with local law enforcement and understand that sometimes we may not want to, we may not try to, but sometimes we need to call them. That about wraps it up for today. If you enjoyed today's insights, make sure you like, subscribe and leave a review. If you are ready to take your bar to the next level, schedule a strategy session with me by clicking the link in the show notes below. Until next time, have a great day and we will talk again later.