Warning: my power went out mid shift and I learned what 60 drunk people in the dark actually do
So last Friday around 11pm the whole block lost power while I was working the bar, and we had about 60 people packed in there. My first move was locking the beer cooler so nobody helped themselves, then I grabbed every candle and phone flashlight I could find. Turns out people get weirdly calm in the dark, like half of them just kept talking and the other half tried to pay me with cash I could not even see. I ended up pouring warm drinks by candlelight for 40 minutes until the lights came back and nobody complained once. What I did not expect was that the tip jar ended up $70 heavier than a normal Friday. Has anyone else worked a shift during a blackout?
60 people and not one complaint is the part I have a hard time buying. I have seen a guy lose his mind because the game got switched off a TV, so a full blackout with no music and warm drinks sounds like a recipe for at least a few jerks. The calm you're describing might have just been people too buzzed to care, which is a totally different thing than being cool about it. And locking the cooler was smart but I would've been worried someone would try to walk out with a full pitcher instead. The $70 tip jump actually makes sense to me though, people feel bad and tip big when something goes wrong and you just roll with it. I have never worked a bar so maybe I'm wrong about the crowd, but I would not count on that same calm happening twice.