Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a buyback?
- How do I get a buyback?
- Should I expect a buyback?
- Should I ask a bartender about the bar’s buyback policy?
- Should I demand a buyback after following the “rules”?
- Aren’t you putting bartenders’ jobs at risk by posting about them giving buybacks?
- Won’t posting about them kill buybacks indefinitely?
- Do most bars have a buyback policy in place?
- I am a bar owner and I want you to take my bar of this site!
- I’ve heard that buybacks might be illegal. Is this true?
- Has anyone ever attempted to track buybacks before?
- Doesn't posting about buybacks take away some of the mystique surrounding this charming NYC tradition?
A free drink (usually, but not exclusively beer) provided by the bartender after one pays full price for several drinks in succession. Depending on the bar/bartender a buyback can occur after 2, 3, or 4 rounds paid.
Opinions vary but the following “rules” seem to be generally accepted:
• Tip the bartender consistently well and in CASH, ($1 per drink is standard)
• Even if you’re running a tab for the drinks, you can still tip a buck with every drink. Without a steady flow of dollar bills, you can forget it.
• If you’re not sitting at the bar already in front of the bartender, make it a point to approach the same bartender for consecutive rounds and make sure s/he notices that you keep coming backing back to him or her (a friendly non-flirtatious smile can’t hurt)
• Make the bartender’s job easy – no large bills, no separate tabs for groups, no ridiculously complicated drink orders etc.
• Avoid trendy, overcrowded, douchey bars designed to gouge you. No freebies here sister.
• Just be nice to your bartenders! They WILL notice.
No. Even if you follow the “rules”, there’s no guarantee of a free round. But odds are if lots of folks are posting about them at a given bar, you have a pretty decent shot of getting one too.
No. It’s kind of like Fight Club in the sense that you don’t really talk about it…except on buybacknyc.com, which is the one place you can.
Still no. Demanding a buyback is the quickest way to kill your chances of getting said buyback.
We think mapping New York buybacks will bring bars more business by encouraging people to stay in one spot for several rounds. This means more money for bar owners and more tips of bartenders. Everybody gets paid.
We enforce a strict “don’t name your bartender” policy meaning you can post about your buyback experience but you should never write “Cornelius always hooks me up” or “Jonesy got me covered”. All comments naming names will be deleted as soon as possible.
We hope not. In fact, we think the old school practice of buybacks will become decidedly new school and that the whole of New York City will be able to rely on buybacks like clockwork (if all the “rules” are followed, of course).
Some of them do. Some of them don’t. The idea behind buybacknyc.com is to take some of the guesswork out of finding a buyback by tracking the successes and failures of fellow boozer freeloaders.
That’s not really a question. Can you phrase it in the form...nah wait, it’s cool we get it. Just send us a message using the contact button and we'll pull you from the site ASAP.
We’ve heard that too. And we don’t really know if it's true. If someone can decipher NY state liquor law as it applies to buybacks, for chrissakes, do it and tell us.
What we do know is that the 1st amendment says people can go places and write stuff down about their experiences, and share that stuff with other people who might want to read that stuff.
Eater NY ran a series of posts on their "Buyback Project" in 2007.
You can read more about it in the Eater archives here:
http://ny.eater.com/archives/2007/03/introducing_the_4.php
Oh don't be so romantic, you sanctimonious sap.
