Bartenders deal with dancers, parents and T-Pain

A bartender should expect some wild stories going into the job. A bartender probably won't expect, however, T-Pain bailing on a $200 bar tab.

Such is the life of a UCF-area bartender.

As part of our recent series on the world of late-night employees, we've talked to a few of the late-night partyers' best friends (and sometimes caretakers): the bartenders.

Knight Library

Most popular mixed drinks: Berry vodka and Sprite, whisky and Coke
Most popular shot: Any sort of bomb — Jager, Irish, etc.

Former SGA President Logan Berkowitz' wildest stories:  "The main point is people will do just about anything for free alcohol."

"We've had a couple of people who work at UCF, maybe professors, who get too drunk and we got to get cabs for them."

"People's parents come in and get trashed and we have to carry them out."
"Someone claimed to own Library. We're a small business we've all known each other for six years. We just laughed in their face and got security to escort them out."
Weirdest lost items: "A girl's padded [bra enhancers]. Sometimes we'd only find one and we'd wonder where the second one is."

"We'll find one shoe in a bathroom stall and we always wonder how they left with one shoe - somebody walking barefoot around Library," said bartender Max Palombo, hospitality major.
Palombo's wildest stories:
"When we have girls dance on the bar, little do they know that within 30 seconds, they are getting tidal waved with water - no exceptions. You dance on the bar, you get soaking wet."

FUBAR

Most popular mixed drink: Long Island
Most popular shot: Washington Apple

Bartender Rob Rutner's wildest stories: "The T-Pain story . . .  I was bartending and he was in my section with the Zeta girls, and we set up the whole back area for them. T-Pain likes Irish Car Bombs and shots of Jager, and he racked up a $200 tab and we were expecting at least a $100 tip. He literally says word for word, ‘Ok, next bar!' and he and his entourage, his posse, his girls, they get up and go to Scoop and do the same thing there."

"Two girls after Happy Hour got up on a table and started undressing. Keep in mind this is after Happy Hour, so this is like 8:30 p.m., and they were plastered that early. They were in their sports bras and spankies, and they weren't the best looking."
"I had one guy come in, look at all these people at the bar, and say, ‘10 shots of Patron!' $100 bar tab in 10 minutes."

"Girls falling off bar stools isn't that exciting but I've seen it at 4 or 5 p.m. Some girls pass out face-first at the bar and don't leave until their friends leave."
"I had two girls wanting to drink beer from martini glasses . . . nothing classier than drinking Bud Select from a martini glass."