What It Means When You Get This Charge On Your Bar Tab

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Bar Blogger

With all the extra fees, surcharges and so forth these days, it’s as important as ever to check your bill when it’s presented to you at a bar or restaurant.

In addition to the cost of he food and drinks, many places are adding on service fees to cover the cost of labor, a merchant fee for purchases on credit cards, and even venue fees, which are somewhat common in Las Vegas. This is in addition to the tax and your tip of course. I even advise double-checking those auto tip amounts to see if the total is really, say 20% because I’ve had people tell me that they later realized the amount they paid was actually higher than the actual percentage of the bill.

Well now there’s a new fee that has some people baffled. It’s one of those you are not likely to notice until later (if you keep the receipt, of course). It’s called a “rocks pour” fee. This is when you order a drink “on the rocks” and it can be $1-5 or more, depending on the spirit you ordered and the type of establishment where you ordered it.

So what the heck is it and is it another “ripoff” fee bars and restaurants use to squeeze every last dollar out of you?

Mary Olson, a bartender on the East Coast of the USA, explained it.

“A ‘rocks pour’ is a drink serving method, typically 2 ounces of straight spirit served over ice in a rocks glass, rather than the standard 1.5 ounces for a mixed drink pour. It is not a charge for ice, but an upcharge for a lager volume of alcohol.”

Now that makes a lot of sense, so than you Mary for explaining the charge from a bartender’s side of the bar.

So if you see this on your tab, you can sit back at ease knowning that extra money actually went to something extra: more alcohol.